Wednesday 10 April 2013

Beach please - Bali 2013 ( III )


Here goes my last installment of the Bali trip , day three is definitely my favorite day in Bali .

- Did White Water Rafting on Day three !!! Honestly , I don't even understand how can someone that can't swim be so ambitious about anything . I planned this into the itinerary and told the friends about it but the response turned out to be strong objections from the boys because " apparently they think it is too dangerous to risk the girls for this and that we may hit the rock and die " .  I still had my way to it because their objections couldn't beat my stubbornness at all . It was so fun and the annoying this was , the boys enjoyed it as well . ( Srsly , I thought they were against the idea ?! ) But really ah , I thought this activity was pretty mild for me . I expected it to be really exhilarating but nope ... the drops were very manageable . On the other hand , the beauty of nature was stunning with views of the vast rain forest and waterfalls . Thankfully no mozzie attacks with the surrounding greenery , else I would have completely rated this experience zero .


- The best of Bali  // our million dollar sunset at Rock Bar ! There's a very strict dress-code for entering the bar - No beach shorts , slippers , alcohol logo singlets . Was quite annoyed that we had to bring our shoes on a beach holiday but you'll know that it is very worth it to go through all that hassle when you arrive .   Such a place comes with a price to pay , for an experience we spent 1 million rupiah on bites and cocktails ONLY . To be fair , the bites were yummy with really addictive dips / sauces . With the best view of the coast & the waves crashing against the rocks - I say , Heaven on earth .


- Such a pity we had to choose between sunset watching at Rock bar or Jimbaran bay because of the time constraint . By the time we reached Jimbaran bay for a seafood feast , it was in complete darkness already . In other news ,the seafood was fab and cheap ! That's no wonder why everybody says " If you haven't been to Jimbaran , you haven't been to Bali . " 

For this entire day , we hired a private driver to take us through this itinerary that I planned . He charged us at 450,000 rupiah for a day of 10 hours . So while we were heading to Jimbaran bay , I had a cafe in mind that I wanted to go - Lia cafe . Think we took about 45 minutes to locate because Jimbaran had many parts that were all selling seafood . So after many futile attempts , we decided to heed the driver's advice of looking at other restaurant's menu . It was a whopping USD $100 for a set of 2 pax . Then , I was already being quite skeptical that 1) he was wasting time so we had to pay him more for the transport fees . 2) Restaurants in Jimbaran usually will pay our drivers tips if he recommends us to their restaurants . Thankfully , we found Lia Cafe , with a very cheap price for a whole set of seafood . We paid less than SGD$40 for one set / couple . After the feast , our driver even asked if we had any other places we wanted to visit to get some local products but we were too worn out to shop so we reached our villa back at 11pm . We used his service for 4 extra hours ( we had no idea of the overtime rates ) and when we asked how much more we had to pay , he refused and said the original price we agreed at . I was really really guilty that I doubted his kindness when he was genuinely looking for the place we wanted to go by asking around every time we alighted to find the place . Think we paid him approx. SGD$80 in the end to thank him for his patience , or  we would have been ripped off with a USD$100 meal at Jimbaran bay . It is really a blessing to be meeting really kind people on your holiday with no intentions of ripping off a tourist . For anyone reading this and needs a private driver if you're travelling to Bali , I highly recommend my driver ( Please email me for his contact  ) . Thank you Mr driver , your kindness left such a great impression in my heart . x

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