Finally, at 1055am on 4th April 2007, I boarded AK900 Air Asia flight bound for Bali…but not after a minor exciting altercation with a potential albeit unreasonable “new” client and countless of other last minutes business “matters” to settle with before enjoying a trip much needed and already once cancelled due to my work commitments. So…finally, off we soared through the airspace to reach the Bali of my dreams from my Big Blue Marble days.

A sigh of relief, but not yet, it would seem, my inaugural flight experience with Air Asia, will be a bit of a culture shock…it was a flight full with holiday makers and there was a moment of anxiety, what if there were no more seats left, it sure seemed that way as we make our way down the aisle. The crew just stood by the wayside whilst passengers scurry down the narrow aisle scrambling for seats, okay, that was the deal we pay low fares and we do most of the work ourselves. We finally got our seats after deciding that the smart decision will be to split up. But an incident with the crew made me rethink, the low fare deal. Yesterday (one week after our return), Mr Tony Fernandez said Air Asia wants to play big league and in the international arena, which is why he associates Air Asia with Manchester United and also with F1. He is also glad that of late Datuks and ‘hotshots’ have also seen the value of Air Asia and have begun taking Air Asia flights. But my little incident with the crew members made me wonder if the corporate direction of the company is understood by the entire organisation. I write out of concern for Air Asia as Air Asia to me epitomises a corporate branding and business success worthy of certain national pride. The tag line “Now everybody can fly’ literally meant that the corporate direction is that all social class, creed and race can now fly, which means that unlike past glory days of serving in the air, it is not just for the elite and educated but everyone. My encounter with two rude crews shrieking to me about not switching off my hand phone as I was finishing a last SMS (guilty) is not to me good customer service by any standards. I am sure that the crew has to deal with all types of people and it is probably a real “pain” sometimes. But they need to learn respect for their profession and for me to pointedly tell off stewardess and steward to say “please” in their request, which I understand is their job is definitely a first. They need to learn to handle customers better and not come with judgement that because they pay cheap fares they can be treated as second rate.

Enough ranting, back to my surreal experience, we arrived Bali intact and could feel the throbs of excitement as soon as we landed. It was hot and sunny, sheer bliss from the thunderstorms of Kuala Lumpur. We met our driver from the Puri Bambu Hote , which is a mere 15 minutes away from the airport at Kedonganan, Jimbaran. Puri Bambu is a mid range hotel listed in the Lonely Planet and came highly recommended by friends who have stayed there previously. It is a quaint boutique hotel with maybe 50 rooms or less. Our room opens out to the pool. It is quiet and serene and beautifully decorated. It is also clean.

View of Infinity pool at Four Seasons Hotel Nusa Dua

Local Children practicing dance at Four Seasons

The first day after checking in, we decided to have tea at the Four Seasons Hotel at Nusa Dua area and to check out the architecture. Security was understandably tight. They have two young girls dressed in traditional costumes and made a small corsages to give away to all guests. The coffee house where we ordered a Balinese High Tea was lavish and a bit on the pricey side, yeah we know it is the Four Seasons. But we had the gastronomic pleasure of tasting an array of the local cakes and delicacies. All in cute small portions, but very filling nonetheless. It was beautiful place and we caught some children performers practising their dance routine. After tea, we took a cab to the Uluwatu temple to watch a Kedjak dance.

Kedjak dance with Uluwatu in background

The journey from Nusa, south of Bali, took us half an hour and upon arrival, we bought tickets which cost us about 6000rupiah each and we were asked to tie a yellow string around our waist as a sign of respect. Tourists who are dressed in shorts are required to rent sarongs and tie the yellow string. Females who are having their menstruation are not allowed to enter the “pura” as they may taint it. Bali is after all a place that practises deeply religious Hindu faith.

Tourists and locals getting “sacred” water from the pura

Uluwatu at sunset

My friend, SY (from the entertaining series, you may remember her), is an architect and an amateur photographer, got really caught up with her photography. I can’t say I blame her. The temple is on a cliff side and as we make our way there, the view is quite breathtaking, it was dusk and you could hear loud waves crashing and monkeys everywhere. We were forewarned that these monkeys are real quick with their tricks and can snatch anything especially cameras, glasses and even jewelry. Well, SY found out the hard way, an engrossed photographer was probably “easy” picking for these monkeys. One minute this fat male monkey who looked like a he owned the place was sitting on the post of the wall and next he was off with SY’s camera case, snatched off her hands but not before another sleeker monkey slipped her earring from her earlobe. The caretakers chased the bigger monkey and climbed over the wall down the cliff to retrieve the case. By the way, all this happened in a manner of minutes and before you know it over the shouts and things being thrown at the monkey, SY’s case was safely back in her hands again.

