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We took many travel brochures from several tourist information centers and studied the daily packages that the tour companies offered. Most of them included transportation and a meal, and would cover an entire day. And the price, although clearly printed, was usually still negotiable.

On the third day we went to Ubud, Uluwatu and Jimbaran - all in a single tour. It was worth every penny. We had arranged for the day’s tour one day in advance (in fact, we actually made the phone call the night before - they were pretty flexible). Ubud was about one and half hours drive away from our hotel.

That’s one of Bali’s most popular delicacy - the Babi Guling (suckling pig). We actually had a funny conversation about Babi Gulings in Bali. One of the nights when we decided to order McD’s delivery for supper, Peikz actually asked if they had a ‘localized’ menu, probably with something like “McBabi-guling” on it. I think the dude on the line must have thought we were a bunch of weirdos.

Sorry for insensitively posting up a ‘non-halal’ photo. The Babi Guling was not available at just any time in a day. It was normally served during lunch, and all the meat usually comes from only one pig. Once it’s finished, it’s finished and you’ll have to wait til the next time the restaurant decides to cook another pig… maybe the following day. (FYI, most Balinese are Hindus).

After having Babi Guling for lunch, we went to a nearby tourists’ shopping area where plenty of souvenirs could be found. We took a walk and pretended that we were Japanese. The thing about Bali was that it’s really popular with the Japanese. We were often mistaken to be Japs, but when they heard us conversing in English, they would think we were Singaporeans. Go figure.

We didn’t actually buy anything. We were supposed to go check out this ‘monkey farm’ (I guess it was simply some place with alotta monkeys) nearby, but we gave up and made a U-turn because time was running out. We had to go back to our van and continue on our journey.

While we were on our way to our next stop, our guide took us to this place where (supposedly) tourists loved to go and take photos of the paddy terraces. Well, we weren’t really a fan of paddy terraces but since we were already there, we might as well camwhore.

This was also the place where Rain was duped into believing that the wooden garuda (some local mythical creature) was selling for US$1 apiece. That was what the seller initially said! Naturally, Rain showed some interest and the next thing he knew, the price was actually Rp100,000 for one set (a pair of garudas). They were pretty desperate when we threatened to leave. Rain finally relented and bought a pair of garudas for Rp60,000, if I’m not mistaken. I wonder if he’s still keeping ‘em!

That’s our next stop - the Elephant Cave Temple. Although the name has ‘elephant’ in it, there wasn’t any elephant to be found in the temple. In fact, our guide told us that Bali island naturally did not have any elephants. However, there was one that was imported from another place for some show somewhere on the island.

The water here was supposed to be some kinda holy water, so we all took turns to wash our hands and face while one of us took photos. Haha. It was interesting to note that if we wore shorts, we had to also wrap a piece of cloth around us as a mark of respect to the gods when entering temples and other sacred places in Bali. Those who wore long pants usually didn’t need to do this. Basically the cloth was to symbolically show that we were “well-covered” lah.

After spending some time at the temple, we went back to our van and made our way to Uluwatu temple. We really looked forward to Uluwatu because of its much-hyped breathtaking scenery. Along the way, our kind guide once again stopped at a place for us to take photos. If my memory doesn’t fail me, behind us was supposed to be the Dreamland beach. Anyway, we spent less than 5 minutes there before moving on.

Finally, we arrived at Uluwatu temple, notorious for its naughty monkeys. I was told to hold on to my camera and shades while walking past the monkeys, because they might jump on me and grab them. The view at Uluwatu was indeed awesome. The sounds of waves could be heard even while we were climbing up the stairs towards the temple.

Standing from where this photo was taken really made me feel small. It was also during this time I really wished I had an ultra-wide angle lens with me. Sigh. That was the best my 17-85mm lens could do.

We then saw people at the other side of Uluwatu, and they appeared real tiny. We, too, decided to go over there and check out the view of the temple from a different angle. There was a narrow path that led us there.

Put a foot wrong and you’ll go more than 6 foot under. Way more. We were actually quite high above the sea, and there was a strong breeze too.

That’s a shot of the iconic Uluwatu temple - taken while we were walking along that narrow path.

I think it’d been nice to do a pOp-jump here with the Uluwatu temple and the horizon in the background. Yikes… why do I keep thinking about pOp’s trademark jump everytime I travel! Grr…

There was a dance performance at Uluwatu temple that evening, called the Kecak dance. We were just in time for that. We had to pay Rp20,000 per person to watch it. The dance was performed outdoor, and lasted about an hour. We could actually enjoy the performance, as well as the sunset from where we were seated. At one point everyone was more interested in the sunset than the dance itself, lol. It was that distracting!

More photos - of the Kecak dance, as well as our awesome dinner (included in the day’s package) on Jimbaran beach - will follow soon! Expect also photos from our Mt. Batur volcano trekking… so stick around. If you must know, I’ll be concluding the trip in the next part (3).

Have a good weekend, everyone :)

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• Bali, Indonesia (Part 1)
• Gold Coast, Australia
• Travelogue: Singapore in Photos