Tag: SE Asia

The Last Day – Bali, Indonesia

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Today was our last day of our trip. We started the day off by taking a GRAB (Think Uber) to Biku, our favourite restaurant in the area. I had a breakfast sandwich, and some chai tea. It was absolutely delicious!

The morning was spent relaxing by the pool. During that time I phoned Air Canada and purchased us some upgrades to Business Class for $2650/pp. I didn’t want to deal with economy class for 27 hours. We ended up having lunch at Riva Bar & Restaurant again, since it was convenient. We both had some chicken wings. The afternoon was spent in our private plunge pool, and then we tried to nap for a few hours, since we had 27 hours of travel ahead of us.

After our attempt at napping we went to the Jamie Oliver restaurant that was nearby for dinner. Julie had a burger and fries, while I had a lasagna. The food was pretty good. There was a family at a table next to us celebrating the second birthday of their son Oliver. Oliver had a very beautiful Disney cake which I commented on, and before we know it we were both offered a slice of cake. It was pretty good!

It was then time to walk back to the hotel, finish packing, and head to the airport. On our way walking back to the hotel there was an middle aged Indonesia man hiding in the dark on the corner who “offered” us some Cocaine… I’ve been proposed drug deals in my past travels, but never as casually as this guy. Haha. Once we got back to the hotel we packed our bags, and booked a GRAB to take us to the airport. The ride, while only 3 kilometres, took us nearly an hour. We had a really good conversation with our driver.

Our first of three flights was on a Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800 to Sydney. The flight lasted about 6 hours. While masks are still a government mandate by essentially every country in the world, I noticed that about 30% of the flight didn’t seem to care, and the flight attendants didn’t seem to make a fuss over it. It appears Australians might be fed-up with the rules.

The second flight was on an Air Canada Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to Vancouver. On this flight we had our upgraded Air Canada Signature business class seats. For dinner I had blackened smoked trout for an appetizer, followed by a delicious red wine braised beef cheek. I may have also had three servings of cheese and crackers for desert… I did manage to nap on and off for about half of the 16 hour flight, although I was still fairly tired by the time we arrived in Vancouver. On the way into Vancouver there was a beautiful clear view of Mount St. Helens. Wow!!!

Customs in Vancouver was a total breeze, taking a total of 3 minutes. Following customs we endured a 15 minute walk to the Air Canada lounge, where we spent the next few hours relaxing before our final flight back to Calgary on an Air Canada Airbus A319. Wait a minute… didn’t Air Canada retire those a few years ago at the start of the pandemic? Well yes… but they’ve since taken this very select one (C-FYKC) out of storage for whatever reason.

Julie’s Parents were waiting for us in Calgary, and drove us home, which I greatly appreciated.

What’s next for travel? Dad and I are off to Colorado in a just over a week, and then Julie and I are off to Palm Springs the following week.

Seaside Views – Bali, Indonesia

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Today we slept in since we had nothing pressing on the go. We decided to walk to Kopi & Kue for breakfast. Online they had advertised that they had gluten free bread, however when we arrived they had a reduced menu due to Covid-19. Julie ended up having some oatmeal, and an iced latte. I had a toasted cheese sandwich and some coffee. The coffee, which they roast on location, is very smooth.

After breakfast we walked down the main street in Kuta, where Julie purchased some gifts for Christmas, before we walked back to the hotel. We spent the morning hanging out in the main pool doing some reading, relaxing, and playing catch with the ball. The main pool overlooks the ocean, and the views were amazing!

At lunch we went to Riva Bar & Restaurant, which is located right in the hotel. I had some delicious beef ravioli, while Julie had salad rolls and chicken wings.

I was really beginning to feel like crap, so I decided to go back to the main room for a bit, while Julie spent some time in our private plunge pool. I ended up just resting for a bit, since I couldn’t get settled enough to sleep.

In the evening we went for a walk along the beach, while watching the sunset, before walking to a restaurant called Little Italy, where we had dinner. Julie ended up having some pasta, and I ended up having a huge calzone.

We spent the remainder of the evening lounging in bed and watching Neflix.

