Akhirnya, setelah plan and non stop talking about it for almost 4 years. The 3 of us sampai jugak ke Bali. Me, Rosli and Nani. Suffice to say we had a blast! So did my credit card and bank balance - mmg blast into space.
After memilih hotel (nak yang swimming pool besar, tepi pantai, tapi murah), Rosli booked us into Inna Kuta Beach. Rosli had a room for himself, while me and Nani shared the other room. Setibanya di hotel, akak nampak Hard Rock Hotel Megastore across the street from the hotel. Terima Kasih Rosli atas pilihan hotel yang begitu best sekali.
So apa yang best?
1. Sukawati
This is a shopping haven. Situated somewhere in Ubud kot. Kat sini kiranya macam pasar borong and only the locals plus the 3 of us aje yang kelihatan. No mat salleh ok. The things are way cheaper than in Kuta. We bought paintings, carvings, begs and a rainbow of slippers. Ok yang rainbow of slippers tu aku aje. Macam nak bukak kedai Jukebox pulak bila balik Malaysia
2. Hard Rock Cafe Bali 50% sale!
Macam tau-tau aje kitaorang nak pergi sana. Our trip coincide dengan sale HRC yang katanya dibuat setahun sekali aje. 50% semua barang. Bayangkan. It was on the last day of our stay. Though we were scheduled to fly back in the afternoon, sanggup beratur panjang sebab sale punya pasal. The sale started at 10 am, and pukul 9 kitaorg dah terpacak kat situ. Mcm bosan pulak so pergi shopping tempat lain. Datang balik at 10.30am line pun dah panjang. Kugagahi jua demi t-shirt yang murah. Heheheh. Almost 2 hours later, we got in. Barang pun dah nak habis. Tapi korek2 beli jugak.
3. Hard Rock Megastore (Hard Rock Hotel) and their staff
Actually hari2 kitaorg melawat kedai hard rock ni. Mostly sebab nak relax lepas dah jalan penat2. Finally we decide to buy all the stuff that we had been eyeing for the past few days. That night dah nak tutup dah pun kedai tu, I think we were the last customers. So sempat la borak2 dengan depa. They didn't mind of us posing in the shopping. Ambik kau, bergambar macam tokey kedai. Though tak nampak, aku sebenatnya bergambar pakai seluar tido. Malam tu panas sangat sebab lepas jalan dekat sepuluh batu along the beach from a shopping complex back to our Hotel. Ni semua Rosli la punya idea. (Read more on the Funnies below)
4. Seafood at Segara
After berhari2 asyik makan macam sayur2 and tonnes of croissants, aku dah tak larat dah. We found this seafood restaurant in the shopping complex by the beach. Tak ingat apa nama shopping complex tu. But enough said, the food was fabulous! And atmosphere was great. Very breezy and relaxing. We pull all stop here, apa lagi dig in!
5. Sunset at Jimbaran
Supposedly the main attraction is here the food and the sunset. Tapi food dia suck big time. If anyone ever goes here, minum aje la teh botol. Tak payah makan. However, the atmosphere mmg best! You can really chill while burying your feet into the soft white sand and listen to the band singging Knock On Heaven's door. Now, that's life!
6. Sang Hanuman from Kecak Dance
We saw the Kecak Dance on the a stage on top of a clif in Uluwatu. Somehow I find the Kecak dance a bit lacklustre from the one that I saw many years ago. Pun begitu, once the light up the fire for the so called fire dance, baru la ada excitement sket. The dude who played Sang Hanuman, mmg gila. He was kicking the 'unggun api' around like nobody's business. The one that he kicked into the ocean, was a huge balls of fire. Aku dok terpikir bila pulak hutan keliling ni nak terbakar.
7. Photo Shoot at Rice Terrace
Kitaorg pergi tour dari pagi sampai petang, we were suppose to stop for just a few minutes to look at the rice terrace. Macam la tak pernah tgk padi. Driver tu mesti kata kitaorang jakun. the 5 minutes stop tetiba jadi macam photo shoot. Dah la hujan renyai-renyai. Banyak la pose 'lihatlah dunia', 'lihatlah tanaman kontanku'. Hahahahah
The funnies
1. Rosli si artist Bali
A lot of the folks in Bali said that Rosli looked like an artist here in Bali. It annoys Rosli very much. Hehehehe. Aku and Nani tukang gelak aje la. We did ask the guys at HRC who was the artist, but he said he might looked like someone in Radja. Aku kata, "wah jika di Malaysia rupa mirip Radja, bisa dikroyok dengan peminat"
2. Pirates of Kuta Beach
Setelah last round of shopping at the mall by the beach (aku mmg tak ingat apa nama dia), Rosli suggested that we should walk by the beach. Dekat aje. Ok la.. sebab malas nak jalan kat jalan raya pun. Traffic banyak. As we move away from the mall, the beach was getting darker and darker. Dah la pasir-pasir tu asyik terbenam2 aje. Memang dekat tapi penat! Just imagine the 3 of us dengan berbungkus2 bag berjalan tepi beach yang gelap. Serious macam nak seludup barang ok. And asyik2 we stumble upon couple doing the wrong side of business dalam gelap. Ya rabbi, memang kelakar banget! Berpeluh2 aku jalan malam tu! Nasib tak pengsan.
