Peekaboo

Out of boredom, I checked whether anyone was still reading this blog which I abandoned yet again for months. 

And holy crap..... I think there are people reading it. So maybe this useless crap is interesting to at least one person out there. 

Anyway, I used to be much more interesting when I was blogging during my naive 20's. Now I'm just like a hermit crab facing bipolar issues.... Peekaboo, now you see me, now you don't.

From my last blog post months ago, I was traveling to Austin. Come back and had a layover in London. It was the 3rd shift in time zone in that short trip and I was disastrously jet lagged. But visiting Westminster Abbey was worth it. It was the 3rd place I visited that gave me goosebumps. Beautiful!

By the time I reached home, I slept 16 hours straight. Business trips like these can shorten your life. But I absolutely enjoyed. And it was all paid for :) 

Fast forward a few months to today, and I'm now back to the gray company. Yup, it was like running back to an ex boyfriend whom you love and hate.

Main reason I left was there were too many night calls and I hated bringing work back home. The home and "me time" is sacred to us introverts  and I decided that it wasn't worth sacrificing it. 

Though I do miss working with the Hungarians and Austin. They are just such nice human beings. 

So one step forward and one step backwards... Anyhow I'm more interested in other plans now. 

Boys and their toys

The hubby and I have always been side by side since 14 years ago. And now and then, I have to go off for a business trip and leave him home alone.

And what does he do when I'm away? It's the perfect opportunity for him to buy new toys for himself. Last round it was a fish pond which I would not have agreed to because he doesn't look after his fishes.

This time is a fishing rod. A very excited hubby was showing it to me over the webcam.

Other random thoughts of my trip so far

1. Hungarians are so friendly. I said in my previous post and I'll say it again
2. Hungarians have 3 years paid maternity leave!! Can you imagine? And if they get twins, they get 6 years. And if they have another kid, they will continue to get another 3 years. So basically, they may never come back to work.
3. Hungarians shake hands with everyone and will say hello to anyone that passes. If not, it's considered rude. So when one of my Hungarian colleague came to Penang, he kept shaking hands with everybody in the meeting. 
4. Hungarians are structured people. So I can imagine the challenges when working with the very unstructured free form Americans.
5. It's seriously so hard to pronounce and remember Hungarian names. Like how would your pronounce Szabolcs? And all of them have the same names, making it even more confusing. @.@
6. When I went to the warehouse, I saw a package from Altera. Suddenly made me miss Altera...

I have to say, I love working with different countries and learning about their culture. 

Next stop: Back to Budapest, then to Austin

Hello Europe

So I'm in Europe now. First time in Europe since I was a kid. And I've finally overcome my fear of travelling alone for leisure (something I can check out from my bucket list). I've done it for business trips before, but never for a holiday.

I have to admit I was in a state of panic when I reached Amsterdam to find that I couldn't use my credit card for the lockers and didn't have any phone service and didn't have much local currency. But after panicking for about one hour wondering around the airport, I manage to get myself out of the airport, onto the train and into Amsterdam.

And all I can say is, Amsterdam is BEAUTIFUL. And after exploring the city extremely jet lagged, and not dressed well enough for the cold weather (in my state panic, I smartly left my gloves and scarf in the locker), I arrived in Budapest after 33 hours of travelling.

And here are some random thoughts for the day

1. I love how everybody cycles in Amsterdam. 
2. Gathered all my courage to walk over to the Red Light District. Got shocked at what I saw, chickened out and ran off
3. Towards the end of the day, my body was shutting down from the exhaustion and was too tired to think what to eat... so, I ate at the universal and reliable restaurant: McDonald's.
4. Budapest is like a fairy tale. So fairy tales did exists a long time ago
5. For some reason, I didn't go through any immigration when entering Hungary. I was feeling so paranoid about it until I checked and found others had the same experience
6. Hungarians are so nice, friendly, and gentle. They open doors for me. No one open doors for me at home 
7. In Hungary, the button to flush the toilet is humongous
8. My nose is bleeding here since is so dry here. And Americans who are in Hungary are complaining that it's humid in Hungary. How dry is Austin then? I'm so going to dry out like a salted fish when I'm there.
9. I still find it magical when cars stop for me when I'm on the zebra crossing
10. The food in Hungary is so salty. I will not be eating bacon for a long time.
11. I'm jet lag but I'm not even going to bother adjust because I'll be flying to a different time zone in a few days time so it's a hopeless cause
12. The hotel room does not have a kettle. They provide everything else that you wouldn't even think of, from allergic free rooms to personal trainers. But no kettle! So much for all the milo and instant noodles I brought with me
13. When you travel alone, you're suddenly very aware of the travellers around you
14. The toilets in Europe are so clean. And people queue up here. So different compared to the Forbidden City in Beijing where you literally have to push your way to get a glimpse of the royal throne.
15. European tourist seem friendlier than Asian tourist. I was taking a selfie (because travelling alone means you have to pathetically take your own photos), and somebody saw and offered to take a photo for me. So now when I see other people take selfies, I offer to take a photo for them
16. I'm sleeppy. I woke up at 4am 
17. 
    

