Korea 101

24th October 2006

KLIA, me and my sister are taking Cathay Pacific flight from KL to HK. we were there around 3.30pm to catch the 5.55pm flight. Reached HK airport by 10pm to transit to Incheon by 12.20am.

so for 3 hours there, we wandered around the magazine shop where i bumped into some porn magazine that displayed shamelessly (haha), this amazed me! then we rest at the food court area... didn't buy any food, my sis slept for a while, and i was busy preparing my powerpoint presentation with my laptop there. it was so quiet, 90% of the stalls have already stopped their business for the day, the cleaning ladies came out to work. so we left that area and proceed to the departure gate 25 for our flight.

25th October 2006

The flight was on time. we had our supper on plane and i was hoping to catch "the lake house", but was too tired and dozed off. later about 3am i was awake by this severe headache, more like a migraine or electric shocks, that maybe due to the pressure change... didn't know i have that problem. but luckily we were about to arrive at Incheon in less than half an hour time... so i rubbed my head.

We arrived 3.40am or Korea time 4.40am, and in this early morning, me and my sister were stopped by the imigration officers and were detained for interrogation. i was so blurred i didn't know what happen but just follow the direction given by the officer and went into the room. later i saw my sister walked in too. the female officer hold a small microscopic lens and inspected every single page of my passport, same thing to my sister's too. the male officer who's infront of my sis kept on asking her what's her purpose of going into Korea. i found the whole thing funny though. after about 10 minutes i finally realized i could be held here for a long time... so i asked the lady what seems to be the problem?... then only she threw me a smile and explain that Malaysian passports are easy to forge. mmm... so by then i was a suspected "jump aeroplane" person. then finally she asked me the million dollars question of why i went to Korea, so i answered her for conference. her eyes sparked a bit and asked for any documentation to prove, for that i passed her the invitation letter of the conference. then another officer (of higher rank) was called in and after a while we were released.
about 5.30 in the morning, nothing was opened, we wandered the airport to familiarize ourselves and to look for any information booth. the first thing we did is to rent a handphone of GSM system and insert my sis's sim card in. Tada it works wonderfully, it was so easy.

Then we found a spot and sat down, can't sleep at all... i guess we were too shaken by the imigration drama. haha. we waited until 6.30am when most of the counters and shops started business. we approached a few airlines like Korean Air and Asiana Air for tickets from Gwangju to Jejudo after my conference, but to my surprise they were ALL FULL... which made us panicked cause it would ruin and totally change our traveling plan...

Here is our original plan:
25/10 - morning take bus to Cheongju, reach there by afternoon for Hotspring and flower rice. evening take bus to Namwon to stay a night.
26/10 - morning going to Jirisan national park to hike and to experience autumn red maple forest. afternoon take bus to Gwangju and i'll be able to attend the welcoming dinner.
27-29/10 - my conference. then by 29/10 evening we take plane to Jeju
30-31/10 - tour around Jejudo and shall take the earliest flight on 31/10 back to Seoul/Gimpo airport, then the rest of the day until 1/11 will be at Seoul before our flight back to Malaysia on 11am.

but now, if there's no ticket from Gwangju to Jejudo, we sorta wanna change our plan to go Jejudo first then take a reverse plan to tour all the way up north... so we checked with airline and it seems that all flights to Jejudo from Incheon was also FULL until late evening.... OMG!!

We got panicked, until 7.30am when the famous travel information booth opened, we quickly ran there to seek for advice... i shall skip all the craps... and go straight to 8.15am... yes, we spent 45 full minutes there asked this and that... there must be 10 different plans, and we finally settled to go to Cheongju by airport limousine bus (original plan). the girl at the counter was very helpful. she phoned to another person and confirmed that there's a direct bus from Cheongju to Jirisan national park and we can stay a night at Baemsagol Valley which is located inside the Jirisan. she pointed us to the correct gate and taught us patiently how to buy ticket from which counter and how much... so we just followed and finally got our tickets 8.30am... then only we realized we were so HUNGRY. my sister quickly ran to a shop to buy roti and milk while i went to find the correct bus and hold it. it was a pain in the a** for there's no English word at all and people there don't speak English at all. so i have to compare the Korean words printed on my ticket to every bus and finally found it... my sister ran in on time and the bus left punctually 8.30am... phew....

