Saturday, September 16, 2023

Bali, Indonesia 2023

 Went with secondary school friends JD and YP. It’s amazing we’ve known and managed to tolerate each other for more than 30 years now.


We booked out a really nice villa in Seminyak, which had two storeys, three individual rooms and a huge pool. Ratings were really good and on-site was actually much better than we expected. I’ve gotta write a good review for the place.


Flew to and fro via Scoot which I didn’t really like tbh. Legroom or lack there of, was a real pain. We started our trip with a can of Yebisu Japanese beer each.


Day one we reached around 2pm and we’re at the villa really quickly. Got acquainted with our villa and area quite quickly, then headed to our first dinner location, Made’s Warung. Food was very nice, authentic Balinese cuisine. Then I brought them to Jalan Legian, Bali’s famous party road. We had a very good massage there that was really cheap! The party scene there doesn’t seem as happening as when I was there before Covid. Places like Sky Garden, Lxxy, Engine Room, and Paddy’s Pub were still there but the crowd was clearly thinner than in the past. The Bali Bombing memorial still remains as well recognized checkpoint nonetheless. For supper we went to the famous 老大HK Porridge. Still super awesome.


Day two we were up quite early as we had a full day tour itinerary ahead. We were heading up to Ubud to see the Bali I’ve never seen before haha. First up was Tegenungan Waterfall. It was both picturesque and majestic. Also we could wade almost to the bottom of the falls, which made it quite cool that three old men could still party in the water. Next up was Elephant Cave, which has been around for centuries. The cave was a little underwhelming tbh and was super small. It was a religious site and had a blessing of holy water so that was nice. Hope we huat and stay healthy and happy forever. 


Then we headed to a Luwak coffee plantation. Luwak is the Indonesian civet cat. And Luwak coffee is made from the cat shitting out coffee beans that it’s been fed. The most expensive coffee in the world. It was one of the better Luwak coffee experiences though. Next up was lunch at a beautiful rice plantation. What struck we was the weather was super cool in spite of the sun. Shiok.


The next location was Tirta Empul. The temple where holy spring water arises. It is also centuries old and was a religious site. Very crowded with tourists and devotees walking into the pool of holy spring water to receive their blessings. Very cool. Finally we headed to Tegalalang Rice Terrace, which was a beautiful but very commercialized tourist trap, with Bali swing et al. Then we needed to drive three hours back to our villa. It was a very tiring trip though eventful. Dinner was Italian just on the street outside our villa, then to Legian for a massage at the same place again. Also tried to get into the party vibes but I think we were just too tired.


Day three at 8am there was a blackout and water supply cut in our villa area, so we went for a really good breakfast at the street outside our villa which seemed to survive the outage. Then came back to play in our pool. We ended up playing and consuming a whole bottle of gin until 2pm. Then it was time for an expensive massage, which was really overpriced by Bali standards. In the evening we headed to Ku De Ta, which was one of the best beach bars in Bali. We watched the sunset there. Yeah just three old fogeys watching the Bali sunset. We again went to 老大HK porridge for a sumptuous dinner, before heading back to watch the Arsenal v Man United game. It was terrible, we were tied at 1-1 until Arsenal scored at the 95th minute. Right after we had a last gasp 87th minute goal ruled out for offside. Super demoralizing.


Day four was super short. We went back for the same awesome breakfast, then nuah a bit more in the villa and then it was time to head to the airport liao.


All in a very good trip for us old men.


Here are some pictures. 















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