Musings of the Travelling Carrot

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Lombok-Oct 10

I had heard lots of praises about Lombok, about how it was Bali many years ago, more unspoiled and less touristic. Thus, we decided to make a side trip from Bali for 3 days 2 nights. We went there from Bali on a speedboat (costs us around $50 one way) and fly back to Bali on Lionair (around $60 one way). There are certainly many options on how you want to make your trip back to Bali. From S'pore, only Silkair flies to Lombok so they will charge a premium.

The speedboat to Lombok took around 1 hour.

After researching very long on cheap and good resort, I finally settle for Puri Mas Boutique Spa and Hotel which was a bit of a dissapointment. And I reallized some booking engines who offer you reward points if you posted review of the hotel WILL NOT put up bad reviews from the consumer (so many of the reviews are actually prejudiced). However, to be fair the surroundings outside the room was not bad, including the infinity pool.

Looks really rustic but the floor squeaks.

The Princess Bed

Infinity Pool that was not so close to the ocean. There were hawkers that keep selling their fares which spolit the ambience.

We spent the whole afternoon jumping in and out of the pool.

Buffet breakfast at the resort

We took a taxi out for lunch at Cafe Alberto. Although there were no customers, our food took donkey years to reach

When I tasted the pasta, I knew why the food took so long. The pasta was freshly made.

We had dinner at Asmara restaurant, all the resturants provided free transport to and from your resort. This dish was deep fried chicken with hot chilli.

We ordered a side dish of boiled vegetables which tasted horrid

Lawrence enjoying his corn at the roadside

We booked a day divingtrip to the Gillis with Blue Marlin Dive (www.bluemarlindive.com ). I almost though that we cannot make it as we did not bring our diving licence! Luckily, we just needed to sign a disclaimer letter and off we went to the Gillis. It costs around $120 for 2 dives, including equipment which was a pretty good deal.We felt like the odd one out again as the prople in our dive trip were all angmohs. Where are the Asians? On the first dive out, we saw lots of turtles! So much better than Tioman where I did not see a single turtle. For the 2nd dive, it was just diving around a coral wreck which ended so fast.

The boat ride out to the Gillis

Gearing up for the dive. First time I rolled backwards into the sea.

The Fat One..

After the first dive, we stopped for lunch at Blue Marlin Cafe. Fried Mee Goreng with Egg and Keropok

Seafood and Chicken Gravy Rice

Wholesome spread at a Chinese seafood restaurant at Mataram. The food is really cheap in town.

Next day, we rented a motorbike to travel around. It is pretty dafe to travel on mototbike as there were very few cars around. Originally, we intened to drive up all the way to the waterfalls. However, it simply took too long and we gave up halfway especially we were travelling like a turtle on the winding streets

Lawrence favourite activity

Stopping along the way to take pictures of the blue sky

The pathway that we travelled along

The rocks and the sea and the sun was an awesome sight

Dinner at Puri Mas

Nasi Goreng with Egg and Satay

Waiting at a cafe in the airport to kill time.

Lionair flight back to Bali

Bali Second Time - Oct 10

The first time we went Bali was back in Yr 2008 for our super short honeymoon. Did not manage to cover much places so we decided to go back as soon as we can! We stayed 2 nights in Ubud at Junjungan Ubud Hotel and Spa. Although it was not at the town area, there was free shuttle as & when it was required. The breakfast was fanstastic and we had different choices everyday. We had an early check out one morning and they even arranged to takeaway our breakfast.

Scrambled Eggs with Baguette

Fried Beehoon with egg and keropok

Teabreak!

The bed at Junjungan that was a tad hard

Marble bathtub that I spent a lot of time soaking

View outside the room that faces the paddyfield

Grilled Fish Dinner at Junjungan after my massage at the spa

Salad anyone?

So happy!

What else did we do at Ubud? We took a half day tour with the driver at the resort and went to Tanah Lot to watch sunset. To be honest, it was overhyped with too many tourists.

See the huge crowd behind us?

Sunset Galore

The half day trip also included visit to a temple

If you go Ubud - there are 2 must tries. One is the famous Babi Guling (suckling Pig) Warung Ibu Oka opposite Ubud Palace and the other being delicious Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck)

The suckling pig skin separate order. Could be a little more crunchier.

The set meal-rice with veg and roasted pig meat with a bit pf skin

Look at the greedy boy

Chicken Soup which I always regret ordering

Famous Spare Ribs at Dirty Duck

The Dirt Duck itself.The spices were nice but the meat was tough due to the deep frying

The greedy one in action again.

We also had lunch at Lotus Cafe (http://lotus-restaurants.com/cafe-lotus-ubud) after our water rafting.

We ordered a feast fit for a king. This dish had rice, statay, beancurd, seafood, etc..

Lawrence enjoying himself

Lotus Pond behind us. Seems like reservation was necessary for dinner performance

We went for white water rafting as well at the Ayung River at Ubud. We had to clamour down many steep flights of stairs before we can even reach our destination point. We shared the raft with another couple & a instructor. Halfway through, we stopped for drinks that were priced exboritantly. We let the rapids lead us most of the way and enjoyed the sun, the trees and the nature.

Victory Sign before jumping onto the boat

We managed to book one night at Ayana Villa (known as Ritz Carlton previously). We had fond memories of our honeymoon whereby we were upgraded to a villa. However, no such luck this time round.