Hey y’all!

It’s been awhile… but that’s because I’ve been two B things — busy, and in Bali. For those of you who don’t already know, this is my second time in Bali (and it won’t be my last either by the looks of it), and I totally love the island.

No, it’s not just the sea and sand and the quaintness of it all. Their temples and architecture don’t even compare to Thai, Burmese or even Cambodian temples. They’re not the cleanest island around – Singapore takes the award for that one. It’s not even really that cheap.

So why do I, or anyone really, love Bali?

Bali has the most amazing people. Yes, they’ve got great people.

In fact, they’re so amazing and friendly that, according to May, she was never serviced better in a bank ever. That coming from the crazy Maybanker.

Anyway, this time I took a quick 4-day getaway with May and Gabby, a copywriter I work with at MindValley, and her friend Tanya. Since it was my second time in Bali, I found it less urgent to sight see, and prioritized chilling and tanning a whole lot more — two things I was unable to do when I visited the island for the first time with my parents.

All in all, it was a pretty awesome trip. Here’re the highlights:

Awesome accommodation

Earlier this year, Gabby and I were surfing around looking for a place to stay in the arts and cultural center of Bali, Ubud, when we stumbled upon the Bali T House website. No, it’s not a resort, and neither is it a budget hotel.

Bali T House is actually a small commune of 8-9 eco-friendly, beautifully designed, modern village homes located in a tiny lane that opens up to vast paddy fields.

They have two communes in the vicinity, that are filled with village homes designed with various concepts. All villas are located very close-by and are unfenced. Instead, they are surrounded by trees, palms, bamboo plants — the entire villa is surrounded by greenery. In fact, it’s so surrounded that if you walk in at night, it’s not that easy to tell the difference between one entrance from the next.

The entire villa seems to be made of wood (with the exception of the bathroom) and glass with tons of open spaces for increased air flow.

That’s Tanya taking a photo. In fact, it’s so open that even the shower area was constructed with an open concept.. a little too open maybe since I’m such an urban youth who’s unused to showering with plants, cows mooing and crickets in the background.

There’s no attached dining area. Instead, there’s a very adorable open air kitchenette & mini-outdoor-verandah for you to have your breakfast each morning. The other awesome part about this place? They serve you breakfast in your villa itself. In the morning, at 8am or so, one of the girls will come by to prepare a healthy, wholesome breakfast of fresh fruits (seasonal local fruits according to your preference), coffee / tea or juice, and pancakes (plain sugared or banana) or an egg-tomato-and-onion omelette for you. Pretty awesome eh?

From the villa, you can walk down the stone path to either someone else’s villa, or the pool. It’s really less than 10 steps away:

Cool thing about this pool? It overlooks the Ubud’s paddy fields.

All this awesomeness was packaged at USD35 a night. And that’s including tax. When you split it by 4 (that’s how many people the villa can sleep), it cost us less than USD10 a night at the place. All in all, we got a pretty sweet deal.

My favorite part about Jasmine House, or even Bali T House in general was the peace and silence I barely get over here in Malaysia. For 4 days, I awoke to cows mooing, the call of roosters, and for 3 nights I dozed off to crickets and gentle, chilly breeze.

Warning, it was really back to nature. The only mishap occurred on my last night at the villa when a frog appeared in the bathroom. I fear frogs greatly and that frog made me scream so loudly, and so shrilly, that I woke the neighbors and stunned Gabby and May out of their peace and silence. So, yes, be prepared for things like that.

If you want to check out Bali T Houses, you can go here >>

Next up…

Cheap, cheap, cheap massages & spa treatments

This was what I looked forward to the most, right after beaching. And I was not disappointed. In Ubud there are tons of spa & massage parlours littering the streets. Some seem really awesome and come with hefty price tags, and some are dodgy. But May and I found one really good one — gorgeous, good, and so super cheap!

Venezia Day Spa!

We found this place by picking a bunch of random brochures off the racks of one of the many tourist information centers along Monkey Forest St. and walked a long way to locate it (it wasn’t that far, but we were just on the wrong end of that long road!), but I personally found it so worth it.

My first time there (yes I went more than once), I took their Milk Bath Package which included a 1 hr traditional massage, 20 minute milk & Balinese spice body scrub and a 20-minute milk bath…. with actual real milk! And fresh flowers!

The entire package cost me no more than RM60. That can’t even cover a 30 minute body massage at a decent massage outlet in Malaysia. So I thought this was one of the sweetest deals!

Two things to look out for — if you’re going with friends and you don’t wish to see each other naked, opt for separate rooms. If you don’t mind, then they provide rooms with double showers.. and you can shower with your buddies. If you’re going with a girl/boyfriend/husband/wife/partner — then enjoy your moments of voyeurism.

And, don’t take their manicures / pedicures. May hated it. Thank God I didn’t pick that set.

And lastly…

Relaxing, Lazy Days By The Beach

This was, is, my favorite part of the entire trip. This was made even more awesome by the fact that May and I found the most amazing chill out place in Kuta called Oceans27 in Centro Mall.

Yes, we went to a mall because May wanted to use the Internet. But, no regrets. This place is a restaurant, lounge, bar that overlooks one of the quietest parts of Kuta beach.

That’s not even the most awesome part. It has a pool with jacuzzi sides for their customers to laze around in or swim in… beach side verandahs for your to laze in, deck chairs for you to tan in, and towels should you need to dry yourself off, and clean shower rooms if you need to clean up.

And free wi-fi…

Anyway, this place was the bomb. You have to check it out if you’re in Bali!

And, lastly, our driver took us to an awesome beach in Nusa Dua after we finished our morning of water sports. It was quiet, secluded, and completely untouristy.

If you’re wondering what we did there… we just ate and slept. Literally. Melia Hotel was a stone’s throw away so we headed there for lunch (our most expensive meal in Bali), then lay out our towels and scarves for a 45 minute nap and tan before moving on to Uluwatu. We were pretty much like pigs.

Anyway, we did tons more awesome stuff, like…

• Walk up and down Monkey Forest St. to hunt for cute & comfy cafes to dine & chat in — there are tons there.
• Buy a dress for RM20 after hefty bargaining
• Buy a cute tin elephant for the boyfriend
• Buy paintings for the mother
• Visit Uluwatu
• Snorkel
• Parasail — not me, May and Tanya
• Tan
• Eat

Yeah, you get the gist. But those were my highlights.

Anyway, if you want to check out more photos, either visit my Facebook or you can go check out my Picasa album here >>

Till next time

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