The latest craze

So the hubby's latest craze is this.

The Tesco figurines. Spend RM50 in tesco and you'll get one sticker. And you don't get to choose when you redeem it which makes obsessive people like the hubby crazy over the challenge to get the complete set.

At first it was just these two. Someone commented that the 2 looked like the hubby and me.

Mindy - Iron Man because I'm always yelling at the hubby
Hubby - Captain America, always happy to annoy me equipped with the shield to protect himself when I burst

And now the hubby is suddenly very concern about my toiletries.

Mindy, you need more shampoo
Eh, you need more period pads right?
Mindy ah, we need more toilet roll.

Yes... we need more toilet roll... 

So much that they are all over the place right now...

As long as he finds an excuse to buy ONE thing, he will drag me to tesco, take out his calculator and start walking aimlessly around tesco finding things to buy until he reaches RM50. And then there's the panic at the cashier counter when the total comes out to be slightly less then RM50 and we just grab anything we can reach from the counter.

He keeps bugging everybody for stickers. So when the sister wanted to introduce her new boyfriend, she sent her boyfriend to get 2 stickers for the hubby to make a good impression. And I think it worked. ;)

So this is the hubby's collection so far. And after annoying me enough, I've reached out to the facebook universe to seek for help to exchange those extra ones we have for ones we don't have.

Please.. please... let us get the complete set soon before I really run out of space to put toilet rolls.

The first project

We are starting to clean up around the home in preparation for our move next year (and I say we, I have to be honest and say it's the hubby).

And look what the hubby found under a pile of crap in the storeroom. 

My first project documentation! Written when I was 12 years old.  :)

The tale of two Foo Dogs

So I've been asked to blog about my trip to Beijing. If you ask me what was my most memorable experience there, I'll probably tell you are story of two Foo Dogs.

Whenever the hubby travels, the hubby must do his shopping. Because his logic is that he'll probably never go back to that country which justifies his desire to buy what he sees and likes.

There's the Buddha he bought from Bali. Security at every airport stopped us to ask us what the big round head in the security X-Ray scan was.

There was the prayer house that we brought back from Phuket (with some occupants who recently moved in). It was so fragile, that when we walked down the staircase from the plane, the hubby immediately went to the compartment where they were offloading the baggage from the plane and insisted that they pass him his little house there and then.

Cambodia wasn't too bad. The hubby settled on a relatively small stone craving of the Bayan face (will upload the photo here tomorrow)

And then there were the two Foo Dogs from Beijing. 

The dear hubby decided that he had to get them after two days shopping at the antique flea market. He bargained hard with the friendly Chinese man who suddenly disappeared immediately after he received our money leaving us to figure how to carry the two Foo dogs back. 

I picked one up and the hubby picked the other and we shared an "Oh Shit!" moment. 

It was freaking HEAVY! Duh, they are made of stone but it only occurred to us after we tried to pick it up. 

To cut a long story short, with tremendous effort, sweat and a lot of arguing along the way, we carried it back to the hotel and from the hotel to the airport using the subway which we had to interchange several times. Hubby was annoyed with me because I refused to take the taxi (I have a thing against taxis), and I was annoyed with him for buying something so ridiculously heavy. 

Miss Pessimistic me wanted to give up and throw it away because I was absolutely convinced that it was too heavy to check into our luggage. But Mr. Optimistic hubby refused to give up and stubbornly carried on like a hero in battle. He carried one on his back and dragged the other in the luggage bag...

