Some weird sculpture displayed at the entrance of the cave.

Main entrance to the cave.

The very cool thing about this cave is that this is on the other side! It’s really like in some Wu Xia novel.

Very nice wall of the rock mountain.

A place for people to walk and scream in pain.

Very nice weather that day.

Spot Siewmei and Andrew.

Siewmei with her very red hair. Nice~

After some walking we went to Andrew parent’s coffee shop. Kokwai here trying to show us how to make coffee.

A cup of coffee outside the shop under the sun.

Curry mee was close due to Deepavali.

Cat taking shelter inside the shop to avoid the heat outside.

Opposite the coffee shop is this field, and Andrew’s dad fed some noodles to the pigeons. Eddy here trying to get a good shot of the pigeons up close. Sacrificing his image. Haha.

A lot of pigeons came and fed on the noodles.

Kokwai trying to “shoot” some pigeons, Rambo style.

After the stop, we continue out shooting in a more secluded place call Papan (Wood) located further from Ipoh town.

A lot of abandoned houses can be found there.

Written on the pillar “be careful”. Spooky.

Dogs were checking us out and we were checking the dogs out.

Sekolah Papan.

Old-skool yo! An aunty barber in action. A few uncles were queuing waiting for their turn.

Our newly met friend, Kylie Chah, a local.

Walk into a “dilarang masuk” place to get some shots of an big and old house inside.

Dilarang Masuk was ignored.

Siewmei and Kokwai called their ex-colleague out, which is another local. Sorry but i forgot her name.

Very cool trash can with stencil on it.

Kellie’s Castle was out next destination. Apparently this place is haunted but it’s open for visitation.

Eddy trying to get a good spot to shoot.

Somebody taking picture of Siewmei and Kylie. Fly!

View from the top.

Erm…

After dinner we went to a temple. The festival of “Gau Wong Yeh” is happening that night, so there are some celebration going on.

Iron maiden?

The next morning, we went to this place opposite the famous back alley called “Yee Nai Hong” (Second Wife Alley) to have our breakfast. The custard which I was looking forward was sold out. But they still have this, tea with egg.

After breakfast we walk to the alley and started shooting.

Siewmei posing in front of an abandoned house.

The main train station in Ipoh. Look very British.

Siewmei and Andrew waiting for train.

Finally I reached.

One of the tallest flats in Ipoh. Famous for it’s suicidal rate. But now it’s secured with grill.

Had our last coffee, head to buy some sourvenirs and headed back to KL. Thanks Andrew for the place to stay, again.

So we started walking towards the place for our lunch and along the way, we saw a lot of paddy fields (again), and the sky was very blue. How to not shoot?

The paddy fields was not like the one in Sekinchan, where it is very wide and endless. The paddy fields here in Yogyakarta is more like a backyard of someone’s house. That’s why you see a lot of different colour’s field cos different owners plant them different time.

Some house looking like prison.

Lines seperate your fields and my fields?

A very very old house. Seems dangerous, but there are actually people working inside!

Going-to-collapse-soon roof.

Very hot, somemore wearing black.

The same prison-like house I mentioned earlier. Look at the sky!

A path leading into more paddy fields and houses of the local.

The same path, further in, you can see the locals working on the field.

One of the rare lovely shot of Jook and Shyng.

Along the road side banana tree. This only happened in kampung lor.

This section/segment of paddy field belongs to another person.

More close-up shots of paddy. Yay~

A lof of bugs live here in the paddy field. I notice this is one of the difference between Sekinchan and Yogyakarta. At Sekinchan, there are bugs, but not that many, at Yogyakarta, whenever you walk close to the field, you can see a lot of bugs flying/jumping/fleeing away.

While me, Shyng, and Jook went further to take photos, YenC, Siewmei, and Hamyu were waiting under this hut.

The hut is located outside of the restaurant where we’re going to have our lunch with.

Here is it! Balinese food in Yogyakarta! Lol!

The drinks here were very authentic. Some are nice and some tasted weird. But they’re all fruit juices. While we were waiting for our food, we went behind the restaurant and took some pictures because there’s another paddy field back there.

Flowers behind the restaurant. Hardworking bee gathering honey.

Siewmei posing with the field.

This is how the restaurant looks like from outside the field.

Does this mean the restaurant does not need to buy their own rice?

Tiny white flowers growing along the path in the middle of the field.

Not sure what this is, maybe “street light”?

After this shot, I found out it is very dangerous to run on the path in between the paddy field. I almost PK-ed.

