Writing through the times

I loved to write ever since I can remember. I would write short stories inspired by other short stories I loved to read while growing up, sometimes write quotes, pretending to be a great philosopher (haha, I know eye-roll) and now that I'm an adult I rediscovered writing again commercially for print (not so fun, because not every clients' work is creative) and writing & publishing my travel stories in different magazines. Sometimes the writing would be in the form of a loose poem, when I feel emotionally moved while picturing myself in the shoes of others, or sometimes through my own experiences. 

These are today's scribbles....

Feel Again

I still remember what it was like

To stare into someone’s eyes
And realise the vulnerable, heavy feeling
To care for him with all my might
To reach a point where I stopped counting
If he would return my feelings
Because it mattered more
To just let go
And shower him
With the depth of my emotions. 
Then I realised
How beautiful it was to possess the capability to love
Someone without blood ties
A feeling so selfless I never knew I had
And also fearfully realise how vulnerable I am
Like a floating dandelion
Unsure of where I’ll land. 

I look into your eyes now
And I almost feel the same again
You don’t know I’m holding back
A reservoir of emotions 
I am not ready to feel again
Once the floodgates open
There will be no holding back
I don’t know how to love with conditions 
It is either like the present momentI hold back and not love
Or I let go of my fears
And allow myself to feel again
And fall in love with you with all my heart 

Wait for me and let me take my time
I can see the edge and I’m walking there
Wait for me when I’m at the edge
I will open my arms wide
And free fall into love again.

**********************

Dreams

What’s standing between you and I, my Dreams?
How is it I can see what you look like, so beautiful,
Shimmering across the sea, beyond reach.
 
You taunt me, telling me you could be mine
People tell me you are possible
I believe you can be mine
Yet I have little clue how to make you mine
 
I see myself travelling
With pockets full to make a living
I weave through cultures
And explore hidden streets
And every nook and corner
My work I created thrives
It sends me further
More reason to travel
With a loved one
Sharing the same passion for life
The same love for God
And the same yearning to explore
 
So what’s really standing between you and I, my Dreams?
Is it fear of letting go what I have now,
To swim through unchartered waters
To reach you?
 
I do not want to have a near death moment
To realise I should have plunged for you all along
Oh God, tell me where do I start
So I can finally live my dreams.

Mindtrap

Mind clouded sense astray
What truth gets through your way?
Dialogue, cajoling, heckling, threats
Disperse like vapour in heat

Mind warped in steel
Sealed from inside's will
Only you can hear the truth
If you let the locks be moved

Mind afloat in fantasy
Reality keeps on living
Time still keeps passing
See how much you're losing
If you refuse to wake up.
Why not drop the sick desires
And greet reality

Counting the days

Have you felt work droning on an on, blending weekdays together in a mish mash? Sometimes, my Monday gets mixed with Tuesday, or was it Wednesday, no wait it's just Monday, I catch myself confused sometimes. And when I do reach the real Wednesday, it does feel like I've passed the half way mark of a marathon (not that I ever did one :P ). When Friday finally comes, I do sometimes feel like I just crawled out from a blender, covered in squishy slime that is pieces and bits of work, information, meetings, conversations, emails, calls, texts, more meetings and emails... and see the big blue sea called weekend stretched ahead of me :)

And in the space of the big blue sea my body is alive again and the mind is alert. Aware of every hour, every minute that passes, precious time slipping through the fingers like fine sand. Then my mind sets adrift thinking of all the stuff I want to catch up on, movies, that magazine lying somewhere, that dusty half-read book on the table, oh my dog needs a bath... a trip... oh yes... why not a trip? Weekend's a little too short, will have to save this plan for later then... Why does the juicy parts of life always gets put away. It seems like the moments I look forward to nowadays are far shorter than the horrid journeys taken to reach the moment. And all too soon the moment passes again.

Perhaps I need a paradigm shift. Perhaps my so called horrid days are not really horrid at all, I just can't see how exciting they are. As exciting as my next holiday ( already I can hear my mind sarcastically screaming yea right ). Or perhaps, just maybe, my days are really horrid. And it needs to be changed, pronto. Then I wouldn't have to end my lovely weekend on an abrupt full stop, it will continue throughout the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. One endless seven coloured rainbow of days. Wishful thinking? I'm praying hard it's not, and I'll find the formula :)

The College Days..

I wanna be a college student again!!
Where I did assignments because I liked it
Nobody is my boss because if I fail I answer to myself
If I do well I praise myself
Where money was always short
but I wasn't afriad to find 101 odd jobs
Where life spread out like a big dream before it got tainted
Where all seemed hopeful, doubts were few....

