Bali - Departure & Day 2

As promised, I'm finally blogging about my Bali trip in May. I know I know. It's in May. But whenever I wanna blog about it, I'm at work, and the pictures are all in my laptop. Then when I'm back home and wanna blog, I get distracted by something else.

K, EXCUSES! Hahaha. Let me start now. Be prepared for a long post, I think.

Initially, this trip was planned by my sister and Nad, after which they asked me along. So it was set for the three of us, and we booked the villa almost immediately. But then after meeting Rab one of the nights after that, Rab mentioned that she wanted to tag along cause she's never been to Bali but dying to go there. Then it becomes 4 and we purchased our flight tix. Later, Kira decided to join and purchased the tickets one night before our departure so 5 it is.

===DEPARTURE DAY===

Amy semi-volunteered to send us in the morning so he had to fetch me, Nad & Rab before proceeding to the airport. Kira met us at the airport itself since she's not staying in Woodlands. Our flight was at 10++ so we had our breakfast at the staff canteen first before checking in.

I need to remind myself to bring a earpiece each time I travel on budget carriers. Wanna know why? Cause I'm so used to having the entertainment & headpiece on non-budget carriers in which I either watch movies, play games or listen to songs. This time it happened again, I didn't bring my earpiece and it was so boring inside the flight that I forced myself to sleep throughout the journey. No one was talking to me as they are all asleep except for Nad but she's one row ahead of me. :(

This picture above, is just before take-off. After take-off, sume tido. (-.-) See what I mean by it's boring for me? Cause I'm right in the middle and it will be weird if I continue to talk to Nad. It will be tiring for her to keep on turning her head. I'm lucky it's only a 2hours+ flight. Landing and clearance was smooth and we're officially in BALI!!!!

All muka busuk cause baru bngn tido. Hahahah. We were met by Ricky, our driver for the next 4 days there. Told him we wanted to grab food and changed money first before heading to our villa. The exchange rate there was super good, I will definitely change money there the next time I go Bali. & no, there wasn't any commission scam. Which is good. :)

Meet Ricky :D

Where we're at in Bali

We reached the villa around 4pm, which was the beginning of our nightmare. There was no one there to receive us, the doors were locked and the numbers that I have aren't getting thru. I was about to blow but then I calmed down, smoked a few sticks back to back while calling Booking.com. Kira called the Singapore office while I called the Indonesian office.

Kira's conversation wasn't going anywhere. The person on the other end of the line wasn't emphatic at all and he put her on hold for a few times, each more than 10mins. We're on roaming FYI. After the holds, he couldn't provide a solution for us. He mentioned he will give a callback.

I was greeted by this lady named Ayu. She was nice, but she couldn't get thru the owner / management of the villa either. I told her to give me a solution cause I paid half of the price for this stay already and I'm not going to be stranded in Bali. She said she will try to arrange something and give me a callback.

By then, it was nearing 6, and it has been more than 5-10mins that we were promised to get a callback from both of the Booking.com offices. Kira called back only to be greeted by someone else and she forgot to take down the name of the previous person. She was mad. Super mad. I was at the side, smoking and smoking and smoking. I even attempted to climb over the villa, I'm not kidding. I'm sure Nad has this picture on her phone. We were banging on doors super loud and shouting to the guards of the hotel few blocks away to ask where is the person in charge.

It was after 6pm. The villa manager appeared out of nowhere without an explanation and just smiled and open the door to let us in. Ricky gave him a spelling before we did, telling him that we've been waiting since 4pm. He DIDN'T APOLOGIZE AT ALL. But we were tired and thankful that at least, we don't have to spend the night waiting on the streets of Bali.

Approx 6:40pm, Ayu called me back. She was straight on apologizing cause she couldn't get thru the villa owners still but she had arranged for another accommodation with the same exact features as our villa, told me that I don't have to pay a single thing cause they will arrange the payment internally plus she arranged for someone to pick us up and send us to the new villa. I was pleased! But I had to tell her that we are now inside the villa. She asked me if the person in charge explained the lapse, I told her no, and again she apologized. Everyone agreed to just stay in Ikona, so we did. Singapore office on the other hand, could not come up with a solution and didn't give us a callback. What can I say huh.

We chilled for the evening, swam in the pool, went out to the nearest mart to get other necessities and slept early that night. Too frustrated / tired / speechless to want to do anything.

===DAY 2===

We agreed on going for the Kintamani tour (if I'm not wrong) on the second day in Bali. Was supposed to go out by 7:30am since the Barongan show is at 8:30am, but we were all taking our own sweet time and we went out late. Ricky was on time though. It was full house once we're there and at first we had to squeeze thru the crowd. But I was not satisfied with the view and I told Ricky I wanted to sit on the parapet instead. He teman me and stand beside me all the way to make sure I was safe & didn't fall. I called the rest of them but they were lazy to move, kesian seh it's so stuffy where they were standing.

That parapet on top, I was two steps higher.

We left just before the show ends cause we don't want to be caught in the human traffic. & we told Ricky we wanted to skip all the other itinerary that doesn't sound/look interesting. Next up, temple!

Cam-whoring in the car, as usual.

My sister and Nad decide to not enter the temple so it was just me, Rab and Kira. There was nothing much actually, not like those in Bangkok. A little disappointed but nevertheless it was an experience. When we came out, my sister told me that Nad wanted to take a picture with this one other driver in which she claimed he was cute. So I just went over and told him to take a picture with them.

Them with him. Trust me, he looks better upclose

After that we went to this Rice Terrace thingy, the scenery was super nice and it was windy. But since majority of us decide not to go down to the rice fields itself, we went shopping at the roadside stalls instead.

Last place for the day was at the inactive Volcano where they serve buffet lunches. This view is 10x better than the rice field. I felt calm and at ease looking out while eating. For a moment there I didn't want to buldge from where I was sitting to go anywhere else. I felt serene enough to forget everything that was going thru my mind. This place is a thumbs up, although it's a rip-off la. The buffet wasn't that good and it was pricey.

After that it was a long ride home. Everyone except Nad ended up sleeping since it was close to a three hour journey. Went to grab food & drinks before heading back to our Villa. After that, it was a pool party - for our eyes only kind - it was really really cool & fun. We keep on lauging due to each other's antics. Hahahah.

That's it for day 2 in Bali, Will update again. :)