Poolside Vibes – Bali, Indonesia

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During the night we were both kept awake from the constant street noise, so we put in some ear plugs. The view from the street certainly was beautiful though! After waking up we went for the breakfast buffet, which was extremely mediocre. We spent the morning lounging by the pool; reading, listening to music, and playing with the foamy ball that Julie bought me.

At lunch we walked to Sisterfields Cafe. I had sourdough bread with arugula, bacon, tomato, and a fried egg on top. After lunch we both walked to the place I had dropped off the laundry the day prior and picked it up. In the afternoon we relaxed by the pool. I started to sneeze and get some sniffles in the early afternoon and made a mention of it to Julie. Towards the evening I was definitely getting worse.

For dinner we went to Bossman Burger, a local burger chain. Oh my goodness, wow, what amazing burgers!

Handara Golf & Resort – Bali, Indonesia

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Well… How do we describe today? Today was a day of recovery… After eating some food yesterday that was washed in some contaminated water, we both were feeling quite under the weather. I spent the morning in the beautiful hotel lobby editing photos between bathroom breaks, while Julie hung out in the room. The view outside of the lobby was pretty spectacular.

For lunch I had some Japanese Curry Ramen, which was delicious. In the afternoon we watched some comedy on Netflix. We found a hilarious young lady named Taylor Tomlinson and watched one of her shows, as well as 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible, about a guy named Nirmal Purja, who summited the tallest 14 mountains in the world, in under 7 months! Such a good movie!

We both fell asleep for a bit, and woke up around 5:30pm. Despite not feeling great, I was feeling hungry so I went for dinner solo. I had the same burger that Julie had yesterday, however they added an egg to it, which I shouldn’t have had, because it ended up making me feel worse. After dinner we ended up watching more comedy on Netflix, before calling it a night.

Cooking, Temples, & Monkeys – Ubud, Indonesia

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Today we had to get up fairly early because we had an early pickup for a cooking class that we booked with Paon Bali Cooking Class, which only cost $35 each. We started off by walking over to the Westin Hotel for a $10 all you can eat buffet, which ended up being pretty good.

After breakfast we walked back, to where our driver was already waiting for us. He first stopped in a local nearby market so we could see where all the locals purchased groceries. After walking around the market he drove us to his house, where his wife taught us how to cook 7 traditional Balinese dishes over the next 3 hours. The food was absolutely incredible!

After our cooking class we were dropped back off at our hotel. We hopped on our scooter and went into Ubud to visit Ubud Palace, and the Sacred Monkey Temple, where there’s over 700 grey long-tailed Macaques. Most of them were minding their own business, but there were a few curious ones, including one that was particularly interested in Julie’s pink shoes. We also saw a few of them get into fights with each other. We even saw a bunch of really cute babies!

After visiting the Sacred Monkey Temple we went back to the hotel for a few hours to relax by the pool, before heading on a bit of an adventure to get dinner. We had to drop off our scooter at 6:30pm because our rental was up, and then we walked a few kilometre’s to a restaurant called Wild Air, however when we arrived we were told that we needed to have a reservation. Darn! We then walked up one of the main streets and settled on a place called Liap Liap, which was actually quite good. After dinner it was pouring rain, so we took a GRAB (think Uber) back to our hotel, which only cost about $3.

Temples & Rice Terraces – Ubud, Indonesia

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Today we had an exploration day on own. We started off with breakfast at Ely’s Kitchen, Ubud. The scooter ride to our breakfast place was amazing! We took a bunch of windy back roads. For breakfast I had a smoked salmon and scrambled eggs dish, along with some coffee.

After breakfast we rode the scooter to Goa Gajah. Goa Gajah, also known as the Elephant Cave, is a sanctuary near Ubud that was built in the 9th century. It consists of a cave, fountain and bathing pools. It’s believed that the cave was built for meditation purposes. The complex consists of Hindu and Buddhist imagery, as the cave contains lingam and yoni, symbol of Shiva, and the image of Ganesha, while by the river there are carved images of stupas and chattra, imagery of Buddhism. The cave was only discovered in 1923 by Dutch archaeologists. The pools and fountain were not discovered until a few decades later in 1954. During our visit an older man led us on a fairly long path down to another cave temple, that I think very few people get to see. I ended up tipping him a fair amount, but he seemed rather ungrateful, and wanted even more. I was still appreciative of him showing us though.

