Bali - 27th to 30th Nov 2009

We figured that if we do not travel now, we would probably not get to travel for at least two more years. This is because we are expecting Bei next April, so we are unlikely to travel until he reaches one. Hence we planned this trip back in august so that its falls right in the middle of Florence's second trimester, the period where it is the least tiring for her.

We were actually quite worried about embarking on this trip after the exhausting excursion with Sarah to JB the prior weekend. We were wondering in our mind how are we going to survive four days with the worm! On the eve of our departure, we got another scare, we discovered spots and dots on Sarah's body. We were worried that she might have contacted the dreaded hand, foot, mouth disease. Luckily the diagnosis for her spots was food allergy.

We were clear and ready for our getaway to Bali!

We had chosen to fly with Air Asia as their flight schedule was the most favourable amongst all that were flying into Denpasar. However, we almost got played out by them. More than a month after booking our flights, Air Asia send us an sms to inform us that with immediate effect all flights to Denpasar were pushed back from morning to late evening. It took us forever to get through their customer hotline and finally after many calls, they agreed to revert us to the original schedule. Even though the matter was resolved, it has left us with a very bad impression.

Anyway, our flight was to depart at 1000hrs, we were so excited to go that we reached the airport at 0730hrs. Sarah was running all over the airport and needed a rice cracker to replenish her energy.

Our travel companions, Vernon & Evelyn. They are really good travel mates as they always help to look out for Sarah.

After checking in, we had plenty of time till boarding, so we went for a cuppa coffee and breakfast. Sarah was happily playing 'close your eyes' with Mama & Uncle Vernon and at the same time picking on Papa's steak sandwich.

She does tends to get carried away whenever she gets praises.

Her hair below is really hilarious, looks like she is wearing a bowl.
As she is approaching THE terrible two, she is beginning to be more demanding and throws tantrum whenever she does not get her way. She was trying to climb onto the driving compartment of a parked motorised trolley, which we prohibited her from doing so. There she is, lying flat on the carpeted floor venting her frustrations.
Finally we got on to the plane, we had fears that she would not be able to sit still during the flight, causing herself to be a big nuisance to the other passengers. We were also worried that she might be annoyed by the pressure building up in her ears during take off, so we made her some milk to drink for the take off. Unfortunately, we mis-timed the took off, she finished her milk while the plane was still taxi-ing to the run way! Luckily, she was oblivious to the take off.
Initially she was over excited and yelled loudly on the plane, drawing a few dagger-stares from passengers in the front rows. So we had to let her watch Hi-5 on the Iphone to calm her down.

Midway through the flight, she was tired from watching the show and fell asleep in Mama's lap. She was still sleeping when we disembarked the plane.
The heat at the taxi-way was searing, Sarah must have felt the harsh transition from an air-con environment to direct noon sun. She woke up looking amazed by the sudden change in environment and was curious with noise generated by the plane turbines.
We missed the first shuttle bus ferrying us to the arrival hall. While waiting for the next bus, we started snapping away to commence the beginning of our trip in Bali.

Sarah still looking a bit disorientated, trying to figure out where she is.
Clearing the customs took faster than we anticipated. However when we came out of the airport, we could not find our driver assigned by the villa. After walking three-four rounds at the exit, our driver finally showed up!

Took us about half an hour to reach our villa in Seminyak. We finally arrived at our villa at about 3pm. This is the entrance to our villa.

We were all famished after settling down all our belongings, we took a walk out in the blazing sun and stopped at the nearest restaurant we could find, Le Te Blu. This a french-indo fusion restaurant.
The first thing that greeted us was a 'special' menu, when we flipped open the first page, we found it to be infested with ants. Normally that we would make us leave and go to another restaurant, but i guess we were all too tired and lazy to relocate.

Sarah was getting restless and wanted to crawl on to the table, to grab whatever that was on the table, cups and ice.
Even though we were under the shelter and cooled with fan, we could still feel the strong heat radiation.
Our food finally arrived after about a 20 minutes wait, even though all we did was to order simple fares like club sandwich, lasagna and salad.