...and then... one wheel started to come off... 

Oh mother of all crap!

Somehow out of sheer determination, we managed to arrive at the airport, weigh the foo dogs and upgrade baggage allowance online. 

What really happened at the airport: 
8.40pm - arrived at the airport, flight was 1.05am. Air Asia airport will close online baggage top up 4 hours before the flight which meant we had only 25 minutes to figure out how much we had to top up
8.45pm - Transformed into a mad woman running around the airport in panic finding a weighing machine to weigh the foo dogs. Hijacked an empty check in counter to weigh the luggage, unloaded EVERYTHING onto the floor to even out the weight of each luggage to be within the max of 32kg.
8.55pm - Practically screamed at the lady behind the counter to get the wifi password required to go online. 
9.00pm - Panicking to death. Sat on the floor, emptied all the contents of my wallet onto the floor. Couldn't find my credit card. Panic... Panic... PANIC... then realized I my credit card was with my phone.
9.03pm - Frantically keyed in all the details online knowing that if I made one mistake, I would not make it in time. Managed to successfully top up the baggage allowance.
9.05pm - Suddenly very conscious that we were the only country bumpkins who were sitting on the floor with our belongings scattered on the floor.

When we reached Penang, we couldn't move. Muscles were punishing us after the Foo Dog incident. A few days later, the hubby could no longer move his neck. He had no choice but to go to the doctor and get an injection on his bum.

The hubby swore never to buy anything so heavy again. And now whenever I see the Foo Dogs who are happily guarding our door, I (who was so willing to throw them away along the way) will remember...

No matter how heavy things may seem, keep going until the end and never give up!

(Even if the cost comes with an injection on the bum)

A test

Want to test how well your other half knows you? Try this...

Say you have something to want to buy, like a handbag. After shopping the whole day and finding the one you really like, ask your other half to go into a the store guess which one you chose.

I asked the hubby to go into Charles and Keith to find the handbag that I picked. And so entertaining it was to see him as the only man in a crowd of women going around the store and carefully evaluating every handbag he saw.

Needless to say, he found the bag I wanted to buy. After 13 years, he better know! :)

Let's see.....

3 weeks of culture shock.
3 weeks of "oh shit, why the hell did I decide to move?"
3 weeks of waking up before then sun rises.
3 weeks of dreaming of the previous company and missing the people.

And let's not forget,
1 close meltdown, completely freaking out about the magnitude of new things to learn.

You know that situation where after you completely freak out and go into a weird trance with a million thoughts going through your head? Then suddenly.... A moment of clarity (I think because the brains goes numb after so much panic) and you realize it's just about organizing the chaos and making a plan.

Then moving forward, it's about gaining small wins everyday.

Today's small wins...

...I slept until the alarm rang
...I think I managed to earn a tiny bit of trust from a team member
...I realized that I no longer feel like I belong to my previous company

Good enough progress for one day :)

I miss you

I miss my previous grey company.

I miss the milo making machine that greeted me during those mornings of desperate need for a quick breakfast before rushing off to start the usual meeting marathons.
(Now milo making here is manual)

I miss the nice big cube which was my second home
(Cube is smaller with medium height walls, but the good thing is you don't feel so isolated from everybody else drowning in sea of grey cubicles)

I miss being a Miss Know-It-All
(I'm Miss-Know-Nothing-At-All now)

I miss being an annual leave hoarder
(But I think that's better because the only time I take a break is when the company forces me to do so which means I'll be taking more breaks now)

I miss working on the software
(Do you know how freaking complicated Manufacturing can be?)

And most of all, I miss the people, knowing everybody and having everybody know me.

But..... I don't regret leaving. Because it was just time to move on.

Back again

Someone sent me a story he wrote and a beautiful story it was. Suddenly made me miss writing so I dug out this old blog of mine and I'm determined to revive it.

Just turned 31. Hate birthdays now. Which is a good thing for the hubby since he no longer has to do his annual last minute oh-shit-I-forgot-to-buy-Mindy-a-birthday-card panic shopping (truthfully I stopped asking for a birthday card after going through a few oh-shit-I-forgot-to-buy-the-hubby-a-birthday-card which often results in an ugly card from Tesco).