Seafood at the coast of Jimbaran, near to the hotel. This was recommended to us by several people. And it as a must do on our itinerary. Which I may have neglected to inform is a detailed itinerary prepared by Elaine (cross checked against other friends who have been there before) and shared by tens of people by now. A row of newly built seafood restaurants, about 40 of them, it is a new development by the local council to protect this tourist attraction. Previously, it was a seafront cramped with all kinds of stalls for seafood and was dirty and unkempt according to our local guide. We ate at the Blue Marlin , recently opened by our local guide’s sister. The menu is simple and you get to choose your own fresh seafood .They then prepare it for you grilled or fried. There is only one selection of vegetable, which we ordered a whole plate of as opposed to an accompaniment. For a whole grilled snapper, fried squids, grilled prawns and a plate of vegetable, it only cost us about RM40 for two people.

Next morning, we decided to go to Ubud and made arrangements with our local guide who was our taxi driver cum guide the day before. We found him more reliable compared to the guide recommended by the hotel. For RP400,000 equivalent to RM120, he drove us around an entire day. Ubud is about an hour and half drive .It is up the hills and we stopped at the famed padi field site seen in all postcards, to have take for posterity our own shots.

Next was to Ubud town centre, where we walked along Monkey Forest Road, with their quaint boutiques, local licensed Prada and all sorts of branded name stores like Dolce Gabanna, but once inside you see a mostly imitations and all kinds of brands. My guess is that, after the Bali bombings, the tourists visits dropped quite substantially and most of these brands pulled out leaving the locals to take over these shops and rather then spend on extensive renovations, they maximised the opportunity to attract with the existing store names. But I am only hazarding a guess here.

Lotus Café, Ubud, view from pavilion and stage and pond

Anyway, we had lunch at the landmark Lotus Café, it is an icon of Bali. Very upmarket and very expensive. But adorable as we got a seat on the pavilion next to the lotus pond, filled with lotus and 1 foot long carps. There is also a real stage built like a temple where dinner shows are performed.

Café that adjoins padi field, Ubud

Ubud is a real cool place, it is artistic and mixes the old and the new and none more obvious than architecturally. You see quaint old cafes and new cafes, modern cafes that you enter and when you reached inside, you realised you can actually sit and enjoy your cup of coffee and the best lemon tart ever with the padi field right next to you.

Best lemon tart ever

Padi fields in Ubud

As for shopping, lots of jewellery shops especially for silver ones and stone.

Lots of antique shops and local arts shop. There is also a local market here in Ubud, where you can shop for all kinds of crafts at a fraction of the price. Anyway, this trip I bought a lot of silver jewellery and am very happy for it. It is cheap but you must know how to bargain for it.

Next, we were off Tanah Lot to watch the sunset. Here is where my surreal experience came about. Before I got there, people kept telling me how the place is desecrated and dirty because of tourists and tourists exploiting stalls and I must agree. But the minute you walked into the grounds of the temple, you have to pay a fee to get in by the way, you will be struck, by the location of the temple. Low tide starts at about 3pm and the seabed is accessible by all to the temple. But at any other time, this temple is an island surrounded by at least 10 to15 feet of water. And as I walked towards the pura, there were locals and caretakers of the temple helping tourist to get water that flows down from the pura, probably there is a spring or something up the top of the hill. This water is supposed to protect people and you can even take it home for your family members. It seems that most Hindu sages believe in the power of the seas and the winds. If you care to take a walk around the temple site, you will see and hear strong waves crashing against the cliff where this temple is built. You can for a moment if you close your eyes imagine the power of the Almighty around you. It can almost brings tear to your eyes.

Cloudy sunset at Tanah Lot

After an exercise in emotions at Tanah Lot, it was off to Ku De Ta, near Seminyak for a delightful dinner. The restaurant came highly recommended by all friends. The ambiance is romantic and artistic. The bar is decorated with colorful female forms made from glass, illuminating the bar. It is by the beach and you can dine al fresco, on the veranda or inside. The food is divine. I had cod fish while SY had the vegetarian moussaka, it was absolutely delightful. The whole gastronomic experience with dessert and coffee, came down to about RP400,000. Seminyak happens to be the trendier and more expensive part of Bali with plenty of high fashion boutiques and shops. It is kind of like a mini Bangsar in the old days. It was unusual to see Greek and Mediterranean food restaurants filled with tourists, right here in Bali.

