Bali Trip
I have had a passport since 2007 and I had never been on an International Trip ever before. Well, I finally got a chance like every other unfortunate Indian who only gets a chance to go abroad after their marriage for their honeymoon. I was finally relieved that when I go for my passport renewal I won't have to go with a never used old passport.
The trip was set for 6 Days & 5 Nights in the first week of February 2016. And boy I was excited about the trip. Wouldnt you be if you were going abroad for the first time? It was all about curiosity and nothing else. Even though for me trips are just another expression of meditation where I get to click pictures.
We reached the International Terminal in Mumbai and after being done with all the formalities of check-in and security finally rested ourselves in the lounge area. I had a nice chilled beer and we ordered some chicken burgers and french fries from KFC.
After a wait of nearly 2 hours at the airport, we finally boarded the Jet Airways flight. The cabin of this flight had a lot of mosquitoes and in spite of complaining the crew couldn't do much about it. As soon as the flight took off we were served meals and drinks. We ordered some canned fruit juices and some whiskey for me. I think I had around 3 rounds of whiskey and a can of beer which was semi-chilled. After which I slept or should I say tried to sleep with the mosquitoes trying to suck the alcohol from my blood (Guess they too were getting the kick out of it). Anyways, I tried to get some sleep as it was a five and a half hour flight from Mumbai to Singapore where we would change flights for our connecting journey.
I woke up in the wee hours just to catch the glimpse of the breaking dawn. Mesmerised by the view I did manage to capture some pictures of this phenomenon.
We landed in Singapore and the first thing that struck me was the dimensions of the massive structure that stood before me. Changi Airport is huge and is constructed on a 5 square mile property. It has around 3 terminals with the 4th terminal in the pipeline. It sees over 53 million passengers annually. Moreover what caught my attention is the automation they have incorporated in the airport where passengers can rate their experience on the tablet panel fitted on walls. Also, the airport was so clean and you could see janitors at work ensuring the cleanliness of the airport right from the main lobby to the urinals. After we freshened up, we headed to check the details of our connecting flight and gate number. Then we headed to the Butterfly garden in Terminal 3 of the airport. Here you could witness around 40 different species of butterflies and over a 1000 butterflies from those species in a year. The garden is lush green with many flowering plants and also some fruits (I saw slices of pineapple) kept for the butterflies to feed on. Also, you have a viewing station from where you can witness the breeding of the butterflies at a very close range.
Post our visit we headed to the Duty-Free Shop to check out the variety of chocolates and drinks we wanted to buy. Post that it was time for us to board our flight to the final destination and I guess we were the last to reach the security because I could already see all passengers sitting in the waiting area for the flight. Either way, the security officers were helpful enough and processed us through the line and we soon were sitting in the waiting area. The flight was a bit late and hence our actual time got pushed further.
Finally, after waiting in the area for one and half hours we finally boarded our flight. Though our tickets were for connecting Jet Airways flight we were accommodated in Garuda Indonesia. It was Airbus 738 which was huge and they didn't have enough passengers so they ensured that the maximum seats in the middle of the Airbus were taken to take the load off the Airbus during take-off and landings.
After around 2 hours and 50 mins, we finally landed at Ngurah Rai International Airport which is most commonly known as Denpasar Airport. We de-boarded the flight and headed to collect our luggage and immigration for our clearance and finally set foot outside the airport. It was hot and humid but we had already booked a cab from the airport and were escorted to the cab. Bali is a small island in the Indonesian province which is the only island with maximum Hindu population. They worship Hindu Deities just like Indians. Bali reminded me of a place in South India, with lush greenery mostly paddy fields and the hindu temples and sculptures. The locals here perform puja daily in the morning as well as evening inside their homes as well as the outer premises of their house. Most of the houses have a Hindu Deity installed on the outer premises.
We reached the property. I had booked Bali Prime Villas located in Umalas. Its pretty far from the city center but hey who is to complain when you get a superb deal for a private villa with a private pool too.