I remember that I once said that if I could choose to be an age forever, I would choose being 26. I think I like 30 more now? That's when you are at the peak of your career, have some extra money to enjoy, still young but old enough to be respected. I shall miss being 30 ( despite the fact that I spent the whole year fighting battles)

I reread all the post in this blog. It started as a I'm-so-happy-and-in-love blog in my mid twenties which then turned depressing as I hit the realities of life towards my late 20's. Then it went dead and got resuscitated now and then. I guessed that when I reached my 30's, I made a conscious choice to try to fix the problems that I control, and accept the ones and can't.

So here's to you, 30's. I hope you don't give me as much crap as your predecessor. But if you do, I guess I just to to kick you in the butt, one lesson at the time.

And note self, remember to stay HUMBLE and KIND and never think you are better than anyone else because once you do, you'll stop learning and miss out on the free lessons that life has to offer.

I shall blog again!

Damn, I have not blogged for ages.

Sudden inspiration to start again was caused by this sudden addiction to a recent Korean drama. Was so freakishly obsessed with it that I was reading blogs for episode reviews and suddenly was inspired by the witty writings of the blogger. I shall not reveal what drama is in since I'm quite certain that when I look back, I'd be embarrassed of what I was obsessed with ( I took me 7 tries before I managed to spell "embarrassed" correctly, eshhh)

I miss blogging. I miss being expressive instead of hiding within a shell. Sigh, life can be a drag and pull you down so low that you think the hole you dug for yourself has now become the most perfect dark but comfy place ever. But, I think I'm over the boo-hoo now (at least I think so)... at least until the next boo-hoo comes along. Then I shall move back to da hole.

I have a feeling that this is a one time spark to inspiration to blog again. Oh well, let's see.

I'm so sleepy. From being obsessed with candy crush, to a sudden obsession with Korean drama, poor me has been spending late nights catering to these obsessions and feeling like a hung over piece of crap the next day at work.

Okay, that's all the random junk from my sleep deprived head for now.

Why why why why why

At work, I often have to deal with customer issues. And it's interesting to see how customers from different customers react to issues differently. For European and North American countries, they just want the problem fixed as soon as possible. For The Chinese, they will squeeze you for a better deal next time.

And for the Japanese... If you have to handle a critical issue from them, good luck to you. They are very particular about quality and if they find an issue, they will make you to apply the "5 whys" in order to find why the issue happened. Because if you ask yourself why to every answer given, you'll be able to find the real root cause of the problem in order to fix it.

My sister got fascinated by that theory. So I gave her an example.

Me: Why did your car break down?
Sister: Because the tires got punctured.
Me: Why did the tires puncture?
Sister: Because I didn't pump air into my tires.
Me: Why didn't you pump air into your tires?
Sister: Because I was lazy.
Me: So root cause of your car breaking down is because you are lazy.

My sister played it back with me.

Sister: Why did you marry YH?
Hubby: oh, I want to hear this.
Me: Because I've been with him for so many years.
Sister: Why have you been with him for so many years? How can you stand him?
Me: Because he makes me laugh.
Sister: Why does he make you laugh?
Me: Because... Because.... He's like a monkey.
Sister: Why is he like a monkey?
Before I could reply, she burst out in hysterical laughter
Sister: Because he is a result to Darwin's evolution. So you married YH because he's a Darwin evolution from a monkey.

I guess it does make sense... I think. :)

The Shoe Story

Every now and then the hubby calls me just before I leave for work. "Eh, are you still at home? I forgot to bring my badge, can you bring it over to me?" Or it's his watch, or it's something else he forgot to bring to work. Once I had to cancel my morning meeting because he went to work having to give a presentation during a meeting and he forgot to bring his laptop. And it's me to the rescue again, despite the fact that I have my own meetings that I have to rush to.

Two weeks ago, he called me the in the morning again, just before I was about to leave for work.

Hubby: Eh Mindy ah, are you still at home?

Me: Ya, what did you forgot to bring this time?

Hubby: Can you go to the shoe rack? And bring me my leather shoe.

Me: Huh? You want me to bring you your shoes? What's wrong with the one you're wearing?

Hubby: I wore the brown one and the black one

Me: *confused*, Huh? What do you mean?