But jumping on the spot should be okie.

Left: Golden brown. Right: Greenish yellow.

Successful trip! Hooray~

Ok… the food is here already, need to walk back to grab our lunch.

There we are waiting for the flight at Yogyakarta airport.

That’s it. That’s my trip to Yogyakarta. Overall the trip was fun. The gang was fun to travel with (all like taking photos of anything). Schedule was not tight, although need to wake up early sometimes, but we took our time slumberly at all the places we visited. Didn’t manage to visit Mount Bromo (which Behn and Sherrina recommended) because need to travel 9 hours by bus or too expensive by flight from Yogyakarta, so it didn’t fulfilled the requirement of our trip which is “relax”. But, we’ll go visit Mount Bromo one day.

Spend less than RM1k this whole trip including flight and accomodations for 4 days 3 nights. No, I didn’t buy a lot of things there but if you like to take photos and see different things, not a bad deal.

So we woke up early in the morning to catch our Guest House’s breakfast which was included in the rates. Discovered that the area behind where we had our breakfast was very nice. It was just a small area, but decorated/landscaped very nicely. So after we eat, we did some early morning shooting.

A path from the breakfast place to the garden at the back. The taller building behind the pondok is actually the “house” next door!

Leaf-less trees – probably the gardener plucked all the leaves down so no work for him.

A closer look at the small hut. This is the small hut we chilled in later tonight.

A wooden house further back with a small pond fill with fishes. Look like some house in those chinese kung fu novel.

Hamyu, the kung fu master who stays there!

The gardener haven’t got time to clear the leaves of this tree yet.

A shot from the house towards the hut.

Flowers in the morning is always good.

A ladder up to the erm… top of the bamboo?

Path leading the the hut passing by a basin.

Siewmei standing in front of the nice hut.

Early morning model shooting.

This area is behind the wooden house. A lot of bamboos and it’s quite nice to shoot.

Early morning jog?

YenC in the morning.

Not enough sleep.

Nice color combination.

After a while, Shyng finished her breakfast and join the shoot.

Flowers everywhere!

Based on her shadow, it’s 9:42am.

Asked her to went into the house, apparently is a store room. What a cool store room.

Old-skool photos hanging along the wall.

After we ended our early morning photo session, we called 2 cabs to get us to Bird Market. It’s a place where they don’t just sell birds, but a lot of other pets as well.

“Fighting fish”? That’s what I used to call it during I’m very young. I’m still using the same term to address these kinda fish. Natural born fighter.

Fishy for the fish lovers.

Turtles are selling for quite a cheap price here based on Shyng. All camera shy. Hehe.

The look of the street around Bird Market.

Besides pet food, you can also find human food here.

One of the pet food for your pet bird I guess. Red ants and red ants eggs! The whole thing is alive!

Crickets. Damn a lot of crickets.

Very gross worms.

Geckos are sold here too.

It is not call Bird Market for nothing.

Walking inside the market makes me feel like I’m gonna catch a bird flu.

We were walking towards the back of the market. Because from far we can see there’s some kinda monument there.

The small road of Bird Market.

Even Obama visited the Bird Market. This is how famous it is.

This is the monument we were heading to. It’s the Water Castle… well… what’s left of the Water Castle.

Taking photos inside the damaged structure.

Look at Hamyu and Jook’s pose!

From on top of the Castle, you can see  almost the whole Yogyakarta.

Me walking to find a nice spot to shoot.

But where the heck is my camera?

Shyng a bit off in this picture.

Based on the shadow, it’s 11:43am.

Top down view.

/Jook-ing around.

Heroes.

Another shot of the inside of the structure. Maybe it collapse due to the earthquake. If you wanna know the truth, please Wiki it yourself.

Behind the Water Castle, is where people live.

Looks normal on top, but there are actually underground tunnel below the houses.

Siewmei posing behind one of the entrance to the underground tunnel. Very nice structure.

Roof of the entrance.

A house further down the street.

Siewmei plucked a flower from the ground.

Further in, you can see how the housing area of Yogyakarta people looks like. A cute kid still wearing his pyjamas. Siewmei didn’t let the chance ranwaway. Haha.

Hanging the clothes very high to catch maximum sunlight.

In front of one of the houses there’s a nice bench.

The local kids showing his ability.

Thsi is another roof of another building that lead to another tunnel. Looks like fish scale.

We’re underground.

Looking up at the opening of the tunnel.

Jook trying to get a good shot.

This platform is where i looked up and shot the 2nd previous shot. Very nice place, like a maze.

