Bali 2

We took two local tour packages in Bali, both with MBA. The first was on our second day in Bali, where we took Ubud (Bali batik in Tohpati and drawings in Batuan - Tegalalang (terraced paddy fields) - Natural spices village (tried luwak coffee) - Kintamani (Batur Mount) - Besakih (Pura Agung) - Sanur Beach route.

The second tour package was on the fourth day, Mengwi (Pura Taman Ayun) - Pacung (terraced paddy fields) - Bedugul (Pura Ulun Danu Beratan) - Alas Kedaton (Pura Dalem) - Tanah Lot (Pura Tanah Lot).

Group photo taken at the entrance of the mother temple of all temples in Bali- Pura Agung (Agung Temple). Agung Mount can be seen far behind the clouds.

The first "official" temple in our schedule was Pura Agung at Mount Agung, Besakih. "Agung" in local means greatness. It is a temple complex with "a collection of temples". According to history, the first temple there is believed to be built by the founder of Bali, Sri Markandeya around 8th century, and extended by priests and rules of Bali from time to time, until it reached the current magnificient size. The temple was really wide spreaded and divided into different sections, representing the different status in Balinese community. The temple was severely damaged by earthquake in 1917 and by the erruption of Mount Agung in 1963, but successfully being restored.We spent about one hour there, taking photos and walking around the temple. The view from the highest temple along the hillside is really good. For us, this is a must-visit temple in Bali.

If you wish to visit that temple, please take note about two important things. Firstly, in order to visit that sacred temple, we have to wear "sarung". Tour company (like MBA) might has prepared them for us but that is not an obligation. Please make sure that you won't end up with rent or buy a sarung with a very unreasonable price at the foot of Mount Agung. Secondly, the internal tourguide controlled by the local associations might be "rude" at the entrance to "force" you to take a local Pura Agung's guide, even you might have one your side (provided by tour company). You can always reject them by strictly say "NO" (they demanded RP60,000 per person). They might be scaring you by saying that you might get lost in the complex. But believe us, that's impossible.Pura Agung is not a maze in themepark.

Left: Our photo at a walkway surrounded by ancient structures with about 200 m in length, upscaling Pura Agung. Right: Structures in Pura Agung.

Our quest continued with Pura Taman Ayun. Taman Ayun Royal Temple at Mengwi, 30 minutes away from our hotel. Built by the founder of Mengwi empire in 1634 AD, the temple served as the praying site for the Royals of the empire. The word "ayun" means beautiful garden. Compared to Pura Agung, this royal temple is much more "younger". We like the unique bright coloured bricks on that temple. There is a cock fighting site just beside the entrance of that temple. According to our tourguide, the cock fighting activities in Bali are no for gambling, but just for fun and leisure.

The postcard like scenery inside Pura Taman Ayun, Mengwi. The entrance of the inner compound of the temple (left), and the praying place of the temple, which is closed to visitors (right).

Photo taken inside Pura Taman Ayun.

Pura Ulun Danu Beratan, located 1200 m above sea level, 50 km away from Denpasar, took us 2 hours to reach there. That's another must visit site in Bali. The uniqueness of the temple not only lies with its altitude, but the fact that the temple is built in the Beratan Lake. "Ulun" here means by the power of the goddess, while "Danu Beratan" means Lake Beratan. The temple is believed to be built around 1634 AD.

Family photo taken at the outskirt of Pura Ulun Danu Beratan. Far right showed the entrance to the temple.

  

Does this photo look familiar to you? Yes, this photo was taken exactly the same angle with the picture showed in many postcards.

On our way from Bedugul to Tanah Lot, we stopped at Pura Dalem, Alas Kedaton. Alas Kedaton is a forest area (about 10 hectar) in the middle of paddy field. The temple is famous with the present of the sacred monkeys and big bats around the temple. The photo above showed the entrance of the temple (upper left), tree with bats and the enlargement (upper and lower right), and the monkeys roaming around the temple (lower left).

Upper left to right: Great view of Pura Tanah Lot and Pura Batu Bolong. Lower left: Kecap Dance available at RM25 per person. Lower right: Our photo taken at Pura Batu Bolong.

