Russell now owns my sister's bed

Genny, if you don't come home soon, he's going to start marking his teritory there. ;)

Nefatari Exclusive Villa

When we reached Bali, we were excited. Collected our rented car and we were off to Ubud. The GPS map I downloaded for Bali could not be used so we ended up depending entirely on the maps we printed out before we left.

You can't really get lost driving from Kuta to Ubud because there's only one main road all the way. We were feeling so excited and eager until we reached..... the traumatic slope.

It was a terribly sharp U-turn onto the slope and it's was one of the steepest slopes we drove on. Soma couldn't get the under-powered Avanza up the slope and it kept dying again and again and again and we were panicking and panicking and panicking. Jasmine calmed Soma down and she reversed down, stepped of the accelerator with all her might and drive up the slope.

After that incident, Soma was my hero. I would have just sat there crying. Or I would have gotten out of the car and grab somebody from the roadside to drive the car.

Anyway, that slope was the only disadvantage of staying in Nefetari Villa because you'll always have to pass it whenever you leave the villa. When we finally saw the Nefatari sign, we almost cried with joy.

And the gates opened, we entered paradise. The reception was absolutely beautiful.

 

 

  

 

We finally checked-in and were brought into our villa, and when the main villa door opened...

 

This was the first sight we saw

Needless to say, the 4 of us were very very very happy girls. We excitedly went around exploring each room and each bathroom.

 

  

   

Service in this villa is superb. They only have 9 private villas and therefore you are treated like royalty. They have a free shuttle service and you can get them to fetch you from one area to another. Just tell them the time and place and they will pick you up and bring you to your next destination. It was like having your own private driver and it's all FOC.

This is Mr Boleh Man, Ketut. Anything you ask him to do, he'll reply, "Boleh".  He's so cute, I wanted to squeeze him like a soft toy.

At night when you come back, you'll find that they already placed mosquito coils in each bathroom to get rid of the mosquitoes.

The next morning, somebody will come and clean the pool.

Imagine getting up the the morning, coming out from your room and having this beautiful sight greet you good morning.

I woke up early, went out in my pajamas and just lied down beside the pool and stared at the blue blue sky.

 

 

And the most awesome thing is having your breakfast served to you in your private villa. They'll give you a menu and you can order anything.

 

  

Ah... having breakfast served in our private villa while we are still in our bikinis. I could really get used to this life. :)

Drinks and snacks are free and unlimited the throughout the whole day.

And I loved loved loved this drink, Teh Botol. Wondefully refreshing on a hot day.

Overall, this villa was one of the best experiences I had in Bali.

For more information about the villa, go to http://www.nefatari-bali.com/room.html.

Bali love

Overall I found Bali breathtakingly beautiful. Unless they are trying to sell you something, the people there are generally nice (though some were a little intimidating). I love how simple and beautiful their life is. So rich in culture and religion.

When I was there, I didn't have access to the internet, nor did I watch any TV. I felt so free, so disconnected from everything. I did not have the need to check my email or my facebook or my twitter. Every morning, I woke up before the alarm clock went off at 7am and listened to the sounds of the birds chirping.

This was truly a holiday. I wish I had one more day to just chill out by the beach with a book in my hand. It felt so wonderful just to enjoy the simple joys of life. Eating, relaxing and sleeping. And to enjoy the natural beauty of Bali. The only stressful part of the trip was driving without a proper map and no GPS. I have never seen Soma so stressed out before. But still, it was an adventure. ;)

Took me some time to face the reality of going back to work. I suddenly felt that it was so quiet at work, everybody isolated in their own cubicles doing their own thing. I'm wondering... is being isolated in a cubicle for 10 hours a day, is that really called living life?

I sometimes wish that I could have the simple life without the unnecessary stress we tend to create for ourselves. However, I will never have the guts to try that out. And I think that after a while, I'll become restless. So maybe some stress in life is required for me. I tend to get bored easily and having some kind of stress keeps me occupied and moving forward.

I'm glad I got the chance to go to Bali with 3 other fabulous girls. It was something we wanted to do since we were school kids and decided we had to do it now before one of us starts popping out babies.

I know Yin How would love Bali, but that guy has decided he doesn't like traveling. I don't dare if I have to drag his skinny ass all the way to Bali, I'm definitely going there one day again with him. :)

Will blog more about the wonderful villa and the spa later.

4 day 3 night Bali itinerary

As promised, I'm sharing out the itinerary we used for our Bali trip. What is written in blue was the original itinerary.

Day 1 - Ubud

Reach Bali airport at 12.30pm. Takes an hours drive to Ubud.