Vietnam - An odd collection of pix

It's been quite some time since I headed down to Vietnam, I just couldn't find the time to write about it.

So I think I'll upload pix instead and let them do most of the talking. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words isn't it? But then again some say pictures are also very misleading so I will oblige with one or two comments for the pictures.

Vietnam, I'm not quite sure how to describe it in one word. I went to the south - Ho Chi Minh City and the surrounding region of My Tho and Can Tho. It's not exactly a touristy place but if simply observing another way of life is your cup of tea, Vietnam is for you.

Somewhere in town, I chanced upon a road that sells just shoes, shoes, shoes.

I've had many bad dreams where I held a gun but it wouldn't fire at the most critical moment. Needless to say, the experience of being able to fire a real gun with live bullets has put a long haunting dream to rest.

She's a beauty. But she doesn't know her fate, being beautiful has a price to pay. Unfortunately, she will be skinned when the time is right.

First time on a bike with my friend. I signed up for a homestay. They separated us on two bikes. I wondered if I'd be kidnapped as we winded through village roads. It makes me wonder how I could be so trusting, but oh well thk God all was well.

My homestay room. This is actually not a true reflection of their life. The host actually stays in a brick home haha.

The people you might meet during a homnestay. So happened all of them are dutch. One of them has a pretty cool job as a private pilot. Guess which one?

I didn't plan on buying art-pieces but this one just hooked me. I fell hard for her mesmerizing gaze. If you're interested to purchase, drop me a comment.

Tomorrow is a public holiday in Malaysia, hence my pre-holiday laziness to type. If you'd rather read a proper write-up click here :P

the longer writeup on Ho Chi Minh City

Broken Run

I count my lucky stars everyday

I take a ride with positivism

I run a steady run

Smiling ever ready

Sharp rocks seem like pebbles

White waters like streams

I count my lucky stars everyday

Because I can still see the silver lining

But I am tested oh so badly

When I see the closest to me

Who seemingly don’t deserve it

Has life handed on a golden platter

If it were a stranger

I’d shake my head and run on

Saying our lives are two worlds apart

Maybe they had it harsh, now God smiles on them

If it were a friend

I’d shake my head but wish him well

The wheel of fortune visits you

I hope it notices my sweat

And gives me a good turn of fortune soon

But if it were my kin of blood

The world now seems imbalance

I wish I could wish her well

But it stumps me to know

How dreams which you wish upon yourself

Dreams you work hard for

And never achieved

Can be granted unto another

Who has hardly broke a sweat

Yet been dealt a card of luck

By the very hand that feeds us both

How now do I run

How do I run

With a smile

As if the day has never changed

It seems as if all the principles I swear my life by

Now seem broken

Now seem to laugh back at me

Did life cheat me

Or did I cheat myself?

Did God blink for a moment

And in the short darkness

Life as I knew it came to a halt

Mighty friend, father, creator

You know the beginning and the end

You hold the secrets for every event

You know why you made things the way they are

Never do I want to doubt you

I always said I pledge my faith in you

But punish me not

For today I broke my steady run

My ride with positivism came to a halt

And ask you why

Is my turn ever going to come

Why was it in your story

The prodigal son had more

Than the one who stayed

Today I can’t remember the ending to that story

Kedondong Waterfalls - My second Waterfall Survivors Trip

From my last trip with Waterfall Survivors, I decided it's time to make another one. This time it was to Kedondong Waterfalls, somewhere between the Selangor and Pahang border.

It was an early which started out very wrong, but ended pretty well!
The wrong things:
#1 Opening the car door and stepping straight into a pothole filled with dirty water
#2 Being at the wrong meetup point
#3 Upon rushing to the right meetup point, got stuck in a standstill jam on MRR2 because of a horrific accident
#4 Since we were late, we took down the coordinates of the waterfall and drove ourselves there with the help of three trusty GPS enable Nokia phones
#5 Did I just say trusty? The signals for each phone went on and off. We are now left to manually navigate using the map. Good luck to us, there are not many landmarks in the map because we're driving through forested areas.
#6 We can't call for navigation help because we are using a different route from the group who drove earlier. Our GPS told us this is the better/shorter way.
#7 Oh, did I mention, my friend in the backseat blurted out that his friend who is not on the trip texted him to say that she dreamt something bad happened to him. Encouraging indeed!
#8 There is no #8 because after this it was fun all the way :D!!

Beautiful! The trek was actually pretty simple.

