Central Bali

We woke up at 8 a.m. and had breakfast at - they served cup of coffee with awful toast (bread with egg). At 9 a.m. the guy named Nyoman took us for Bali sightseeing. Today we went to Central Bali, and the first place we seen was Monkey Forest, Ubud. It was about one hour away from our guesthouse. We paid 20.000 RP for entrance fee. They were selling bananas for feeding monkeys, too. They were nice monkeys, not naughty ones. Some tourists played with them and feeding them. The weather was rather humid than hot. There was ceremonial temple (a ceremony was in preparation while we visit) at the forest, and bathing temple too, with a nice waterfall. Outside Monkey Forest there were many shops for tourist but we didn't buy a thing. Next, we were after some Bali Coffee Agrotourism. A company named Oka set some stalls with fresh Balinese coffee, fruits and spices outskirts Ubud. We bought coffeee, cocoa, dark chocolate, lotion and massage oil for 800.000 with 15 % off. I bargained down to 650.000. It was so expensive anyway. We tried Indonesian fruits - Salak, Passionfruit, Tamarillo and Sapodilla. We've seen many rice fields on the way, and a woman praying to rice gods. After stopping for coffee we traveled to Kintamani village to see Mt. Batur, an active volcano. We paid 3.000 RP for parking. The weather was very cold. We had buffet lunch at Panca Yoga restaurant for which we paid 180.000 RP (75.000 RP per person plus 20% government tax). Next we went to see Tampaksiring, a village where Holy Springs & Temple are located. We paid 30.000 as entrance fee and we saw Balinese bathing in the pool. There were two pools there - one for when someone had bad premonition. The other one is for those who want something good happen to them and in exchange they promise the gods to do good deeds. Before entering the temple, we had to wear sarong. We saw some ceremony again. We walked inside and seen the beautiful hot springs. On the way back we stopped for some shopping in stalls near the temple. I bought colourful small countainers for my colleagues at work (I bargained 100.000 RP down to 60.000 RP for two packages), and small drum (bongo) for my nephew (75.000 down to 20.000 RP). After that we returned back to Ubud to see Ubud Palace and we found lotus garden near café called Cafe Lotus. We sat there for avocado juice and mixed fruit juice (57.750 RP, from which there was 10% governement tax and 5% service charge). At last, we traveled to painting gallery. They had many nice paintings, but expensive so we didn't buy any. Today's trip costed us 400.000 RP. In the evening, we took motorbike to find some place for dinner. We had crab coriander soup and deep fried prawns at Snapper Corner (not far away from our guesthouse). We also had papaya juice and small water. It costed us 96.800 RP. On the way back we stopped at internet café (10 minutes for 3000 RP), but internet was very slow so we didn't browse anything.

Travel to Bali

We woke up at 3 a.m., got dressed quickly and before taking taxi to Suvarnabhumi, we stopped at 7-Eleven near our appartment to buy some sandwiches to eat aboard the plane (it was against airlines' policy but we didn't care) because we didn't want to pay expensive food. We arrived to airport at 4 a.m. and there were many people there already waiting in the queue. We waited in queue something like 30 minutes and after that we found some place to fill our emigration cards. We passed emigration office without any problems and walked to our gate F2 where we waited until 6.15 a.m. After that airport staff announced that passengers can board the plane and take their seats. Our seats were 25E & 25D. Flight attendant informed us that we'll arrive Bali in 4 hours and that we should prepare ourselves to some turbulences during the flight because weather was not good today. Shortly before landing, we were told that if we don't have Indonesian visas already, we can obtain visa on arrival on Ngurah Rai airport. I didn't need them because I am Thai but my boyfriend needed them so he paid $25 for 30 days and then we went each to different immigration counter. I passed immigration sooner than him so I went to claim our baggage. I was in shock when I saw that they simply put all baggage on the floor, then I walked around the heap and attempted to found our bags. I took the bags and waited for my boyfriend at exit. There were many moneychangers there and they shout, No Commision, no commision - at us. My boyfriend changed $375 to 3.253.000 RP and we continued to waiting area where someone from Dana Guesthouse should be waiting for us to pick up. But there was noone like that so we decided to buy Indonesian SIM card to call to guesthouse's manager. The price of SIM was 50.000 RP (with 5.000 credit) but my boyfriend bargained it down to 40.000 RP (first time for him to bargain, and not too well). After we bought SIM we called to Dana Guesthouse and we were told that they didn't get the message we've sent before we go and they told us that we can take taxi and we'll get refund from the guesthouse. After that we booked a taxi at one of the airport's stalls 'cause we were new in the town and didn't want to push our luck with some scam taxi driver. We showed the name of the guesthouse to man at the stall and he didn't know where it is. Therefore we dialed a number to Mr. Putu and let them talking for a while until it was clear where Dana Guesthouse is. We paid 135 RP to the man at stall and he sent us after the taxi driver who traveled with us about an hour and still couldn't find the guesthouse. We needed to dial Mr. Putu again and he finally navigated us to his guesthouse. It was located outside the main roads on one of town's backstreets (we passed it but driver didn't notice so we needed to turn back). We walked down 50 meters off the street and after that we stood in shock. It was so ugly! (Unlike on the pictures from their webpage.) We asked staff which room is ours and he pointed to one of the bungalows: This room is for you. While we were waiting, the guy also brought us some tea & coffee to drink. After some time, manager was coming to clear the things concerning room and taxi. The room rate was $14 per night and we were supposed to pay 758.940 RP (he didn't want dollars and his exchange rate was 9035 RP for $1, which actually was VERY BAD rate). We paid 658.940 RP as he deducted 100.000 RP for taxi fee, but it wasn't fair to us as we paid 135.000 RP for taxi. The manager mentioned a place called Echo Beach while we talked, and we decided to go there by guesthouse's motorbike which was included in our room rate. We got lost once on the way to Echo Beach and needed to ask for directions. We stopped at some shop to do that and we also bought small water for 2000 RP and fuel to our motorbike for 5000 RP (1 L). After getting to the place we paid 2000 RP for parking and then stood in shock again. Echo Beach was not nice! (Unlike Mr. Putu said). We saw some people surfing and some people bathing - those who were not afraid of big waves. We wanted to change place 'cause there was nothing to see at Echo Beach, but heavy rain disrupted our plan so we stopped at some restaurant (it's name was something like Sat Bi) and had our first indonesian meal - we ordered Ikan Kalas soup, Sate Babi and two Balinese coffee. We paid 121.000 RP. There was a woman selling sarongs there. She wanted 30.000 rupiah (local price) which I bargained down to 25.000 rupiah. After that we went back to guesthouse we waited until rain stops and then we went outside to buy two big bottles of water - 10.000 RP.