Saturday, April 18, 2009

Deluded

By chance i caught the show called 'Helter Skelter'. It's about the gruesome acts of a man who managed to collect a group of people who somehow thought that he was God and all of them lived in a commune in a ranch, sharing everything. They would go into a person's home and brutally murder everyone in the house. Including a pregnant lady and an elderly couple. And they thought they did not do anything wrong.

That's their reality.

Reality could be so warped sometimes.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

My time in Bali (I)

It was the most amazing time, the six days spent in Bali.

The weeks leading to it were hard. Between work and coordinating the itinerary between three other companions were tough. Considering that all of us were situated in different locales.

The morning we were flying off, I was a bit apprehensive abt the connecting flights. Would we make it catch the flight to Bali? I would then console myself by saying that we would be catching the early morning flight out of Penang and early morning flights are typically on time, if not early. And we already have ample time between flights.

Anyway, all the flights were smooth, other than a little delay of the Bali flight.

We got into Bali and met our guide, Ketut, & driver. And checked into our first hotel. The Pura Dewata at Seminyak. Ketut turned out to be a fun and flexible guide. He took us for a spin around Seminyak. Stopped at the memorial area at Legian where we had a little time to shop a bit and took some photos. Then proceed to Jimbaran Bay for sunset and BBQ dinner by the beach. The sunset was typical but the dinner was good. The mussels were to die for. After the food arrived, we kinda forgot about the sunset! It was a good, good start for a first day.

Second day started with a blast. We had breakfast at the hotel and met Mr Chee,Katherine & LeeMin! In Bali of all places! I was supposed to join Mr Chee and the gang for dinner just a few days before but I couldn't make it due to work... And I met him in Bali! Anyway, we proceed to Sukarwati and Ubud area for shopping, and onwards to Mount Batur.

Sukarwati was fabulous. This is indeed the place to go to for shopping and the time to go is early morning to get all the best deals! Tegalalang is a good place to shop for carvings! And the paddy terraces were nice too! ALthough if you have been to Vietnam, this is a mini terrace. But the concept of proper dining by the terraces is indeed interesting. I doubt the hygiene though.

We had the babi guling at the famous place in Ubud, Oka Kartini... It wasn't that good.

The rain came down heavily at Tegalalang shortenned our shopping spree. Actually, it was terminated before we managed to buy anything.

The road to the mountaineous area has tremendously amazing sights. The hotel, Hotel Segara, turned out to be rather nice. and cosy. The dinner at the hotel happened to be one of the best meals we had in the whole trip. The fried maggi was incredible.

The end of the 2nd day... All still good (other than the heavy rain in the afternoon).