the girl at the information booth told us it will take 4 hours to reach Cheongju, so we expected to reach there by 12.30pm. so we slept and slept. i woke up around 11am, and just a while later we arrived at Cheongju...
WAIT A MINUTE... aren't we supposed to only reach here by 12.30pm?? how come now only 11.20am dah sampai pun??

anyway, since we were already here, so nevermind lah, early is better than late mah... we didn't suspect anything wrong. then just when we stepped down the bus, we saw another tourist information center, so we happily went in hoping to get more information. the girls inside the center were so so helpful and friendly. only 1 girl - i think called Minghyang or MingYung or something, their name sounds all the same... - who can speak good English. and shockingly to us, there's NO direct bus from Cheongju to Jirisan as been told to us by the girl in Incheon!!!! *add thunder storm sound here*

So, we showed Minghyang the plan laid down by the Incheon girl, and she told us laughingly that we have come to the WRONG city!! the Incheon girl meant "Jeonju" and not "Cheongju"... pengsan terus...!!! no wonder so fast reached liao lah, kononnya Jeonju is yet another hour away from Cheongju... GOODNESS!

But not to worry, Minghyang said, since you are here might as well visit some of the tourist spots here lor... she recommended some fortress and paper museum, but we were having the hotspring and flower rice in our mind. then she checked checked and come back to us with yet another shocking news - if we want to catch the last bus to Jirisan, we only left a little less than 1&half hours in Cheongju, which means hotspring and flower rice are just too far from us!! so we suggested take taxi there, we rather pay more money than doing nothing there... so this very helpful girl walked us to the taxi stand across the road and checked with the driver, and again we were so disappointed to find out that to take taxi to the flower rice will take us 20 minutes, to and fro 40 minutes, which means we only have less than 40 minutes... sigh...

no choice, Minghyang then suggested us to take bus to the nearby paper museum. we waited at the busstop where i suddenly miraculously know how to read Korean words on the electronic board and found out we have to wait for another 22minutes before the next bus arrived. i confirmed it by miming to the ajumma (aunty) there... so me and sister decided not to go anywhere but to find ourselves some lunch and hop on to the earlier bus to Jeonju then to Jirisan.

We went to the nearest shopping mall, if not mistaken it's LotteMart... and immediately my sister was all hyped up! why? because she found a bakery called "Paris Baguette", not because the bread there are of any special but because the spokeperson for the bakery is Hyun Bin - her idol. she snapped snapped some photos, and the ajumma inside started to giggle and a few of them started to gossip. we left the bakery without buying anything.

then we stopped by a fastfood restaurant because we can't find anything decent to eat. so we decided to have something safe. it's called Lotteria, and we have a rice burger with some cheese roll and mixed salad. quite yummy the rice burger. not bad not bad. for 2 sets of the meal, it costs us Won8500, which is RM34 (expensive also hor). only problem is we went thru hard time explaining what we wanted to order cause again they don't speak English not even a single word... sigh...

Then we went back to the information center, told Minghyang that we didn't go anywhere, she was so surprised... we took our bags and laptop that we left there earlier and proceed to the bus terminal.

This time we were extra careful when purchasing ticket, cause we didn't want to end up in Seongju or Keongju. so we have already asked Minghyang to write us our destination and plan in Korean on a piece of paper.


We went to the counter and showed them the paper and asked for 2 tickets. and this time we were quite sure we got on the correct bus. i think we must have left Cheongju around 2pm. We should reached Jeonju 3.30pm so that we can catch the 2nd last bus to Baemsagol by 3.30pm too, or else we would have to wait for the last bus which was 5.05pm... and yes, that day must be our unlucky day, we reached Jeonju 3.35pm, and the 2nd last bus has left....

to be continued...

10 impressions about Korea & Koreans

ok, i "was" back last wednesday night. touched ground 7pm and damn drained out. Korea is okay, i have had so many wonderful experience and have done some soul searching too. so, all-in-all this trip is worth every single cent that i spent. i'll definitely go back again, maybe end of 2007 or 2008.

