"Ladies & gentleman, we have just landed in Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. Please be careful as you take out your items from the overhead compartment. Thank you for flying with us." This was what boomed over the airline speakers and woke me up after a 3 hours flight from KLIA 2. Finally, my family and I, together with our dear friends, Richard, Teresa and Hwe Shean are in Bali, Indonesia. As we came off our plane, we had to take a bus to the terminal to go through the immigration and the rather new looking arrival hall. The immigration processing and baggage collection were smooth and easy. We were greeted by our driver, Kartika and after a brief but formal greetings, we were off to some chow as the rumblings in our stomachs seemed quite obvious or was it just mine. Hmmmnnnnnnn...I wonder.
Anyway, we were ushered into Ayam Tulang Lunak Malioboro restaurant for their famous chicken delight. Well, what do we do ? Whenever you are in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? We ordered two lovely chicken dishes namely salted egg fried chicken and honey chicken with vegetables (kangkung ) plus some kick-ass fresh chilli sambal and eggs fried beancurd. Lovely dishes for hungry people but it ain't cheap. I have learnt over the days that food prices ain't cheap in Bali. Manageable if you plan properly and do your homework or else those Balinese knives can be quite sharp when it comes to food prices! Please, put away your knives, my dearest Balinese people and know that the truth is the truth. We are not cheap people but we ain't Australians, Kiwis, British or even orang putih asses who would pay you anything because it is peanuts money to them.
To us, these are very real hard earned monies and spending it required lots of thinking......please mind my punt. I believe I need to be objective when I write about my travels and I intend to do that with utmost truth, integrity and respect. Like I said, I don't intend to insult anybody but I just want to say the truth as it is. Hence, the ugly side of what I write. Now that we got that cleared up, our travels to our accommodation was about 1 hour and 40 minutes drive from Denpasar to Ubud in the tight and busy streets of Bali. Travel was horrendously busy but I must say, I enjoyed the journey there. It is like I was having a preview glimpse of what is life about in Bali. Mystical, intriguing and definitely enchanting as we rode along the highway and roads towards our destination - Ubud Virgin Villa in Ubud. So many gifted and artistic people which are reflected in their shops, houses and temples.
As we passed the districts and villagers, I noticed that the paddy fields had been harvested and I came to know from our driver that the paddy (rice) had been harvested a month earlier prior to our arrival. Nevertheless, the scenic terraced paddy rice fields were evident and easily indentifiable of Bali. My eyes were constantly peeled to the "pura" or temples along the roads we had travelled. So many of them and so beautifully constructed. In my inquisitive nature, I had asked our driver , Kartika and I was informed that these are individually built temples while each district had a distinct temple. Guess that's what unique about Bali. Another plus point at the beginning of the journey.
Our driver, Kartika is a nice fella, doesn't speak much but I guess, he is a driver and not really a full pledge guide. After some sharp turns and road bends plus passing through some extremely small roads, I was relieved that I did not pee in my pants for some harrowing closeness between two vehicles. I always believed God might have wanted me to experience such experience so that I can kiss the ground when I actually arrived at our destination! Yes, the roads are extremely small like 4' on each travel path and vehicles expertly averted knocking into each other by horns and signals. When I was told that there ain't much accident as each one knows their vehicles, I almost fell off our Suzuki van ride that day.
When we finally arrived at our accommodation, Ubud Virgin Villa, there were these four young chaps and Dewi, our contact person from the villa helping us to our accommodation for the next two nights. My jaw literally dropped to the floor when I saw our accommodation. It was a lovely three bedroom villa with a hall and swimming pool in that private villa. I mean, really private villa while our own entrance and swimming pool!!!!!! What a heavenly start to our holidays, really! Absolutely beautiful villa and I couldn't wait to get into the room, changed and dipped in the pool. Dewi and Hwe Shean handled our check-in and then the staff left us to our own folly and delights. Nice Mango welcome drinks were given and then we were already ordering our breakfast for the next morning.
As it was getting late and while we were in the pool, we decided to stay in the villa and get our dinner from the resort. We ordered our dinner to be served at 8.30pm and it was only about 5.30pm when we started swimming. I must say the dip in the cool breeze and cold waters refreshes the body a lot while it was really a great start to the holidays and surprisingly, by 6.00pm, it had started to get dark that day. I must mentioned my special thanks to Hwe Shean for picking out this lovely private villa. I was really happy. In fact, I was very happy with both our accommodations in Ubud and Seminyak.
I must say that Richard , Teresa and Hwe Sean had been a real blessing to the family with their humorous, cool and calm demeanor and ways. My family and I are so proud, blessed and happy to have such lovely friends to travel with. It was hilarious all the way, fun while the fellowship was great.
The night scene was even more lovelier with the lights and the Balinese set up of furniture and arrangements. I really love it a lot and I see lovely crafts and artisan works all along the route to our resting place. What a unique town indeed. This is truly artistic, peaceful and calm Ubud, Bali.
Welcome to Bali, Indonesia!
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