The water was icy chilly though since we're located pretty close to Genting Highlands

 The water continues its rush downwards...

Funnily enough this trek was simple but because there was a lot of broken bamboo along the way, this is the result... (Not meant to scare anyone, by all means go and have a safe fun trip! This did not happen to other people..)

Scratch #1 Along the knee

Scratch # 2. Along the calf. And a bruise too caused by a loose rock rolling down the slope and whacking my calf in the process

Scratch + Bruise #3. Probably the most painful of all. There was a hidden broken bamboo trunk facing upwards and reaching the height of my thigh. Thank god I didn't walk that fast.. or else.. impaled? :P

I would still go trekking and enjoy the outdoors anytime :D

On an Impromptu trip to Penang

Bored and looking for a quick trip, I jumped at the chance of going to Penang, Pearl Food Belly of the Orient.

Since I'm not going to be hanging in my room much accept to sleep and freshen up, I opted for a cheap but clean option - Tune Hotels, by the ever famous AirAsia which has constantly rained us with every possible as cheap and as practical as you can get  product.

I did not know what to expect but thought it should be akin to Fragrance Hotel in Singapore, a budget hotel which I previously stayed in.

This is pretty much the entire room. Just like taking an AirAsia flight, you pay for what you use. 

Need a towel? Pay.

Need hairdryer? Pay.

Need the Air-Cond? Pay. Oh I forgot, would it be for 12 hours or 24 hours?

Brought funky gadgets and you need wifi? Pay

Otherwise, you will have a nice clean room with comfy bed ready and a really good power shower head :) 

The bare necessities, done really well.

I wonder if they used recycled paper to print this?

Bathroom is pretty big for a budget hotel. It's half the size of your room and much bigger than the one I had in Fragrance Hotel Singapore. Won-dah-ful! I like a good shower without bumping into the walls.

But there's one thing which annoys me...

See that ad in the bathroom?

 And another ad here, just in case money matters makes you lose sleep

But maybe it's not $$ problems you're losing sleep over, you're just hungry, you poor baby...

And to remind you you're in the right hotel - Tune Hotels!!

Oh by the way, KDK fans keep you cool, so we needed to put their ad here too...

Garrrhhh,I thought I paid for a peaceful night's rest.. stop bombarding me with ADVERTISING!

******

While taking a walk on Gurney Road, I passed by this old mansion. So beautiful, reminiscence of the olden romantic colonial era. They should put up a board to explain its history. Or else I might have to give in to my curiosity, break in and wonder the grounds.. nyehehe

Pretty and mysterious...Wonderfully kept garden (which I just noticed while typing) so someone must still be looking out for this mansion

***

On the way to gobble Penang's delights, I chanced upon a petshop. And they had that garrafura (is that what it's called??) fish which supposedly eat dirt and dead skin. And it costs RM 25 per 40 mins (yeh, Penang is a heaven for everything cheap..) compared to KL which charge nothing less than RM 35

I hovered my fat legs above the pool first because I just realised, damn the fish were kinda BiG to be doing a small nibble job, ain't it?

My cousin shows me the way it's done.

Don't think too much, plonk your feet inside, banish thoughts of fish eating up flesh and bone, keep still, brace the tickles (or nibbles?) and your legs should be polished clean in no time.

After attempt no #101,100 and many squeals, I finally managed to totally immerse my feet in the water, for the fish to eat, chew, um nibble.

It was the Chap Goh Meh festival that night in Penang and the locals apparently celebrate it big here. After a round of shopping at Batu Feringghi, couz and I headed down to Esplanade to see what the fuss was about. 

Too bad, everyone was packing up their celebrations already. We had a little too much fun at Feringghi and couldn't keep up with time haha. So we decided to....

CAMWHORE!!! First with the brightly lit municipal council building

Next, with the birghtly litted trees along the road :D

***

You know they always say have char koay teow at Lorong Selamat?

I found the famous stall, they charge a hefty RM 6.50 for char koay teow compared to the usual 

RM 3.00-RM 3.50

First thing I noticed in the shop was the humongous exhaust fan. 

All the better to blow the smoke away, my dear!

And this was my char koay teow- soft pieces of noodle, egg, big prawns and lap cheong in full glory.

But.. was it worth paying double the price?

Nope, I'm sorry aunty char koay teow-whatever-your-name-is.