3. Guide with Americano Soul
His name was Adi. The whole 3 hours he was with us, he kept speaking english with us. Which we don't mind. But out of respect we try to speak Bahasa Indonesia to him, and yet he kept answering us back in Englsh. Rosli even used his A+ indon lingo, still mamat tu speak London with us. Tak tahan aku! Yang paling best, it was Saturday nite and he kept on callling his friends.." hey let's hang out and chill" Chill braderrr!
Yang hampeh
1. Tak jumpa nasi padang.
Would you believe it? Pergi Indon tapi tak jumpa nasi padang. Actually tak jumpa kat area Kuta. Ada kat area airport yang jauh. Kecewa banget.
2. Monyet in Uluwatu.
Ok memang gatal nak pergi tengok Kecak Dance kat Uluwatu. Konon hebat la nak tgk the dance with the sunset in the background. Little that I know nak sampai situ kena meredah hutan yang infested with bad ass monkey! Real bad ass monkey! Scarry sial. Sampai situ, the tour dude siap kata "Welcome to the Jungle". Siut aje. Aku memang avoid eye contact at all cost, sebab takut monyet tu terkam, nanti ada pulak keluarkan youtube tunjuk aku pijak2 monyet2 itu.
3. Besakih
Memang degil nak jugak pergi Besakih walapun semua tour guide advise against it. They advise jangan pergi sebab nanti asyik kena rip off aje. We thot how bad can it be? Hahahahha memang betul pun. We were ripped off from the base of the mountain and back. Konon ada special tour guide. Penipu haram. Tah apa la si guide tu dah kencing kitaorg. Before nak assign tour guide, ketua guide tu konon nak bagi briefing. Ingat briefing apa la. The dialog goes this way:
" Iya.. Ini merupakan pura paling sacred di Bali. Di atas sedang ada upacara. Bagi yang tidak mahu bersembahyang, hanyalah boleh jalan di externalnya sahaja"
He was showing us a chart of the whole place on a piece of laminated paper. We actually hung on every word that came from his mouth. Then he flip the paper.. and said
" Ya.. di atas sedang ada upacara. Yang bukan beragama Hindu hanya boleh berjalan di externalnya sahaja. Ini merupakan pura terbesar dan sacred bagi kami di Bali"
The 3 of us, went "Huh?".
And then he showed us a book with the 'donation' given out by other tourists. Hahhahahha. Aku telah don my heartless, stubborn hat. Apa jugak dia cakap I refuse to give them more money than I already offerred. Finally dia agree la. Nasib baik la dia tak hantar anjing to chase us down the mountain.
Dah naik mountain tu ingat dah habis la... only to be met by kids yang beg for your money. They even have a song when they ask you for money
" Mana duitnya... mau belanja... nak beli buku... mau sekolah"
OMG. Aku generally bukan la kedekut. Just that masa tu memang takde small change. Kang aku keluarkan 50K rupiah kang, satu bukit tu pulak kejar aku. Cukuplah aku kena maki berbakul hari tu.
4. Flying out from Bali.
Aku tak paham kenapa susah sangat nak keluar dari Bali. There were about 5 checkpoints, tah berapa kali body check and metal detectors. Maybe benda tu tak la annoying sangat tapi our smart driver telah dropped us of at the domestic terminal instead of internatiol terminal. Sebab dia kata Air Asia kat domestic. Tah kenapa kita pun percaya aje. Sekali tu salah. Ya Allah. Jauh la pulak nak pergi international terminal tu. Before that ada potter angkatkan bag kitaorg, dah bayar duit. Dia kata if nak tolak luggage kitaorg pergi International terminal kena charge 50K rupiah. Hangin la aku. Aku kata, tak payah. Jangan pegang beg. Jangan tengok pun. So there we were walking the frickin 3 km to the international terminal with me pulling along a small elephant behind me. Ya beg aku overload dah berat nak mampus! (Hehhe terima kasih kawan-kawan, disebabkan beg aku yang berat itu kita semua terpaksa angkut byk barang naik flight. Owe you guys!). Tu yang aku rasa nak hangin bila kena go thru the whole shebang of check points. Adoi by the time kitaorg habis segala check in, rasa macam dah habis 10km marathon! Penat gilosh.
But all in all, it was a fun fun fun holiday. Would we be back? Definitely.
p/s:
Nani,
Rosli - I see our name written on the rocks at Tanah Lot. Heheheheh... tapi ingat we are only allowed around the external sahaja! Hahahahah
pp/s: sampai sudah tak swim pun dlm pool kat hotel tu :P