I walked over to the shoe rack, saw one side of the brown Croc shoe and one side of the block leather shoe.

Me: You..... hahahahaha... wore.... hahahahha.... one side..... hahahahah..... of each shoe..... hahahahaha..... to work??????

Hubby: Ya.... quickly come over and bring me my shoe. Or not I don't dare to leave my cubicle.

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Hubby: Quickly come ah okay,I'm in a meeting now. Bye.

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I had to cancel my morning meeting again to deliver one side of my husband's shoes to him. But this time it was worth it. I was practically crying from laughing too much the whole journey to work.

And just when I finally managed to calm myself from laughing, I saw the hubby running out of his office, wearing his brown croc shoe and black leather shoe. Hysterical laughter started again.

I love my hubby. After all the years, he is still so entertaining.

:)

I'm no fake okay

The hubby recently told me that there's a stall near his mum's stall that sells fake branded handbags. He asked me whether I wanted one. I told him that I rather carry a cheaper Vinci or Charles and Keith bag rather than carry a fake branded bag. I'm not brand conscious. As long as it looks nice and it's not a fake, I'll be happy with it. And I always only have one handbag which I use until it's torn and tattered before buying a new one.

I went into the Coach shop in Gurney for the first time, curious to how much a bag would cost, so that I had something to compare to when I go to the Coach shops in U.S. next month. I'm already getting orders from others to bring back Coach bags and I just can't understand why women are so in love with Coach. I looked at the prices, almost RM2K for a bag, ridiculous!! The small bags cost RM725, my sister bought me one in U.S. last year for around RM100.

Anyway, yesterday morning the hubby pissed me off in the morning and then he left to help his mum at the stall. I went back to sleep and woke up to a over-excited jetlagged sister barging into my room who just came back from at a 36 hour journey from Chicago. She bought me this nice denim Cotton On shorts for guess how much..... USD2~~~~ * squealing and jumping in excitement over the bargain*

While I was sitting in her room watching her unpack all the goodies she brought back from U.S., the hubby came home. Soon after, the excitement died down and I was on the sofa watching T.V. The hubby suddenly passed me a plastic bag with a bag inside and said, "Nah I bought this for you".

I opened it and there was a Coach bag inside and I was like, "Huh???". The hubby never buys me anything, and suddenly he buys me this fake Coach bag from the stall next to his mum's? He asked whether I liked it, said he bought it for RM55 after bargaining from RM80 and asked whether it was worth it. At that very moment, many thoughts were running in my head.

 "Crap, he bought me a fake bag"
"How can he buy me a fake bag after I told him I don't like to carry fake goods? Why doesn't he listen to me?"
"It's probably because he felt guilty for making angry this morning"
"Awww... he looks so proud of himself for buying a handbag for me"
"Nevermind, smile and pretend you like it. Then chuck into the cupboard once he forgets about it"

Through my fake smile I said, "Yesss.... very worth it". Pretended to pose in front of the mirror with the bag to make him feel proud that despite being a male, he still has the ability to pick a bag which his wife would like.

Then I started getting fascinated with how much effort the manufacturer put in to make the bag real. "Wah, they actually bother to put in a manual on how to look after the bag" and then I left the manual on the sofa. "Not bad ah, they actually can fake the leather smell so well".

I went into my room to take out the small Coach bag my sister bought me last year which I never used and started comparing the two bags. The style of the stitching was identical, and I was impressed. But then I looked into the bag and saw loose threads and was thinking, "Ha, they make the outside look so real, but inside it doesn't look so real".

After a while I suddenly notice the hubby and sister looking like that were going to burst from laughter. The hubby asked me, "What if I told you the bag was real?". I said, "If the bag is real, I'll kick your *toot* for spending so much money." I saw both of them crack up in laughter and I suddenly got confused.

I challenged him back, "If the bag is real, it will come with a Coach paper bag. You gave it to me in some market plastic bag."  The hubby went into my sister's room and came out with a Coach plastic bag. I, thinking that Coach plastic bag was from my sister's previous U.S. trip last year, was still convinced that he was lying. I turned to my sister and saw that, she had a strange look on her face.

I suddenly put two and two together. The hubby asked my sister to buy a Coach bag from U.S. for me and they had planned this over the last few weeks when my sister was still in U.S.

