Thursday, February 27, 2014

Indonesia: Bali Day 2 (Part 2) - Bali Mall Galleria, Kuta

After a busy morning in Ubud, racing from attraction to attraction, we were beat and were eager to move on to the next part of the holiday - Kuta. 

The drive from Ubud to Kuta took about 1 hour and a half and we slept the entire way while Joe from Bali Joe's drove us in his ever comfortable van to the main tourist hotspot. Our hotel, Grand Mega Resort and Spa, however was in the outskirts of the town center, a good 10 to 15 minutes drive away. Fortunately, it wasn't completely devoid of shops and stores as there was a shopping mall across the road. Unfortunately, that road was a busy freeway with no traffic light to stall the rushing cars and motocycles for us to cross.


Thursday, February 20, 2014

Indonesia: Bali Day 2 (Part 1) - Ubud by Foot

I love Ubud. Quite possibly even more than Kuta. I love how simple the road is, it's just one long road that has everything including a Starbucks! That's right, Ubud has a Starbucks. But I am getting ahead of myself.



After a day of temples, monkeys and rice field with our guides from Febris Bali Tour, we only had the morning to explore Ubud after a slow and leisurely breakfast. From our hotel, we headed into town and it took us only 10 minutes by foot. Walking on the street can be quite dangerous though as there was no pedestrian walkway on the very narrow roads. However, the locals seem quite adapted at dodging us. To be safe, we struck to the edge as close as we could.

Friday, February 14, 2014

William's Corner, Taman Mayang

The famous Williams Corner in Taman Mayang and their gigantic portions of fusion mamak italian food has been circulating the world wide web for some time now and I have always been curious to try their dishes and their just-as-huge drinks.

So one fine day my girlfriends and I popped over to Williams to catch up over dinner. As warned by multiple blogs, there was no clear signatures or signboard of the place. Your only hint would be the tables and chairs set outside an open lot-turned-into-a-kitchen.


As soon as we sat down, a waiter came up to ask if we had ordered. We told him no and took turns checking out the menu on the wall inside the lot-turned-kitchen. They don't offer the typical book menu but here's a glimpse of they offer.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Indonesia: Bali Day 1 - Temple Tour, Ubud

A month before my trip, it suddenly dawned upon me that we had no idea how we were going to carry out our itinerary. We had no transportation or sense of direction to get to our intended sites. So I consulted Lord Google and came across Febris Bali Tour. Reviews of this tour group have been positive and assuring so I shot them an email and received a prompt reply confirming my tour booking in Ubud.

After a stressful night of delayed flights and missing purses, I was looking forward to a day of visiting the historical and cultural landmarks that made up Bali. Our guide, Mathir and driver, Putu were at our hotel, Sri Ratih Cottages in Ubud, early and waited patiently while we finished up breakfast. Mathir was very polite, courteous and spoke good English as he explained our itinerary for the day.

Our first stop was Taman Ayun Temple, located in Mengwi Village and is about a 40minutes drive from Ubud and 30minutes from Denpasar. The pond and garden surrounding the temple were huge and well-maintained with a clear pathway leading to the temple area.


Monday, February 3, 2014

5 Interesting Facts about Cellphones

I forgot to bring my iPhone to work one day and I just went into a complete mental meltdown upon discovering the absence of my phone right there in my office. Thankfully, all of my bosses were on  leave and only two of my colleagues bore witness to this. *hm, I would have to kill them now...*

Anyway, the point being that, without realizing it, our phones have become such an integral part of our daily lives. Try to think of a time when all we needed it for was to call and text people. If you can, do you think you would be able to go back to that time with a smartphone? Most probably not and if you can't recall such a time, you might have been just a toddler then.

But from a device that was once used for simple communication, phones has evolved into a multitasking tool. Courtesy of Lion and Lion, here are 5 Mind-Blowing Facts About Cellphones!