We reached our hotel only to see a big idol of Ganesh placed right at the entrance of the hotel. We checked-in and since the hotel already had our details there were no issues with the check-in process. We were given nice refreshing cool face towels and fresh fruit juices (welcome drink). Later we were escorted to our villa which happened to be at the end of the hotel and the walk up to the villa is truly amazing which is covered with lush green creeper plants and sculptures embedded in the wall.
The villa was super big and spacious with the welcoming site of the pool and a sit out. The room was damn spacious with a large King bed and 2 air-conditioners in the room. The room had a big floor to ceiling sliding glass window which gave you the view of the entrance of the villa and also of the pool. There was a door to the right of the entrance to our room which opened to the open air bathroom area. The bath area had a 12 -15 feet wall constructed for privacy. The bath area had a big tub right opposite the door and a shower area on the left side of the tub and the mirror and sink area to the right of the tub. The WC was on the left side of the door. The bath area also extends to the garden of the villa. So when you are taking a shower you can see the garden and if you gaze above you will see the sky and it makes you feel connected to nature. I had already made up my mind to spend maximum time in the shower.
Meanwhile, my partner was already making plans for the activities spread across the days that we were in Bali. She called up the various tour operators in Bali (brochures for same can be collected from the arrivals baggage belt area at the airport). Called up many operators for the best fitment of the package. One thumb rule is that you should bargain on the given prices or else if they are not ready to bargain on the price you should try to include something else in the package. Most of the operators allow bargaining if you tell them you are in Bali for next couple of days and that if they give you a good deal today then you will continue with them for further sight-seeing. So once that was sorted we relaxed as we reached in the late afternoon in Bali we decided against any outings for the day.
We soon received the lunch from the hotel delivered to our villa and enjoyed it at the sit-out. Our package gave us the option to have dinner and lunch on the first day followed by daily breakfasts. Around evening time I jumped into the pool for a nice swim. Spent 2 hours in the pool. The climate was humid and even with AC's in your room you could feel it.
Around late evening the hotel staff came to the villa to decorate the pool with flowers and small lamps. I had also requested for a small cake to mark this memorable day. They obliged and I was happy to get a chocolate cake. The decoration of the pool and the cake was a surprise for my partner. And I did superbly well at surprising her.
Dinner was served in the villa we ate and then we cut the cake and finished nearly half of the half kg cake and retired to our room. This is where we were greeted by a not so pleasant surprise. Since they had a garden area they were a lot of problem with lizards in the villa. The lizards don't really harm you but throughout the night they keeping making sounds. The first night was a bit difficult to sleep in the villa after that you get accustomed to the noises.
Day Two: Morning we woke up, had our breakfast. We got dressed and a cab arrived to pick us from hotel to the location of our first activity which was scuba diving and sea-walk. On the way we picked up some burgers to eat from Burger King.We get the crash course for the activity by our instructor and were escorted to the area in the sea. The climate was cold today since it was raining like cats and dogs. We expected the water to be super-duper cold. But when we actually stepped into the water, only the surface of the water was cold the bottom to which we descended using a ladder with heavy headgear on our heads was actually pleasantly warm. Our instructor got a packet of bread to feed the marine life beneath. We had a lot of fun doing this activity and we actually walk the floor. It was an amazing experience.
The second activity was scuba-diving so we were again escorted back to a different area for this activity. We were again given a small crash course on the signs to be used during the activity. With heavy oxygen cylinders on our backs and the water goggles and the respirators, we plunged into the water. I did a mistake of trying to breathe from the nose in the start and I had to go up for a while and then again join my partner who was enjoying the activity though she was concerned about me. I gave her a Thumbs up and we proceeded with the activity and we fed bread to bigger marine life here. It was beautiful but less as compared to the sea-walk. After the activity, we were escorted back to the beach and after taking a shower we had lunch there. The specialty was sea food. Now since my partner prefers chicken and not sea-food we requested them to make something in eggs for us as they didn't have anything in chicken. We had food and then set off for the final activity of the day that was a temple visit. By the time we reached the temple the rains had stopped. Similar to us Indian's the Balian's are very serious about temples. We were given a scarf also called as a sash to be tied around the waist and if you are wearing anything that is above knee you would be required to wear a sarong which is nothing but an alternative to our dhoti only difference being it is silk. Tip: If you have plans of visiting a lot of temples then its best to buy a Sarong and a Sash as it is inexpensive. Also, wear modest clothes and ensure you wear a dress that covers the shoulders while visiting temples. There are more rules which you can read by clicking on the link below :
After temple visit, we had dinner at a restaurant again included in our activity deal package and then headed back to our villa and relaxed.