Suddenly there was light shinning on the bag in my hands and it started sparkling in beauty. And I went to the mirror and started posing with the bag for real. I quickly went back to the sofa where I left the manual and put it back into my bag. Eh... the manual is also authentic Coach okay, no longer just a normal piece of card.

The hubby and sister spent the next half an hour laughing over the stupid comments I made. When I said, "they can fake the leather smell so well", my sister had to rush to the balcony so that I couldn't see her laughing.

The hubby said it was so funny that it was worth the money he spent on the bag. He said, it proved his theory that woman, including his wife who just a while ago boosted that she is not brand conscious, still in fact go for branded stuff.

It's okay, I'll let them make fun of me. I just had a stupid grin the whole day because my hubby bought a real Coach bag for me.

:)

Good food, gorgeous view

The weekend

Siri Argument

This is funny. If you don't know what Siri is, I sigh and shake my head at you.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6648229/siri-argument

Unchanged

The most tiring weekend ever. Travelled to Kuantan for a wedding while having a fever and gastric. Ended attending the church wedding but skipped the dinner because fever wouldn't go down. Then the next of the whole was spent traveling back.

However it was worth it for the sake of childhood friendship. It's strange how life can change so much, we get married, have children, focus on our careers, go through the ups and downs of life and get just so busy, yet some things remain the same as if time has left it untouched.

I stayed over at my friend's house and it was me and her on the bed talking and talking through the night. Her baby was sleeping by her side.

Yet when I closed my sleep deprived eyes while talking the night away, we both were 14 years old again on one of the sleepover parties we had.

Hopefully we will still have moments like these when we are grannies. :)

Bali - Kajane Mua Villas

Bali is about street market shopping, beaches, spas and beautiful villas. Staying in a nice villa is part of the holiday itself so I booked Kajane Mua Villas after reading lots of good reviews on Trip Advisor.

The moment you step into this villa, you'll be treated like royalty.

This is the view from the Lobby.

We booked Beji Giri and paid USD285 (RM870) for one night. 

Once you enter the villa, you'll be greeted by this beautiful sight. I had this sudden urge to hide in Bali forever. The hubby who was complaining that I booked such an expensive villa when we could go shopping with the money, shut his mouth after he got dazed by the beauty.

There are two sun beds for you to relax by the pool

And an outdoor shower for a quick shower before entering the pool

 And on the deck, there's a table and chairs where your breakfast will be served to you the next morning

The bed was most comfortable. I loved it for oh so many reasons.

Come on, even if you're 80 years old, you'll get turned on by this bed,

 There a LCD TV (which the hubby was happy to see) and a DVD player.

This is the beautiful outdoor bathtub. Opposite the bathtub, there's a beautiful landscape of plants and flowers. I forgot to take a photo of that because I was too excited taking photos of other things in the villa :(

The wonderful sink and toiletries

 In the afternoon, they will see tea/coffee and some local deserts to your villa

 The hubby set his alarm to 6.30am the next morning. And when it rang, he took his pillow and slept on the day bed outside. I follow him with my pillow as well and we both squeezed onto the bed together. It was wonderful to enjoy the view from there, listening to the birds waking up.

 They have several breakfast sets to choose from. I had the Daily set and the hubby had the Japanese set. I have to say I was a little disappointed with the breakfast because I expected more after the grand breakfast I had in Nefatari Villas last year.

 After breakfast, we explored the surroundings. To get from one villa to another, you'll have to walk up and down stairs like these. So imagine the stuff bringing breakfast to your villa.

This padi field is just next to the villas

They have a common area with chairs, a rocking house and a pool for you to use (I forgot to take a photo of the pool). No one around since each villa has its own private pool. 

 This is one of the traditional music instruments, made out of bamboo. No matter what you simply play, it still sounds beautiful.

Overall, Kajane Mua Villas is wonderful wonderful wonderful but a little pricey though. If you are willing to spend on a little luxury, I definitely would recommend this villa.

