Great Experience with Bali then.. and Now..

After eight years, I finally stepped in this island again, the land of paradise, that’s what everybody calls it.  Well, it’s fair enough since Bali is the most famous tourist place in Indonesia.  Who doesn’t know Bali?  Everybody knows Bali!  In fact, some foreigners don’t recall Indonesia unless if you mention Bali.  Pretty disappointing I guess.  Well, perhaps Bali is nearly perfect.  Who wouldn’t enjoy sitting by Kuta beach, breathing the air from the sea, drinking beer while suffering from the heat and humidity as the sweat streaming down to every inch of your tanned skin.  Not to mention the crowd around the beach where everyone is busy with their activity; surfers hitting their board against the tide, a couple alternately putting sun block lotions on, a family giggling happily watching their kids swimming with their dog by the beach, some kids working on sand castle, and all that.  The atmosphere just fits perfectly when you want to enjoy a vacation, business, and even just an escape from a bored city you’re living in.  

The last time I was here, was in 2002, eight years ago.  I used to come here with family, at least twice a year and we would spend 5 to 6 days here.  We usually stayed in one place where it has everything, such as Nusa Dua area.  This area is almost complete.  Nice-clean-private beach, awesome swimming pool, the hotel provides boogie boards, kayaks, parasailing, surfboards; they even have play ground and baby care.  Of course, it’s not for free.  Shopping center and nice restaurants are pretty close to each other. 

Since everything was a walking-distance in Nusa Dua area, we hardly went downtown or other places.  Well, we would go downtown once and that made me unfamiliar with downtown except Kuta beach.

Now that this year I had been gone to Bali twice, I became familiar with some places bit by bit.  First time was in January, flew there for the weekend just the three of us, Alex, Nikki and I.  Since Nikki was visiting Indonesia so I thought I’d take her there even if it was only for a really really short time.  Since Alex goes to Bali once a year, so he knows Bali by heart.  He took us to Tanah Lot and we went to see Barong dance – a traditional dance performance, these are new for us. 

 Barong dance - photo by Alex Arso

Tanah Lot is famous with its spectacular view especially at sunset, and the sacred temple that’s placed in the middle of the sea.  According to its story, the great erosion of the ocean tide that happened many years ago formed this tiny island.

 

 Tanah Lot - photo by Alex Arso  

We walked around Ubud, this place was also new for both Nikki and I.  many cool shops along the street.  We went into a store called Kou Cuisine, this store sells home made jam. 

One of the famous restaurants in Ubud is called Naughty Nuris, so we went there for lunch.  Naughty Nuris is well known with its pork rib barbeque that we had to queue for quite awhile to get in.  The owner is originally from Java who married an Austrlian man.  Interesting, yes!  I may say this is the best pork rib resto in Bali.  

 

Naughty Nuri's - Photo by Alex Arso

Lake Batur and Mt. Batur - Photo by Alex Arso

Second time was in May with some friends and they go to Bali once a year.  They took me to new places like Kintamani, we went there and saw Batur lake and mount Batur.  Batur area was formed by the collapse of an ancient volcano many years ago.  Mount Batur with a height of about 1700 meters is located next to Batur Lake.  Some native said that the volcano is still active.  What interest me was there was a village near Batur area that’s called Penelokan and there was people selling the same stuff such as bracelets, necklaces and other accessories.  Normally, if we said ‘no’ they would walk leave us alone and walk away, but these sellers here were different, they were so persistent.  “I know you said ‘no’ but you know actually I had already loss some because I came up to you and chase you around trying to sell my stuff, so at least buy something”, said a lady.  I was like WOW!!  That didn’t sound like a friendly seller.  I just rolled my eyes and walked away. 

Since I like culinary, so they took me to few different restaurants.  Menega Café is a seafood restaurant located in Jimbaran beach.  This restaurant has an extraordinary taste.  Even though there were many seafood restaurants along the beach but none of them could beat the taste of Menega Café.  Its favorite meal is barbeque shell.  I have to admit that the shell is really good, in fact I’m not a fan of shell but they use special spice that is ‘musty’.  We went there twice in a week and never felt enough of it.  

Menega cafe

Menega Cafe - crabs, calamari and shell barbeque - photo by Alex Arso

Native Balinese told us that there were few good zoos in Bali but what interest me was to see forest monkey, instead.  This forest was pretty big.  I think there were few hundreds monkey live there.  They were so benign IF you treat them nicely.

monkey forest - photo by Alex Arso

Trying on new cuisine is one of my favorite things to do while traveling, cause that’s part of a culture.  Since I was visiting Bali so local cuisine is my preference.  According to tourists, Bebek Bengil (dirty duck diner) restaurant is the best local food in Ubud area so I decided to try and people were right about how tasty it was.  Yummm.. :)

Dirty Duck Diner - photo by Alex Arso

To me Bali then and now is a LOT different, well maybe because I was there eight years ago and like I told you before I never had a chance to see other part of Bali.  Since I have seen other beaches in other islands of Indonesia, so in my point of view Bali beaches aren't as nice anymore.  Compare to Tidung island or Ujung Kulon, Bali beaches are average.  In other hand, I have to say that in terms of atmosphere, of course Bali is better.  It's got all the hype, and it's tourist destination.   

Meanwhile, Tidung and Ujung Kulon are more into wilderness atmosphere to those who loves such a great adventure.  After all, Indonesia islands are amazing!  I hope that I get a chance to see other great islands in Indonesia.  

Indonesia, saya cinta kamu selamanya!