Bali version 3.0 - eat, pray, love ♥

I always love Bali! :) And I especially love Ubud! Am not really surprised when Liz Gilbert (the writer of 'eat, pray, love' novel) wrote high praise of Ubud! :) So when hubby said 'let's go to Bali again'.. I was so delightedly excited!! :)

We got our tickets free (claimed from hubby's enrich points) - woohoo!! And this time, it's just the 2 of us! ;) Sorry kids... bagi chance la mama and ayah nak spent time together-gether pulak.. hik hik ;)

Well, this is actually our 3rd time in Bali. First time back in 2000. 2nd time on our 9th anniversary back in 2006. We stayed in Candi Dasa and Kuta during our first trip and Ubud during our 2nd trip. This time around we decided to stay in Ubud again!! What can we say.... we just LOVE Ubud!! :) Located in the center of Bali, surrounded by terraced rice paddy fields, Ubud is sooo peaceful and serene :) After browsing around in the internet looking for a nice (and romantic! hehe!) place to stay we decided to stay at Nefatari. And trip kali ni.... sudah tentu lah bertemakan eat, pray, love ♥ *bliss*

A Nefatari staff, Pak Ari fetched us at the Ngurai Rai airport... He told us he's also a cook and gardener at Nefatari. Has been working with Nefatari for 8 years! Wow!!

Our 'Jepun Villa' in Nefatari - heaven on earth!! :) 'Jepun' in the villa name is actually Balinese name for 'Bunga Kemboja'. (Not Japan the country ya!)


With a cool private pool!! *bliss*


Our bedroom - romantic surrounding eh? ;) See the book on the bed? That's Liz Gilbert's 'eat, prayer, love' :D

The 'open air' bathroom. And hey.... 'tangga' tu bukan utk skodeng okay! Hiasan aje :) The wall behind the shower is still our villa area... and the rest of the walls are all very high... so don't worry... tak de orang skodeng punya! lol!

After resting for about an hour, we were all ready to explore Ubud again! But before that... kita makan2 dulu.... had tea at Nefatari's Cafe sambil menikmati keindahan alam sekitar @ Nefatari.

Nefatari's garden - so romantic :)

Having tea at Nefatari's cafe. Pak Ari and gang cooked this for us. Err... goreng pisang je sebenornya! But looked so glam kan? :) And Yummy too!!! ;)

So what did we do on our 1st day? Ronda2 dan bersantai @ Ubud town :) Nefatari provides free transportation to Ubud town and if we want to go back to Nefatari, we just had to call them and they will send transport to fetch us from any location in Ubud town... sangat mudah! :) No wonder Nefatari got good reviews in tripadvisor! Anyway, seronok cuci mata kat Pasar Ubud!! =)

Ubud Palace

Lotus Palace

My favorite place - Ubud market. Why? Macam2 adaaaaa..... =)

And before calling Nefatari for transport to go back to our villa, we ate at a Padang Restaurant (halal of course!).Lauk Padang - esp the green sambal - perghhh.... memang syedappp!!! :)

Day 2 : Busy day today! We ordered breakfast to be sent to our villa at 9am.

Our breakfast on 2nd day - personally delivered by Nefatari's staff (no charge okay! Nefatari service is so 1st class!! I like!! )

Mee goreng telur aje since we can't eat meat (not halal).... tapi syedapppp!!!

And nasi goreng telur... yummy!!! :)

Pineaple and banana pancakes... oh la la!!! very, very delicious!!

Left hotel by 9.30am to explore more places in Bali. Our driver for that day was Pak Made (well, there are 4 famous names in Bali - Wayan, Made, Nyoman and Ketut - translated first born, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. If there's a 5th one, then they would start from Wayan all over again) whom we met at Ubud town yesterday and offered us a good price (well, at least a better offer than the Nefatari's price) at Rp425,000 for one day. Trip kali ni, we decided to visit places that we've never been before - mostly at the southern part of the Bali Island.

Getting ready to explore Bali for the 3rd time! woohoo!

Our first destination was to Tegalalang. It's a Padi terrace area. This place is soooo beautiful! So green! So peaceful! Spent a few minutes here to enjoy the beautiful scenery... *bliss*

Next, we move on to Pura Tirta Empul. 'Pura' means temple in Bali. Located in Tampak Siring, somewhere between Ubud and Kintamani, Pura Tirta Empul is regarded as one of Balinese sacred temples. The name 'Tirta Empul' actually signifies a crystal clear stream which is used as the holy water by the Balinese.

The Temple entrance


The locals came to this place in their traditional clothes - cantik! Look at those kids.... so comel :)

We visited on a Sunday when lotssss of people gathered to enter the long rectangular pool. Balinese have come to this temple for more than 1000 years to bathe in the holy water for healing and spiritual merit. Err... we just watched okay. Takde la join mandi ;)

And, the inner compound of this pura is a temple where the Balinese pray.