Pros

1. Beautiful beautiful beautiful (Did I not say enough through this whole entire post already?)
2. I love how they place flowers on the tables, bed, even in the toilet.
3. I really like the outdoor bath tub. Spent an hour in there. :)
4. The private pool is big enough to swim around
5. Very very nice staff who aim to give you the best service
6. Free shuttle service around Ubud and they provide bicycles which you can use for free
7. Very good location, it's strategically located along Monkey Forest Road, opposite the Laughing Buddha restaurant
8. From their website, seems like they can arrange for all sorts of activities for you to do during the day time. I didn't try it though since we had lots of other things to do ourselves

Cons

1. The breakfast was too simple for the price we paid for the villa. But it's a small tiny complaint
2. The villa I stayed was right next to another villa. And at night, I would hear the TV from the other villa.
3. In Nefatari Villa, everything in the fridge is free. This villa charges you for the drinks in the fridge (except for the mineral water)

For more information, visit their website

http://mua.kajane.com/

Bali - In Da Lodge

People like me (a.k.a control freaks) need to do lots of research before we travel. And one of the things I do a lot of research on is on the hotels that I choose to book online. I blogged about Nefatari Villas last year and I found that a lot of people view that page.

So here is my experience of staying in In Da Lodge. I booked this BB inn because of all the great reviews I read on Trip Adviser.

To get to In Da Lodge, drive along Jalan Raya Ubud and along the way you'll see this steep road where you'll see Klinik Dharma Usada. Once you see that clinic, there's a small little path you'll have to walk through to get to the inn (there's a sign to guide you).

Go down along this little path and you'll see the entrance to the inn.

And this is what you'll see around the neighborhood

Once you step into the inn, you'll be welcomed into a lush environment. 

There's a lazy bed with books for you to relax your day away

The bar

One of the rooms on the ground floor

Our room was on the first floor

Entrance to our room. The doors are the traditional kind of doors with no proper locks. There's a padlock to hold the door handles together, but you'll still be able to look into the room if you push the doors back. The window blinds are also slightly see through. 

The bed was comfortable. 

There one stand fan provided. No air conditioning or TV. The weather was cool so we didn't have to turn on the fans.

Opposite the bed, there's another room with a table and a small cupboard. There's also a small kitchen area with a sink that wasn't working

The toilet area wasn't very comfortable to me. It wasn't very clean and I felt like I had to wear my slippers into the bathroom.

Water takes slow to heat up and after a while, the water turned cold again. Also, there isn't any proper drainage in the toilet. And because the toilet floor and the bedroom floor is at the same level, if you take a long shower, the water will start flowing into the bedroom. There wasn't any sink in the bathroom and since the kitchen sink wasn't working, I had no sink to brush my teeth the next morning. Had to go to the shower.

Each room as a table and two chairs just outside the room. 

In the morning, breakfast was served to our room. They have a very basic menu but it was good enough for me.

You'll get to enjoy the beautiful view of rice paddy fields while having your breakfast.

The staff in this BB inn were friendly and warm. The hubby didn't really like the inn because it didn't have any TV and he felt bored at night and he wasn't happy that there wasn't a proper sink and that water could flow into the room. 

But to me, Bali is about getting away for technology and just enjoying the nature. The environment was very quiet and peaceful. However, the rooms are not soundproof and you can hear conversations from people staying in the other room. Also, there weren't any reading lights and all other lights are dim so I couldn't really read my book at night.

If you want to experience a more Balinese stay, then this is the inn for you. I'm glad I booked this inn because I felt it was a good experience. I have to admit though that I was glad that I wasn't staying a 2nd night because of the uncomfortable toilet. If the toilets were cleaner and if the sink was working, this little inn would be perfect. 

Pros

1. Good location, 5 minutes away from Ubud Market
2. Quiet and peaceful surroundings
3. Gives you the Balinese stay experience
4. Warm friendly staff
5. Serves breakfast to your room
6. Wonderful view of the padi fields if your room is on the first floor

Cons

1. Toilet not very clean, sink wasn't working, water may flow into the bedroom
2. Rooms not soundproof which would be bad if there are noisy people staying near your (but the guest here seems more of the mature and considerate type, not the typical drunken youngsters you'll see in Kuta, so I doubt there will be problems with this)
3. No reading lights, no TV
4. Doesn't have private parking areas, you'll have to park on the street outside

I paid RM160 for the Superior room. 

For more info about In Da Logde, go to their website.

http://indalodge.com/