Floria 2010

Again, wave of natural beauty swept Putrajaya, with hundred thousands of plants. Just this time, less flowers, but better gardening and designs. Held on 11-17 July 2010, same location, about the same time and same weather, the differences, the designs and themes.

Floria 2010, with sea of flowers, enriched Putrajaya with wave of nature. These photos shows the flower power at the main entrance of the exhibition. Instead of on the second last day, we went to the exhibition early this year, on the forth day. The flowers there looked vitally fresh, greatly contrasted the lushly green leaves.

Creative design, by putting a red star-shaped polygon at the middle of yellowish flowers. 

Left: our photo on the wooden observation stand along the walkway from the main entrance. Right: One Malaysia floral display along the walkway to Millenium Monument.

Flowers with various colours at one of the wooden observation stand.

Orchid garden, one of the highlights in the exhibition.

Our photo at another side of the orchid garden.

Orchid on sales. Lured by the great display at the orchid garden, these orchids should be the red hot targets of the visitors.

One good thing that we didn't found from the previous Floria-the bonsai displays.

Indoor display: animals shaped floral displays, with strong Malaysian endogenous identity (left); The Prince and The Frog (right).

Orang Utan and Rafflesia were the highlights of the rain forest in Malaysia. The floral display themed animals and flowers of rain forest in Malaysia was the first runner up of the indoor floral design competition. 

Unlike previous Floria 2009, the exhibitors for Floria 2010 had prepared nice places for photo taking, backgrounding one of the dazzling Putrajaya bridges. This photo was taken by putting the camera on a bench nearby the lake, with 10 seconds timer on. Two ladies on our right are Livien and Kelly.

Our photo on another side of the garden.

As we had talked a lot in our blog on Floria 2009 last year, so, we decided to put in more photos and talk less in Floria 2010. We hope you enjoy our blog. You are most welcomed to visit our blogs on other attraction in Putrajaya, such as Agriculture Heritage Park, Botanical Garden, and Ministry Precinct.

Back to All Our Destinations or go to our Floria 2009 (Last year) blog.

Bali 4

A walk down Legian Road followed by a round at Kuta Square and Matahari Square made a "home run" shopping for us. Kuta and Legian are the best places for shoppers to unleash their "talent" with hundreds of small shops-souvenirs, clothes, shoes, surfing equipments, glasses, bars, bistros, pubs... all of them lined up, awaiting to be explored.

Upper row: Shop lots along Legian Road. For those who has strong legs, they are hundreds of shops lined along 4 km of Legian Road for you to explore. Lower row: Shop lots around Kuta Square and Matahari Square.

Stuffs available in Bali: Wind chimes, batiks, casual clothes, CD and DVD, decorative items, shoes, bags.

Balinese Batik and picture drawn by local painters are something unique that we can bring back home as souvenir. We went to visit local batik manufacturer (Tohpati) and local picture painters (Batuan) on our way up to Mount Kintamani. The prices offered there were much more cheaper than what we could get in Denpasar. Clockwise from upper left: photo taken beside local weaver, local painters, pictures available for sales, and local Balinese lady painting batik.

Our group photo at Dewa Putu Toris Art Gallery, Batuan. The gallery was big with hundreds (maybe thousands) of pictures, drawn by local artists and painters. We bought some Balinese painting for quite reasonable price (compared to those sold in our own country)

Beautifully decorated Matahari Square.

Some interesting facts and findings in Bali, firstly, the flower offerings given by Hindus to their Gods twice to trice daily, can be seen everywhere. Secondly, many motorbikes on the road. Motorbikes for rental are available in every street. The boothes offering tour packages are available every hundred meters, offering tour packages with good bargained price. However, beware of the company that comes out with unreasonably low price, as they might offer you a trip that might ruin your nice day. Then, taxis with standard meter are mostly blue.

In Bali, there is no 7-11. What you can see are the substitutes, Mini Marts, one in every 500 metersBig statues always available at the middle of roundabouts showing the stories taken from either Ramayana or Mahabrata. Last but not least, beware of the money changers with super attractive rates, they are good in tricks (we experienced it once). They will make you loss more than those with reasonable rates. Always go for the money changers that produce receipts. They will offer less fuss and problems.

Clockwise from upper left: Flower offerings; Motors for rent available just beside the road; Blue taxi; Sign of Mini Mart; Memorial for the victims of 2002 bombing tragedy in Legian Road; Statue showing a story from Hindu's epic (Ramayana and Mahabrata); One of the hundreds of booths that offer tour packages.