10 impressions about Korea & Koreans

1. They are driving in the different direction, so Malaysian license holders cannot drive there. and i have a hard time accustom myself to "look left" rather than "look right" when walk across roads! (nearly got banged few times)

2. Koreans are so good looking!! okay, apart from the surgery thing, they go out wearing great attires!! men wear formal tie with suits, girls all make-up and wear fancy dress... the view on the street is nice and eye-feasting.

3. Koreans are nice people. I'm not surprised if it's one of the countries with lowest crime rate. the atmosphere is so peaceful. even if you leave your laptop or handphone on the table, no one is going to steal it! stealing and cheating are just not any part of their lives.

4. Another prove is no one is going sit on the seat for handicaps or senior citizens on subway trains... i mean none!! unlike malaysia. even if the trains are totally full, the young and trendy and hip teenagers will not even sit on those seats!! i'm genuinely impressed!

5. They are really helpful people... ok, although most of them are of no help because they can't speak a word of English, but they are STILL helpful people. even if you have made known to them that you don't know Korean, they will still try to help you by speaking non-stop Korean, as if you somehow will miraculously understand them! hehe...

6. They are really warm people. Most time when we met a group of unlces and aunties, they ill extend their friendship, hand you some food and drinks, give you a ride, bring you personally to the place you ask for eventhough it means walking away from their work for 10 minutes!!!

7. Their food is always red in colour!! hehe... okay, and most of the food are vegetable, they seldom have meat. and Koreans love spicy and hot food!! some are so hot, i as malaysian also have to admit "kalah"... and yes, most of the food are also fermented... my sister on the way back told me that "the whole country has this fermented smell" and too much of the smell makes her sick!

8. cosmetic and facial masks are really cheap there!! no wonder people there have so beautiful and translucent skin texture! okay, i've bought a lot of facial masks too! :P

9. Korea is not a "friendly" place for foreign travellers, especially backpackers... cause it's really really hard to navigate around Korea for there is NO english words at all!! no english on road signs, billboards, notices, public transportation, ticket counters... and to make it worse, most Koreans don't speak English at all!!! so you better bring along your english-korean dictionary, or follow tour where the tour guide will do the job for you.

10. It's FREAKING expensive in Korea... bring a lot of dough or you shall starve to death!! one proper fried rice in Korea is close to RM20 per plate. a bottle of mineral water is about RM2.50. BBQ set for 2 person is close to RM200. youth hostel or even homestay are about RM100 per small room. proper hotel room cost about RM200 or more!!

Ayutthaya, Thailand

During my trip to Ayuttaya with mikey on May 2006, we passed by this shrine... but i cannot remember exactly the name of the place now, i just remember how hot it is that day, and the sky was cloud-less. When i took out my camera, i suddenly saw this rainbow appear directly on top of me, so snapping this photo was not hard at all.

BKK102

Day 1 (part 2)
8 May 2006
Monday


Right after our lunch by 3pm, we were recharged, we decided to take a walk from KhaoSan Rd. to the grand palace. we simply walked out to the main road, and walked following the walk path. the truth is, we can't seems to find the way to cross the main road to the opposite side, which is the Sanam Luang park... after walking up and down, we decided the risky move - "don't care, just walk across it like that..."... hahaha, considering the main road is something like a highway, and imagine the heavy traffic in central bangkok, i believe it's kinda crazy move!!


only later we found out, further up, there's a zebra crossing, hehehe!

so, ok, finally we reached Sanam Luang, we were already like sweating nonstop, coz the weather really is too HOT... like an oven! the park is very much like the size of Merdeka Square, very huge. but this time around, the park was surrounded by stalls covered in brownish yellow cloths. we walked into the swamp of stalls only to realize they were actually celebrating Wesak. only different is in Malaysia, we have 1 day holiday for wesak, but here in Thailand, it's a whole week celebration and holidays!!! wow!!


