Indonesia - Bali Part 1

This is Bali- to say somewhere is unique to this world is an overused cliché but somehow this really is true for Bali.

Our time in Ubud, Bali was reserved for a slow down. A place that not only could we reconnect with each other but also our surroundings and our time to appreciate how unbelievably lucky we are. It also harboured a sadder fact, that once Bali was over we only really had (excluding a small section of backtracking) under two weeks left, a feeling that makes our hearts drop. Yes we’ve missed our friends and family but we haven’t really missed the UK, we’ve felt as if we could hop on a plane after Dubai and let the wind take us wherever it chooses.

However, this wasn’t going to dampen our spirits on our little slice of tropical luxury that is Bali. Before I write please note that unlike previous entries where we’ve written a day by day account in detail of our actions, some of our days in this case won’t contain a great deal.

Our first day gave us the chance to get our bearings as per usual and check out our absolutely stunning hotel, we decided not to really discuss our hotels/hostels in the blog- but this place is an exception to the rule. Some of the shots of the rice fields around our hotel.




We decided for ease and convenience to eat at the Abian restaurant which is attached to Tegal Sari (our accommodation). The prices are amazingly reasonable and the food is as good as you’ll find anywhere else in Ubud.

Our second day was a very atypical (I joke) Richard and Jenny day, we decided to get some sun and hopefully work on that non existent tan, but we spent far too long doing so which resulted in as you can guess, burn as opposed to tan- that’s the sun tan out of the door.

That evening we ventured out to a place Jen had been looking forward to for months before we actually travelled; Bali Buddha. A restaurant that specialises in vegetarian/vegan food and healthy juice concoctions (including a Turmeric, Apple and Aloe Vera juice), all their food is also non MSG and organic/free range. Fear not carnivores, meat eaters are also catered for- though it’s definitely a turn of the tables with only a few free range meat dishes on offer. The food is absolutely amazing and the restaurant is simple but atmospheric. Underneath the restaurant is an organic shop. Walking back through Ubud, which is referred to as the cultural capital of Bali, you get the feeling that everyone has been inspired by their country, with artists’ shops lining the streets (they outnumber the rest of the shops by at least 4 to 1), Spas and massage parlours, music shops, book shops and many carving stores.

Day three and breakfast brought to our room the next morning (a reoccurring theme for the week that followed), gave us the refreshing boost that’s needed for the very easy day that followed.



We decided we owed it to ourselves and Ubud to take a venture out and explore, of course our first ports of call were the main Ubud attractions, first stop; Ubud Palace. It doesn’t really have the grandeur of Buckingham Palace or the Whitehouse but this palace, which is still home to the Balinese royal family, holds a certain charm in a form of architecture that we had never witnessed before; it kept reminding me in a sense of Mayan but then I could be horribly wrong, just an instinct though.





Next on the cards was the Water Palace, a small temple situated next to Ubud Palace and with one of the most impressive approaches to a temple you will ever see. The architecture is in typical Balinese style like that of Ubud Palace.





In the mid afternoon heat we were getting slightly exhausted so one last stop off this time, around the Ubud market, with hundreds of a little stores trying to plough their goods of on you. Just a look this time, though I’m sure Jen will be back to spend her hard cash on them- hopefully she’ll be able to haggle them down a bit first mind you.

We got back to the hotel grounds for some great views of the sunset.



Then we ventured out to Pizza Bagus for a pizza that would challenge any British pizzeria and nearly (emphasis on nearly) challenge the Italians themselves and a mere fraction of the price; £2.35 roughly for a large pizza.

Day four and another day and another happy couple wake up in the beautiful though exceedingly hot Balinese weather. Today was one of the ‘must do’s’ while in Ubud, the monkey temple- just another typical though charming temple but the grounds are renowned for the abundance of free roaming monkeys and at 15,000Rp (approx 90p) you really don’t have a valid reason not to. It also gave Jen the chance to have her leg caressed by one of the younger monkeys.







Our evening was devoted to our first Balinese dance, one of the main draws of Ubud itself is the cultural attractions and the most famous of which are the dances. There are at least four dances a night of varying price and quality. The first dance we chose to see was a Legong dance at the Ubud Water Palace performed by Chandra Wirabhuana Troupe. The Legong is a series of dances performed in very colourful traditional Indonesian wear and accompanied by a Gamelan- a traditional Indonesian orchestra.

