Back from paradise!

(Kuta town, after dinner - that explained the flabs)
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Hello... hello!!! I AM BACK. Recharged, refreshed, rejuvenated. The strangest thing is, I am everything except that. Felt washed out, aches all over. We both agreed that the aches were not a result of shopping too much but the from the numerous sessions of kneading by the masseurs throughout our stay there. The spas sessions were fantastic. Even Harrison (a spa virgin) was enjoying himself immensely. So basically, for the past 7 days 6 nights, besides sight-seeing, shopping and dining, every part (except you know where) of our skin were being treated with extra tender loving care. Tired muscles were kneaded on, dead skin were scrubbed off with the Javanese Lulur ingredients, scrubbed skins were treated with yogurt treatment or body wrap, and finally, followed by a flower bath. How much more blissful can it get? These whole 7 days is like a paradise! I was so tempted to throw my passport into the deep blue sea, so that I will get to stay for another 3 weeks. Bad thoughts… shoo! Anyway, let me take you thru our 7 days in paradise day by day.

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Day 1: 9th March 2009 (Monday)
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Our trip started off quite badly actually. The taxi that supposed to pick & send us to the airport never turns up and calls were connected directly to his voicemail. How irresponsible. Fortunately for us, we found the Yellow Pages stacked in the cupboard and quickly scanned under ‘Taxi’ and thank God, Saujana Taxi saved our day. We managed to make it to the airport on time, checked in our luggage, and proceed to Burger King for breakfast (the only thing is, they don’t serve breakfast. So we had real meals at 8am).

(KLIA's Burger King)

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The flight were pleasant, the plane were pretty empty. Harrison slept thru it while I get to enjoy the breakfast & tea served with my book (yes, I know I just had Burger King meal and I shouldn’t be eating. Well, I love food and I eat a lot). We arrived Bali on-time, went thru the immigration, collected our luggage and had our first sight of Balinese architecture right at the airport, their typical ‘unity’ gate (which I learnt later from the guide) right outside the airport. It was beautiful. I quickly snapped a couple of photos of it with my lousy 4 years old, point & shoot Nikon camera, so that I have a photo to explain my visual :p

(At Bali airport)
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As we exit the airport, we were greeted by hundreds of colourful plagues with different names on it (ok, I exaggerated a little here, not hundreds, maybe 50+) held by local guides waiting for the guests. Most wore typical batik shirt except for some from hotel with big names, wore more elaborated costume complete with hat and sarong. As for ours, I don’t care what he wears. Just as long as he has a tray of cold towels and yummy icy fruit punch waiting for us. We scanned thru the 50 something names and found none that even came close to resemble ours.

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We waited for about 10 minutes. Then Harrison made some calls. Not only were there no cold towels or fruit punch, there were nobody to pick us at all. Damn. Bad luck, bad luck (point to own self, next time check ‘tung shu’ – Chinese almanac; before travel). The agents got our ETA mixed up. Sigh…. anyway, we got on a cab (whick will be refunded) and headed for the hotel on our own instead. Harrison were mumbling something like ‘let’s just hope they got our rooms right’… lols. So, that’s how our much anticipated holiday started.

(entrance to 'Kuta Paradiso Hotel' - note the metal sensor)

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Upon arrival of the hotel, we checked ourselves in. Yes, our names are on the list. Not only just on the list, it was marked with a huge red VIP…hehehe…. At least, that’s a good way to overcome the unfortunate start. When we got to our room, we have a plate of fruits and a small basket of flowers awaiting us. Besides these simple stuff, we were also treated to a 45minutes of massage session each which is not part of the package we had. At least, that’s blissful to our otherwise chaotic day.

(the view from our balcony. a pool which we never dipped.)

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I dozed off couple of times during the massage. Not that it is superbly good or what… I think I was just dead tired after the long journey. 1 hour later, after the relaxing Balinese massage, we took a walk around the street. As it was a long weekend, it was packed with tourist of all nationality – Australian, Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian and etc. Oh, btw, almost every Balinese that are involved in Tourism industry are fluent in Japanese. Anyway, we had a quick snack at this Kebab stall nearby. It’s sucks. Not only sucks but full of mosquitoes as well. Or maybe it is because my blood is sweet. "People see, people like. Mosquito see, mosquito bite"... hahaha

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We got back to the hotel later, showered off the massage oil, napped a little, and prepare to go out for dinner after that at 6:30pm. We met our guide of the week, Dana, for the first time that evening. Together with a driver, he came to pick us for a dinner of Flying Gurame Fish. It was our first Balinese dinner and it was great.

(The Flying Gurame Fish - is actually a deep fried dunno what fish)

(the compound of the restaurant)

(we had our dinner in one of the gazebo)

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After Dana dropped us off at our hotel later that night, we took a walk to some shops nearby and stopped for ice creams at Haadgen Daz. One thing that I realized on this first day in Bali is, that the best business to do here is to sell ice creams. We were at New Zealand Ice Cream earlier that day and they were closed cause they have ran out of ice creams. And then when we were at Haadgen Daz, they too were almost empty. So, if you are thinking of starting a business in Bali, do consider the ice cream business… hehehe….

After ice cream, hand in hand, we walked back to our hotel. All I know is, I slept freaking early that night. About 9:30pm I think. I was too tired to even look at the time.