Bali Trip 2008 - Day 1
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
Bags - Before
Cheras
4.00am - Woke Up to an exciting day. Gathered my bags packed before I slept earlier and off I go to the office. My luggage load - 2 bags.
MFX
5.00am - Was the second person to reach office and promptly prepared the luggage tags and storage for all our car keys. Most of the people will be leaving their cars in the ofice - the safest and free parking throughout the period we are gone.
Luggage Check-In
LCCT
6.30am - Reached LCCT. This is the first time in our company trip history of us taking AirAsia. Most of us do not know what to expect (Alas, too much Thai Airways and MAS). It is a lot smaller than KLIA than I expected. Went through the luggage checkin counter as usual
Next stop is the Duty-Free Shop. In past history of our trips, I usually have to round up a few musclemen to carry all the alcohol load. It was always the ‘Amazing Race’ feeling to run all the way to the Departure Gate. I remember 2 years back where they were announcing our names one by one while we were still paying at the store.
Alcohol List
This time round, LCCT’s Duty Free Store is just next to the passenger seats which are next to the departure gate.
We actually have a checklist of alcohol to buy but everything did not go according to plan. Who would have thought that the Duty-Free Shop has only 3 Red Wines!??
Our revised alcohol purchase : 3 Black Labels, 6 Chivas, 3 Red Wines (!!!), 1 White Wine(!!!), 2 Bacardis, 3 Vodkas & 6 Tequillas. And off we fly, 49 buggers on a company trip to Bali.
Ketupat Restaurant
Ketupat Restaurant
1.30pm - Touchdown at Ngurah Rai International Airport, Denpasar, Bali Island. Split ourselves into two coaches and off we go to our first destination, Ketupat Restaurant where we first taste Bali food.
First impression of Bali food - Appertizingly delicious!
First impression of Bali/Indonesian Names - Awfully confusing! Duck or ‘Itik’ is known as ‘Bebek’, among others …
Hotel Padma Bali
After lunch, we check-in into our Hotel, the 5-Star, Hotel Padma Bali
The Invasion of the hotel
Nice perspective of the rooms
Uluwatu Cliff
Pura Luhur Uluwatu
A short break later, we are off to our first temple visit. It was about an hour’s journey to Uluwatu to visit Pura Luhur Uluwatu, literary translated as ‘Divine Water Rock Temple’. This is the temple with the most spectacular view as it is perched on the edge of a cliff which looks down onto the great surfing beach.
Uluwatu Sunset
Pura Luhur Uluwatu - Top View
I tried locating Uluwatu of Google Maps but it was not updated to the finest details. So I went snooping on the net to find how this place looked like from the sky and this is what I discovered.
At sunset, there are a group of performers who would perform the ‘Kecak Dance’. According to Wikipedia’s Kecak entry, Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 100 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting “cak” and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana.
Unfortunately, we had an incident with one of the monkeys occupying the temple (reminds me of Bukit Bendera) here where it took and broke Alan’s glasses.
Jimbaran Bay
Jimbaran Bay
We then proceed to the Jimbaran Bay Restaurants. The bay is basically a row of barbeque seafood stalls with all the table setups at the beach. First of all, we have to brave through serious air pollution of the barbecue stalls before we step onto the beachside sittings. It is very beautiful to see a long stretch of candlelit beachside. Fortunately we do not have to wait long as everything has been planned. When the food arrived, the first to do is … to take a picture of it! Lobster & fish as main dish with sotong, potato, and veg as side dish on a large plate.
Seafood Platter
After a scrumptious dinner, we rode the buses back to Kuta. Some of us went for a nightlife preview in Kuta town while the rest head back to the hotel. Since we did not even have the time to look at the facilities of the hotel (and the beach), I joined a few of the guys to stroll to the beach.
- End of Day 1 -
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