Usually, the Balinese will bring something like 'sedulang hantaran' as offering made of palm leaf, flowers and foodstuffs.

Next, we went to another pura - Pura Gunung Kawi, located about 2 kilometres south of Tampaksiring, where a daunting flight of steps leads down to the Pakerisan River. Going down the steps was not a problem... But going up on our way back..... pergh... a very, very challenging task for someone who has not been exercising for yearss like me! :P But the surrounding of this place is breathtakingly beautiful! This place is like Bali's version of the Egyptian's 'Valley of the Kings', for hewn into the cliffs on both sides of the river are two rows of ancient royal tombs.

This is just part of the steps you see...

Part of the royal tombs

These local kids are so adorable! Balinese are a bunch of friendly and nice ppl...

Pura Gunung Kawi

Beautiful scenery surrounding this pura
Hubby could climb the steps faster... he was waiting patiently for yours truly to catch up with him :P

I finally made it to the TOP again.... fuhhh!!!! (and had to suffer sakit kaki for daysssss!! :P)

Next, just a short visit to a unique ancient site of Bali, Goa Gajah. Goa Gajah is well known for its ancient caves that have a carved stone in the shape of an elephant. There are also 2 stone bathing pools, filled with water from spouts held by a few female figures.

Next in our itinerary was to find a musollah to perform our solat (abiss... temanya pun eat, pray, love kan?? 'eat' sudah, 'love' pun pasti sudah (kah kah!)... 'pray' nya enggak boleh lupa ya! :) We asked our supir, Pak Made to find a mussollah... and here was where we did our Zuhur and Asar (jamak dan qasar) prayers....

We could not find it at first... then we saw this signboard...

We had to walk through a small lorong, then at the end of the path... jumpa a very cozy madrasah. MasyaAllah.... ramai rupanya orang Islam di bumi Bali ini.

After selesai solat, we then moved on to Pasarseni Sukawati. It's like Pasar Ubud... but I guess bigger and busier. Still, Pasar Ubud is my favourite! :) Many ppl said paintings here are cheap... but need to be careful with the quality. Well... I'm not an art expert... so how lor to know the quality?? A friend ada kirim belikan painting - she specifically said 'abstract painting'. Duh... lagi la gue blur!! I do not understand abstract art! huhu! I finally managed to buy 2 abstract paintings costing RM10 each for her :) Sorry ya Ipah kalau kurang cantik di mata mu... but I kinda like them :) Hope you like them too :)

Hubby wanted to buy a nice 'greeny' painting of padi field or just flora-fauna...

Balinese painters are really creative. Look at these amazing paintings...

We did not have proper lunch today cause we planned to makan besar for dinner :D So we just ate ice-cream at Sukawati market before leaving to our next destination.

Our next destination was to Pura Luhur Uluwatu at the southern part of Bali Island. It's about an hour drive from Sukawati... sempat la took a nap... it had been a very, very tiring day indeed!

"Pura Uluwatu is located on the cliff top close to the famous surf break on the SW of the Bukit peninsula. Empu Kuturan, a Javanese Hindu priest who built the tiered meru, founded the temple in the 10th century and a shrine here as well as at other key locations longs the Balinese coast."

So many people around on a Sunday

Beautiful scenery from top of the cliff


The pura entrance at the end of the cliff (tourists not allowed in here)


Lots of 'aggressive' monkeys at this temple's area.

We did not spent too much time at the pura as we need to 'book' seats to watch Kechak Dance performance at the other side of the pura.

The kechak dancers reciting prayers before their performance.


Before each performance, offerings are made to ask for the "spirit's" kindness

Of all the Balinese traditional dances I've seen, the Kecak dance is my favourite - don't ask me why! :) I thought Kecak dance is interesting, and quite dramatic. Kecak dance tells story of the famous epic Ramayana. There's no music instrument accompanying kecak dance tau! Instead, the music was replaced with the voice of the dancers singing 'cak-cak-cak' (while swaying their bodies and waving their hands)... quite interesting to watch :)

My favorite character in the epic Ramayana story - the magic monkey, Hanuman :)


Got fire you know in this dance... very dramatic! don't play, play.... :)

We left Pura Luhur Uluwatu during during sunset...
Sunset at Pura Luhur Uluwatu

After a tiring day... we were looking forward to the last itinerary for the day - Seafood dinner at Jimbaran!! =)

There were lots of seafood restaurant along this road. Our supir said 'Semua sama saja, Pak!'. So he dropped us at Bali Sea Cafe ni...


We chose to eat on the beach instead of eating inside the restaurant... romantic la konon gitu ;)

Got musicians walking from one table to another to entertain the customers

Dah malam.... so cannot really see the beach... huhu!