1. Car rental was RP230,000 per day with insurance. I recommend Indotrans car rental. Their service was excellent.
2. Do not trust Google map's estimation. Instead of 1 hour, we took 2 1/2 hours to get there. 
3. Do not get an Avanza. It's very under powered. There was such a terrible steep road on the way to the villa and we were panicking like crazy when the car kept dying on the slope. (In the panic and excitement, I accidentally sat on my sunglasses. So sad.)
4. Driving in Bali is worst than Penang, but still okay (if you're a seasoned Penang driver). The roads are narrow and there are lots of bikes everywhere. I didn't drive because there were only manual cars there, so Soma and Jasmine did all the driving.
5. In Penang, honking on the road means, "Get off the road you ASSHOLE!". In Bali, every time a car honked us, Soma started cursing. We only realized later that honking was a way to tell you, "Excuse me, I'm going to overtake you now". And pretty soon, Jasmine was honking away like a professional.

Check-in into Nefatari Villa at 2pm.

Super duper nice villa for the price we paid. I shall dedicate a whole blog post later about it.We paid around RM160 per person for this 2 bedroom villa for 4 people.

Lunch at Naughty Nuri's (#33 ranking on TripAdvisor, but recommended by Jasmine's friend and my colleague). Famous for the pork ribs. Opposite Neka Art Museum. Opens 8am - 10pm. 

This is the best-est of the best-est thing I ate in Bali. Was really good. Though maybe it was because we were damn hungry at that time after the drive passing the traumatic slope.

Then shopping, shopping, shopping at Ubud market. (open until 5pm)

By the time we had our meal, it was already 5pm. Did a little walking around the market and got harassed by the merchants there. If you think the people in Petaling Street are rough, the people selling things in Ubud are 100 times worst. They will grab our attention by giving you a ridiculously cheap price, and when you go to their stall, they will quote you a ridiculous expensive price. Some will grab you and won't let go, pleading with you to enter their stall. It was very intimidating for us girls.

5.30pm - Dinner at Murni's Warung (#18 ranking)

Famous for Bebek Betutu. Famous for it's view, watch sunset over the rice terraces

Because we had our meal at Naughty Nuri's at 5pm, we skipped this.

7.30pm - Spa and Sang Spa. (close at 9pm).

Damn nice spa. Will dedicate another whole blog post for this.

If we are tired, go back to our villa (but I think we should be very refreshed after the spa). If not, we can go to the Jazz Cafe which is just down the road from the spa. Opens until midnight.

We were super refreshed after the spa. And the Jazz Cafe was simply awesome.

 

 

Day 2 

Enjoy our breakfast in our villa and private pool to the fullest for the whole morning.

Check-out at 11am.

Really really loved this villa. I got to take my bikini photos.We actually checked out at 11.30am and we were so proud that we were only half an hour behind schedule. (Hubby, if you think I take long getting ready when we wanna go out, try waiting for 4 girls to get ready and you'll be thankful you don't have 4 wives).

 

11.15 am - 12.30 pm

Head to Babi Guling Ibu Oka for lunch (#2 ranking in TripAdvisor). Must try the Babi Gulung Special.

This is suppose to be the must must must try food in Bali. We all thought it was over-rated. But then again, we weren't hungry after our superb breakfast served in our private villa. :)

 

1.00 pm - Visit Gunung Kawi 

We decided to skip this. The 4 girls decided shopping was more important. We gathered our courage and went back into Ubud Market.

1. According to the forums, Ubud Market is suppose to be the cheapest in Bali. However, if you don't know how to bargain, don't shop there. The lady quoted me RP100,000 for a wood carving that I was interested it. I bargained until RP40,000 which I thought was cheap. When I went to Kuta, I saw the same thing for RP15,000. Felt so cheated. :(
2. Don't buy dresses in Ubud. They don't have that many selection. In Kuta, they have hundreds and hundreds of dresses. Needless to say, I went a little gila over the dresses. Bought 6. Average price is RP40, 000 per dress which is around RM14. So cheap okay.

Leave by 2pm. Reach Tirta Empul temple at 2.45pm. Rp 6,000

We reached by 4pm instead. When we went there, it was jam packed with local people who were there for prayers. It must have been some festival going on because we were trapped in the traffic jam crawling behind a religious procession.

When we reached the temple, we saw so many locals and we chose not to enter the temple. People were there for their prayers and we girls in our skimpy little tops and shorts were like goofballs posing for the camera. Didn't feel right. So we left after 15 minutes.