Trekking to Dipang Waterfalls, Perak

A couple of weeks back while doing the usual work crunch, I get a call from Sarawakian Danny. I had a hunch he was coming down to KL, since I couldn't think of a better reason for him to call. I was right and even better, he asked me to join him for trekking. Trekking was fine. But trekking with Danny? I was a bit unnerved. Danny is an outdoor adventurist with his own little outdoor adventure business Escapade Borneo
which is how I first came to know of him. With my city-slicker colleagues, we followed him on a 4 hour kayak trip during our Sarawak Rainforest Festival 2009 trip. Now back to the point. I imagined trekking with Danny would mean a really rough and tough terrain (what else could he enjoy?haha), so I voiced my doubts.

Err how difficult is this la?

How far is this trek?

Got trail ah?

To which he of course just said, Don't Worry La!

Turns out, we will be going trekking with Waterfall Survivors, a Facebook group of waterfall enthusiasts. Ironically, I have added this group on my Facebook many moons ago, hoping one day I'd be adventurous enough to join them. Well, life is funny and unpredictable, as they say

So I stared ringing a few more people who were gung-ho about outdoorsy stuff to join. To my disappointment, they each were either busy or had something else planned. The two who ended up going with me turned out to be the last two I had in mind, whom I never thought would trek into the jungle! (Sorry guys haha). It was by a stroke of luck, that I was speaking to Amy on the phone regarding some financial agent who called me because she gaveaway my number (hmmph!) and I asked her if she'd like to visit a waterfall without actually expecting her to say yes. But she said yes. A very enthusiastic YES.

And with Allison, the other gung-ho gal, she heard from another friend whom I actually invited to go.
So yes, as they say, it is fated.

On the day of the trek, I woke up at 5 am to prepare some egg and crabstick sandwiches and headed down to the meeting point in Tesco Mutiara Damansara. I did a quick survey. Some much older participants, some in their twenties and thirties. But judging from my previous experience, usually older participants are the 'experts' who really know their stuff. You don't expect your average middle age people to suddenly join a trek after all.

So we headed off in a convoy on the North South Expressway and exited at Tapah. Thereafter, it was a scrumptious breakfast in Kampar town before continuing our journey to the interior and to a school. The community here were Orang Asli, so I think the school caters to their kids.

Waterfall survivors leader Joe Yap starts off with the Do's and Don'ts though I reckon there are more Don'ts.

She then hands out the first aid kits, each one gets one, to my surprise. I am used to trips with just ONE first aid kit for the entire group.

Next up, was the trail. We started very late, almost noon, and yes so we were half melting.

The head of the trail was bare, I think they had chopped the trees to make way for some other plantation.

The hot day and blue sky makes for a beautiful picture, but check out the squinted eyes on the faces below, and you know just how bright the sun was shining that day.

Danny, the one in shades. The reason we all changed our Saturday routine and woke up at an ungodly hour for this trip, haha.

He turned out to be a BIG help throughout the trek chopping our way with his parang and lending an outstretched hand when you feel like you're gonna do a Humpty Dumpty.

 

After a good 30 minutes, finally tall trees! Temperatures suddenly dropped to a cooling level once we got under the green canopy. Perfect example of why we need them trees to cool our planet!

The trek was not too bad, a bit slippery here and there since the ground is moist and certain parts of the terrain were slightly steep so you have to use your hands to grab on to branches or something to stable yourself. And the first reward.....

In the picture, the rocks certainly look steeper than in real life haha. But what the picture doesn't show is that the rocks were covered in slimy moss so it was slippery enough that someone did slip and tumbled a bit.

More trekking and the next reward...

Water is oh-so-clear everywhere...

And finally the last of the Falls, where we stopped to unpack whatever lunch we brought. 

I overpacked- sandwiches, sausages, apples, thinking I'd be hungry and also packed extra for the people I came with but amazingly enough everyone wasn't that hungry.

Those who were more rajin even brought maggi mee and their mesh tins.

The mandatory happy group pose!

Bali without the Spa Pampering

Bali… was an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G holiday!! When I came back to work, my two female colleagues asked me

“So did you go to the spa, they have the most amazing spas!”

“Did you get your nails done? Manicures there are cheap! How about the Balinese massage?”

I answered ‘no’ to all the questions above and they tsk tsk their tongues and gave me disapproving looks. Those are suppose to be the holy grail of Bali activities, which I did initially plan to do on the LAST day of my stay, but of course plans usually don’t go as plan :P But I’m not complaining, I did have an awesome time.