After finally filling our stomach, we began our journey of exploration. A trip to the Seminyak town centre on foot. It was not a long walk, but it was a very challenging one, in fact it was very challenging throughout the remaining of the trip as the foot paths were not very pram friendly. There were lots of steps, obstacles, drains to negotiate, we often have to arch our back to carry the pram over these inconveniences.

The sky was getting overcast and we were slightly worried about being caught in the rain. At the same time, we welcomed the thought of a refreshing shower that would dissipate the heat.
After about a 15 mins stroll, we reached Seminyak Square, an small upmarket shopping mall. While we were shopping inside, the skies opened up, so we had to adjourn our plans to walk further down the street.

We sought refuge inside the grocery store while waiting for the rain to stop. I must say of this store was top notch, exceeding expectation. The staff saw me carrying an item that we intended to purchase, she immediately offered a carrier basket.

Later on, we sat down at the cafe to have ice cream and coffee while listening to the music made by the splattering rain on the glass panels. Cheeky Sarah sat in her pram quietly kicking out at Vernon.
Vernon caught her in the act, soon they were having a kicking session.

When the skies cleared, we proceeded on our exploration. This is a small padi field situated right in the middle of the town centre.
Here we are at the main retail & F&B strip in Seminyak, Jalan Laksmana. Our tour planner for the trip, Vernon, getting some directions from the local. This area is filled with high end boutiques and restaurants.
Catching a breather by the street side.
We walked right to the end of Jalan Laksmana and decided to call it a day as it was getting dark. There was no way we were going to walk all the way back, so we hailed a cab to get us back to the villa.
The person who walked the least was the most tired!


But next morning she woke up at 7 and was in supreme good mood, posing around for the camera.
This is her '笑嘻嘻' pose which she learned from school.
Since she was in such good mood, Papa brought her out to the pool for a dip before we commence the second day's adventure.
Thats our pool cleaner, Vernon. He has assumed multi roles for this vacation, he was alway making sure that the pool was free from fallen leaves. A very helpful man. He is not trying to help to water the plants in this photo though, he is trying to pour water over Sarah's head.
These are the helpers assigned to our villa. They will come every morning to make breakfast for us.
After a hearty breakfast, we made a stroll for the nearest beach.
It was a fine morning, the sky was clear, its was warm but not hot yet.
Sarah admiring the awe of the powerful waves hitting on the beach.

The galley on the top right hand corner of the photo is actually a wooden kite.


We made a hasty retreat from the beach before the noon sun started beating down on us, went back to the villa for a nice shower then we took a cab to venture out to Kuta.

Here's us seated at the Dulang Cafe in Kuta, Sarah is seen ordering from the menu for all of us. I must say the curry here is 'sedap'!
This is a look of the restaurant from the sidewalk.

Making our way through the labyrinth of Kuta's little streets

Forest Gump themed restaurant! how interesting, but we didn't get to eat there. As we were focused on getting to our destination, that's how discipline we are.

Finally arriving at our end point, the Discovery Mall. Nothing much to discover inside though, very singapore styled mall with your usual fare of Starbucks, Sogo, Breaktalk etc.
Sarah discovered the kiddy amusement park located with the mall though. She was very excited and ran all over, it was really tough trying to keep up with her. She is like a busy rat and you have to constantly train your sight on her.
We were so tired from chasing her around the mall that we decided to go back straight to the villa by cab, no dinner, we ate in instead. Actually we ate in for our dinner for all our three nights in bali.

She learned a new word that night, 'NO'. That's because we kept screaming 'NO' at her at the mall for always running towards the escalator. In the cab, on the way back to the villa, she was 'NO'-ing all the way.

The next day began with the customary dip in the pool. I have no idea why he needs goggles for swimming in a 15 metres pool, but he looks good in the picture. 小肥鱼。
While waiting for our driver to arrive, I went outside and look some photos. This is how our villa looks from the outside. Just a narrow lane, on the right is the villa entrance, straight ahead is a small road leading us to the Seminyak town area.
This is the inside of the van that we took for our day trip into the northern part of Bali, our destination was Ubud, the cultural centre of Bali.