Here you can see the yellow color stalls and a monk just walked past us.

we do not understand thai language, so those stalls didn't appeal to us, but we could not resist the stalls selling cold drinks! Mikey walked over to 1 stall and bought a small bottle of herbal drink. at first we tried to ask the young lady what exactly was the drink... but soon we realized we are wasting our time bcoz she can't seems to understand English. which kinda surprised me, coz i thot most Bangkok ppl know English. but maybe, only maybe, it's a national celebration and food fair and exhibition, so most of the hawkers and ppl here are not local Bangkok ppl... well, i think la! hahaha.

back to the drink bt.10, it tasted like "kekhwa" (chrysanthemum) drink, but of coz it's not lah. but it's sweeter and actually quite good and refreshing. so we continue our walk. we saw a lot of students, teenagers in uniforms, a lot of ppl. wow, they being so religious amazed me. i mean, the celebration here at Sanam Luang Square was not at all entertaining, but rather educative and informative... i doubt Malaysians would actually turn up for religious activities like this. hehe!!! ok, i'm being prejudiced, sorry! back to the uniform things... hahaha, we noticed that the uniforms of Thai are all so tight, especially at the waist line there... ketat gila babi!!! so all the shapes and sizes of all these uniformed men could be clearly defined!! :D

After a "not so short walk", trying to avoid local aunties who were busy searching for tourists to sell some seeds to feed doves, we reached another main road facing the entrance of the grand palace. YES, we were finally here... BUT the sad thing is, the grand palace close by 3.30pm as stated at the entrance. looking at the watch, it's already 3.20pm, we chose not to go in. a funny thing happened is when i approached the guard which was surrounded by few tour guides or tuktuk drivers, one of them started talking to me in thai... i was like "what the hell??" and i politely told him, "i'm not Thai, sorry. but is the palace closed by 3.30pm"... then he laughed, "ya, as stated at the board. i thot you are Thai, coz you look like Thai ppl!!"... i was like... speechless. Mikey thought that was funny! -.-" WTH, i look so "cina pek", how can you mistaken me as THAI!! :(


This is the side door of the Grand Palace. pretty isn't it?

originally we planned to go to Wat Pho & Wat Arun, but we were afraid if the same thing happen again if we are to walk there, it will be a total waste of time. so we thought, it might be a good idea that we just walk back, rest and relax, and gather more information then will only explore this area tomorrow morning. moreover the hot weather was really killing us.

so we turned back the same way, and decided since we were here, why not just walk inside the Sanam Luang park and looked around their exhibitions...


These were like the flower-decorated carnival car for their parade i supposed. and of course the Buddhism theme, with little Buddha one hand pointing the sky and another pointing to the earth.


We can't help but took photos of one of the parade car... notice that it was decorated with all sorts of vegetables. fascinating! :)




This is the central part of the park. it's said that there was a buddha's relic stone (or whatever...) inside the little container. Thais come from everywhere of the country to worship here. the 3rd pic is the main possession of the stage.


a stall where ppl can choose a small print out for fortune-telling.

After some time exploring the celebration/ceremony, we got so thirsty again and thinking of getting another one of those "kekhwa" drink again. but then when we passed by a stall where a lot of Thais qued up to take reddish water FREE, we also joined the line. mmm... tasted icy cool and good too, how nice!!! i think we must have taken more than 3 glasses. hehe!!! yum yum!!

so all recharged, around 5pm, we walked back to KhaoSan Rd., this time followed the correct way back. :) just when we reached the room, straight away we took a bath and slept like a pig! muahahaha! :P

BKK101

I have always been wanting to go Bangkok, even before i went to Bali. and yes, finally this time i'm all set to go! even more satisfying is that, this trip will last me 7days and 7nights, so frankly i was looking for a more relaxing yet fruitful trip! :)

Day 1 (part 1)
8 May 2006
Monday

Morning, i woke up around 6am to follow my sister's car to mikey's place, so it's lucky that i packed all my stuffs ready the night before. after picking up mikey, my sis sent us to Kelana Jaya LRT station, so that we can go KL Sentral to catch the airport bus to LCCT terminal. we were really lucky as the minute we reached KL Sentral, the bus was ready to go, so no need to wait.

We reached LCCT, KLIA around 8.30am. it took the airport bus less than 45min, and it cost us RM9 per person. i would consider this cheap compare to the ERL to KLIA, and definitely a good service by AirAsia!! God bless them! Our flight was 10.40am, so we still have 10 minutes to kill before the check in time, so we went to McD to have breakfast.

The flight was delayed for 20 minutes, so we only stepped into the plane by 11am... the plane only took off about 11.30am i think, but no complain, as we expected worse. the flight took 2hours & 5mins. by the time we reached Bangkok airport, the announcement said, it's 12.30pm Bangkok time. (Malaysia time 1.30pm)

A little something...