After walking for quite some time, we got hungry. And heard from the friends that came back from Yogyakarta, this place, the Water Castle Cafe, is the nice place to hang out and chill.

Portraits and a lot of photos were hanging on the wall.

Portfolio of one of the owner I think.

A home feel cafe. Nice~

Siewmei pretend to read something.

The entrance to the toilet.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the toilet. Very nicely decorated.

They even got a wardrobe inside the toilet.

It’s a huge toilet. If you enjoy shitting, this place will enhance your experience!

The violin that the owner plays.

One of the owner having an afternoon snacks session.

Very relaxing place as after the owner finsihed with his tasks, he’ll play his violin there. He asked this foreign lady is she could play the violin, and she played some Irish stuffs. Very nice.

One of the youngest owner of the place. Look at him feeling the music.

The oldest, enjoying his afternoon and his life, playing the ukelele.

Old chair.

Siewmei taking pictures of the nice toilet.

We wrote, drew, and signed something for the owner. Hopefully he stick it somewhere in his shop.

Outside of the cafe, there’s this drink that looks like chendol in Malaysia. It’s kinda sweet.

Workers at the Bird Market trainig their pigeon.

After finished walking around the Bird Market, our next destination is the shopping street, Malioboro. We chose an alternative ways, well, at least for us, to travel. Horse cart! This is the horsie that pull our cart. The driver is an old man and 6 of us squeezed into the horse cart. Poor horsie. Hahaha…

Squeezing into the cart at the back there.

Off we go to Malioboro.

Horse carts in Yogyakarta are quite respected in the traffic. Although the cart was travelling quite a slow paste, but there are no honking from the people behind.

Looking down to the wheel.

Passed by a resting cart. Looks like some cowboy town.

And here we are! Jalan Malioboro. The famous shopping street in Yogyakarta.

The street looks not much different from Malaysia’s street.

A lot and a lof of locals and tourists.

Look outside of the street, it just looks like some small town street.

A shop selling some traditional snacks

There are “Petronas” snacks inside! Wonder what are the ingredients.

Jook holding an edible bowl made out of rice. Didn’t manage to try la cos nobody bought it.

While waiting for the taxi. All damn tired already.

Proof of visit for Siewmei.

Not sure what Jook trying to do here. Hahaha…

Group photo at Malioboro.

After we took the cab back to our guest house. Showered and took some rest. Then walk out around our guest house again to look for our food!

We actually passed by this restaurant the day before. And finally it’s time visit it. Remember I just went to Bali around 2 months ago, there’s a place there call Jimbaran and it’s famous for it’s seafood. So I think this restaurant brings in the food from Jimbaran. Just like in KL eating Penang Fried Kuey Teow.

The pond in front of the restaurant is actually a aquarium filled with prawns!

Fishes for you to choose.

Clams are one of the cheapest seafood there.

Calimari anyone?

Not sure if these prawns are from the pond.

Pointing down to the pond to indicate there are live prawns down there.

Price list.

Vicious fire ikan bakar.

Waiting for our food to come. They actually serve the food on banana leaves.

Quite a nice environment. One problem is that there are lizards on the roof. And one of it actually shit-ed! Luckily none of us were that lucky to kena.

We were quite early there and you can see the restaurant was quite empty. But later it’s kinda full with people.

Siewmei ordered the coconut juice which looks very delicious.

Chilis in Yogyakarta is no joke.

We ate using our hands! The waitress said is one of the tradition there. So we followed and it was quite weird to eat seafood with hands. You can feel the texture of the fish you are eating.

Hamyu praticing it.

YenC also not bad.

The most professional of us all. Shyng.

Hamyu spotted this girl behind me. Hahaha.

After the dinner, we did some exercise (walking back to our guest house) and prepared the snacks we bought from Jalan Malioboro to chill at the pondok I shot in the morning.

Having snacks and enjoying our teas kampung style, under the pondok!

That concludes our third day at Yogyakarta. One more part to come, our last day in Yogyakarta. Coming soon.

Like I said about the sun going down very early in the day, it also rises very early in the morning. We woke up 4am in the morning, prepared ourselves and took our ride to Bodobudur at 5am. All of us were thinking that we can catch a nice sunrise of the sacred Borobudur, but we think too soon. While we’re on our way there, we already saw light coming out at the horizon. Kinda disappointed, but can’t do anything. On our way there, we passed by the outskirt of Yogyakarta, what we saw impressed us. Although it was very early in the morning, but the streets were not quiet at all, we saw a lot of people actually jogging and having their exercise along the way to Borobudur. From old aunties to young boys and girls, they group together and jog their way to a healthy lifestyle.