After exploring Goa Gajah we rode the scooter about 40 minutes to Tegallalang Rice Terrace. Tegallalang Rice Terrace is one of the most famous tourism destinations in Bali. Located in Tegalalang Village, north of Ubud, the beautiful rice terraces follow the flowing topography, and feature zip lines and jungle swings. This is a very famous Instragram spot. While we were there we went on a jungle swing, I flew the drone, and we ate some delicious food.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool. Julie had purchased me this foam ball prior to our trip, and it was pretty fun to throw back and forth.

In the evening we went to Cafe Wayan & Bakery. The cafe has been around since 1986! We had some delicious Balinese food, and for desert had a gluten free apple crumble, which was honestly the best I’ve ever had.

Temples! – Bali, Indonesia

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Today we took another a custom tour with Bali Customized Tours to Eastern Bali. Our tour included “The Mother Temple” known as Besakih, a Bamboo Forest, Penglipuran Ancient Village, and Gunung Kawi Ancient Tomb. Our driver today was Ambara.

Before we were picked up we had a delicious breakfast prepared by the lovely staff at Hideout Bali. I had a traditional breakfast with eggs and delicious toast, and Julie had porridge and fruit.

First stop was the “Mother Temple”, also known as the Besakih Great Temple. It is a pura complex in the village of Besakih on the slopes of Mount Agung in Eastern Bali. It is the tallest, holiest, and most important temple in Bali, sometimes drawing as many as a million visitors on some of the holiest days of the year. In fact, this is considered one of the largest Hindu complex’s in the entire world. The extensive complex contains 23 separate but related temples, with the largest and most important being Pura Penataran Agung. The temple is built on six levels, terraced up the slope. The entrance is marked by a split gate. In the temple there are a plethora of pagoda’s with 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 roofs, which symbolize the different gods. This temple is undergoing an extensive $150 million upgrade to allow better parking, access, and more shop fronts. During our visit here we were blessed, and I still wear my red, black, and white bracelet that I was given after I was blessed.

Next stop was the Penglipuran Ancient Village, which was also next door the Bali’s largest Bamboo Forest, spanning over 20 hectares. Penglipuran Village is one of the few traditional Balinese villages remaining. The architecture of the buildings and land processing still follows the concept of Tri Hita Karana, the philosophy of Balinese society regarding the balance of relations between God, humans, and their environment.

The place we visited before grabbing lunch was Gunung Kawi, also known as Candi Tebing Gunung Kawi. Gunung Kawi is an 11th century temple and funeral complex in Tampaksiring, which is North East of Ubud. It is comprised of 10 rock-cut shrines (candi) that are carved into 7 metre (23 foot) high sheltered chines of the sheer cliff face. There are monuments dedicated to King Anak Wungsu of the Udayana dynasty, as well as his favorite queens. On the Eastern side of the complex are five temples that are dedicated to King Udayana, his Queen Mahendradatta, and their three sons Airlangga, Anak Wunsu and Marakata. On the West side of the complex are temples dedicated to the King’s minor Queens.

After visiting the temple it was time to get some lunch. We ended up stopping at a local Warung. I had some duck, which honestly wasn’t very good, and was a rather small portion. After lunch we stopped at Oka Agriculture Bali to do some tea and coffee tasting, which included Kopi Luwak, which is a coffee that consists of partially digested coffee cherries that were eaten and defecated by an Asian Pal Civet. Honestly, which the coffee was quite smooth, I prefer regular coffee. We samples 16 different coffees and teas, and ended up purchasing some Ginger Tea and Mangosteen Tea.

After our coffee and tea tasting we drove a short distance to a local wood carving shop, and were able to see them creating their beautiful art work. It’s amazing how much effort goes into creating these carvings. We opted not to purchase anything due to limited space in our luggage.

It was then time to head back to our final night at Hideout Bali. We ordered some local Balinese dishes for dinner, and enjoyed watching some Netflix in bed, because the mosquitos were too bad to be out on our balcony.

Hideout – Bali, Indonesia

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Today we took a custom tour with Bali Customized Tours to Northeast Bali. Our tour included visiting a traditional Balinese salt making village, Lempuyang Temple, and the Royal Water Palace (Tirta Gangga).

