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Blogs from Bali, Indonesia, Asia - page 3
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Week 11-12- The end of Asia- Singapore to Bali....
Published: March 26th 2013Asia » Indonesia » Bali » Kuta
March 26th 2013
With our final 2 weeks in Asia approaching, us 3 girls were extremely excited to be making our way to Bali for two weeks of beaches, sunshine and surfer perving after having spent most of our time since Thailand within towns and cities. Our flight to Indonesia was departing from Singapore so we headed down with afew days spare to see what the city had to offer. Sometimes when I write up these blogs, I struggle to fit just a weeks activity into one entry but in this case, while I am sure that sitting back in snowy England, you would love to hear the fine details of our every movement from sun lounger to beach lounger to vodka to club, I will condense our last two and a half weeks in Asia to a briefer ... read more
March 25th 2013
Ubud was always somewhere we’d planned to go and were really looking forward to even before we left the UK, on our last visit it was one of the places we really enjoyed spending our time. It’s rich in culture and we found the people here a lot more welcoming & friendlier than those in Kuta. Thankfully we were not disappointed this time around and spent over a week here soaking it all up and left feeling more than a little sad that we had to move on and could have easily spent our remaining week in Bali right here. We knew that accommodation here in Ubud was of a high standard so spent a good hour traipsing around the back streets trying to find something we really liked, we were probably being a little too ... read more
March 25th 2013
De Padang Bay je me suis rendu à Kuta, Kuta c’est un bout de Jakarta, avec son trafic et sa pollution que l’on aurait posé au bord de l’eau. Kuta se trouve à l’est de Bali tout prêt de l’aéroport de Denpasar, la porte d’entrée de l’île, La ville est réputée pour être le repère des backpackers avec ses nombreux bars et logements à petits prix. Pas de chance pour moi durant la période des fêtes les prix triplent et c’est la lutte pour trouver ne serait-ce qu’une toute petite chambre….Réservez donc bien à l’avance ou préparez-vous à sortir le porte-monnaie ! Kuta c’est aussi le repère des Aussies, les Australiens qui viennent semer la débauche loin de chez eux. Pour eux Bali c’est un peu l’équivalent du spring break et Kuta leur Cancun. On les ... read more
March 23rd 2013
This zoo is located right in the main street of Bedugul (a village near Beratan lake), not far from Ejung Beji resort. It's not actually a zoo but a place where you can touch, feed, play with, and take photos of Indonesian animals. The most unusual experience was playing with flying foxes. They sniffed and tenderly bit our fingers :) It's one of the few places in the world where you can see them so close and even touch them. The boa crawled me all over, the hedgehog tried to dig into my hands. There are also iguanas, mongoose, chameleon, a few kinds of turtles. Imagine what feeling it is, when a mongoose runs from your one shoulder to another =) This is a place I recommend for all who like animals :)... read more
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March 23rd 2013
Hm, flying from Australia to Bali? Smart? Not smart? Not sure...But here I went.Arrived around 1 am and it took forever to get through immigration...later, I learned you can pay extra and get through quickly...outside a million taxidriver await you and want to offer their service...Of course, for twice or triple the normal price...But I was well prepared and found easily someone who brought me to my hotel For a normal price...I was warned to not allow the driver to drop me off just somewhere, so when he stopped I could't see any hotel sign and everything was dark and no soul around. Damn it! What to do? I kept asking for the hotel. And he (not speaking English), kept on pointing into the dark! Great! After an interesting discussion where none of us understood the ... read more
March 21st 2013
Today's agenda was to be a fairly relaxing day as we drove up the hills towards Mt. Batukaru. Our beloved guide picked us up at 9:00 a.m. on the dot and off we went. I have been wanting to visit a silver shop to show Be how the artisans work and design. So Nyoman made a quick stop at Prapen Jewelry just outside of Ubud. Yes, it is a typical tourist spot but I did enjoy watching the creative part of jewelry making. It was very detailed and time consuming to make all the little silver balls and just watching them glue their designs together was fascinating. I kept thinking of my carpal tunnel issue and I know I'd be fired within the first week if I were given the chance to create jewelry! Ha! It ... read more
March 17th 2013
Our previous memories of Bali were, to put it mildly, not great. We found the people unwelcoming and the prices off-putting but we weren’t sure if we’d really given it the chance it probably deserved so a few months back we’d booked flights to return here after our time in the Philippines. We were determined to try and see a different side to this island but our guard would be well and truly up. It’s a shame because last time around our experiences in Indonesia were some of our highlights and indeed our ultimate destination is found in this country so why did we leave Bali vowing never to return again? Hopefully this time around we might leave with a more positive outlook but lets wait until our 3.5 weeks are up until we make that ... read more
March 13th 2013
Yesterday was a crazy day on Bali. It was Nyepi – Balinese New Year. The day before was the loud festival with ogoh-ogoh stuff, I’ll write about it in my next post. People blocked the streets and were dancing and making the most noise possible before the Silent day. Actually I had no idea what this “holiday” is really like. I started to get it when in the morning I found a list of rules on our breakfast table. It said: no lighting fires (electric lights must be kept low), no working, no travelling (no traffic on roads at all, everything is closed, even the airport), no TV or radio sounds must be heard, no entertainment or pleasure (!)… Here I thought – what kind of holiday is this?? Sounds more like a sorrow-day. No pleasure... ... read more
March 13th 2013
These photos were taken the day before Nyepi. At about 15.30 the main road connecting numerous towns and villages on the north of Bali was blocked to give space to the carnival procession. If someone didn’t get home in time, he was stuck on the road until late in the evening =) Each community carried its ogoh-ogoh, a monster made the most ugly possible – to scare off evil spirits. The procession moved along the road, dancing, screaming, beating the drums, shaking and turning the ogoh-ogoh platforms so that they seemed alive. People looked crazy jumping and shouting. It was very hot and they spilled over themselves a lot of water, leaving behind the procession hundreds of plastic glasses and bottles. When I came closer, I found that many platforms were carried by children. And it ... read more