互拍， 你拍我， 我拍你。无聊？
Thankfully Sarah fell asleep not long after we moved off, if not she would be climbing all over the place.
Our first stop - Desa Adat Batuan
According to the customs, we had to wrap sarong around us before being allowed to enter this temple.





Mama Flo did not follow us in as Sarah was still sleeping, but she woke up by the time I got out from the temple, so we took one family photo outside the temple.

We finally arrived at Ubud near noon, we took a bit longer than expected as our considerate driver drove slowly, he explained that he was going slow because of Flo's pregnancy. He is such a kind chap.

We dropped off outside the Pura Desa Ubud, a temple in the town centre of Ubud.
There were ladies walking outside the temple with tall fruit basket, apparently there was going to be a ceremony that night and this was part of the preparation.
We were drawn into the temple by the enchanting music from the gamelan.

'A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings.'

except from wikipedia.

Inside the temple, we managed to gate crash into a rehearsal session of the temple dancers, we were mesmerised by the gracefulness of their hand movements.

Sarah was mesmerised as well, she is an avid dancer herself. She is always trying to learn dance steps from Hi-5 and then she will dance along with them!
After the temple, we proceeded to the Ubud market which was just next door. It is an old two story building filled with stalls selling cravings, souvenirs, paintings and other craft works.

We were hassled to buy the paintings from below, the lady was very determine that we buy from her, so we bought two paintings from her at 50% of her asking price.
As we walked further in and saw several stalls selling similar paintings, we came to realise that even at 50% off, the painting we bought were more expensive that other stalls! oh well.
A large variety of woven straw baskets and bags.


Sarah got a bongo and a pair of shakers, which as usual, managed to entertain her for 15 minutes.

Lunch was at Adi Asri,
behind where we sat is a lush green padi field, which we could not resist taking photos.
The food was ok, nothing exceeding expectations. We were hot, thirsty and hungry from our earlier excursion, just dying to take a break at somewhere cool and have a nice cool drink.

Interesting dish, a chicken wing that has no meat.
Rendang chicken curry.

After our lunch, we proceeded with our journey, our target was Tanah Lot. Along the way, we stopped at Mengwi's Pura Taman Ayu. A temple originally built in the 17th century, this royal family garden temple was extensively renovated in the early 1900's. Surrounded by a moat and lotus lake, the temple's inner courtyard has an impressive number of Merus - tiered shrines built for the Bali's ancestors and heroes.

As we were getting tired by now, we did not explore much of Pura Taman Ayun. After we few pictures outside the compound, we headed back to our van and continue our journey to our last destination.
We arrived at Tanah Lot at 4pm, much earlier than what we intended. Our original plan was to arrive in the evening so as to witness the spectacular sun set view.

As this is a popular tourist attraction in Bali, we were not surprised to see it swarmed with tourists.

This is Tanah Lot, a temple located on a rock formation, separated by a narrow channel of sea. In order to get to the temple, we had to wade across the sea. It was quite a painful experience as the sea bed was filled with pebbles, hence it felt like we were walking on those foot massage pathway. The tide was coming in, even though we were wearing berms, we still got wet while trying to get across. But luckily for us, it was not the full high tide, for when it is high tide, it is not possible to cross over.

A happy successful man who made it across to the temple.
The flower on the ear and rice on the forehead was part of the blessings given by the priest on the foot of Tanah Lot.

We were so tired that night that we ordered delivery and ate in the villa again.

Our last day in bali, we had exhausted all our money the previous night on the lavish massage, manicure, pedicure and ear candling that we pampered ourself with.

So we dragged ourselves out to Seminyak town to find a money changer. The first money changer that we encountered refused to do business before as he claimed that he had never seen a Singapore $50 note before! The second one tried to be funny, gave us a high rate at first to lure us in then wanted to deduct some of the money as service charge. Luckily the third one was honest and was true to his words.
That us, our one and only group photo taken for this trip. It only came upon us on the last day of our trip that we had not taken a photo together.
This fancy box is used by the cafe to return change to the customer, how interesting.
Mama managed to squeeze time to do some last minute shopping, she got herself a fancy woven basket. Thats Sarah putting the basket through a durability test.
Finally we bide farewell to Bali, it was a fun sun drenched trip with great company.