We were picked up for our tour at 8:00am. Our driver’s name was Dawa. The tour started with a 2 hour drive from Uluwatu to a traditional Balinese salt making village. Along the way I asked our driver to stop for more cash, as we were burning through it much faster than I thought we would. The cost of food and entry fee’s has increased significantly since I planned this trip pre-COVID. To make salt the traditional Balinese way, salt water is obtained from the sea in two large buckets, spread over black volcanic sand to filter out impurities, and then the water is placed in cored-out tree trunks that are split in half. This water then evaporates over several weeks, and you’re left with pure sea salt. This is tremendously hard physical labour, but I’m convinced the salt tastes better in Indonesia than it does back at home.

After visiting the salt making village we drove another 1.5 hours to Lempuyang Temple. Lempuyang Temple is a Balinese Hindu temple located on the slope of Mount Lempuyang. Mount Lempuyang is believed to predate the majority of Hindu temples on Bali. The history of the temple is somewhat vague unfortunately. The temple was fully restored in 2001. At the temple you need to park at the bottom, and take a bus up a very windy road to the top. This was supposed to cut down on the amount of traffic, and increase safety, but it was still complete chaos. At the temple I saw a guy proposing to his girlfriend at the temple gates. It was a really cute event to experience. Also, at the temple we got some cute photos taken at various Instagram spots, because why not?

Following the temple visit we stopped by a rice field to get some panoramic shots, before continuing on to lunch at Dewata Agung Tirtagangga, where I had some peanut satay chicken, and Julie had a bunch of massive shrimp. I invited our driver to have some lunch with us, although later on I found out that Balinese people typically don’t eat during the day because they are fasting due to their religion. I think he accepted just to be polite. Oops!

After lunch we drove just a few minutes away to Royal Water Palace (Tirta Gangga). Tirta Gangga is a former royal palace in Eastern Bali. It is named after the sacred river Ganges. The complex spans over 1 hectare and was built in 1946 by the late King of Karangsem, and was almost fully destroyed in 1963 when Mount Agung erupted. Mount Agung also erupted again in 2017, but didn’t cause any damage that time round.

It was now time to check-in to our accommodation for the evening. I booked an A-Frame bamboo house called Hideout Bali, located in Selat. This place isn’t cheap, at $250 USD/night, but its certainly worth it. The A-Frame is situated next to a river, which we ended up spending a few hours relaxing in. The accommodation also features an outdoor rainfall shower, but don’t worry it’s completely surrounded by a luscious forest of bamboo so you do have privacy. This was one of the most enjoyable experiences that I’ve ever had throughout all of my travels. During our stay we had access to staff who would cook us dinner. We ordered some traditional Balinese dishes for dinner, relaxed for a few hours, before calling it a night. All this adventuring certainly doesn’t allow for much downtime to relax, so we’ve been ready to go to bed before 9:00pm most evenings.

Uluwatu – Bali, Indonesia

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Today we woke up fairly early (6am), since we had gone to bed so early the night before. We got ready and walked to a nearby coffee shop called Refresh. I had a breakfast wrap and a chai latte, and Julie had an oatmeal bowl and a chai latte. The coffee shop had a cute dog named Coco, who constantly wanted to be played with.

After breakfast we rented a scooter from our hotel , a Honda Scoopy for $7/day, to go exploring for the day. We made our way towards Karang Boma Cliff, but had to stop and get some gasoline before continuing on our way. Gasoline on the island isn’t typically obtained at gas stations, but rather from 750ml booze bottles from people’s houses, since they are few and far between. The gas is green / blue in colour and smells distinctly different than it does at home, since it is much less refined. At home gasoline can’t contain more than 10 ppm of sulphur, and minimal amounts of benzene, but in Indonesia it contains 500 ppm of sulphur, and very high percentages of benzene. It gives it a very sweet smell, but the exhaust fumes are pretty overwhelming when stuck in traffic.

After obtaining gas we drove to Karang Boma Cliff, which involved a few kilometres of driving on a very rocky and bumpy gravel road. When we arrived a local lady showed up about 30 seconds later on her scooter and charged us about $1 to park our scooter there. She also had a wide variety of drinks for sale, so we purchased a Coke Zero for about $0.80. Karang Boma Cliff was absolutely stunning, and I even threw up my drone for a bit, but it was fairly windy, and I was exceeding the maximum winds it could handle for the majority of the time. At the cliff we met this lovely young lady from California, and her photographer friend who lives in Malaysia. We chatted for a bit before continuing on with our adventures.

