Jes Travelogue: October 2009

2 July 2009 (Thur)

Today is my bday and we're heading to Bali for a vacation by the beach! Arrived at Changi Airport T2 & checked-in 1.5 hours ahead of boarding time. Plenty of time for shopping! :)

Went bonkas at DFS & got my first almost $400 a bottle La Mer moisturizer.

Also got SKII toner & masks as well as Clarins serum & moisturizer. Supplies to last me till next year & shed some years off the face.. I hope! After burning a huge hole in the pocket, we head to Kiliney for coffee & was pleasantly surprised to see Max, Wendy & Kenneth who are flying to Cambodia. Such a coincidence!

Boarded SQ 942 departing Sg at 0935hours for Denpasar. The flight was almost full with plenty of caucasians. We got pretty good seats near the exit since I booked the tiks early, back in Feb. It was a short flight of about 2hours 15mins so I couldn't even finish the movie "Duplicity".

Bali Ngurah Rai Airport is just next to the sea. On the descend, it almost feels like the plane is going to land on the water. The bulter from Kamuela Villa was there to pick us from the Airport. Our villa is located in Seminyak, about 20mins from the Airport.

We checked-in to a single room villa @ Kamuela Villa. The deco is similar to what was shown on their website except that it was much bigger than expected. The deco was modern & luxurious.

There was a kitchen, followed by dining & living area before reaching the bedroom with a HUGE ensuite. The private pool run alongside the kitchen & living room and upstairs was the roof garden with sun decks & a gazebo.

We relaxed in the villa, reading a book & enjoying the pool.
Gerald made special arrangements with the butler to get me a bouquet of red roses & to drive us to the ultra chic Ku-da-ta for dinner. It was a huge restaurant cum chill out bar popular with foreigners.

We tried the burgundy beef pie as starters. Yummy! Gerald ordered beef streak while mine was the sumptuous grilled seafood with scallops, prawns, crab & fish. The dinner was great, food was delicious & the ambience was cozy & romantic.

Here's my BIG 30th birthday present. My first Tiffany ring! The 3 diamond Atlas ring that I've always wanted.

3 July 2009 (Fri)
Breakfast was served in our villa. I took a swim before breakfast. It was cold & yet relaxing.

After breakfast, we got Made, a local guide recommended by Selina to pick us from the villa. Made was friendly & humorous. He brought us to the rice terrace for photo taking followed by Kintamani overlooking Mt Babur volcano for lunch.

Shopping at Sekawati is super cheap. Less than $2 for a nice pair of slippers! With Made's bargaining power, I got 2 dresses, 2 slippers, 2 basket dish holder, 1 rattan bag, some for myself & some as gifts.

Plenty of shops selling paintings.. nice gifts!

Ubud was nice & laid back. Shophouses lined both side of the road and there were plenty of shops selling those beautiful plastic rattan furniture commonly seen at al fresco chillout bars in Sg. How we wished we could buy some back!

I booked Kamuela Villa for 3 nights so we needed to find accommodation for the next 3 nights. Made took us to check out Furama hotel @ Ubud.

Was mesmerized by the Furama Xclusive lagoon villa. The deco was modern resort style with a private pool that open out to a huge 70m lagoon. The surrounding was serene with plenty of greenery. So relaxing! Cost USD 260 nett per night, similar to Kamuela Villa. Too expensive!

We had the infamous crispy duck for dinner. The fresh coconut is sooo huge. Relaxing rice padi field with the sunset in the background.. nice!

Followed by more hotel shopping at Sanur area. Mercure Sanur, a resort I nearly booked online before arrival was pretty nice & decently priced.

However, it is fully booked till 7 July which means we could only stay there for the last night. Sanur area is not as busy as Kuta. Nil traffic jams & half the crowd but also less interesting. Also checked out 2 other hotels in that area but was not impressed.

Thereafter we went to the spa. I did the 2 hour chocolate & stone massage while Gerald tried the aromatheraphy & stone massage. I'm a huge chocolate fan so the choco aroma made me crave for yummy chocolate.

Made & his nephew waited 2 hours for us so we headed to Bali Bakery near Legian for coffee cum snack and gave them a treat. Nil picture because my camera battery was out. I savoured a sinful slice of chocolate fudge cake together with a cup of aromatic Earl grey tea!

4 July (Sat)
Today we decided to take a break from the guided trip kinda feeling to explore Bali on our own. We always prefer F&E! Relaxed in the villa for the whole morning.