Malaysia/KL	Thai/Bangkok
RM 1	Baht 10
8 am	7 am

when we came out from the airport, there are a lot of ppl asking us whether we want to take taxi or not. there were even officers telling us the counter to book taxi is over somewhere. but i know very sure that there is a cheaper airport bus, so me n mikey just walked past them. lucky for us, there are signboards everywhere stating "airport bus" pointing us out of the terminal...

outside, we saw a booth selling tickets, we asked the person inside the booth, the helpful girl there straight away pointed to a bus next to us and said, "you want to go KhaoSan road, that's the bus! faster, it's going to leave now!" so, we purchased 2 tickets Bt.100 each, and hopped onto the bus. hooray, everything seems going fine! in the bus, we took out maps that my sister lend me, and started to study it while looking around for landmarks.

mikey told me the price of cars here is kinda low, so we shall expect to see all hebat-hebat punya kereta on the road. true enough, there are so many toyota and honda here, all look really shiny and new. replace these cars with proton wira & waja, you'll got Malaysia roads! :P

we reached KhaoSan road around 1.40pm (bangkok time from now on), the sceneries, the traffic, and the people just overwhelmed me. i lost my sense of direction. instead of looking for the main road (khao san), we got ourselves into a small back alley (well, the reason was we saw many mat sallehs coming out from there). we walked pass few food stalls, few shops, until we turned into another alley, we started to see few inns. we walked in and asked about their rate... not too bad, most of them ranged around 150-350baht. but all the inns have only share bathroom. since mikey demanded private bathroom, we came to a conclusion that we shall look for something more expensive then.

we walked out of the alley, and finally reached the middle of KhaoSan Road, right in front of us, there's a big signboard "Khaosan Palace Inn"... the look of the reception area was impressive, when we asked the rate, it's a bit more expensive than others, but at least they got private bathroom. so tried to pick the cheapest one, which was fan and double room. but they kept insisting that they don't have double room available, only twin room (2 single bed instead of 1 queen sized bed)... it's 50baht more expensive. we said we want to look at the room first, so they handed us a key and show us the way... we walked in, mmm... what a small room. we were so tired (of looking around, and walking, and the HOT weather was killing us), so we decided to settle with this one for now. i went down to pay - Bt.420. oklah, not too bad.


The time we took this photos was a bit late lah. hahaha! just imagine them as in afternoon hot sun ok!! but yeah, look at the reception, quite impressive hor?? but so sorry we didn't take photo of the interior, not a pretty sight i can tell you. the truth is i won't go back there again! hahaha.

After we cleaned up and relaxed a bit... we decided that, it's time to take our lunch already. looked at the time, it's already 2pm, which is Malaysia time 3pm - OF COZ we were hungry no wonder! hehe! so walked down the street trying to find something to eat.

as usual the first day, we were a bit lost. so, we walked and walked and finally decided to dine in a restaurant called "Prakoeb's House". I ordered green curry chicken with rice bt.65, mikey ordered american fried rice bt.70, we also ordered a mushroom salad bt.40 and 2 glasses of mixed fruit juice bt.25 each. a bit pricey i would say cause i expected thai food to be a lot more cheaper... but maybe i'm just a poor malaysian guy lah, hahaha, the price must look ridiculously cheap to westerners. -.-"


1st pic showing the american fried rice sausage, fried egg, chicken n rice, closer is the green curry chicken with rice that shaped as "star". the 2nd pic showing the mushroom salad and the mixed fruit juice.

the food tasted ok, the portion was small. a bit lame to be our 1st meal in Bangkok i think! hahaha!
WE DESERVED BETTER THAN THESE!!! :P
but i always crave green curry, so hahaha i think the curry is fine... just not too worth the money. *call me stingy*.

Bali204

They say that every visitor to Bali should see at least one dance and if you plan to see only one then this should be it. The combination of ancient ritual, dance, drama, sunset and cliff of setting makes Kecak Dance one of the most spectacular dance performances imaginable.

Accompanied by a choir of chanting and singing men, this will be a memory that will stay with you long after you leave this Island of the Gods.