Tanah Lot (means land and sea in local) was our last destination on the fourth day in Bali. That is the place which Pura Tanah Lot and Pura Batu Bolong located. Both of the temples are quite famous for the beautiful scenery, especially during sunset (just try to google "sunset at tanah lot" and see the pictures displayed). Pura Tanah Lot is believed to be built by a priest, Niratha in order to worship the god of sea. We hoped to witness the heavenly beauty of the sunset but the we were running out of luck in that. Anyway, we did enjoyed the Kecap Dance at Tanah Lot during the night time. Must visit Tanah Lot? Sure, you have to. Just make sure that you brave yourself to face massive crowd of pilgrims at the wat!

Our trip continued...

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Bali 1

Bali, an island in the middle of the Country of Thousand Islands, Indonesia, has its own identity with its thousand temples, magnifesting its prominent dominacy of Hinduism within the largest Islamic country in the world. Family temples, village temples, agricultural temples, sea temples, and so on, separately paying tribute to Brahma (god of creation), Vishnu (god of preservation), and Siva (god of annihilation). How many temples are there in Bali? That might be a question that only a few have the answer.

From left is Ling Shing's sister Ling Ai (Kelly) @ Legian Beach, Ling Shing and Betty @ Pura Agung, LS's brother Ling Yong (Bryant) and his girl friend Livien @ Matahari Square, and LS's parents Yuk Yieng and Mee Ping @ hotel's cafe.

December 2009, we visited Bali with our family and stayed for five days and four nights. A nearly three hours flight from KLLCCT to Ngurah Rai Airport ended up with a suprise a- small, crowdy, "budget" air condition, and it didn't look like the third busiest airport in Indonesia. Anyway, the smell of tourism industry was strong with colourful brochures, maps, leftlets, and tourist's guide, full-coloured, black and white etc. in different languages distributed free of charge around the arrival hall, before we reached the immigration counters. That's good. At least, we could read while stucked in the long queue for custom checking. Btw, you really need not buy any map of Bali as you can get a very good map there, in the airport.

Left (upper and lower): Balinese architecture in Ngurah Rai Airport, Denpasar. The airport was named after the national hero who fought and died in the Battle of Margarana, Bali. Photo taken with Ling Shing's parents in the departure hall (upper right). A lot of information was reachable in colourful brochures and leaflets (lower middle), and the place where we bought the tickets for taxi to our hotel.

We reached Vilarisi Hotel (at Legian) at around 3 pm. First impression, not so good, due to the dim lighting and "extreme" Balinese design (or should said we hadn't get used to it). We didn't even dare to take the welcoming drink (strange syrup with "salty" taste). However, after a few hours, we get used it and start thinking that it's a great place to stay. The hotel is strategicly located beside Melasti Road, Legian Road, and by foot, it is just 15 minutes away from Legian beach and 30 minutes away from Kuta Square. The hotel has a nice pool, roof top garden, and English speaking staff (although some of them were not fluent). The buffet breakfast, a little bit too simple, but still able to meet our "minimum threshold".

Upper row (left to right): Vilarisi Hotel on the outside; roof top garden; swimming pool. Lower row (left to right): Resting area at the lobby; Balinese style room; Free supply of filtered drinking water (we like it very much).

We took our late lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Melasti (which later we found out the food there were overpriced). The good thing was, we found a tour company, MBA, with attractive price service just in front of that restaurant, after the lunch. Then, we took a walk to the Legian beach. Legian Beach shares a same coastline with Kuta Beach. The beach, wow, simply breathtaking- endless stretch of fine sand, blue crystalline water, white strong waves, lushy coconut trees, and light blue sky. That was a really romantic place for beautiful sunset. Both Kuta and Legian Beach always filled with a lot of people- surfers, sun lovers, photographers, and visitors, like us.

Top: Our photo at Legian Beach, with a lot of people enjoying sunshine and sea breeze with us, the strong wind set LS's hair "free". Small photos (lower left to right): Scene at Kuta Beach ; Swaying palms in front of Legian Beach Resort; One of the many surfers showed his skills at Legian Beach.

One will never feel alone at Kuta beach.

Small boats (too big for canoes) laying peacefully at a side of Kuta beach.

Photos taken at Sanur beach. Unlike Kuta and Legian, most visitors at Sanur are locals.

We made a stop at Sanur Beach on our second day in Bali. Bali was first known worldwide through Sanur. The sea was calm and not suitable for surfing. However, the calm sea makes Sanur a perfect place for swimming and canoeing. The beach was not as "hot" as Kuta or Legian, and most of the visitors were the locals. Sanur is a good place to get a good view on sunrise.