To say Jen was impressed would be a large understatement, as was I, but she was truly mesmerised from the moment the show began to the moment it ended. The dancing was amazing and the choreography was insanely precise, with both parties; the dancers and the orchestra excelling at what they do best. If we didn’t do anything else with our time in Bali this is the one thing we’re glad we did do.





The rest of the evening was spent with great company and more importantly;



Day five was a day for Jen, somehow she managed to get me to agree to have a Balinese massage with body scrub, body mask and flower bath at the Petrenin Spa. For a variety of reasons I was personally against the idea though of course I was more than willing to do it for Jen. The phrase best suited for this experience would be ‘eat my words’! With our skydiving experience we had been left feeling exhilarated and the adrenaline was rushing through our bodies like never before, with this experience we were left at the opposite end of the scale feeling so unbelievably relaxed and so devoid from any stress (not that we have any) and worries. The whole thing lasted two and a half hours and for the level of service and quality we received we would pay upwards of £150 (and the rest) in England but here in Bali…175,000Rp or approximately £11, you just can’t say no. As I had at first convinced Jen to skydive and she had loved it she had returned the favour, though it was so different the experience will definitely go down as one of our most vivid memories.

Our evening was filled with jazz and tapas at Coffee and Silver Café on Monkey Forest Road. We stopped by for some dinner when we were met by the Danish owner who had told us about the music and asked us to stay, which we did and thoroughly enjoyed our night.

Singapore

‘Singapore is a fine city’, is something that you’ll see printed on many t-shirts and other forms of apparel, not because Singapore is a great place to be but due to the fact that one step out of line will result in a fine. A country that has banned chewing gum, will fine you for dropping litter and jaywalking and a set of rules and regulations exist for everything you could possibly do or imagine doing. What does this result in? One of the cleanest, safest and most efficient countries in the world. They even have hygiene ratings on their food courts.

Many people dislike Singapore and it could easily be branded as plastic/easy Asia; it’s clean, everybody speaks English, it beckons no cultural challenges and in all fairness it could be London. However we personally enjoyed our time though we can see both sides of the coin and can fully understand why so many people don’t enjoy it.

Anyway our first evening in Singapore was a simple one. Our hostel hostess kindly led us to the food court and gave us a run down of what stalls to eat at and what we should expect to pay, the first thing we noticed was how cheap it was to eat- something we weren’t entirely expecting. In terms of general shopping and accommodation Singapore is a relatively expensive destination, especially when it comes the latter. After yet another great meal this time at the Smith Street Chinatown food court we decided to hop on the amazingly clean SMRT (Singapore underground/overground system) and took a stroll around the river, past the ridiculously grandeur Fullerton hotel until we finally found what we were looking for- the largest fountain in the world at Suntec City, again a place I remember fondly as this was the area I spent Christmas some 8 years ago.



Day two and we headed out to the Chinese and Japanese gardens for a wonder around. The gardens are the largest green area in Singapore… actually one of the few green areas in the whole country (this isn’t taking into account the other 50+ uninhabited islands belonging to Singapore)!

The area is great for a walk especially if you have a good day, ours was very hot and humid and very overcast. The highlight of the garden for both myself, though especially Jen, was the Bonsai garden, where I’m pretty sure she took more pictures than during our whole stay in KL.





As we were wondering around we met this… I want to say little fellow but he really wasn’t little nor did we want to stick around too long to await his return (the picture doesn’t do him/her justice).



We then headed over to the impressive seven storey Chinese pagoda and ascended to the top.





Back on the train to our Chinatown home where we once again ate at the food court on Smith Street, where I keep eying up all these peculiar foods though can’t quite bring myself to eat a whole squid quite yet- Jen just gives them disgusted looks as she walks past.

Day three and a day of getting around to things we had intended on doing much earlier. We started our day with a more in-depth look around Singapore’s Chinatown, shocking really considering it was located about 100m away from our hostel. Anyway we were once again both in agreement that it was better than that of KL. We then moved on to the ’Buddha’s Tooth Relic Temple’ which was again a building that we could see from our hostel. The temple seems to be built around the concept of educating visitors about Buddhism- after leaving we felt educated (sort of)! Unfortunately most of the temple was under a no photography ruling, so we obeyed… remember Singapore is a fine city.