Alahai... may be we went into a wrong restaurant... but I think the food biasa aje lah... takde lah sesedap mana! Sedap lagi seafood kat Umbai, Melaka tu kot! :) But again... rugi lah kalau tak rasa local food kan? And the price is quite reasonable too! :)

Day 3 : My god!! My legs ached all over this morning! :P Ni sure pasal naik those steps kat Pura Gunung Kawi :P Nak bangun pun tak larat.... :( Luckily, the plan was to santai2 aje today..

Waking up in the morning.... sakit satu badan ni... but the beautiful scenery helped to make me feel better :)

We ordered early breakfast served in the garden....


All ready for breakfast and later going out

Basically, we ordered the same menu as yesterday... cuma this one je menu baru :

french toast ;)

We decided to go santai today as we chose to go to spa at 3pm (1 hour free as per in the Nefatari package but we decided to extend it to 3 hours! :) ) and have our special dinner (also included in our package) at 7pm.

Taking morning fresh air outside Nefatari gate.

Beautiful padi field scenery in front of Nefatari

Went to Ubud town to rent a motorbike. Before that sempat lagi ronda2 Ubud market to buy some tshirts and others as souvenirs. Morning in the Ubud market, many locals sell colourful flowers and food.

On 2nd floor of Ubud market, lots of kedai baju - macam Kota Bharu's Pasar Siti Khadijah gak :)

If you go early in the morning... try to be their first customer! :) Like Chinese, they treat their first customers as 'luck' - bagi ong la gitu! :) So when you pay to them... diorang akan ketuk2 duit tu atas barangan jualan diorang - 'buat pelaris!', katanya! :) I had fun being their first customer... seronok lak tenguk diorang ketuk2 duit tu :D

Outside the Ubud Market, there's this small temple, especially for those locals doing business at the market - they would go to the temple before starting their business... made offering and requesting for 'luck' and good fortune (I guess!).

Outside the temple, a few ladies sell knives - siap ada leather cover lagi. Hubby bought one set for his father. We were her 'pelaris' ;)

Then we got our rental scooter... and membonceng lah saya dibelakang suamiku sambil menikmati keindahan Ubud :) It's not advisable to go outside Ubud... takut kena saman by the Bali policemen! :)

Our first destination by motorbike was to Semar Kuning! Kak Yan told us that Semar Kuning sells lots of wonderful and quality paintings (thanks kak yan for the tips!). Sesat barat gak nak cari Semar Kuning ni sendiri... but alhamdulillah... with the help from a few friendly Balinese locals... we made it!! :)

Hubby finally got lukisan idaman nya :P This man in this pic is Pak Roy (his Bali name is Nyoman by the way!) who helped us on choosing the painting.

On the way back to the hotel, kami ronda2 sekitar Ubud. There's an occasion coming in March - The Hindu new year or something. The Balinese call it 'Hari Nyepi' where everyone must stay at home on that day - cannot go anywhere (yeap... cannot go to work!), all lights must switch off (oh yes... even in the hotels!). The Balinese people would prepare something big as offering for that day. So, orang2 kampung di Bali ni bekerjasama lah preparing for this occasion. Along the way, I can see the 'muafakat' by the Baliness society.

Masa ambil gambar ni... those ladies smiled and say hello to us :)

Sungguh harmony mereka bermasyarakat kan? This is the beauty of Bali :)

3pm was our spa appointment! :) Kakiku mmg sakit satu badan... so I was really looking forward to this! ;)The entrance - right beside our villa

Kaki suamiku.... not mine, okay!? haha!

Ahhh.... memang syiok berspa!!! ;) Sedapnya badan ini diurut2.... huhu! Before berurut, the spa girl asked me to take off all my barang kemas. Well, I don't have much lah pun... just a tiny necklace, a simple bracelet and my wedding ring. So before we left the spa, hubby took back the barang kemas, but I did not realize that he left out my wedding ring. So when I was resting our villa later, the spa girl came over and return back my ring... alhamdulillah!!! Syukur.... Balinese peolpe are really nice!!!! Nefatari staff are really honest!! I salute them!!


Petang tu... we had a nice walk outside Nefatari.... the village is so peaceful and beautiful!

Then our 'special dinner' time! :) Nefatari made sure that our special dinner is really special!!! They served dinner at our villa... got candle light you know!! So the romantic one!! I likeeee!!! ;)

The food was SUPERB!!!! It's seafood of course (others takut tak halal!). And it's definitely more delicious than the ones we ate at Jimbaran!! 2 thumbs up for Pak Ari - the man who prepared this special dinner for us!!!! He even personally served the food to us!! wahh... so good one eh?!

.Wah Pak Ari... enak banget nih!!!
Rasa macam nak angkut je Pak Ari ni balik Malaysia... boleh jadi cook, supir and gardener sekali gus nih!!! :) Boleh ngaak Pak Ari?? :D

Went home the next day. So many beautiful memories in Bali..... InsyaAllah ada version 4.0 punya trip in the future... hehee... :)