Our trip continued...

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Labuan

Labuan is a part of Malaysia Federal territory and quite well known as an offshore financial centre. Offshore? Because it's an island. We took a two hours and 30 minutes drive from Kota Kinabalu to Menumbok. From Menumbok, we took another 30 minutes of speed boat to Labuan. The speed boat service is available almost once an hour, while ferry service (which will take one hour 30 minutes), twice a day. Of course, you can go to Labuan by air as well.

Photo shows the ferry (upper left), speed boat (lower left), our photo on the top deck of the ferry (upper right), and our photo inside the speed boat, with Betty's dad (lower right).

The journey on water with speed boat was really rocky. The boat, always drove by the wave off the surface and slammed back, splashed a certain amount of salt water few feet into the air with a hard knocking sound. The process continued for half an hour, with the speed around 60 km/hour. Can you imagine the feeling of staying in a moving DNA mixer in theme park for 30 minutes? We came out alive, with a little bit of advice: don't use the speed boat after 12 noon, when the sea gradually turns rocky, unless you're really adventurous. By the way, if you really wish to try once, please do it with your stomach empty (our photo inside the speed boat was taken a few seconds before the crazy journey begun). So, we decided to take ferry to return to Menumbok. The ferry was more steady, but move slower. Don't worry, the ferry was completed with air-conditioner, LCD flatscreens, foodstalls with nice drinks, and decks that offerred nice views. So, we had a really good time on the ferry (comparatively).

Labuan's streets.

Labuan is a small town, with around 80,000 population, which around 20% of them are not locals (students, immigrants, contract workers, etc.). It's the grown up place of Betty's parents. So, we have many (almost uncountable :-p) relatives here, and of course, we would never lack of good tour guides on this small island. We visited some of the places of interest on this small island- The Chimney, long stretch of beautiful beaches (Pancur Hitam, Layang-layang and Pohon Batu), International Campus of University Malaysia Sabah, State Mosque, the Surrender Point, Patau-patau and Bebuloh water villages, and International Sea Sport Complex.

 The Chimney, which its usage is still a mistery until today, stand 106 feet high at Tanjung Kubong (besides Labuan Bird Park). Believed to be built during the coal mining era (1847-1912), the structure contains 23,000 England imported bricks with 12 layers of foundations beneath the surface. The bird park was closed for maintainance during our visit.

Photo taken at Layang-layang Beach, backgrounded with a shrubed rock.

There is a must-visit historical place in our list- The exact surrender point of the Japanese army to the Australian army, marked the end of the 2nd World War in Borneo. The Peace Park is just a few steps away from the surrender point. Funded and maintained mainly by the Japanese Shipbuilding Industry Foundation, the park were really well maintained and served as a memorial of the war.

We took photo with Betty's father and youngest sister, Katty. The memorial stone states "Here, on the 9 Nov, 1945, the commander of the 9th division, Australian Imperial Forces, received the unconditional surrender of the 32nd Japanese Sourthern Army in North Borneo and Sarawak".

Sunset at the beach side just at another side of Surrender Point.

We went for seafood dinner with our relatives. Then, shopping for tax-free chocolate and alcoholic drinks. Can you imagine Hershey's Kisses (311g) is just around RM 15 per pack, imported Cadbury chocolate (with and without alcohol) at the price of RM 9.50 and Jolly Shandy at around RM 1.30-RM1.50? We managed to grab some imported chocs and shandy. The only shopping complex that we got in Labuan was situated in Financial Park. If you wish to get more choices, then you have to go the town area to dig from the spreaded shoplots. The prices for the tax free items were quite unified there, compared to Langkawi (we couldn't notice much different throughout the island).

Photo of Commercial Park from the ferry.

 Methanol Refinery at the outskirt of Labuan. We had the chance to take a look outside the big refinery on our way to ferry point, thanks to our cousin.

To make yourself convenient to move around, you can stay somewhere around Labuan town area (as the whole town area is accessible by foot). To move around outside the town area, such as the beaches and the Chimney,  the easiest way is by taking taxi (you can get many of them in front of the jetty) or rent a car. We seldom came across buses in this island. So, travel around with bus might not be a good idea.

For more information, you can visit Labuan Tourism Page and Government Labuan Tourism Board.

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