My 1st Bali Trip Part II

Trip: 27 Feb - 2 March 2011

Location: Bali ( Denpasar - Kuta - Tanah Lot - Kintamani - Sanur - Jimbaran - Ulukatu )

Exchange Rate Currency: RM345 = IDR 1 Million

Accomodation: Holiday Villa Wina (RM150 perday, duluxe room)

Our 2nd day trip, we went to Kintamani to see the only volcano at Bali. On the way to the place, we stop by a coffee farm. It was a nice scenery uphill and we were offered to try taste a few hot drinks such as the ginger tea, ginger choc, Balinese coffee, lemon tea and plain chocolate. Its taste really good especially for the Balinese coffee. We also tried Luwak Coffee, which cost us IDR100k (RM35) per cup, but personally, I would prefer the Balinese coffee compared to the Luwak coffee.

from left, ginger tea, ginger choco, Balinese coffee, choco, and lemon tea

trying out Luwak coffee

What is Luwak Coffee? According to Wikipedia

Kopi luwak (Luak Coffee), or civet coffee, is one of the world's most expensive and low-production coffee. It is made from the beans of coffee berries which have been eaten by the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) and other related civets, then passed through its digestive tract. A civet eats the berries for their fleshy pulp. In its stomach, proteolytic enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids. Passing through a civet's intestines the beans are then defecated, keeping their shape. After gathering, thorough washing, sun drying, light roasting and brewing, these beans yield an aromatic coffee with much less bitterness, widely noted as the most expensive coffee in the world.

Its sound a little bit disgusting, but its one of the most expensie coffee in the world! We continued our trip to Kintamani to see the great view of the volcano. We had option either to have a buffet lunch that cost from IDR80k to IDR100k and one of the restaurant offered halal food. How do we know its halal? One is the halal logo from the Majlis Ulama Indonesia, and another one, normally a Muslim restaurant, they will have a Musollah (surau) in it as well.

paddy field (padi huma)

Batur Volcano view at Kintamani

Market at Ubud

Monkey Temple at Ulukatu

Then we went down to see the paddy field (padi huma) before arriving at Ubud. You can experience the kampung lifestyles at Ubud and many spa and massage packages there. We went to visit another pura (temple) which requires us to wear the sarong as if we need to 'tutup aurat'. Most of the places in Bali will have their god's statue, almost 90% of the place have statues.

Nasi Padang

From Ubud, we went down south to Ulukatu to visit the Monkey Temple. The Monkey Temple is on a cliff with a nice view of the ocean. We were lucky that most of our trip didn't rain and we had the opportunity to visit many places. On the way back to Denpasar, we went to have dinner at a Nasi Padang restaurant before going back to KL the next morning. The nasi padang is unique. They will serve you all the foods on the table, and they will charge you on food that you eat only.

Part I here

Muhammad bin Kamarulazizi

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My 1st Bali Trip

Trip: 27 Feb - 2 March 2011

Location: Bali ( Denpasar - Kuta - Tanah Lot - Kintamani - Sanur - Jimbaran - Ulukatu )

Exchange Rate Currency: RM345 = IDR 1 Million

Accomodation: Holiday Villa Wina (RM150 perday, duluxe room)

It was my first trip to Bali with some old friends. We did get some good offer from Air Asia as we had booked our ticket about last 3 month back. The tickets cost us RM285 return perperson including airport tax at the LCCT. We arrived at Ngurah Rai International Airport at 9pm and went straight to the hotel. One of the hotel staff had greeted us at the airport.

For accomodation, we manage to get a good offer from a friend who is working as the GM for Holiday Villa Wina at Kuta. RM150 for duluxe room perday including breakfast (buffet). And the good part was the meal at Holiday Villa Wina is certified Halal by Majlis Ulama Indonesia! So no problem to get food for breakfast as we had heavy breakfast each day before starting our trip.

at LCCT Airport

at Kuta Beach

floating temple at Tanah Lot

The 2nd day after breakfast we went to Kuta Beach. The wave was strong but not as strong as the one in Bondi Beach (Australia) but still ok for surfing. By comparing the beach in Kuta and in Batu Feringghi in Penang, I could say that the beach in Batu Feringghi Penang is better and cleaner. Only you can't get strong wave in Penang compared to Kuta Beach. One of the local people approach us and offered us to go surfing. They allowed us to rent their surf board which is IDR1.2 million (RM40) for 2 hours. I wish I could go surfing for the first time, but we already had plans to go to Tanah Lot and Jimbaran by today afternoon. After a while at the beach, we went back to the hotel to ride the free shuttle to Legion.

At Legion we went to get some souvenir like shirts, keychain and fridge magnet. Even the same thing, the price varies from IDR10k to IDR50k. So its better to survey and get the best price out of it. We manage to hire a supir (driver), Mas Choki. It cost about IDR400k including an MPV and petrol. It was quite a good bargain. The MPV was the Suzuki APV which is quite spacious and the driver was a Muslim. So we didn't had much problem on getting halal food over there. 

We started our jouney to Tanah Lot to visit the floating temple or the called it Pura (temple). It was quite unique as the temple is only reachable when the sea level is low. Then we went to Jimbaran to experience the sun set. We were thinking of having dinner at Jimbaran, but the food was too expensive to us. We realized that the place of meant for tourist, so we ask Mas Choki to get us to a local food stall. We arrived back at ur hotel at 9pm and rest for our next trip tomorrow to Kintamani.

Part II here.

Muhammad bin Kamarulazizi

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