Category Archives: travel

Simply the best..

Last weekend was one of opposites – Friday was fun-filled while Saturday and Sundaywas nap-filled.

On Friday, we decided to go out (dumb mistake considering our plans for Sat/Sun). Our first stop was The Cave – a bar on Jl. Petitenget that literally looks like a cave. I’m not sure if we were early (it was around 11pm) or if it was the lack of signage indicating that this place existed but the venue was dead empty! The only other people in the place besides us were the bartenders! After a bintang, we headed to Black Dog (Tippi’s place). Although we had lots of fun the last time we were there, we weren’t really feeling it this time around. It could be because everyone was glued to the World Cup game but there was a definitely a different vibe in the place. We got out of there pretty quick and headed to Jl. Dyana Pura – basically gay street! There’s a collection of bars/clubs that are all right next to each other. Each venue is pretty small in size but large in craziness! We hit up Facebar, Bali Joe and Mixwell and each place was absolutely bumping – jam packed with people (mostly men), great music, half time shows and drag queens to keep the party-goers entertained. There was even a drag queen that was busting out to Simply the Best – she was pretty great! These are great places to go if you’re looking to have fun and dance to great music – I had a great time! Of course we couldn’t end the night off there so we headed to Paddy’s and SkyGarden (where else?). All in all, a great night!

A few hours later, we got up and headed out the door to Munduk – a village in the mountains that was a 3.5 hour drive away. Definitely wasn’t fun after having such a late night – in fact, there were times during the ride that I almost fell asleep – very dangerous if you’re on the back of a bike holding on! Munduk is famous for their waterfalls, coffee plantations and hiking trails through their lush scenery. However, we didn’t see any of that! Our entire trip consisted of being rained in and napping – I’m not sure what it was but we were both extraordinarly exhausted all day Sat and Sun. In fact, our days went like this: wake up for breakfast, nap, wake up for lunch, nap, wake up for dinner and go to bed. Oh well, that just means I need to schedule a trip back to really experience all that Munduk has to offer!

Pictures to come (current internet connection is super slow)..

Tagged , ,

Tanah Lot

I finally made it to the highly loved (or highly hated) Tanah Lot to watch the sunset – the iconic seaside temple on a rock. Not much of the temple has its original parts – everything from the temple itself to the rock it sits on has been renovated and refurbished. There were tourist crowds and crowds of hawkers selling everything from religious artefacts to a holy snake. We sat at one of the cliff-side restaurants to maximize our viewpoint and I must say that I’m very glad that I finally came – the sunset was beautiful! Check out a few photos below.

A little crowded…
Rol and Hieu navigating the crowds
Holy snake anyone? Please, no dirty jokes..
You can get blessed at the holy spring at the bottom of the temple…
Waiting for the sunset
Beautiful…

Tagged , ,

It’s my birthday and I’ll …

Turning 24 was a bittersweet experience for me. To me, being 24 years old signifies that I’m old – I’m only 1 year away from being halfway to 50! Yikes! And yes, I know I’m being slightly irrational but still… Also, despite celebrating in paradise, I was definitely lonely for the company of a few people back home. Rol, Mike and Hieu were real sports though and made my birthday a really fun day.

We started off by driving to Gianyar for my favourite meal – babi guling @ Warung Pande. Yes, I made 3 people drive about 1-1.5 hrs to get lunch but it’s my birthday so I’m allowed to make demands like that 😉 After the requisite nap time, we headed to Mie 88 for a quick dinner before heading to my favourite spot in Bali – Hu’u bar. Seriously, the ambiance at Hu’u Bar is pretty hard to beat. Hundreds of candles + great space + great drinks + smooth jazz = 2 thumbs up from me. A few rounds later, we headed to club row for some quality dancing. After a pit-stop at Paddy’s (a must) and Bounty’s, we ended up at SkyGarden where we stayed til the wee hours of the morning.

Thank you to everyone for their birthday wishes and love – I’m truly blessed to have so many amazing people in my life! xoxo

Our babi guling lunch.. yummm
Chilling @ Hu’u Bar
Mike’s fav. drink – jager bombs!
Some creepy old Aussie (who smelled strongly of B.O) @ rooftop of SkyGarden. He loved Hieu..

