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

]]> http://xinch.com.my/bali-holiday-2010-927/feed/ 2 http://xinch.com.my/cameron-highlands-weekend-859/ http://xinch.com.my/cameron-highlands-weekend-859/#comments Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:41:10 +0000 xinch http://xinch.com.my/?p=859 Khailee and I decided to make a last-minute trip to Cameron Highlands one weekend (my definition of “last-minute” is something that is planned less than 7 days beforehand) to get away from the hustle, bustle, heat, dust and pollution that is KL.

We took Unititi Express up and the 4.5 hour journey was more bearable than I imagined it to be. After several nauseous childhood experiences of traveling up the winding road that leads to Tanah Rata, I’ve become a lot less optimistic about the strength of my stomach.

The only issue with the bus was its gaudy upholstery. Well, it wasn’t an issue with me. But my traveling buddy seemed to think otherwise. Safe to say I was questioned about whether bus companies think that this design represents luxury (I think it’s cheap, that’s why they took it), what could be going on in the designers’ heads as they designed this piece of cloth, why what who where when how…..

You name it, he asked it.

Right as we were circling up the windy, nauseating, Cameron Highlands drive.

When we arrived at Tanah Rata, the sky was a gorgeous hue of blue and the weather a blissful chill. Everything was going spectacularly… and then he bought the abomination that is his strawberry beanie. Thankfully, his repeated attempts to make me wear it (and photograph me in it, God forbid) bounced off me before you can say “berry”. But I have to admit. He looked positively hilarious.

Our first meal in Tanah Rata was at Nasi Kukus at this ‘gerai’ beside the tourist information center. It kind of reminds me of the yummy nasi kukus they used to sell at Plaza Sentral’s gas chamber of a cafeteria. Anyway, I wasn’t too big a fan but Khailee was so addicted to it that he had it on Friday and Saturday.

After exploring Tanah Rata, we kinda parked ourselves at “Rosedale Bistro” and dined, read and WiFi-ed in the cafe. Yes. We’re creatures of habit — exploring new places to read and work. Except we’re in a totally different state and traveled 4.5 hours to do that.

But the highlight of our trip (to me) was BOH tea plantation. I haven’t been here since I was a child and here, I was literally surrounded by lush greenery!

You’d think 4.5 hours away from the city, and up in the highlands, you’ll be afforded anonymity. At the BOH Tea Plantation, we bumped into Amin & Fatemeh (my favorite, and only, Iranian friends). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind at all (I love Amin & Fatemeh I just pondered the smallness of Malaysia.

I went on a photo-frenzy here at the tea plantation and had to get extra batteries from the shop when my charged ones ran out. But it was all worth it

As you can see, tons of camwhoring involved. But… how often do I camwhore anyway nowadays?

Verdict? I had a smashing weekend of cool air, cold nights, reading, work and awesome company. Definitely be back soon Camerons… and this time, with Strawberries!

]]> http://xinch.com.my/cameron-highlands-weekend-859/feed/ 0 http://xinch.com.my/perth-day-4-5-6-722/ http://xinch.com.my/perth-day-4-5-6-722/#comments Sat, 30 May 2009 11:02:49 +0000 xinch http://xinch.com.my/the-travelog-perth-day-4-5-6-722/ Hehe this is going to be an ultra long post with ultra many pix. I cannot be blamed because I haven’t had the time to blog! Between hanging out with the family, catching up with friends and having my ear glued to the phone until 2am, I haven’t had the time to sift through the billions of photos I took.

Highlights:

• Perth city’s beautiful skyline from Kings Park
• The evil kid who attacked me with cow gunk
• The Sittella winery – beautiful scenery and good wine.
• Peacocks at UWA Arts faculty grounds!
• Near death experience on the highway back from Cervantes!

Jurien Bay’s very pretty sunset.

Day 4 – Perth City

Participants of the day: Kriss, Alexis, Rachel, my Mum and myself.
Weather: Sunny & Cool!

We covered the entire Perth city in one day. Kriss (Alexis’ man) drove us first to take pictures at South Perth foreshore before hitting Swan Bell Tower and my mother’s paradise, Harbour City, to shop.

We then hit Hay Street right in the center of the city to walk around and stuff like that. One of the highlights of Hay St. was a short strip in between buildings called London Court. Kriss was excited to show us London Court despite Alexis insisting that we’d seen the real thing. They recreated an old-time London street right in the heart of Perth! It was extremely cute.

We belatedly realized that we were supposed to be headed to Kings Park as well before I meet James for dinner so we rushed over before the traffic got heavy just in time for dusk and very picturesque shots!

Day 5 – Swan Valley and everywhere in between

Participants of the Day: Kriss, Alexis, Rachel, my Mum and myself
Weather: Sunny & Cool!

Today was the day Kriss ate & drank himself to immobility.

First stop of the day: Margaret River Chocolate Factory

Bought bags of chocolate here Very happy with my purchases! Chocolate buttons, Red Gum Honeycomb, hot chocolate and a Florentine cookie for morning tea yum!

Next up – Cuddly Animals Farm!

Kriss was more than happy to bring us here. This was his and Alexis’ second or third time at the farm. There were a LOT of kids and a LOT of animals. My favourite had to be the cute and furry bunny. Unfortunately, the photo sucked so no pictures of that cute bunny. It was here that the cheeky “gwailo” kid below smeared cow gunk (saliva / snot) all over me! That child is EVIL, I tell you. EVIL. His name’s probably Damian. He’s so adorable it’s deceiving!