ACT 1 – RAMA, SITA, LAKSAMANA & KIJANG


Wandering in the forest of Dandaka during the exile of Rama, Sita sees a beautiful golden deer dancing in front of her, she pleads with her husband to catch it for her. Rama, fearful of what may befall Sita if left alone in the dangerous forest, leaves Sita in the protetion of his brother Laksamana. Shortly after Rama’s departure, a cry for help echoes around the forest. Fearful for her husband’s safety, Sita sends Laksamana to his aid leaving herself unprotected and alone.


ACT 2 – SITA, RHAWANA, BHAGAWAN AND GARUDA


A sudden storm envelops the forest and Sita becomes fearful. Rhawana appears before her but she is protected by a magic circle and his attempt to seize her fails. He disappears only to come back disguised as a poor old man, Bhagawan, seeking shelter and water. Sita falls for Rhawana’s trick and he kidnaps her. Taking Sita to his palace of Alengka, Rhawana is attacked on the way by his mortal enemy, Garuda – King of birds. Though defeated in the fight, Garuda lives long enough to tell Rama what has happened to Sita.

ACT 3 – RAMA, LAKSAMANA, HANOMAN & SUGRIWA


On his search for Sita, Rama meets Sugriwa, the red monkey King, whose help he enlists to find his wife. Together they select a scout to find Alengka and locate Sita. Hanoman, a white monkey with magical powers is chosen and Rama provides him with a ring to give to Sita as a token of his love and has proof of Hanoman being his envoy.

ACT 4 – SITA, TRIJATA, HANOMAN & THE GIANTS


Hanoman locates Alengka and enlists the help of Trijata to meet with Sita who is about to take her own life in despair. Hanoman shows Sita the ring and tells of her husband’s impending rescue attempt. Hanoman then attempts to destroy part of the palace and is caught by the giants who attempt to burn him to death. He escapes causing much mayhem throughout the city.

ACT 5 – THE FINAL BATTLE

Rama is guided to Alengka where the monkey army defeats the army of the giants. Rama meets with Rhawana in face to face battle and defeats him. He is then reunited with Sita.

Bali203

Day 2 Evening - Uluwatu (24/5/05)

today, i want to talk about my 2nd day evening trip on Bali island. Alex and me went to Uluwatu on bike, and it's the southest part of the island. we heard the sunset at Pura Uluwatu (Uluwatu Temple) is really nice, and have a wonderful Kecak and Fire Dance on every evening 6pm. and we kinda eager to see the beautiful cliff as shown on Discovery travel guide.

So, here you see something like the end of the world isn't it!! trust me, to see it with my own eyes it's breathtaking!!


What i was really amazed with the place is the colours! the rich blue and jade green of the water, foamy white waves, crystal clear water that from far, i could still see the corals in the sea... f**king amazing!! i even spotted few people fishing down there... wonder how they get there... i dare not!!


Now, this is my travel companion for this time. Alex is my ex-student, who worked as a photojournalist, notice the big Nikon camera on his neck?? well, i think he took about 400 photos this trip!


This is the place where we see the Kecak and Fire Dance performance that evening. Ticket for the show is Rp.50,000 per person (about RM20). They said you must at least go for a dance performance in Bali, so we chose this one. No regret! the dance and chanting is superb, with the sunset behind the performance, it's simply marvelous!




Well, the dance is a story about how a princess has been caught by an evil, so the prince has to ally with the monkey army force to win the princess back... i'll update the full story tomorrow... (you all don't need to know anyway! haha)
They are at least 8 main characters in the show, all dressed up in striking colours - red, white, gold, green, and all dance with cramp-like finger movement!!! very entertaining! then there will be 100 bare-chested men circling the main stage, chanting with different tones and pitch and rhythm, that sounded pretty annoying at first... but when you get used to the 3D-like chanting, you started to enjoy the catchy "chak-ka-ta-ka-chak-ka-ta-ka" routine.
at the end of the show, i took a photo with the artists... most photos were taken by Alex, so i have to wait for him to burn CD for me first before i could upload them up here... so bare with me ok!!! :)
that's it for tonight! (more to come... stay tune!)

Bali201

DAY 2 (part 1): Bali rediscovered! Welcome to the dark side...

Tuesday 24/5/2005

0700 --- Woke up! Alex was still sleeping. I took my DVCam out to the balcony hoping to shoot the dawn… only to find that it’s all bright and hot outside already. The sun rises and sets so early here in Bali! So different from Malaysia. The staffs of the inn were cleaning the swimming pool, i'm impressed!