Thereafter we got the butler to drive us to the infamous Kuta beach. Kuta beach is buzzing with activities, locals selling dresses & sarong, offering massage/temporary tattoo/manicure services & more.

Coffee at Starbucks next to Hard Rock Hotel.

Plenty of shopping before we indulge in KFC for late lunch.

Took a cab to KUVE, the ultra chic roof top chillout bar at Ku-da-ta. Sunset was Seminyak beach was awesome! Breath-taking & extremely romantic.

Beautiful sunset along Seminyak Beach...

There was a couple taking bridal pictures by the Beach while another couple was havng an official wedding ceremony at a marquee in a seafront resort. 3 persons on horses rode by...

After sunset, we walk around Seminyak area which is filled with plenty of exclusive boutiques & restaurant cum bars. We checkout the Bali Deli before heading back to the villa for more relaxing time...

5 July 2009 (Sun)
Today we are checking out from Kamuela Villa. I had another final relaxing swim at the private pool. Made came to pick us at 10am after our breakfast.

We head to Benoa for sea sports. I tried para sailing for the first time and the scenery was awesome! Endless stretch of white sandy beach alongside the deep blue sea.
Gearing up...

We tried diving too. It was more scary than I expected. I felt paranoid that I might forget to breathe using the mouth only and end up in trouble at the bottom of the sea. Thought the first attempt to go underwater feels more scary than attempting sky diving!

After overcoming the initial fear, it was actually quite nice. Plenty of different species of fishes. It was difficult to maintain the buoyance underwater so even standing upright is tough. Hmm.. Imagine doing diving without a dive master could be quite scary..

After a simple shower, we head to Nusa Dua to checkout the hotels. Nusa Dua area is well maintained (almost feels like Sentosa) filled with plenty of 4-5 star hotels. We first checked out Novotel Resort & Spa hotel which is chalet style & pretty nice. It is also fully booked till 7 July.

Also checked out St Regis Hotel which was huge. The service was excellent. The staff showed us around the hotel & 2 villas. The beach right outside the ocean view villa looks soooo good. In my opinion, it's toooooo overprice at USD1500/night.

The last hotel we visited at Nusa Dua is Nikko Hotel & Spa which is popular with the Japanese. The hotel is also overlooking the sea & very breezy. Almost booked this hotel before our arrival in Bali as it was recommended by friends and the website looks good. Walk-in rate is better @ USD 158 nett / night.

Finally we decided to stay in Puri Masari @ Sanur, recommended by Made for USD 48 nett / night just for tonight since we'll be out the whole day. We'll move to Furama Xclusive for the last 2 nights to relax & pamper ourselves.

Happy to finally "settle" the accomodation & we head to KFC again for late lunch. Thereafter we went to a local shop to buy Kueh Lapis & cookies as gifts for family & colleagues. Very pro shop & they wrapped our purchases in a carton box for ease of checking-in.

We wanted to have sunset dinner at Jimbaran. Stopped by 2 surf shops for shopping along the way. Rip curl stuffs are available at discounted rates. No wonder the Australians were buying so many. Super happy with my good buys.. Bikini, surf shorts & slippers!

The sunset at Jimbaran is really beautiful. It was relaxing to eat along the beach in such laid back style. We had BBQ prawns & fish with fresh coconut.

After dinner, we decided to head to Kuta for more shopping. Didn't end up shopping but did manicure, pedicure & foot massage to relax. Also went pass the site of Kuta's first bombing in 2002. Plenty of rowdy Australians hanging around & drinking at the back lanes. What a sight!

Check-in to Puri Mesari at around 12 mn just for shower & Zzzz. The room is decently clean & good value for $$$. Will be checking in to Furama Exclusive at 10am tmr so we'll leave early at 9am.

6 Jul (Mon)
Woke up early at 7am and looking forward to relaxing greenery @ Ubud. We had simple breakfast at the hotel. Made came early at 8.45am to pick us. We stop by Dunkin Donuts & to withdraw some $$$ for airport tax.

Check-in to Furama Xclusive Lagoon villa 812 . The day bed at the living area is nice for relaxing & enjoying a book. The pool is nice too!

We were given a complimentary massage at The spa. It was so shiok. The massage was one of the best I've tried.

7 Jul (Tue)

Woke up at 6.45am wanting to catch the sunrise but the sunrise is much earlier here so we missed it. We has breakfast at the restaurant. Decided to rent bicycles to explore the area on our own rather than hire a guide. USD 10/ bike is well worth it. It was fun & exciting and we found more beautiful rice padi fields! Also saw a duck farm, corn fields & how the locals harvest rice.