As long as we had noticed, Bali's streets were safe, at least around Kuta and Legian area. Most of the shops along the main streets stayed operational until 9 or 10 pm, and some of them, remained open after 11 pm. Most of the people there can speak simple English. Malay Language or Indonesian Language is widely understood (we can speak fluence Malay Language and had no problem to communicate with the locals).

Night at Legian Road, Bali. Photos were taken around 10 pm. The street was still bright with many visitors.

Lastly, the food. We could find a lot of food around Legian and Kuta- Brazilian, German, Malay and Padang (Halal), Indian, Australian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and many many more. For us, we prefered Malay or Indonesian food here (they just tasted like Malaysian food) for their reasonable price and wide availability.

Clockwise from upper left: Western food; Local fried rice; Betty dining in a local restaurant; Indonesian food (satay, fried rice, and fried potatoes); Balinese curry tomyam.

For more information about Bali, please refer to some of the website like Bali star island, Bali 123, and Bali-online.

High resolution of photos of Bali is available on our Travel Photo Gallery. Back to All Our Destinations.

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Bali 3

Terraced paddy fields, abundantly available in highland area, can be best viewed at Tegalalang and Pacung. We passed by Tegalalang on the way from Denpasar to Batur Mount. We made a brief stop (about 15 minutes) to take a look on the terraced paddy field. The terraced field can be seen just beside the road. However, tall coconut trees planted beside the field flawed the good view. The information we had stating Tegalalang is 500 m above sea level. However, the weather was hot and humid. The farmers just finished harvesting, leaving behind brown and muddy field by the time we visited the field. The view would be better one month earlier when the field just turned into golden sea and about to be harvested.

Coconut trees blocked the good view of terraced paddy field at Tegalalang (left). Nice looking restaurant (Japanese style?) opposited the rice terrace.

Pacung is the best place for terraced paddy field, not only the cozy and windy environment, but the less obstacles between the viewing platform and the field. The place is 800 m above sea level, laid on our way to Bedugul. We stopped for a rest at Pacung and took our buffet lunch at Labhagga Restaurant and Sky Lounge (the price, around RM22 per person).

Great view of terraced paddy field from Labhagga Restaurant and Sky Lounge, Pacung, a must see scenery in Bali.

Labhagga is a name that we will remember. The reason, Betty accidentally left her purse in that restaurant. The purse then, was sent 30 km from Pacung to Legian (one hour by car), right to the lobby of our hotel early the next morning, free of charge by the staff from the restaurant. So, if you ask about our comment on that restaurant, excellent is just enough for the food and the view, and then some more for the service and honesty.

Clockwise from top left: Our photo taken from Labhagga, backgrounded the terraced paddy field; A view of Labhagga Restaurant and Sky Lounge; My brother Ling Yong and his wife-to-be, Livien taking lunch in the restaurant; and LS's parents amazed by the size of the roses just outside the restaurant and insist a photo with it.

Natural spices is another attraction of Bali. On our way to Kintamani, we took a rest at Sai Land Natural Agrotourism Park, Bangli where we tasted numerous of natural spices, tea, and coffee, including Luwak Coffee. The coffee is special due to the process by fox. Interested? More information available at Wikipedia about Luwak Coffee. You can come to my house to take a cup of it before we finished it (we bought 200 g of the coffee, with around RM50++). A cup of Luwak Coffee can easily come to USD50 outside Indonesia.

Local workers serving tea, coffee, and spices to us (Left). Our tour guide, Mayo explaining how Luwak Coffee being produced (right).

Group photo taken at the entrance of Natural Agrotourism Center of Bali, at Bangli.

There are two active volcanos in Bali, namely Mount Batur (1717 m) and Mount Agung (3142 m). Mount Batur can be seen from Kintamani while Mount Agung can be seen from Besakih. Kintamani is 2 hours away from our hotel by car. We took our buffet lunch at Batur Sari Restaurant, it serves halal Indonesian food. Mount Batur,around 24 eruptions were recorded since 1804, can be seen clearly from the restaurant. Taking buffet was more worthy than ala carte in that restaurant, as the price for a plate of fried rice is around RM20. So, why don't we just go for the buffet with more that 15 types of food with a top-up of RM 7? The shape of the volcano that we can see in the photo below was formed during the great eruption in 1917.

Buffet lunch at Batur Sari Restaurant, Kintamani facing Mount Batur. What's the feeling of dining in front of an active volcano? Well, the answer- it's cool!

Photo showed Lake Batur and Mount Batur harmonized like Ying and Yang. The blackened area is caused by the lava from its last eruption. This is a must see scenery in Bali.

Our trip continued...

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