Early, the next morning at 6am, we went down to the fish market (5 minutes drive) and also the local “wharf” for all fishermen to unload their catch. This is also the source of fresh catch for Jimbaran’s seafood restaurants. It an interesting experience.

Later in the afternoon, a quick trip down to Kuta, and we found the beach front quiet except for beach lovers in front of Hard Rock Caf¨¦. Didi not manage to get to Ground Zero. But we did find lots of good boutiques and yep, more shopping. But the find of the day m,ust surely be Made’s Warong, which is a local eatery known for affordable and good local food. It has been there since the 1970’s. There are old photos showing the original hut, in the exact same spot. Now run by the second daughter, hence the name Made’s Warong (Made meaning second child), this place is part of Bali’s history. Black rice porridge cooked with coconut milk and served with fresh fruits

In the afternoon, we set off for Sanur, where we had tea at Amanpuri. It was delightful five star plus homemade ginger beer and pita bread with chick pea puree. Sitting on the veranda on top of the hill overlooking the faraway beach front, with sparrows flying around, it was simplicity at it’s most elegant. Sanur used to be the place for the high end tourist and the whole area boasts of all the 5 star hotels in Bali. They are all grouped together under tight security.

But sad to say, at Sanur, we saw a lot of tourist shops that have lived their heydays, there are a lot of abandoned shops, more so then anywhere else.

Now everyone have heard about “babi guling” the Balinese version of roast pork, so according to our itinerary, the “best babi guling is off the sanur bypass, called the babi guling of gianyar , next to the “Splash bakery”. Now this would have been the highlight of our trip and the most adventurous, and the only time we followed the itinerary to a tee. It would be the experience of real Bali, we are going, by hook or by crook taste the real thing, the most famous place, queues of people, sell out by 7pm……

So, we drove around and around and around and around the Sanur bypass, for a couple of hours before finally spotting the “Splash Bakery” a faded signboard in the fading sunlight. Then we looked around for car loads of people tourists and locals alike, we didn’t see any, and only 1 miserable restaurant with Babi Guling sign. And I use the owrd miserable as there was not a soul inside it. So we persuaded the driver, Made Ketot, with the patience of a saint to please go down and ask where was the famous babi guling place. And he did it for us. We were told there is only the one within the next three kilometres. No, we say, this cannot be it. We will look some more, two more rounds , we finally got smart , why don’t we turn back one more time and we ask the bakery lady, where is this famed place…well we told that it is three doors down (the place we were at just now) …and it is sometimes called “babi guling gianyar”. No, we protested, a moment to confer and SY and I decided, maybe the people had left, it was after all past 7pm.Let’s give it a try. And we agreed that although the pig was cold, it wasn’t all that bad. Very tasty with lots of aromatic herbs and we gathered that they served small bits of parts of the whole pig and lots of sauces and “bumbu” or marinate as accompaniment with the rice. If the food was warmer, it might actually be good. But cold pig wasn’t my idea of fun and we polished up our order in 10 minutes flat and was out of there quicker than you could say “fire in the pig” I mean pit. The look on the faces on the driver and the restaurant people was a quite a hysterical. Upon our return to Kuala Lumpur, SY texted me, she saw on Café Asia (Astro TV) that the best babi guling in Bali is in the market of Gianyar, using the Sanur bypass to get there…well, we were close.

Okay, Balinese massage, well we did that too. But, it cost us too much in my opinion and although my skin was soft as silk after the “mandi lulur” and milk scrub, I am not sure that it was entirely as good a deal as it was supposed to be in at RM240 for a three hour do.

So, my long awaited trip to Bali, was as enjoyable as I had expected with a lot of unexpected twists and turns. To think that I actually delayed going there for so long, because I felt weird and fearful of going there, not for my safety from bomb threats but believing that due to the mystique that surrounds the Bali of my ideals, the wrath of Gods must surely have been incurred with all this violence and it might mar the beauty and tranquillity that I associate it with, it is my own weakness that I actually feared more.

But, the place and the people , led me to believe that there is still God and the people despite having gone though a lot in recent years, haven’t really lost their friendliness and humbleness and a certain peacefulness… maybe it is their strong faith as evident in their daily “canang” offerings… it is a place I would definitely return to…

** All pictures are courtesy of Yetmee

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