We the decided to head down to the Raffles, we’re still undecided on our return as to whether or not we’re going to have the famous Singapore sling or the very British high tea- or whether our wallets will be able to sustain the Raffles strain at all. The Raffles Hotel by the way is the oldest building in Singapore and is named after the Brit who colonised Singapore- don’t quote me on the latter as I’m not entirely sure if I’m correct there. Anyway myself and Jen were both in agreement, and I think she was expecting something a lot more striking, that the Fullerton is much more grandeur both in design and location. The Fullerton nestled amongst the high rises:



We decided to carry on around the quay and take in some of Singapore’s well known buildings including the two theatres, both in the same style.



The Merlion is Singapore’s most famous statue and it’s purpose and meaning is to act as a welcome to all that enter Singapore.




We headed back for some shopping in the malls where Jen went to take another look at the Kimono fabric bag in the Japanese shop she had fallen in love with, though we decided to get it on our return to Singapore. Then we headed out to the food court at the Quay where we finally saw someone make Teh Tarik (which literally means ‘pulled tea‘) the way it’s supposed to be made, a process of ‘pulling’ the tea back and forth between two containers, to both cool the tea to drinking temperature and create a froth on the top. It’s made with condensed milk and is very sweet.

Up bright and early for our morning flight with Air Asia to Bali, Jen looking like she was going to pop with excitement.

Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

Our arrival in KL was greeted by the hustle and bustle of a large city again and definitely not the laid back atmosphere of Penang. The first thing Jen noted was how dirty the city is and it truly is, piled up heaps of garbage bags were a common sight.

First came a journey on what seems to be a very disjointed public transport system; there are three different lines which I believe are operated by individual companies, so unlike the London underground where if you need to change line you get off train A and walk to train B, still using the same ticket. You instead have to disembark from train A to walk to a different station and buy a separate ticket for train B. A system that is seemingly built for profit and less so for convenience. We arrived at our destination easily enough and it really isn’t as much hassle as I made it out to sound.

Thankfully the location of our hostel was brilliant, a few 100 metres from Berjaya Times Square- a new and modern mall that you could easily spend a whole day in, it also has and this came us a surprise to us: a theme park that takes up floors 7 through to 9 and an Imax screen that with the food court takes up the tenth floor. We took what remained of our first day to partake in some strolling around the mall before deciding on our very western dinner (it made a nice change) of Papa Johns pizza followed by Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

Day two started in a rather negative manner with my sidekick (Jenny) feeling rather ill for the first time- it had to happen at some point. Though we hopped on the monorail and headed for the Dayumbi complex; a modern high rise building where the architecture has been influenced by the Malaysian Islamic beliefs.



Just so those of you who don’t know are aware in the many pictures that have been taken across Asia with very murky looking skies, it doesn’t necessarily mean the weather is bad in fact it is almost always mid 30’s even with grey skies and rain.

We then proceeded to Merdeka Square, an area renowned for it’s colonial buildings.



During our strolls around the immediate area we saw a sight that in my opinion showcased the contrast of Kuala Lumpur’s old and new and slightly eccentric.



We then headed for the famous Bintang street and KL’s Chinatown region, complete with all it’s food outlets and many hawker markets trying to convince you to buy their goods. We excitingly bought some pineapple and that was all- the adventurous people that we are. We found the whole area to be wholly overrated and not really that special, I guess once you’ve done Chatuchak market in Bangkok everything else pales in comparison, though we also came into agreement that Batu Feringhi’s markets in Penang were also a lot better than KL’s.



The smog and humidity of the late afternoon forced us back to Berjaya Times Square where we ate in 10th avenue food court and then headed for the Imax screen where for the costly sum of approximately £2 we saw a film- in the UK and Australia you can pay £10 - £20 for the same privilege.

Day three and our final full day was put aside for the Lake Gardens, an area of some 200 hectares of garden laid by the British during our colonisation of Malaysia. First of all we headed to the very impressive national monument and the sculpture gardens.




After that we headed to the second part of the gardens, including the bird/deer and butterfly parks- none of which we really got to see.

We found the gardens, in parts, to be very poorly maintained. Maybe we arrived at a bad time as I’ve heard nothing but positive comments on them previously. We unfortunately had a run in with a motorcyclist who seemed to be eying us up for what I can only presume would be too mug us (I shall not expand on it anymore). Fortunately we were both aware and made steps to get to a better place, which we did with no hassle. Unfortunately as you can imagine this left a bitter taste in our mouth, and it was a rather unnerving situation. Though we were fine and things like this happy everywhere in the world, probably more so in our home country.