Next stop was Uluwatu Temple, a Hindu temple sitting on top of a 70 metre (230 foot) cliff overlooking the ocean. The temple was established in the 11th Century, and has been expanded a few times since. The temple is inhabited by over 500 Macaque monkeys, who are notorious for stealing visitor belongings. In fact, while we were there someone’s cellphone got stolen 30 seconds before we arrived. A fun fact is that Scientist and experts on primate behavior have conducted studies on the Macaque monkeys in the area and have concluded that these monkeys are quick to learn bartering behavior, and pass it down to their young offspring.

Upon leaving the temple I noticed that the front tire on the scooter that we rented was quite flat, so I asked some locals where the nearest spot was to get it fixed. It was about 3km away, so I drove there slowly to get it topped up with air for $0.10. Apparently this Honda Scoopy scooters use innertubes inside of the tire, and the bouncing around on the bumpy gravel road early on this morning let the majority of the air go. After topping it up, it didn’t give us any grief for the rest of the day.

After topping the tire up with air we went for lunch at Nourish Cafe & Pizzeria. I had a Truffle Cheese Pizza, and Julie had a Falafel Bowl. Following lunch we picked up our laundry that we had dropped off yesterday, and went back to the hotel to relax for a bit.

In the evening we rode to Suluban Beach to watch the sunset. There was roughly 200 steps down to the beach, which wasn’t a problem on the way down, but gosh it was brutal walking back up in the sweltering head. Afterwards we went back to Uluwatu Temple, and watched a traditional Balinese Fire Dance, which lasted about an hour.

Following the Fire Dance we stopped in at Loca Warung for dinner. I had a salad, and Julie had some crispy vegetable rolls. After dinner we went back to the hotel, dropped off the scooter, and crawled in for the night.

Travelling to Bali, Indonesia

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Today we woke up at 430am to catch a 730am flight to Denpasar, the capital city of Bali, Indonesia. I woke up feeling quite unwell so I didn’t feel like eating. I attributed my stomach problems to the noodles in my Laksa Soup, that I ate the previous day, being made of rice. I have developed a rather large sensitivity to rice, corn, and potatoes within the last six months.

The flight to Denpasaar was on a SCOOT Boeing 787-9, and took about 2.75 hours, which is a very short hop for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. SCOOT is a low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines that was started in 2012. It merged with Tigerair in July 2017. The airline was fairly “hip” and had electronica music playing upon departure and arrival, as well as a neat rainbow inspired lighting scheme.

After arriving in Bali we took a GRAB (think Uber) to our hotel; Ratan Hotel Uluwatu Pecatu, about 30 minutes (16km) away. The hotel was fairly nice for only $40/night, however they could have cleaned the room a bit better. The small private pool area was quite nice, but we never used it, because it was too cold. Haha. Before diving into our adventures let’s look at the history of Bali, Indonesia.

Bali History

Bali is a province of Indonesia, and is the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It was originally inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian’s who migrated originally from Taiwan. Culturally and linguistically, Balinese people are quite closely related to people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Tourism makes up for about 80% of Bali’s economy. Bali is the only Hindu-majority province in a Muslim-majority Indonesia, with roughly 87% of Balinese people adhering to Hinduism. Bali’s capital city is Denpasar, which is comprised of about 2.3 million people. Bali has a total population of 4.3 million people, which means over half the population lives in the capital.

Exploring Bali

After napping for about four hours we dropped off our laundry to get cleaned. Laundry is very cheap to get washed in Indonesia, typically costing about $1/kg. It was then time to get some dinner. We ate at Warung Boga Sari. Warung’s are typically where the local’s eat, and it’s cost is typically $3-5 and is based on the weight of the food served. We had a bunch local Indonesian dishes, including Tempe, which is fermented Tofu. It’s one of my favourites so far. On the way back we stopped in at Indomaret (Not Indomarket. Think 7-11) for some water, and a few snacks. We really struggled to stay awake, so that was the extent of our day.