Reached Borobudur at 6 something in the morning, and you can see that it’s already quite bright. Hamyu pulling a *nyan nyan* in the morning.

Siewmei spreading the culture of Asian poses to the people of Borobudur.

The girls taking picture in front of the almighty temple of Borobudur.

Official signage for the temple.

People came here very early in the morning.

Uncle having a nice view of the Candi (temple) under the tree.

Went up the “Stairs of Morning Exercise For the City People” and this… this is what you’ll see. An amazingly big and detailed temple of Borobudur getting its morning shower of sun rays.

Proof of visits for Mr. Ham.

Proof of visits for the girls.

And proof of visits of me. My hair kinda resemble the tip of the temple.

Stone carving on most of the walls of the temple.

Stories are being tell on the wall.

One of the 72 Buddha statues surrounding the temple.

Shadow of me scaring the wall people.

Almost the top of the temple. All these stone “cages” ware shielding statues of Buddha. A lof of the head for the Buddha statues were unfortunately stolen for some Musuems as collection.

Sun rises early in the morning.

Bell shape “cages”.

This is the top of the temple. Breath-taking.

From the top you can actually see quite far down since there isn’t much high objects surrounding the temple.

One of the exposed statue.

All the Buddha status may appear the same, but they’re different in their “mudras” or the position of the hands

Giant tip with added lighting arrestor to protect the sacred temple.

YenC at the top.

YenC is actually posing here.

Another view of the Buddha statue. So calm.

Jook documenting his trip here in Borobudur with his newly bought LX-3.

The couple enjoying the stay.

Shyng’s shirt blending into the very blue sky of Yogyakarta.

A foreigner writing down his experience here. I think.

A nice shot of Shyng sitting on the ledge on the top.

YenC tired from all the walking.

Siewmei also enjoying her shooting session here.

Amazed by the works involved in building the temple.

Every carving has its own story.

Far out you can see mountains which is also quite amazing.

Walkway on one of the level.

One of the staircase passage.

So happy~

A stone marking the “officiality” of this sacred temple in this modern world.

A foreigner helped us take this picture in order for me to help them take theirs.

The sky is always blue in Yogya.

After our trip to Borobudur, Shyng requested we go to this silver crafting factory near to the temple. So we stopped by and have a look, since Yogya is kinda famous for their silver.

A silver crafter making some silver stuffs. His professionalism can be seen from his smoothly gel-ed hair.

Seems like this silver crafting factory can attract some foreigners too.

After the factory, we head to our next destination, Prambanan, one of the largest Hindu temple in South-East Asia. The distance from Borobudur to here was not a problem to us, because all of us were sleeping in the van. Hehe…

Reconstruction works are actually under way here. A lof of the smaller shrines as you can see from the photo collapsed due to an earthquake in 2006. So this is what’s left now.

From color to black and white? I don’t get it.

Photo time~

One of the still standing smaller shrine.

Very hot in the afternoon but still there are a lot of people. There are also a lot of locals picnicing outside the compound of the temple under trees.

Fallen shrines… what a pity.

Another photo in front of one of the big ones.

Hopefully all the shrines that are still standing will remain standing for millennia to come.

Tall and pointy compare to Candi Borobudur.

Very cute “fence”.

Going in to one of the shrine.

We spotted one of the local kid visiting the temple. Damn cute with the “tudung” shading him from the sun.

Siewmei posing in one of the still standing wall of one of the shrine.

Cute or not?!

Some colour green to spice up the overall look and feel.

As you can see, the reconstruction is on-going.

Accident happened. YenC stepped onto a barb wire while walking on the grass. Luckily she’s not hurt.

Jook “stoning”.

Flying Jook.

Stone platforms remain of the smaller shrine.

Head of a statue lying around the floor.

We spotted an smaller shrine with nobody there. So took the opportunities and took some photos.

Put my camera on the rock pile opposite the shrine to take this shot.

Jook imitating the stone carving.

Cute little stone carving on the floor.

After walking around seeing the Candi Prambanan, we started walking around the outer compound and spotted this guy.

Horses are very common thing in Yogyakarta.

Siewmei posing with the pony.

Another view of a road leading to the temple. It’s freaking huge!

After we got amazed by the temple of Prambanan, we still got some time left before our driver’s time is up, so on the way back, we asked him to suggest a place to visit for us. He brought us to this Museum of Yogyakarta. Stories of how Yogyakarta got to become like this is told here.

Jook spotted this sun scene outside of the museum.

Weapon to protect. Jook being patriotic protecting Yogyakarta… eh?

This is the museum building itself.

What’s inside the top floor of the building is this. A flag on a pole and a hole from the top letting in sunlight while there are some carving on the wall showing don’t know what.

After a whole day of walking and shooting, we’re back to our temporary crib. Rumah Palagan  Guest House. A quiet and cozy place to stay.

After the reception, this is the path leading to our rooms.

Corridor in front of the rooms.

Some decor at the reception area… old-skool~

This is the pool we chill in. Nice?

So this is the end of part 1 of my trip to Yogyakarta. The next part will be the visit to Yogyakarta town itself. More blue skies next entry.

Advertising put outside the shop.

Choose the oil that’s gonna be rub on you. But I think they didn’t really used what we’ve asked for. Cos it all smell the same.

It was a nice massage experience. Very different from Thai massage. I still prefer Thai style massage as you’ll feel more relax afterwards. Balinese massage leaves you a very oily body. Haha…

After the massage, Abang Made reached our hotel to pick us up for the day. The place we going next is this, Pura Taman Ayun (based on what Andrew said. For more information about the place, visit Andrew’s blog). So here we are under the hot sun again.

I think this is one of the guard house.

Look-out tower, can oversea the front side of the whole garden from top.

This is what you can see from the top, the inner part of the garden (left) is block by trees, so you can’t really see the temple inside.

Next to the entrance, there’s this art shop man by 1 artist. Some drawings in there are really nice, the details are excellent. Photo are eggs with painting for sell. Not cheap and hard to carry around. So we didn’t buy any.

The main entrance to the temple part.

The temple (left side of the photo) is surrounded by this river/drain? So we can just walk around it, outside the fence (behind the wall on the right of the photo).

Multi-layered roof temple known as Merus. As famous as Bali’s multi-layered cake.

Me cam-whoring with the Merus.

A whole stretch o f Merus form the temple/shrine inside. Nice blue sky.

After Pura Taman Ayun, we headed to Berdugul, where the Ulun Danu Temple was built on the Bratan Lake. I was not feeling quite well because of all the travelling already. Cos this place is a highland and we’ve drove for around 1 hour+ to reach here on winding roads. For those who knows me knew that I’ve got this motion sickness problem. But the place was very nice and cooling. So no matter how unwell I am, still got photos to take. Hehe.

Temple on the lake.

The temple, guarded by frog statues on 4 sides. The feeling it gives from the photo feels very Japanese. Haha. Wonder how they go pray though. Swim?

Couple shot again.

Wedding shot.

Wedded shot.

What was Steven’s expression?

Sweetest photo from Bali. Hahaha. Now really look like wedding shoot.

After Ulun Danu Temple, we went to this market place around the same area to grab our lunch. Look at the sign, Deluxe Western Toilets! The font size is same as the name of the restaurant! Must be one of the attraction. Hahaha.

This is the market where we bought some strawberries, and some souvenirs. Dom, Bird, and Andrew couldn’t resist the look of those nice jagung (corn) that was carried by those women sellers on their head. So they went and bought some, but it ended up the jagung was very hard, and 1 even got worm inside! Ewww~

Final tourist spot for us to go, Tanah Lot. We reached there around 5.30pm. Need to walk fast to catch the sunset.

When we walked through the markets outside, we saw these crowds of people there. Look at it man, damn a lot of people la.

This is the famous Temple of Tanah Lot. When the tide is high, you can’t actually walk to the temple cos of the treacherous sea below it.

People standing on the rock waiting for sun the set. But the sunset today was not good. Cos there’s a lot of clouds blocking the view. A lot of dissapointed tourists. Including me.

Waves hitting the wall of the rock creating high splashes of water. Look at this couple risking themselves to take a nice picture.

Girl: “Oh no, the wave is so big, I’m scare!”
Guy: ” Nothing one la, just some shower only.”

Girl: “Ahhhh~~~~”
Guy: “Aiyak!”
Wave: “Yum”

Such a nice scene.

Proof of visit.

Getting late, the waves getting higher and more dangerous. Tourists were asked to fall back to inner beach to avoid being swipe away.

We’ve stepped foot in Tanah Lot.

We’ve told Abang Made that we need to grab some famous Balinese kuih to bring back. So, Abang Made brought us to this place, Pasar Badung. This market is like 7-11, it opens 24/7 non-stop. It was around 8pm that time, and I didn’t see any tourist in sight besides us. So this is a local local market.

The market was quite big, and it’s next to a river.

The aunty that we bought Kuih Lapis from. She told us that the Kuih Lapis can last for some time. She lied. I bought 2 and bring back to office, and 1 of them fungus-ed within a week.

Not sure whether that’s cow or pig’s intentines. Gross…

Stall selling Canang Sari and other stuffs for praying purposes.

After Pasar Badung, dinner time. Because there was not many interesting stuffs to eat, so we decided to get ourselves one last bowl of Bakso before we leave Bali. Abang Made brought us to this Warung Ayu Minantri I where we witness the incredible huge meat ball.

The gang waiting for our food to arrive. From time to time, you can see Balinese couples coming in here to eat. Based on Abang Made, this apparently is a popular place for young couples to come and dine.

The bowl closer is the normal Bakso. The second bowl is the Bakso Urat. Huge meat ball!

After the dinner, the plan is to get 1 hotel room for all of us to put our bags and lepak until morning. Because our flight back is 7.50am the next day, means that we need to get to the airport around 6. So it’ll be a waste if we rent 3 rooms for all of us.

But we’ve got some bad news from Abang Made, he told us we can’t get 1 room for 7 of us, so he offered us a stay at his office, so nice of him. Since we don’t quite care about where to stay as long as we can shower, we agreed. So we went to his office around Denpasar area.

After all of us showered, we’ve got nothing to do but just chit-chat. Dom managed to grab a jagung from a bicycle seller going passed. So I’ve setup my tripod, and took some group photos. Dom enjoying his corn.

Ip Man!… since Andrew’s last name is same as Ip Man. Hahaha…

We asked Abang Made to join us in our group photo. In this photo, he’s our dai-lou.

Everyone of us with our ride in Bali. A good experience.

DK 1750 YF. Our ride. After that night, we woke up damn early in the morning, head for the airport, and flew back to Malaysia.

Our first oversea trip. Success! Hope to do it again soon guys!

Let’s see, first stop we’re going to visit is to eat! The very famous Babi Guling Ibu Oka. But when we reached there, the waitress told us the babi haven’t guling yet. Hahaha. So we have some time to explore the town of Ubud a bit. The restaurant is quite near to the art and craft market, just 3-5 minutes walk. But in between the market and the restaurant, there’s this temple.

Not sure about the name of this temple, but if you’re at the Restaurant Babi Guling Ibu Oka, it’s just opposite it. So we don’t care, actually more like I don’t care about what temple it is, got nice temple, shoot la! Hehe…

Steven’s asked me to take a picture of him and the temple guardian.

Inner entrance of the temple. A lot of doors, don’t know which one will lead to where.

Sue and Dom with the stone wall carving.

After we came out of the temple, with a little walk, here’s the market of art and craft. Didn’t really captured the impression of how big this market is, it’s actually quite big, not just this front street. Behind these shops got a lot more stuffs to see. Be sure to check them out if you’re there.

Next to the market there’s this place for people to pray, kinda like a shrine. You can see stacks of Canang Sari on top of each others.

A woman behind the market place carrying super tall fruit basket walking towards the market place. Strong neck aunty!

Tourist walking in front of the temple mentioned earlier.

Here we are! Around 11am++, we’ve come back to the restaurant and the babi is guling-ed already! So we sit down and ordered ourselves a mix set with a little bit of this and that.

Here’s how the mix set looks like. Here you can see the sauce covering the meat, then on the left you have some vegetables, further up is the pork skin. Covered by the pork skin there’s some intestines (I think they fried those). Then there’s the rice also. Babi guling, it’s actually kinda like Siu Yok for chinese. After trying this, I still prefer the Siu Yok.

Look at Sue acting! Hahaha… she actually doesn’t like the babi guling that much also.

After the meal, we went up. Our destination is to Mount Batur. But on the way there, we stopped to look at some nice paddy field sceneries. The place we stopped is a cafe for people to sit and enjoy some Balinese coffee while enjoying the paddy field scenery. Then I saw this notice. I also saw the farmer there. So, better avoid shooting him la, so lansi, he should pay me for shooting him.

This is the nice paddy field scenery you can see from the cafe. So nice, not sure if Malaysia got this kinda paddy field or not.

Turning gold.

Ducks can be seen in the field. Yum~

Blue sky, green paddy.

Duck shooting? Hahaha.

Like this shot. The guys enjoying the paddy field. Dom downgraded to Sony compact while Bird upgraded to the Canon Professional 1Ds. Hahaha…

Evonne like rice.

Sue enjoying her coffee, Bali style~

After the paddy field, we continue our journey to Mount Batur. We were all shocked to see such beautiful scene of this Volcano. Breathtakingly nice~ The black coloured stuffs below the mountain is not shadow, those are actually lava!

Next to Mount Batur, there’s the Lake Batur. Very pretty looking also.

Here’s a panoramic view of the whole scene. One word… very nice~
Looking at Mount Batur, you can feel the cool breeze blowing towards you, something like Genting, but less moisture. I think the lava emits a not so welcoming smell around the area. But the view overcomed the smell.

Heard from Siewmei that there’s this restaurant which serves buffet here, you have your buffet while overseeing at the volcano. Abang Made didn’t bring us there. But then we were still quite full at that time.

Cam-whoring.

Dom helped me on this picture. Me standing between mountain and lake. Not that i don’t want to smile, blame the sun. Hehe…

After staying a while enjoying the view of the volcano, we went down the mountain. Stopping at this place, TBA. Hahaha… not “To Be Announced” but the place is call Trisna Bali Agrotourism. Here you can see the agricultural stuffs in Bali such as coffee, cocoa, spices, and fruits. They even have the Kopi Luwak (shitty coffee, one of the most expensive coffee in the world) here. In the photo above, coffee berries.

Never see a mangosteen tree before!

The guys enjoying some sample coffee and tobacco (have to roll yourself) here.
From left, Andrew, Bird, Evonne, Dom, Sue, Steven, and our guide Abang Made.

Tirta Empul, Holy Sping, is our next stop. I think everyone that comes to Bali, they’ll sure visit this place. At the entrance, statue guardian.

Walk passed this pone with many many Koi fishes.

Men and women, young and old Balinese come here to bath in the holy water for its curative and restorative power.

Cleaning in progress.

Their power got restored!

Crystal clear water. Canang sari can be seen everywhere.

Praying couple. Wish them luck.

Here we have 3 Balinese doing some traditional Balinese dance. Bali people are just so friendly, their smile so welcoming. Wonder why they carrying DSLR though. Hahaha…

It was evening already when we reached Jimibaran for our dinner. Based on sources, seafood here is a must try also. So Abang Made bring us to this restaurant, Dewata. Frankly speaking, the seafood here are not really that superb, I’ve tried better for a much cheaper price. But then if we didn’t try, we wouldn’t know.

After the dinner, we went around Kuta area looking for hotel again. We’ve finally found one called Grand Sinar Indah. Not bad a place, just renovated. So we took our luggage from the van to our room, then we went out again. Kuta beach revisit, at night. After some walking, we bought some SNACKS and drinks, took 2 cabs back to the hotel, and started chilling by the poolside again.

End of part 2.

A year later, Dominic and Sue, Bird and Evonne, Andrew, Steven, and me came to Bali thanks to our low fares airlines. It was kind of an adventurous trip for us cos we’ve only booked the hotel stay for the 1st night, the rest of the nights we’ll need to look for rooms there and then. What we’ve heard was there are plenty of places to stay in Bali, so none of us worried.

The trip was scheduled on 4th – 8th May, seems like 5 days, but the actual time we were there was only 3 full days because we’ve got the late afternoon flight (which was delayed) there and the freaking early flight (which was delayed also) back.

Our pre-booked tour guide for the trip, Abang Made, was waiting for us at the airport. He drove a Suzuki van, which he afraid was not big enough to fit us all cos there are 7 of us, therefore he asked a hotel guy to drive another van to pick us up from the airport. Me, Dom, Sue, and Andrew were sitting in Abang Made’s van while the rest was sitting in the other van. The distance between the airport and the hotel was only 5 minutes, but it took the hotel driver 15-20 minutes to reached there. Based on the victims, the driver banged a car while reversing, lost his parking tickets, and he GOT LOST! WTF! (we were thinking that that guy doesn’t even have a license to drive) LOLz. Welcome to Bali!

The view from our room from the hotel we stayed for the 1st night.

Pool area where we chilled and have beer for the 1st night.

A gate for a house? or a hotel? just down the road.

Introducing Bird

Introducing Evonne (Bird’s girlfriend)

Introducing Steven (single)

Introducing Sue (Dom’s wife)

Mr. Dominic

And the last contestant is Andrew.

