Java Travel Guide

Well what can I say.  Was an interesting place didn't really go the narrow streets etc.  Was quite a dirty place.  However if anyone ever heads that way the tours were excellent especially the Kintamani volcano Tour and the Monkey Forest and Temples Tour.  Be wary if offered a friendship bracelet or the like as my friend and I were ripped off $280AUD each the first day we were there if you do find yourself in this situation and not knowing the value of their Money all you need to do is say the word police and they back right off.  Great weather, really hot.  We stayed in Kuta at cheap accommodation but if you go there i  would recommend going for something around the 3.5 - 4 star mark as the accommodation we had was only 2.5 star and the sheets were washed daily but they were kinda brown and blood on the walls of our unit.  Kuta Beach was lovely but they have a lot of people selling stuff that tend to hound you.  lol.  The shopping absolutely amazing and very cheap.  We were offered drugs by some guys .............no we didn't take them neither of us were into that but however if you are game to purchase off of them do be warned that as soon as you buy it they go to cops and report you then you have the balinese police on your back.    Overall was a great place especially the tours,  kids ride moped thingees to school and the balinese drive crazy.........yes there were times we thought we weren't goin to make it back to NZ.  Was a real eye opener for us.  These people work so hard for so little.

On 1st August 2008, we take the Flight from Penang to KL. The flight arrives 20 minutes earlier to LCCT, because the pilot keeps accelerating on the way to KL, sweat.

-Volcano
When we are on the way to Bali, we are so luckily to see a Volcano exploded. (but we can’t find out what’s the name of Volcano mountain) Most of us just act like forest monkey as we never experience to see this scene. 

-Road Conditions and Driving skills of Balinese
From Ngurah Rai Bali Airport to Kuta, I noticed that all lanes or roads are narrow and two-way. Therefore, every driver can say it’s very skillful. :P Surprisingly, I found out none of the cars have any scratch on it~!

-Besakih Temple
According to travel information, Besakih is known as the ‘Mother Temple’ in Bali. The largest and most important temple on the island, it sits on the western slopes of Gunung Agung. In order to visit this temple, we have to do few things before we get into the heritage.
• If you are wearing short pants/skirts, you must wear a Kashmir or sarung with a belt which called ‘sas’. Eventually, this is just another method to earn tourist money by Balinese sellers. Sigh…..
• You must negotiate with the local Balinese man at the “Tourist Information” counter, because they will tell you that one tourist should pay them USD10.  You can make the deal for your whole group with 30,000 to 50,000 rupiah.
• After Balinese Man brought us visited the whole temple, he request us to give him tips with 20,000 rupiah per person. That’s too much!!!! You can just give him a 10,000rp and ignore him.

(*__*) Our local tour guide tells us that the entrance fee is very cheap. *Chuckle*

-Hard Rock Megastore (located besides the Star Bucks)
In this store, if you have Citibank credit card, you can enjoy 10% discount on your purchased item. (Feels like I’m advertising the shop).


-Magic Mushroom
My friend he bought 300ml of mixed magic mushroom juice for 100,000 rupiah. He doesn’t seems like ‘high’ after he drank it. So…….. Maybe mixture contains too much of Fanta. :P

-2-pin plug
Please prepare socket adapter, if you camera charger is using 3 pin socket.

-A sweet and 150 rupiah
I walked into a supermarket and bought some groceries for 7850 rupiah, then I gave a 20,000 note to the cashier, she gave me the change 12,000 and a sweet!!! Haha…. According to my local tour guide, a sweet can cost 500 rupiah in Bali. 

-Balinese Food
1 word to describe the food Salty
I have tried a local food which named Bakso Ayam, it looks like Penang’s “Tang Hoon Hu Wan”, BUT the core of the meat ball is very very hard, I really can’t accept it.

However, there are some small restaurant which is tasty with reasonable price in Poppies 1 lane(opposite La Walon Hotel and Masa Inn)

** Even the soda water also taste like Sea Water.

-Babi Guling
I wonder the local tour guide really eat the babi guling before… because the babi guling store that he brought us to eat, has strong pork smell and the food is NOT nice at all…. *fainted*

-Kek Lapis Bali
One cake cost us 80,000 rupiah and it’s Oily & the texture is less finer than Penang’s layer cake. *sweat*


-See Dolphin at Lovina
We depart from Kuta at 3.30am (not joking, it’s AM) and reach North of Bali, Lovina at 5.40am. Amazingly, by the time of 6am, Sun rose and the sky become very bright… 
When we firstly saw the ‘traditional; boat’ that was described by local tour guide, all of us has the thought that “Shit! We are going to Holland~” anyway, we still sit in that boat and begin our journey to the middle of sea to chase Dolphin~!
Please bear in mind that we didn’t wear safety jacket!!! I can’t imagine what would happen if the boat…… hahahaha…

This is a great experience and I feel it’s worthy to sacrifice my sleep time and disregard my safety. However, my buttocks still in pain because I have sit on the wood for more than 2 hours!



-Airport Tax: 150,000 rupiah
We have to pay 150,000 Rupiah for the Airport tax(Kastam)… Why so expensive? Sob sob…

-Air Asia QZ Compact Air Plane
Our flight from Bali to KL is sitting into QZ9002, which is a SUPER Compact air bus. We only have very limited space to sit & move. Even a 154cm girl like me feels that seat is too small and uncomfortable.

Jakarta (J-town) The sumpek (crowded) city ever (from my point a view of course) even sumpek this city offer lots of fun and variation of view. For you who like a photography, you can get lots of funtastic lunatic outrages view here in J-town. Here the placed that I mostly visit for hunting a Fatahilah Museum, Sunda Kelapa Harbour, Monument of Monas, Bunderan HI, Catedral Catholic Church, Gold Dome Mosque, Ragunan Zoo, Sudirman Street, Suropaty Park, Indonesian Miniatur Park (Taman Mini Indonesia Indah), and lots of Monument building. For you who like take a fashion picture just go to mall or Kemang Street or you go to the office area in sudirman-thamrin or kuningan you will get a perfect street fashion ever... ;b or you like take some artistic picture like me visit the traditional market like Senen or Kramat Jati. Outrages picture you can have it in Taman Lawang, Jatinegara, Bantar Gebang or Ciliwung and so on. "Where should I stay then?" dont worry, if you rich enough J-town have a lotta of 5 star hotel like Ritz, Shangrila, Mariott, or Four Seassons. Oh, low budget... thousands of hotel for the low budget tourist ;) Party goers? perfect J-town have lot of place for party Embassy, Centro, Vertigo, Bliss sometimes we have Sundaze in Pantai Marina Ancol and other of cool party. Just wanna hangout not partying, Kemang is the perfect place... they have food festival sometimes garage sale. "What should I bring?" MONEY... Did the locals were nice? some of them yeah, some of them no... if you lost in direction just find a police station go there and ask. For women Travelers, use guide from your hotel or trusted travel agent its better rather than you have travel alone ;) "Am hungry!!" we have thousand of restorant and cafe, you can find it in Mall or Hotel, from europe food to asian food, indonesia food in everywhere, love spicy got to Rumah Makan Padang or Daeng Tata in casablanca for the Makasar taste uuuuhhhmm yummy... Well... bon voyage... ;) avoid trouble and keep smiling