0730 --- We went down to the concierge to ask for breakfast, the lady there pointed to the restaurant next door. We were received warmly by the waitress there, “we have set breakfast for you, you can choose coffee or tea, waffle or pancake or toast with egg or banana, and also a plate of fruit.” So Alex being the not so adventurous one order toast with egg and coffee, me ordered banana pancake and coffee. Turned out his toast and egg was so plain and tasteless claimed him, I would not have ordered that in million years especially being the person who dislike egg. My pancake turned out to be something quite similar to roti pisang here, kakaka, but it’s served with honey and lime… quite tasty though. But the Balinese coffee was definitely great! Rich aroma, but needed to put a lot of sugar or it’s too bitter… and strange too, coz there’s a lot of “sisa”!

This is the pattern usually present in Balinese home, i will not resize the photo and sacrifice the details of the wonderful carving.

Here, you see a everyday Balinese woman doing her offering. those plates that put on the higher altar are for the Gods, while those simply lay on the ground/roadside are meant for the Evils. it's the constant battle among the goods and bads, but the humans here wouldn't dare irritate both parties. (that's my opinions, hahaha!)

0800 --- We had a little morning walk on Poppies Lane II, I was hoping to buy a nice pair of shoes because I did not bring any for the volcano hiking trip. After passing by a cozy restaurant called McWilliam (funny one, bcoz they had the flipped McD logo!), a group of ladies was squatting at the roadside. When they saw us walking past, quickly they approached us and started chatting with Alex. I was so aware that this was a trap, only Alex so naively believed that they were being friendly!! So I walked along the street searching for my shoes without even talking to them, only turned to find Alex was not following me. Shit! So I turned back. One lady on the street told me Alex has already gone into the back lane! Gosh!!! What was he thinking? Hesitated, but I couldn’t leave Alex alone. When I walked into the little shop, I saw this girl tying a wristband onto Alex hand and started putting lotion onto his fingernails. I whispered to Alex, “do you know you gotta pay for all these?” he was smiling naively to me and said, “but the lady here said it’s free!!!” I cannot help but rolled my eyes, gosh!!! This is fcuking bloodsucking Bali in case you forgot!!! The lady that led me in here was now ready to put a wristband on me too, I rejected nicely and she looked disappointed but persistently insisted that it’s free! After much persuasion, I thought to myself, aiya what the heck, I’m ready to pay some dime lah, so finally I gave in. They started giving us this cheap skate manicure… when it’s done, I asked for the price, they said “not expensive”. Then only Alex realized it’s not free (god!), so he asked the lady didn’t she said it’s free at first. The look in the lady’s eyes was like “now I gotcha” kinda grin, and she said, “the band is free, the gift of Bali for you to remember. But (pointing to the fingers) this is my job!” I was a bit pissed, so I asked “How much??” She calmly hold my hands, “normally we charged Japanese, (point to my left hand) 350 and (point to my right hand) 350!” WALAU WEI, it was like way out of my expectation, you mean for a 3-mins manicure you are going to charge me RM300?! “NO (fucking) way! We don’t have that kinda money!” The lady grinned some more and said, “for you… Malaysian, 150 & 150…” That’s RM120. “I still dun have that kinda money!” At this point, the ladies suddenly looked impatient and angry. They shouted at us, more like scolding us, “So how much? How much you want to pay?” I looked at her and I said 5.000, and I heard Alex said 10.000 (that is RM4). The lady in front of me turned to Alex and shouted, “10 thousand is NOTHING!! Your fren (that’s me) here said 50.000 also nothing already!!! 10 thousand (with a grunt)!” She must have heard me wrongly!!! Now, Alex really looked shit scared, he later explained that he was worried about the RM3000 above Nikon camera that hanged around his neck which he just bought for this trip. So he hopped out of the shop. Luckily before this I’ve already kept my viewcam in my pouch, so I slowly took out my wallet while walking out of the shop. I took out 10.000, the lady’s eyes were like about to pop out from her eyes… looked very much like the Barong!!! She was really mad and scolding us with Balinese language. She grabbed the money, we quickly run, and we heard her scolding us from behind “FUCK YOU!” We dare not to look at her, but just walk out to the main street! It was scary becoz we were at the back lane and there were quite a number of them surrounding us… jeezzzz, what an experience! We quickly threw the wristband away and walked our way to Poppies Lane I. Rp.10,000 abt RM4 for an unwilling manicure.