… so much that he started to take his clothes off for him!!! Lol, we all ran away when this started to happen
@ SkyGarden
Tagged , , ,

Tick Tock

I’m finding as I get closer to my departure date that time is speeding up. I can’t believe it’s already been a week since my last post!

The last week has been pretty relaxed and quiet. On Saturday, we checked out this local club in Denpasar called Akasaka. On our way there, it started raining cats and dogs so we ended up arriving looking like drowned rats – very attractive. This place was uh, interesting. We walked in to discover that it was about 98% men in there and that I was 1 of 3 women in attendance that wasn’t a hooker! Needless to say that I won’t be back anytime soon.

Two friends from Vancouver (Hieu and Mike, my boss) arrived on Sunday and Monday. It’s been fun getting them acquainted with Bali – I feel like I know so much when in reality I know very little about Bali still!

Tagged ,

And the winner is…

On Wednesday, I participated in Rollan’s jujitsu class – a big step outside of my comfort zone to voluntarily experience pain. Despite that, it was a lot of fun learning a few techniques and beating up on huge, 250lb men! Ok, maybe they beat me up too but at least I got a few licks in. I definitely was feeling the pain Thursday though. It was a complete write-off for me as all these muscles in my neck and shoulder decided to seize up in protest of the previous night’s activities. It also probably didn’t help that I had a heavy MSG laden dim sum lunch… nap time was great!

Watching the Karate class @ Dojo Aora

Saturday night was pretty epic. We started off our adventure at Bali Brawl 2 – Indo’s 2nd ever MMA event. Rollan had a few people from his gym fighting so it was pretty cool to have that personal connection (well, only Rol had the personal connection but still lol). The fighting was great! Lots of big hits, slams and kicks. There was even a girl fight (the Aussie was scary). 2 out of the 3 fighters from Rol’s gym won – one hurt his opponent so badly that he couldn’t stand for the rest of the night (probably won’t be able to stand for the rest of the week!). We sat with Allen (another guy from Rol’s gym) and his lady-boy friend Michelle. Michelle sneaked in arak (Balinese moonshine) so fun was had by all.

We actually had a pretty lucky/random night at Bali Brawl 2 – we won a door prize (XL thong that I gave to Michelle) and the grand prize (surfboard that was promptly sold for $300 USD!). We even ran into a client at the fight! I was collecting the thong when the announcer asked for my name and where I was from. As I was leaving the ring, a guy sitting ringside started talking to me saying that he was from Vancouver too! Long story short, he and Rol have actually known each other for years and I’ve even recently (within the last week) exchanged emails with him! What a small, small world.

After the fight, we headed to a small bar on Jl. Benesari for a couple rounds of bintang with Allen and Stewart (yet another guy from the gym). We then headed to Panterai, a Greek restaurant on Legian to meet up with the Noko and Kendall (the 2 winners), Nico (Rol’s jujitsu teacher) and their entourage. It wasn’t until we headed to the next bar (Eikon) for more shenanigans that I learned one that of the ‘entourage’ members was actually an Indo actor (Andrew White). I jokily asked him if he was an A-list celeb or a C-list celeb and he said A-list of course. I didn’t believe him until we moved from Eikon to Sky Garden to dance. There at Sky Garden, girl after girl would point at him, take his picture, come up to him and generally harass him. Later, I discovered from one of Rol’s Jakarta friends that he’s more B-list than A-list but it sure didn’t seem that way at the club! From Sky Garden, Kendall, Maria (his awesome gf), Andrew, Rol and I headed to KFC for some early morning eats. Did I mention at this point the sky was getting light? It was 5:30 in the freaking morning! I finally got home around 6:15am and went promptly to sleep. An MMA fight + winning things + closing down 4 bars + great company made for a epic adventure!

At the beginning of the night

Noko (in the green camo shorts) besting his opponent. 5 rounds

The girl fight. Scary Aussie is on the bottom. She won.
I also have a few good videos of the fight – unfortunately it’s taking forever to load so perhaps I’ll try again when I have a faster connection.
Tagged , ,