Off to Paradise

For others, the holiday starts at the airport but for me, this time around, the holiday starts with the ride to the airport.  It took almost three hours for me to get to the airport .. ooo Jakarta .. “I’m sure we’re gonna miss the flight” I thought ..

After settled the over-nite parking thing at the airport, I walked in the rain to the gate whatever carrying this 14-kilos of diving equipment, then I looked for my husband, who immediately spotted.  We hurriedly checked-in and yessss, as predicted, we missed the flight .. but the girl at the ticket counter tried to put us to the next flight.

Our seats were called for boarding and we could hardly contain our excitement! It was a short one and a half-hour or so flight to Bali and we were so high with the dream of paradise.  We tried to sleep but couldn’t (most likely because of the excitement).

It was already midnight when we reached Bali and it felt so great to have finally arrived! We came out of the airport, and there was Suaste, waiting for us at the exit gate.  We didn’t have any hotel reservation, so, after we dropped Suaste off somewhere near his house, we drove around Legian and Seminyak to find accommodation.

Two hours later, we were at the Rum Jungle Road Hotel in Legian.  We were both exhausted and cold.  Had quick shower, said our goodnights and hit the bed.  We had an early start planned for tomorrow, DIVING Nusapenida!! That is, if hubby could come out of his cold just in time.  He had been sneezing all week long before the trip.

We woke up early then got ready to hit the road, our appointment with the divemaster was at 8.  It was a beautiful morning! But, guess what, hubby still had his cold.  Appointment turned into disappointment.  No diving this time around. Yep, it was only my second time, lugging heavy dive equipments to Bali, only NOT to dive.  We went back to bed.

By 10am, we headed to the restaurant for breakfast.  We hit the road as soon as we’re done, drove up to Kerobokan.  The streets were busy this morning, our car raced against hundreds of scooters.

We decided to move to this little villa, Abianbiu Residence in Kerobokan.  Our room was gorgeous, which was a split level construct, we were on the second floor, which was gratifying, as I’d hate to be sat out on the ground level with people wandering past.  Flowers were all over the bed, in the room and in the bathroom, the towels smelled herbal-fresh.  We had a giant jacuzzy in the open-air bathroom and a u- shapped verandah overlooking the rice paddies, the garden and the pool. GREAT! While waiting for the room to be ready, we wandered down for a quick look at our home for the night.

We freshened-up a bit, and head out to Ubud for lunch.  We first checked-out Lamak.  I’ve always wanted to take him to Lamak.  The food were fabulous, and the decor was exotic.  But, when we got there, they’ve already closed for lunch.  So we went up to the village center, to the first modern restaurant in Ubud, Terazo.  The food here has always been good.

With tummies satisfied, we then proceed to Dreamland to catch the sunset.  We reached Dreamland after 1.5 hour, the sand was white against the blue sky and it was beautiful, we walked towards a group of sun lounges gathered under native huts.

I sat in one of those warungs, enjoying a cold bintang while waited for him to get his back massaged.  I like bintang, and for me, beer tastes a lot nicer when cheap.

It was already 8pm when we left Dreamland.  We headed to Seminyak for dinner.  This evening we took a trip to India, Queen’s Tandoor Restaurant.  If you are a lover of Indian cuisine then this is the restaurant you have been waiting for!

In the morning we went to Nirwana Gorl Resort, near Tanah Lot.  He said the view from the golf course toward the temple was great.  When we got there, well .. we really didn’t know where to go.  So we just drove around until we found a side road leading to the middle of the golf course, must’ve been a service road.  We parked our car near a golf cart path and hardly see Tanah Lot.  When it started to drizzle we went back to the car and went to the resort.  The drizzle started to turn into a heavy rain.  There was supposed to be some golf event, but it was all cancelled out or postponed and the hotel loby was packed with middle-aged men, their wives and children, all waiting for the rain to stop.  We couldn’t even get a seat at the hotel bar, so we just walked around the hotel and waited out the rain.  Tanah Lot was more visible from here, but barely.  So much for great views, we left as soon as the rain thinned out a bit and looked for lunch.

In the evening we had dinner at Kafe Warisan, French restaurant in Kerobokan. We didn’t know this rule about Kafe Warisan “DO NOT COME TO KAFE WARISAN FOR DINNER UNLESS YOU HAVE ALREADY MADE A RESERVATION” .. But, we got lucky this night.  We were seated at a table for two in an open courtyard, under the trees, overlooking the rice paddies, very romantic! The biggest problem was deciding what to eat.  For entree, for sure, we had escargots.  They were so simple, yet sensational! An evening spent dining at Kafe Warisan was very special.

We didn’t do much this time in Bali, didn’t even dive.  But, .. I had a wonderful birthday weekend anyway ..