0830--- We realized the homestay we found yesterday night is just opposite of the manicure incident. To tell you all the truth, we dare not stay there! So we managed to find another homestay at Poppies Lane I, Diana Homestay. Rp. 40.000 RM16 for 2 persons not inclusive of breakfast, but no problem since we will be leaving for the volcano hiking trip as early as 1am next morning, so we will be skipping breakfast anyway. We walked back to Poppied Lane II, sprinted through the ladies, quickly went back to our room, packed everything, checked out, hopped on the bike, and moved to Diana straightaway. I have to admit my heart was still pumping hard by then… :P

0930 --- We decided to visit Denpasar on bike this morning. But before that we would like to revisit Kuta beach to see what it’s like in the morning. No difference, only the sand is not as white as we thought it is when we were here last night, and also there’s a lot of aunties to bug you to buy things and do this and that… kinda annoying! Especially after the morning incident.

1030 --- We knew we were very near to Denpasar, the 1st stop planned was to get to the memorial monument at the heart of the city (similar to Tugu Merdeka in KL)… but again, we were lost. So we just stopped by 1 temple to visit and take photos. Then we grabbed an uncle on the street and asked for direction… seems that we were just 2 blocks away from it. Then we spotted a temple (supposedly quite famous lah) on the map called Pura Masopahit, one of the oldest temples in Bali, just a street a way from where we were. So we decided to visit it 1st…… then we lost again, kakaka, it seems we have missed a turn, then we got to do a big round back again. The temple is cool, they worship the naga (dragon) god there although at first I mistaken it as snake, haha! The aunty who loaned us the yellow waistband was busy making little tiny baskets for their daily blessing and praying. She chatted with us and also willing to let us take her pictures… 1 thing, she doesn’t look like 64 years old to me! There’s also a bunch of aunties nearby who were really noisy and kepochi, and I seriously believe that they were flirting with us, they just laughed nonstop and joked in their own language. One aunty even wanted to marry a young girl to me after she found out that I’m still single. Wuahahaha!!! Rp.10,000 abt RM4 donation to the temple.

This kid has been following me throughout my whole sightseeing the temple. no no no, not because i'm attractive to him, hahahaha, but rather my video camera. he was so curious about it, i have to show him the LCD screen. Also, notice the 2 white clothes and the carving on the door, they are in the image/illustration of the dragon god - Naga.

1115 --- We finally reached the central park with the monument, very… err… normal! Nothing much to see really. Not recommended unless you are fine with only visiting the landmark lah! So, we only stayed for 5 mins and decided to head back to Kuta already.

1130 --- Suddenly Alex suggested visiting a Catholic church and on the map, there’s one nearby, so off we go. Well, the church seriously does not look like a conventional one, but blended in Balinese wood and stone carving and can I say, Hinduism!! I’m impressed seriously by the adaptability of the Catholic. We also see all these Balinese culture and traces in the other buildings like shopping malls, banks, and even fast food outlets! It’s traditional yet exotic and unique!

Even the carving is in Balinese style. i really was amazed!

1200 --- We were heading back to Kuta, and we were hungry like bulls. So we decided on the bike that the next stall or restaurant that we see, we would just go in. I spotted a roadside wooden stall with quite a numbers of people lining up, so we pulled over. Mmm… roasted meat like chicken… well, what the heck, just order anything for 2 lah. So I asked the girl there, “apa ini?” they just laughed, “Babi guling.” Oh… so this is the famous babi guling (roast piglet)! I supposed not many foreigners come here, the locals there kept looking at both of us. Anyway, the rice was served… kinda oily, with roast pork, some char-siew-like meat, fried intestines, prawn crackers (I think), and sate. The sate on bamboo stick was simply superb, it’s different from Malaysia’s and so aromatic. The fried intestines had this weird stink, so we passed. Couldn’t finish the rice, too big a portion. With Teh Botol (my favorite drink), lunch cost us Rp.6.500 or RM3 each… SUPER CHEAP!!

... to be continued!