Bali - I

I'd always brought along a travel guide on holidays. This round, I left both my Rough Guide and DK Eyewitness on Bali behind, and we did suffer the consequences. For 2 days, we just traveled long distant to places which are not appealing at all, wasting money and time *sigh*. On a brighter note, the holiday was good, Zara coped very well, in long car rides, on the plane, and even shopping long hours seated in her stroller or carried in the baby sling. Day 1 ~ Thurs 27th April We arrived Bali on Thursday night. A car has been sent to pick us up from Ellie's, our hotel in Nusa Dua. It was pitch dark even though it was only about 7:30pm. The owner, an English named Sam, helped us checked in. It's a small hotel, with only 8rooms, clean (most importantly) and gorgeously furnished. While Sam ordered dinner for us from a local restaurant (Ellie's doesn't do dinners), we freshened up. Zara absolutely loved the bath.

fun on the plane and in the tub

From our dinner of nasi campur (Malay : mixed rice) and fish satay, Zara only took the rice, some tempeh (Malay : fermented beans) and lots of prawn cracker (her staple diet for the next few meals). Day 2 ~ Friday 28th April There's no buffet breakfast in Ellie's, but you can order fruit muesli, pancakes, french toasts, eggs, and it'll be freshly made. You get to choose a hearty fresh juice or smoothie too. I like establishment like this, Zara is free to roam about, and because the place is small, I'm not worried she'll knock into people, or lost in a crowd. Zara had buttered toast, and half a glass of watermelon juice (for the next few days, she always had good breakfast, but took little from the rest of the meals). She wanted a dip in the pool after breakfast and mummy oblidged.

Zara absolutely likes having her back 'massage' by the fountain

In the morning, we wanted to go to this big art market Kumbasari in Denpasar (capital of Bali), but the cabbie we hired told us to go to Sukawati instead. What a con job! After 2 hours of car ride, and 110,000R poorer (~RM60) we arrived at a dirty and small market, not worthy of a visit, in a isolated town. The cabbie wanted to wait for us and do the return trip but we just told him off. We roamed around the town a bit, and then took a local transport to Denpasar.

Around Sukawati; sticks for Satay on sale and narrow alley in Sukawati market; taking the local transport back to Denpasar.

We really enjoyed walking about in the local Pasar Badung in Denpasar, it is a very big market with lots of interesting things to see.

Cooked salted fish; lady packing Balinese Gado-gado; different types of eggs (salted, blackened etc); tempeh (fermented bean cakes) of all sort

Flowers for prayers; bamboo leaves for weaving; drink vendor and a very bored Zara; local vege on sale from the baskets

After this, we went to Pantai Geger in Nusa Dua (where Nikko Hotel Bali is located). We didn't visit the hotel beach, but instead we hung around the local sea weed farms, and had grilled sea food dinner at a beach front restaurant.

After sea weed is harvested, the farmers have to dry them before selling them off; harvested sea weeds are transport by hand; women who need to take care of young kids are not spared; the sea weed farm right at the shore

Zara found a sea weed to play with; the sand around the farm is quite coarse, Daddy had to carry Zara while around walking in the farm; Zara rewarded Daddy with a hug; Daddy and Zara's footsteps

Zara loved the sand; resting on Daddy's shoulder with her head perched on Daddy's head; inspecting a sea weed