A few months ago i got a call from a friend back home (let’s call him Camar for entertainment sake). He said to me in a not so husky voice, ‘To, ada tiket murah pigi Bali, macam?’. And my swift response was, ‘ok, bawa si XX’ (let’s call this one Dragon, yup Dragon). Days that went by, feels like eternity when u’re waiting and at last the day came, and this is our story.
I picked up Camar and Dragon from LCCT the night before our departure. We ran through our ‘itinerary’ one last time and we are set. I woke up early and literally kicked them to wake them up. We were getting ready and all excited. We arrived at LCCT early, when we checked in, the people at the counter selamba-ly told us that the flight has been postponed to the afternoon. Apakah neraka? 9wat de hell?). It was the longest 5 hours in our lives. But we kept our cool ehem.
We arrived at the airport. 3.9 million people in Bali plus 3 from Sabah. We were lookin around for our supir – Yanto. He wasn’t there. Camar told us to look for a person holding a sign with his name on it. Almost half an hour passed and there was no yanto, we called him and he said his brother is there to replace him. We looked around and still no signboards with Camar’s name on it. Then came this rather short uncle with a jazz hat on holding a sign that says DELAVEGA. ‘Ah dia la tu’ camar suddenly yelled. ‘Delavega?!’ Dragon and i shouted back, he forgot to mention to us he was using his Casanova nickname, brilliant right? Wrong. It seems he was there all along but me and Dragon passes him by because we thought it wasnt Camar’s name on his signboard (it was only a piece of paper actually). ‘Pak Nor’ he introduced himself, and we immediately drove off, time is of the essence here hehe. (Pak Nor is quite the character, which will be revealed later in this blog).
We arrived later in the afternoon and we have to change our plans a bit coz of the delay. So we went straight to Uluwatu for the sunset and to watch the Kecak Dance. I was wearing my shorts khakis, and apparently one have to wear longer pants to enter holy places, much like the mosque. But the staff are ready with brightly colored sarong, and Pak Nor immediately help me put a blue one on. We went straight down, and i noticed Pak Nor picked up a stick but i pay it no mind, later i found out it was to rid off any approaching monkeys who seems to be too ‘fond’ of people.
I saw one mat salleh almost lost his glasses because he was standing too close to a monkey, and the monkey grabbed it but it fell to the ground. We took some pictures with the monkeys and bought ourselves tickets for the Kecak Dance. It was full, ‘too full’ actually. They keep cramping people up to the floor. The ticket was around rm7, if memory serves. There are around 4 to 5 hundred people. And i ask Pak Nor how many times a week do they performed, and his answer was quite surprising, 364 days a year, every day a full house, with one day off (Hari Penyepian). RM7 x 500people x 365 = RM1,277,500.00! these guys are making a minimum 100k a month! That rate is for locals & Malaysians, for other foreigners its double or triple! Damn i should quit my job and join the crew.
Our seats are just nice overlooking the sunset, just right next to the cliffs. The show started around 6 and ends around 8plus, damn we were getting hungry. The Kecak Dance is a form of Balinese dance and some sort of a music drama depicting the story of Ramayana helped by Vanara (the monkey) to fight Ravana. It was brilliantly performed, and the naughty white monkey was a hell of a comedian. The sunset was breathtakingly breathtaking haha.
We then move to jimbaran to have dinner at the beach on the sand. There was a show of traditional dance it was a new experience. The dancers are quite young. Dragon was having a good time haha.
After a big dinner, we went straight to Kuta, to matahari guesthouse, and was surprised that we were given a small room, Dragon ended up sleeping on the floor kui3. Camar and dragon went to look for a hotel, i suggested bakung sari hotel, which turns out to be 300m from matahari. They went there to make a booking. It turns out if you are a walk-in they are charging you USD80 per night, so Camar went back to matahari and make a booking from the internet (www.agoda.com.my) and we got a bigger room for only RM80 a night! What a rip off if we were to take the walk in charges.
So, early in the morning Pak Nor took us straight to this leather shop that specializes in making leather jackets, (i was suppose to buy one when i visited Bandung, but the timing was off and i couldn’t buy one then, turns out making a custom fit lleather jacket in Bali was the best decision i’ve ever made), i was pumped, and was immediately measured and discussing the design with the tailor. Black leather, with brass colored zippers, biker-styled jacket. And i told him specifically, about that i want it a little bit short, just above my hip, so that when its fully zipped and i am sitting down, the jacket wont look like i was mengandung 4 bulan, mengembung like normal jackets yang panjang sampai ke bawah pinggang. Siapnya hari jumaat sebalah pagi pak, ok ngam. Then we went straight to Ubud. The area was filled with creativity, the people are master craftsmen in woodwork, stone carving, and paintings. I bought one for my sister (mahal tu ehem), Dragon bought a few for ... someone la. One thing i notice about the woodwork was, the Balinese seems to have a liking to penis, they have it in every wood shop and every giftshops all over Bali, weird. Dragon bought a lot penis-shaped keychain, i am sceptical on-to which extent is he using it? haha
And then we went to Goa Gajah, bayar lagi tiket masuk. Its a historical landmark of someone with a gajah hundreds of years ago (i know im lazy, google it yourself). Then we drop by tegalantang rice terrace, it was beautiful rice field. Kesian this one young girl that tries to sell us this postcards of Bali, i didn’t have change with me, so we left her without a sale. Sorry girl, next time.
Off we went to this, apa nama? Ala lupa pulak, its like a fruit garden la, that sells the most expensive coffee in the entire world, kopi luwak. It was sold at the garden at rm17 in a very small cup, seteguk buli abis. Pak Nor told us that if it was sold in cafe, it can go as high as rm71 in that same size of cup, craze bodoh. Dragon bought one, and i tried a sip, macam kopi tenom ja rasanya pun, tiada pun speselnya, ceh. I enjoyed the vanilla flavoured coffee more, perrgghh sedap, free lagi.
Then we arrived at kintamani (again, google it). A nice mountain view, half of the mountain was like a desert, pasir ja Nampak, pasal sulphur kali. Camar (the hawk-eyed stalker) immediately spotted a group of Korean girls, and told Pak Nor to ask them if we can take pictures with them, and to my surprise, Pak Nor spoke Korean! Walawey! Snap2 Dragon comes a little bit closer to one of the Korean girls (we call his move ‘mendada’ hahah). We had lunch at a buffet muslim restaurant, lupa suda namanya. Then off we go to check in at our new hotel, bakung Sari, nice and spaceful hehe.
END of PART 1 (bukan apa penat suda menaip, nanti ja sambung)