Day Three: We again got up and got ready for another set of activities. Today we visited Turtle Conservation Center which is located in Denpasar. Here we saw a lot of turtles which were rescued from the sea and were held here to help them heal. Our guide explained to us the state in which these turtles were found and how much they try to save these turtles. I felt bad for the situation because we as human beings who are well educated still pollute our environment making it difficult for other living beings to survive. The turtles sometimes rescued had plastic attached to the paddles or sometimes plastic waste enters their mouth during feeding which endangers their life. Its a request to the human and only to the humans who consider themselves educated enough to not pollute our surroundings and our seas. We are not the only ones living on this earth. There are other living beings and let us make it a better place to live and co-exist with other living beings on this earth. Like we don't like a bad unkept house. We should also not ruin someone else's house or environment by polluting it with our wastes. After some donation to the cause, we said goodbye to the turtle obviously not before feeding them.
Next stop was Bali Zoo where did an elephant safari and did pictures ops with Paulie and her friends.
Next stop was river rafting at Ayung River. This activity really got the best of us as we had to walk for nearly half-hour from their resort to the place of activity i.e. the river. We had a lot of company with us. Especially Koreans. Our guide explained us the Do's & Don'ts of the activity and then we headed to the actual activity. It was a great activity and we clicked pictures and took a bath under a waterfall. It was an amazing experience. Later after the activity, we again had to walk back for half hour to the pickup truck to be transferred back to the resort. We changed and took shower and ate light in the resort before heading back to our cab.
In the evening we returned back to our Villa and then headed out in search of a nice restaurant/cafe. We had to walk around 20 mins or so to reach this awesome place by the name Tiflis which serves authentic Georgian cuisines. We sat and ordered for some coffee and chilled beer along with something to eat. I have reviewed Tiflis separately on my blog and you can read all about it there. After a nice early dinner, we retired back to our villa and slept like log.
Day Four: We had some time to ourselves before heading out so I decided to dive into the pool for some time. Around afternoon our cab had arrived to pick us up to escort us to the Uluwatu Temple. We reached there and after praying we were shown to an open theater setting where the locals enact the scenes of Ramayana (the scene where Sita is abducted and Lord Rama has to fight with Ravana to get her back). The theater was packed with people and with lots of energy. We clicked pictures and enjoyed the skit.
Later in the evening, we decided to grab a bit from Dominos on the way back to our Villa.
Day Five: Started with our daily breakfasts and leisure time to explore the villa and the hotel. We clicked some pictures and later during early afternoon went on a catamaran day cruise. We had lunch on the cruise. We ported at Lembongan Island Reef Cruise and we did some coral reef activity and some rowing. We headed back to Denpasar in the evening and were dropped to our villa later. We headed to Tiflis once again for some early dinner before retiring to our villa for the last night in Bali.
Day Six: We woke up and lazed around the villa for some time doing our packing and around 11:30 AM we checked out from the hotel. The hotel arranged for a cab to drop us back to the airport. We bid everyone goodbyes with a promise to return and headed to the airport. Did our check-in and security clearance and finally boarded our flight for Singapore where we bought some chocolates and drinks for friends and relatives and shopped for some clothes.
We landed in Mumbai at around 10:30 PM and did all the security clearance and headed back to our home sweet home with the memories of Bali embedded in our hearts.
It was a truly amazing experience for the first international trip with more to come in the near future.