Actually, we did a bit of beer tasting at MASH brewery in between but I forgot to take photos. MASH beers are pretty good. Especially liked the Mexican and the other one that I can’t remember. Their apple cider wasn’t too bad and their chocolate beer was… interesting.

After Cuddly Animals Farm we headed for lunch at a random cafe before going to Mondo Nougat to buy nougat for Su Yin and friends… I’m personally not a big fan of nougat. Did you know that nougat was pronounced with a silent ‘t’? I didn’t until I came here and heard my cousins talking… Hm..

The highlight of the day was Sittella, really. I love wine, so to finally go wine-tasting instead of beer-tasting was a good change. Alexis used to work at Sittella like, 2 years ago and she recommended their strawberry basket for dessert. Unfortunately the kitchen closed at 3pm, and we only got there at 3.30pm. So we just headed for wine-tasting and vineyard walking instead. Took a gazillion photos here! My fav wines were the Sittella Silk (Classic White –  blend of Verdelho, Chardonnay, Chenin and Semillon) and their Shiraz.

That night, I also met up with Wei Zhi and Soon Theam for dinner! They took me on a walking UWA tour and my God… the UWA Arts faculty ACTUALLY rears PEACOCKS. I’m not kidding. They rear peacocks within the faculty grounds. Not just one or two – four! I was very, very surprised. Pity the pictures weren’t too clear. You don’t believe me? Read this!

Day 6 – the Pinnacles and Jurien Bay

Participants of the Day: Alexis, Rachel, Aunty Carol, Mum and myself

We took a 3 hour road trip to the Nambung National Park in Cervantes in Alexis’ very adorable Mazda 2 to see a bunch of rocks in the middle of the dessert. We weren’t too sure of the directions but got there safe and sound, even detouring to Jurien Bay. We expected a Stonehenge-like clump of rocks, just in a desert instead of green plains. Turns out, the rocks in the Pinnacles are extremely vast. We were pleasantly surprised that our 3-hour-road-trip wasn’t so wasted after all and ended up having pretty much a swell time taking photos and mucking around.

Told you we took a lot of photos! Now for Jurien Bay…

Wow. For more photos (some of them are repeated but I actually put up a couple of macro shots here and there), visit my Flickr album here!

My spoils for the day:

• grey Rubi ballet flats
• A purple silk scarf
• A top to club in
• Several CDs – Kings of Leon, Tegan & Sara

My observations for the day:

• “Almost everything in Perth / WA is single storey…”
• “There is no single familiar store / brand at the mall – nothing here can be found in Malaysia!” Then I saw Diva. –_–
• “The stars here are so pretty!”
• “Australians eat their rice with forks…” [Alexis: They don’t realize that spoons are not only for soup!"]
• “Drive a couple of kilometers in WA and you see a roundabout.”

Sunsets here are gorgeous. I think it’s mainly because WA has fewer skyscrapers / tall buildings. Like I said – almost everything is single storey.

Signing off for now, lots of well wishes and cold toes from Perth.

Thankfully, the weather was sunny but chilly today.. and not like the blustery Saturday we arrived in. However, it’s now dropped to 6 degrees and I’m sitting here in the room with the heater cranked up in thermal socks, a sweater, a t-shirt and track pants. Still my toes are mildly icy. And my tummy a little grumbly. I just might grab a cracker or two before I head to bed.

Disclaimers!

• There are loads of photos in this post.
• Happily, they’re all in thumbnails so click on them for a larger version.
• Because it’s late and I’m kind of hungry, I’m being extremely uncreative with my words. Don’t complain =P

The traveling started at 10.30am to visit an aunt on my grandmother’s side in Safety Bay. So we headed out of Perth to Mandurah for a 1.5 (or so) hour drive that turned into 2 when we missed the exit to Ellis Ave. and instead ended up in Waikiki (is that how you spell it, I have no idea!) Beach, overlooking the Indian Ocean.

We finally ended up Wacona St. where my aunt’s place is. I took a gazillion photos there of their plants (they’ve got many, many plants) and dogs (and many, many dogs. Okay, not many, just 4. But they’re extremely adorable!).

My aunt, uncle and cousin (the Safety Bay ones) then took us for pretty yummy fish & chips at Cicerello’s in Secret Harbour. View was pretty gorgeous really.

Dolphin Quay

We then did the touristy thing and headed to Dolphin Quay to just walk round and sit by the water to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Port Bouvard

It’s cold.
Temperatures tonight are estimated to be 8 degrees. Despite that, I love the weather — allows me to wrap myself up in layers of clothes to keep warm. My sensitive toes are protesting though. They aren’t too happy with the sudden change in temperature. Thankfully, the rest of me is just fine.

AirAsia X has the narrowest seats I’ve ever seen on an airplane. Considering the steal I got it for, I’m completely cool with it. Unfortunately for the grandmother, her back ached for most of the journey. Mum wasn’t too comfortable either so I think if you’re considering traveling by AirAsia X with elderly folk, you might want to think twice. Or even long haul to the UK. Then again, the prices are so low, what do you expect?

A few photos I snapped in my uncle’s garden. Headed to Safety Bay to visit more relatives tomorrow. Let’s hope the sky’s clear

Ta from Perth!