Call it manic, but almost every minute and sec was spent doing something. Not that we were kiasu or anything, but I just had that level of excitable energy bouncing from one place to another :P

I was quite afraid it would rain heavily since I went in November, which for South East Asia, a time when monsoon begins. But thank Heavens, the watery blessings are spectacularly timed to only the times when I was in the bathroom showering, sleeping or in the car travelling from one spot to the next. Other than that, splendid weather!

I booked our happy foursome (my friend, my cousin and her friend) into Oasis Kuta after doing lots and lots of research. I was specific about what I wanted –cheap but not shabby as this is to be a budget holiday and right in the heart of Kuta town where all the action is. I have never booked through an online hotel search site, but my experience with agoda.com means I will use them again in future. They had the best price in comparison with other sites, at 47 US$ per night per room AND they were also the only site which still had rooms left when others were sold out! I flew AirAsia at roughly RM 400 plus for return tickets, but you can actually get it much cheaper if you booked many moons ahead.

The hotel blocks surround a long pool. The water in the pool is surprisingly warm everytime I take a dip. Hmmm

Room is mid-size with a comfortable bed, tv and separate shower and toilet cubicles

After checking in, my cousin and her friend took some time to settle in for awhile before we aimed for Kuta beach; apparently they woke up 2 hours before their flight and had not even packed their clothes yet, so I imagine they ran through the morning at tornado speed, because they did catch their flight with unshowered bodies, unwashed faces, and unbrushed teeth :)

The walk to the beach was just so long! It’s not that I hate walking, in fact most of my holidays are spent doing some serious amount of walking but it was just the feeling of excitement that I couldn’t contain. That, and that it looks like the sun was soon setting. ‘5 mins walk away from the hotel’ my a** The street heading towards the beach was very colourful, with all sorts of stalls and alleyways that lead to backyard spas. Finally after still not finding the beach, we stopped to ask and were told we missed the turning and backtracked. So Oasis Kuta Hotel is really 5 mins from the beach. *Embarassment* nyaha.

Where is the beach??? Along the streets are plenty of stalls to amuse you

The sand at Kuta beach was a blackish ash colour which I suspect must have something do with Bali being a volcanic island. When I commented on the colour to local Balinese, they were quick to defend ‘Tidak, PUTIH! PUTIH!!!’ (NOOOO! IT IS WHITE SAND, YOU BLIND TOURIST) But seriously, if you compare a handful of that Bali sand to the beach sand in Redang, Kapas or Perhentian island you’ll have a Michael Jackson.

Kuta beach is a really long stretch of sand, plenty of space for all to have some tanning space

Kuta's sunset is pretty early,around 7 pm

While on our beach hunt, we did pass by several stalls promoting all sorts of tour packages, but I really did want to go white water rafting. So this was our FIRST MATH test in Bali since this our first big purchase and counting the value of stuff with all the zeros in Indonesia’s Rupiahs can be dizzying.

MATH LESSON 1 : 10,000 rupiahs = RM 3.8/ USD 1 plus (to make it easier, I put it at RM 4)

After punching the calculator at the stall for the umpteenth time, boy I’m glad we did not book our rafting package online, despite all the claims of the best and lowest prices, because it is the LOWEST on the streets. Compare paying roughly RM 120 for 4 people to raft to USD 60 (RM 205) per person online! So our rafting adventure at Sungai Telaga Waja with Bagus Bali tour was set for the 2^nd day of our trip!

As part of the deal, a van picked us up early that morning for the one hour journey to the river. It was a comfortable Toyota Avanza which we shared with a couple from Kuwait. The girl was really cute, in fact she looks like she just hit her twenties and the guy, with a pair of huge sunnies did look like a Bollywood type. Upon reaching the river, we were first given a briefing. The local Balinese started in English then deftly switched to Japanese for the benefit of a three generation Jap family seated next to us. Wow! Besides that, they insisted we all wore strapped sandals to prevent any flip flop float-away misfortunes or worst getting cuts on our feet if we walk on the rocks. So they handed me these not-very-trustworthy looking pair of overpriced black sandals, which sure enough tore apart during rafting later :) Our valuables were all then thrown into a waterproof bag and tossed into the raft and our adventure began.

The rapids were Class 3, which is not too slow and boring and not too thrashy as well. After all, our neighbouring raft had the Japanese grandma and grandpop! Some of the obstacles were tricky though, and it came in the form of a bamboo bridge. There were 4 or 5 of these man-made bridges which consisted of just a few narrow bamboo logs tied across the river. I guess the people living along the river must be pretty expert tight rope walkers to be able to cross. Anyway, our problem was whenever we were going to pass under the bridge our guide seated at the back of the raft would shout ