Bali 2018 - Day 1

Truth be told that I have only been to two Asian cities outside of Malaysia. One being Singapore and Bangkok's the other. It's not that I have anything against Asian cities or countries, it's just that by the time I've done one major trip of the year (say to Europe or the States) and allocated a few days for Eid, I'm only left with a handful of vacation days. And most of the times, I'd be bringing my family for a short domestic holiday. It's much easier in terms of logistics :).

So when I received an email from Malaysia Airlines' Enrich at the end of October last year informing me that I had 19K points about to expire in a matter of weeks, I was frantically looking a good destination that would not make a dent into my already depleted annual leaves. A quick check on the 2018 calendar, I've spotted the consecutive Thaipusam and Federal Territory public holidays. I just need to take the Friday off from work and I could have a reasonable 5 days 4 nights holiday.

To shorten the story, I've narrowed it down to Bali and Phuket. One of my friends, convinced me that Bali would be the better choice.  He's Indonesian, so he could be a little bit biased. A tiny bit. Hahaha. So Bali it is. I had to fork out only a hundred ringgit for the tax on top of the 24.4K Enrich points for the flight. That was pretty OK in my books.

When the eruption of Mount Agung headlined the news at the end of November and even for a few weeks after that, I had some reservation for my Bali trip. They were still expecting a bigger eruptions to follow suit. Yikes! I don't want to be near to the volcano when that happens...

Fast forward to 31st of January... the day finally arrived and I was still praying for an incident (and volcanic)-free stay in Bali.

My flight was at 9 in the morning, but since I was opting for the KLIA transit as my mode of transportation to the airport, I had asked for a favour from my brother to send me to the Tasik Selatan station. I took the 5:40am train so I arrived at KLIA at 6:09am -- Ample time for dropping off my bag at the check-in counter, prayers and breakfast.

The flight was uneventful and arrived on-time 3 hours later. My friend, who had arrived earlier, picked me up at the arrivals and we headed for Tijili Hotel in Seminyak. That was when I learned first hand of the roads and traffic. Good thing that I wasn't driving. We were going round in circles in Kuta/Seminyak for a good portion of the car ride because the main stretch to get to Tijili was closed for an upacara (religious ceremony).

The sign at the arrival hall

A sneak preview of the Balinese architecture

You'd see lots of statues (like these) and pura (temples) all over Bali

Finally we arrived at Tijili. It was really a nice hotel and for the price we paid for the room, it was really good value for money.

My room came with balcony overlooking the pool

The hotel pool

After freshening ourselves up, we left for Tanah Lot.

When we reached Tanah Lot, it rained but for just a short period of time. There wasn't much of a sunset because the clouds and the sea was a bit rough because the tide was coming in. Nonetheless, the place eclipsed all that. I was actually pretty impressed with the place. My friend commented that the Balinese people really knew how to build the puras (temple) at dramatic places.

I'm finally here! Yay!

My friend said that this was considered sepi (quiet / not that many tourists). Really?

The tide was coming in

Not much of a sunset? No biggie

We left Tanah Lot close to sun down and made our way back to the hotel. We decided to walk to Seminyak and grab our dinner there.  And we finally settled for ... wait for it... Italian!  Hahahaha. We had pizza and pasta at Cafe Marzano, as recommended by my friend's close friends. Well I was on a bland diet, so that worked out fine :D.

The shops were mostly closed by the time we finished our dinner. We did stop for yogurt ice cream on the way back :D. So that was the first day and we got everything checked on the first day.

The breakfast area

The pool at night

Selamat malam