south bali

We would like to thank Yang Shiyong, Roland for his donation in our trip. Roland was my senior in Tanglin Secondary School. Both of us knew each other's existance but we have not talked before. We just got to know each other more thro this blog.

Thank you Roland. we used it as for our 1 week accomadation fees in Bali.

these 2 statues are huge. the one behind is as tall as a 12 storey building.

When we reached Bali Island, it was about 430pm. The sun sets around 6pm. We head to Ubud where it had less touts and located in the centre of touristic attraction. It was a bad evening. When we reached Ubud, everywhere was dark and we couldn’t find a proper place to stay. Most cheap hostels were filled with backpackers and many of them could not accommodate Hope Too as their entrance was always built like a door of a Chinese temple with a few flights of steps. Else some were located in a tight and narrow ally for the scooters to wheel on.

While we were looking for a place to stay, we saw an Africa Twin passed by in the opposite direction. It was a surprise and I made a round turn and rode as fast a I could to squeeze in between traffic to chase after the Africa Twin in the dark. It was very dangerous. That bike could be my stolen Hope.

Bali style surfing God.

motorbike with surfboard attachment.

No. It was not Hope.

We stayed in Biang’s Homestay where the lovely family took care of us. It was quiet and peaceful. We rented a scooter from Biang to travel southwards on the next day, to the touristic beach.

Indeed, it was filled with tourists. I just wanted to get a good foot massage. We parked the bike and walked around the beach. There were too many hawkers around selling souvenirs and drinks. I ended up having a foot scratching session for a double price of a standard shop serving proper foot massage.

It was a very good choice to rent a scooter to travel in Bali. Hope Too would be angry if he came here. Our mission of the day was to go around Bali touristic places and look for big bike rental where there would be a possibility of Hope being sold to.

After a few hours around, we gave up. We decided to go to Nusa Dua and Ulu Watu.

Kuta beach... did we spot any tourist?

We could see daily prayers in Bali.

Aji explained to us that the name Bali comes from:

Ba: means many

Li: means holiday

Biang doing her daily prayer in the house.

Nusa Dua had many expensive resorts. We made our way to Ulu Watu.

It was a temple which could overlook the cliff and the beautiful sea. The view was nice but the monkeys there wasn’t.

While Sam was taking a picture of a dog, a monkey climbed onto her head and snatched her glasses. I ran after the monkey and threw my helmet towards the monkey but I missed. It was a school holiday and there were many people around. 2 kids around 10 years old tried to help me to chase after the monkey. They do not seem to be tourist or visitors. The monkey climbed on to the roof of a building. Then an elderly came and fed the monkey that got hold of Sam’s glasses. He had a bag filled with eggs and bananas. He threw an egg to the monkey and immediately, the monkey threw the glasses back to the elderly.

The 2 kids and the elderly seemed to be a gang. We thanked the elderly and Sam wanted to pay him some money for the eggs he fed to the monkey for getting her glasses back. I said that was not necessary to pay him as it could be a trap. After some discussion with the man, Sam gave her 20000rp, which was about us$2. It may not be a lot but with local standard, that amount of money could buy 4 bowls of noodles. The entrance to the temple was only 5000rp (us$0.50).

I wasn’t happy with the decision of giving him the money although he had helped us. The devil in my mind told me that the monkey was trained by the man and by doing so, helping tourist to get back stolen items would make him some money. My angel in my mind told me it could be a genuine man that just wanted to help. Why would anyone hanging around the temple with a bag of monkey food?

What disturbed me more was my helmet. It landed on the hard ground. Ouch!
I had a few scratches on my knees and arms when I tried to climb the wall to grab the monkey.
Sam’s glasses broke the next day, into 2 pieces.
And we have to pay for all these.
Out of so many people in the temple why the monkey had chosen Sam? I noticed that we were the odd tourist in the temple. Most people visiting the temple were in groups with a guide. We had no guide.

That was Ulu Watu. One of the ‘must see’ temple in Bali.

we were not allowed to take a picture of this building when i asked for permission from the guard. But when i took a step back, out of the property line, i could take the picture.

So, when we visit touristic places, we would see the ugly side of people. It made me sick.

Yes, I was sick the next day, waking up with a 38°C fever. I couldn’t remember when was the last time I had fever in my life.

We just hang around the Ubud town for the next 4 nights.
Had a famous Babi Guling that we could witness many Singapore visitor came for it. Walk around looking for cheap massage.
Trying to upload my pictures onto the blog.
Visit the monkey forest.

Out of all these, we enjoyed the most was the company of Biang and her husband, Aji. Aji told me about his love story when he was young where Biang was his cousin and they fell in love.

Biangs
Jl Sukma 28

Ubud, Bali
tel: 976520
S8 30.748 E115 16.088

Aji, Biang and er.... the young girl that served us breakfast everyday.

How to push Hope Too into the door?!

After some day’s rest, we packed up, took Hope Too to wander into the mountain roads of Bali (to escape from the tourist). We ended up in Lovina, north beach of Bali.

Lovina was also touristy but acceptably touristy. We had a very nice and cheap place to stay from the recommendation of Margus from Estonia. Sam and I were too lazy to move around because it was really a good place to rest. Thinking of the roads ahead, which was Java, made me headache. Just like riding the scooter in South Bali for half a day, I ended up having a fever on the next day.

Java is the densest and most crowded island. Many bike travelers that had been Java would remind me of the crowd there.

We would have another 3 nights just in this place. How wonderful… and the most important thing was it was very affordable.

Hotel Manik Sari.

Lovina, Bali.
Big room with veranda, nice shower, spacious garden and safe parking.
S8 09.687 E115 01.562

the view from our room.

Published on 11 July 2010, 3 days away from Dumai.