After our day was cut short by the previous events we decided to head back to our safe haven in the form of Berjaya Times Square for a Subway- I know we’re in Asia we should be eating everything Asian but change is good.

We then headed to Low Phat centre which is the place you go for everything electrical; it’s a strange experience, six floors of laptops, mobiles, consoles, cameras and other cool gadgets. It’s an ideal place to get your electronics but with that much there, how do you choose?!

We then headed out for the evening to the one thing you can’t miss while in KL; the Petronas Towers, which were originally the tallest building(s) in the world until Taiwan’s Taipei 101 succeeded it. It is also soon to be relegated to third place with the arrival of Dubai’s Burj very soon, a building that hauntingly stands at twice the size of the Petronas- trust me seeing the towers makes you wonder how a building could be twice the size. The towers do look undeniably cool at night, once they’re lit up their glass and stainless steel structure really comes into their own.




We said goodbye to one of our many new friends and headed off to another new country, Singapore.

Malaysia - Penang Part 2

Day five and another trip, I’d say down but in this case it was clearly up memory lane. Penang Hill is the place to go for the best views of the Georgetown area and the east coast. Unfortunately for Jen this involves going up a very steep train to the top.




Though once at the top you are greeted by some pretty striking views, also note the ridiculously long Penang bridge in the background.


At the top there is a selection of places to eat, ranging from very expensive (though not by UK standards) boutique restaurants to stands selling chickpeas, we went with the latter. There is also a series of walks, a Mosque and Hindu temple and some time to hang out with the wildlife.



Though they don’t seem to be very observant of the rules.



After getting off the train, which I think Jen was probably very relieved to do, we decided to walk (maybe not the brightest idea considering it was blisteringly hot) the short walk to Kek Lok Si- a large Buddhist temple built in 1890.

To get to the temple itself you have to walk through a series of winding alleyways with lots of locals trying to sell you their high quality fakes.

Once you reach the base of the temple, a long ascent with a lot of steps awaits.



Though Jen again in her element, stopped at every small detail and every new and interesting statue, so that she could savour the memories via photograph.




Again that night we ate at Georgetown’s Red Garden food court. This also gave us the chance to have our first experience with Thai (ironic I know) mango sticky rice, which is basically as it sounds. Rice cooked in coconut milk- hence the sticky and a mango thrown on the side, it may be simple but words cannot describe how good it tastes.

Day six in Penang was our first ‘expensive’ day, I use the term loosely because in comparison to a similar day in the UK it was not. We started our day with a series of events that resulted in us getting lost, two buses and taxi later we ended up at our destination- the butterfly park. The world’s first and largest butterfly sanctuary and free roaming aviary.






It’s a relatively expensive attraction and a fraction out of the way but definitely worth a visit. Beyond butterflies the aviary is home to turtles, scorpions, millipedes, praying mantises and they also have several insect/reptile shows throughout the day, which gave me the chance to hold a few of them and Jen to be very disturbed- I think she was much happier behind the camera in this instance.




We made a much easier return to Batu Feringhi on the way back, our first stop: a cold beer or a couple- I seem to have turned Jen into a lager drinker. After our few beers we took a stroll along Batu beach to watch the sunset.



Back to Batu food court for what would be our last dinner on this side of the island- yet again ridiculously good food at ridiculously good prices, just for those of you who aren’t familiar with a food court setup, this will give you a brief (though not very good) idea:



After our food we strolled the night markets; when I said we would be back with our money I wasn’t lying in fact we bought quite a few items, or I should probably say Jen bought quite a few- we seemed to go with the idea of buying for our home, probably forgetting that we don’t live together yet. We also had a successful stint at bartering.

After our exciting night we headed back to Georgetown - it seemed the buses to our destination had stopped so we had to get a slightly overpriced taxi back.

Day seven and our final full day in Penang and what an awful day it was, it rained from the moment we woke to the moment we went back to bed and it was oddly cold- I say cold it was 27 degrees which is still the equivalent of a British summer. Anyway not feeling in the mood to really challenge the weather we had a rather sedate day, where our only real events were based around food.

Penang island gave us a great experience- the food, the people, the general vibe of the place has given us great memories and from my personal perspective it was amazing to be able to share something I had previously seen with a girl who never thought she’d see this side of the world.

Hopping on board our luxurious executive coach, we began our journey through the heart of Malaysia to the capital, Kuala Lumpur.