June 7, 2008
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Whirlwind Bali Getaway
Well, am back from our Bali Getaway. It was a good vacation even though it was short, i would have loved to spend more time on the beach and not packing so many activities into one day because we were short on time. The day we left for Bali, i had the opportunity to explore the Departure and Arrival transit area of T1. Yep, never been in the transit area of T1 before and Hubbie showed me the area where he would walk to to call me to let me know he was off the plane, the internet terminals where he would send off a quick email to my in-laws that he had arrived before walking to the immigration counter.
To the left of the photo are the gates that hubbie would walk down from to call me using one of the public phones to make a free local call to let me know he has gotten off the plane. After which he would walk to the internet terminals next to the escalators to send off a quick email to my in-laws to let him know he is safe and sound. Finally, take the escalator down to the immigration counter, pick up his luggage and walk into my arms.
Well, the flight experience on Valuair is what you would get from a budget airline carrier. Although, it was nice that they served at least a bun and some water. Hubbie forgot about his sinus acting up during flights so he had a bad sinus attack that escalated into a bad headache. On our arrival at Bali, we had to queue at separate immigration check lines since he needed to pay a $10 USD visa fee upon his arrival. Now here is where i have some serious issues with the conditions at Bali airport. First of all, the immigration clearance for the "foreigners" (which had three counters that they had to go through - visa payment, checking of passport and stamping of the visa) was way faster than the ones i had to go through having to just have mine stamped. Secondly, the airport smelled of stale cigarette smoke guess i have been spoiled by Singapore's enforcement of non-smoking public areas. I mean you can smoke all you want but hey i don't need to exposed to the harm that you're doing to yourself as well. And it took a good 45mins or more for me to clear immigration. This is even when all those in the "foreigners" queues have cleared immigration.
When i finally cleared immigration and met Hubbie out at the luggage belts with our luggages, we walked out or the airport and went straight to the taxi counter. We paid Rp. 40,000 (6 SGD) for a 10mins ride into Kuta and to our hotel, Febri's Hotel and Spa. It's listed as a 3 star hotel but it was sure more than what we had expected for the rate that we had paid.
This is our room for the next 3 days which is so spacious and very decent cable tv channels. The windows look out to our balcony that has seating for two and a clothes rack to hang our wet swim wear.So by the time we got settled into our room it was already 11pm but i was hungry and wanted to try and order room service. Understandably, the kitchen was closed for the day but the front desk informed us that there is a 24hours McDs nearby so we hopped onto a cab and had McDs take-in in our room watching the parts of Star Trek - Insurrection.
Day 1We got up and lazed in bed watching "Numbers" and "Friends" on AXN till we realised we only had 1.5hrs left to make it for breakfast So i hauled ass and we made it down to the dining area with 45mins left for breakfast service. While we were having dinner, we saw some of the ladies from the hotel's spa services walking around promoting their many spa packages. Hubbie and i were checking out the spa brochure that was available in the room the nite before and after doing some quick currency conversion we quickly decided we were so going to pamper ourselves. So we waved the ladies over and i zoomed into the Glowing Toes and French Manicure package service while Hubbie went for a Glowing Toes and Hot Stone Massage package.
Glowing Toes French Manicure Stone Massage
1.5 hrs . Rp 120,000 1.5 hrs . Rp 100,000 1.5 hrs . Rp 175,000
Foot Bath Start with Foot Bath
Foot Scrub A massage combination
Relaxing Foot Massage entailing the use of
Pedicure smooth warm stones
Nail Polish with long strokes on bodySo between the two of us we spent Rp. 515,000 (78 SGD) for a 3 hrs session each. I don't know about you but i think that is pretty darn cheap by my standards.
Hubbie enjoying his pedicure and that is his spa lady, Darma.Once we were done, we headed out to an Internet cafe near the hotel that Hubbie had spotted on our nite run to McDs the nite before. Spent about 30mins there before i managed to drag him out to hunt for Krispy Kreme which i was told was located in Discovery Mall down the road from the hotel. However, just as we got to the front steps of the mall, we were accosted by a sales person and Hubbie was really nice enough to give him the time of day and before we knew it we were lured into a car with the sales person to a Royal Hotel located at Jimbaran. Here, we managed to waste a few hours of our time doing a time share presentation they call "Holiday Ownership". We did it because the sales guy told us he needed to accumulate 30 points to qualify for a full time job at the hotel (get this...) as a gardener! Since we would give him 4 points for our time and i was hoping to help this guy get a job we sat there listening to fellow Canadian from Quebec talk to us about the hotels and villas that would be available to us for holidays. Marie was friendly and energetic, however, i knew the moment we sat down, found out she was Canadian and to add to that she was pretty cute not to mention busty too, that Hubbie would be sitting there for a while. But after sitting there for about 2 hrs, i had to cut the presentation short and said it wasn't for us and quickly exited the place into a cab ride that was free since we did the presentation back into Kuta.
Finally, back at Discovery Mall we continue my quest for Krispy Kreme and we found it!
ALAS!!!!!!!!!! Nooooooooooooooooo! I don't know if they are closed for renovations or Krispy Kreme has pulled out of Bali.
After that disappointment, we decided to go with Marie's suggestion and headed to this restaurant called KU DE TA located at Seminyak. The taxi ride cost Rp. 40,000 (6 SGD) even though we were stuck in rush hour traffic.
It was a rather pricey restaurant but the food was good and the desserts were excellent! The dinner of "Roasted Beef Fillet", "Lobster Linguini", with drinks of
"Apple Mojito" and "Pineapple Crush" and ending with desserts of "Twice
Bakes Chocolate Souffle" and "Brulee 4 Ways" set us back Rp. 850,000
(128 SGD). Oh, if you are planning to make a trip to the restaurant remember to make reservations ahead of time. Go really early (i suggest around 4pm) if you want to sit at the restaurant's lounge around where you get a fantastic sunset view of the beach. Just look at the shots i took of the beach where we took a walk before heading back to the restaurant for our dinner.
I saw this lil girl playing with the sand and just had to stop to play with her for a lil bit and snapping some shots of her. This is my favourite shots of 2-year-old Lara.
On our way back to the hotel, we decided to drop off our stuff before checking out Musro Music Room and Cabaret. We asked our driver if he knew what the place was all about but he mentioned that he wasn't familiar with the place. So when we asked the bouncer who was standing outside the place he was kind enough to give us a tour of the place and explained to us what it was all about. We decided to give it a shot and bought tickets to catch the performances of a live band and cabaret show for Rp. 100,000 (15 SGD) each which included a drink. I must say this is a first for me. I have never been to a cabaret show before and i was thoroughly entertained! We thought for the price we paid it was a good deal. The live band that performed before the cabaret segment wasn't too bad either.
And that concludes Day 1 of our short Bali getaway. Day 2 to come soon.
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