First stop, Nusa Dua. A place where water sports are played like those banana boats and stuffs. None of us were interested. Hahaha… cos it’s freaking hot and the beach was not really nice.

So we just stood there and watch for a while then we cabut. I think Abang Made got a bit puzzled cos we came to Bali, but we not interested at the beach.

2nd stop, Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park located at Ungasan. The park is devoted to the Hindu god Vishnu, and his mount, Garuda.

This is a paper replica of god Vishnu and his mount Garuda.

A portion of the big statue displaying indoor.

Strange walkway with high walls from both sides.

The god’s ride, Garuda.

This is how Mr. Vishnu look like. What happened to his hands? Later you’ll find out.

Nice blue sky for us to shoot.

We were saying that Bird hired us as photographers for him and his girlfriend cos we carried DSLR there. So expect more photos of them.

This photo looks familiar. Took something like this is my Sungai Lembing trip.

I guess this is Bali’s version of Lion Dance. Kinda scary looking for me especially with the hairy body. They look like real hair.

A mythical creature related to Hinduism.

There are many kinds of mythical creatures there.

One of the instrument they use in celebration.

The walls around the park have some cool carving on them.

Masks on the wall.

1 of the water feature in the park.

Holy water anyone?

My first bowl of Bakso and my first botol of Teh Botol Sosro.

Tadaa! Lower down the hill of the park, located the hands of the of god Vishnu. Not sure why they put them seperately, I was thinking the scaling was wrong, cannot fit, so put down here and don’t waste it.

My mortal hand.

Next stop, Uluwatu. A place where fearsome monkeys rule the land. Spectacles, shades, hat, cap, umbrella, earrings, and food must be kept very safe or don’t even bring these stuffs in. I was scared so I took out my earring.

Attire lower then knee length are required. If not, you’ll have to wear these sarungs like demonstrated here by Andrew and Steven.

Sawadikaa~… oh wait…

The sky was not as nice at that time, cloudy like gonna rain. But the view is still magnificent.

Looking down. Waves hitting rock faces of the cliff. Becareful, you can fall. Don’t look if you’re afraid of heights.

Bird and Evonne’s proof of visits.

Sawadikaap~… oh wait…

Andrew’s proof of visits.

Mini group photo. Look at the cliff, there’s no fence to protect you from climbing down.

Same pose from the couple.

I’m on the left side of the park looking towards the right side.

Staircase to the upper part. Guarded by monkeys (They’re hiding in the trees).

Nice brick wall.

One of the guardian.

Top part of the temple, can’t get into the left part because it’s only for praying people.

Another view from the top part looking towards the right side. Nice cliff and waves.

Mr. M chilling on the wall.

Temple overseeing the horizon.

Sue preparing to shoot a panoramic shot using the Horizon panoramic camera.

Dom trying to camwhore using his 1Ds. LOLz

Next stop, the most famous beach in Bali, Kuta Beach.

A lot of Guai Lowsss.

Hot sands.

Preparing to be Guling-ed.

It’s safe to swim out there.

Look at these 2 foreigners surrounded by the locals giving their whatever services to them. I bet they felt like Kings.

Although the beach is not as nice as Redang, but it’s still better than the earlier beach at Nusa Dua. Don’t have those parachutes and banana boats stuffs here. Here’s more like for people to surf.

The kid posed nicely for me to shoot while me waiting for them to finished their Balinese Rojak.

Opposite the beach.

McDonald’s without air-con. Hot~

Ronald McDonald surfing. He’s still so white under the burning sun.

Cafe opposite the beach.

The statue looks like a scout. Didn’t bother to go near and read. Hehe…

Another shot of the street.

Leaving Kuta Beach to Ubud, passed by the memorial park for the Bali bombing incident.

Reached Ubud around 6pm. Headed straight to the famous Dirty Duck Restaurant. It’s call the Bebek Bengil in Indonesian language.

People eating in huts next to lotus pond. We chose another one nearer to the paddy field.

Old-skool~

Not sure when can eat rice.

Close-up of the field.

Another shot of them.

Oil lamp to decorate the surrounding area.

The duck meat is nice in this dish.

The best food for me in Bali.

After Bebek Bengil, we went scouting for rooms. Found 1, the rate was ok and it’s got the pool.

The look of the hotel is very nice, just that the interior of the individual room was kinda sucky. But then again most of the hotels’ room are fully booked. We’ll have to settle with this la.

Another pool where we chill and drink Bintang the night before.

A lot of green, soothing.

Bird preparing himself to jump into the pool.

That’s it, end of part 1 .