Leave at 4.30pm. Reach Kuta at 5pm. Check-in to Febri's hotel.

Because we realized by now that Google Maps has poor estimation with regards to the length of the journey, we decided to go straight to Tanah Lot to catch the sunset.

Leave by 5.45pm, reach Tanah Lot by 6.15pm to see the sunset. Rp10,000

We were literally chasing the sun. We saw it sinking further and further down and the journey to Tanah Lot seemed endless.

When we finally reached there, we almost ran to down to the temple but by then we saw huge crowds of people walking out. The sun had already set. We missed it by 10 minutes and were so disappointed. However, Tanah Lot is still a magnificent sight. Will definitely go there again. Also, there are lots of shops there and we bought stuff which were 3 times cheaper of what we paid in Ubud.

Leave at 7pm, reach Seminyak at 7.30pm. Have dinner. Then shop at Seminyak until shops closes. Seminyak is more the expensive side, so I doubt we will shop much here.
We skipped this because we wanted to head to Kuta to check into our hotel. And along the way, we got hopelessly loss in Kuta because the roads there are one-way. It was almost 10pm and I was ready to just give up and get a taxi to the hotel and have Soma drive the car following from behind. But Soma insisted that she could find the way.... and eventually she did!

Around RM70 per person in a Quad room.

Day3

Morning – Drop by Kuta Beach . 

We did this and watched a few surfer dudes.

Then shopping at Kuta. Popular store to check out is Body and Soul
Body and Soul wasn't that nice. Ended up shopping in other stalls in Kuta. Went crazy over the dresses there. So cheap... so so so cheap....

Grab lunch at whatever interesting restaurant is see nearby. 

We went to Made's Warung, which is a very popular restaurant in Kuta. Over-rated, but still good.

After lunch - Leave at 1.30pm, reach Pantai Geger Nusa Dua at 2pm,  (famous beach for sunbathing). Mun Yi, you can try looking for surfing lessons here.
We skipped this after the extremely long journey from Tirta Empul to Tanah Lot. We decided that we can only visit one place in one day due the the long distance between two places.

4pm - Leave the beach, drive 1 hour to Uluwatu temple (reach around 5pm).   Rp 3,000.

Watch Kecak Dance at 6pm (1 hour performance). Rp 70,000.

We left at 3.30pm because we were afraid of getting loss again. Uluwatu is gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.

However, people were not exaggerating about the scary monkeys there. We were too cheap skate to get our own tour guide and went in like a group of 4 chickens with no leader. Just about 15 feet into the temple and the 4 chickens got freaked out by a monkey by the roadside. So the 4 chickens decided to leach onto other people's tour guides. Where they went, the 4 chickens went as well.

I was following a Japanese girl from behind and she started screaming hysterically went a monkey jumped on here. All the time I was thinking, "Do not make eye contact with the monkeys!". A monkey ended up stealing her spectacles.

My advice is that if you are afraid of the monkeys, don't be a cheapskate and just get a tour guide!

We sat under the sun for 1 hour waiting for the Kecak dance. I enjoyed the dance.

Head to Jimbaran for dinner by the sea

We found the restaurant at Jimbaran but decided not to dine there since it was already dark with no sunset to enjoy. Went back to Kuta and had Mama's German instead. Pizza was soooooo yummy. Half way during the meal, the 4 chickens started screaming and flapping our wings around. There was a cockroach under the table. And yes, other people were staring at the 4 silly girls. ;)

After dinner, go back to Kuta and see what's interesting to do at night. Else, go back to hotel.

We went to a club which was just opposite the Bali Bombing Memorial. And we sat there chilling out on our last night in Bali.

Day 4 

Last minute shopping in Kuta.

Again, I went crazy over the dresses. Bought more. Then started looking for things to spend all my money on. Didn't want to bring any RP back to convert to RM. After all the shopping, Soma had negative RP5000. Jasmine had RP1000 left. And I had RP5000. The 3 of us couldn't even afford something to eat and all 3 looked at the rich Mun Yi with bambi eyes hoping to get a meal out of her.

Check-out from hotel at 12pm. Flight back is at 1.55pm.

Remember to keep RP150,000 for airport tax, or not they won't let you leave the country. Thank goodness we knew this in advance and kept money aside. Else I would have spend it on more dresses.



Cost of the whole trip,

Flights + 1 night in private villa with pool + 2 nights in hotel + transportation + food + 2 hour spa + lots and lots of shopping = RM1500

Will blog more about what I think about Bali in another post. Hubby wants to use the laptop now. Hubby, if you love me, you'll buy me my own laptop. :)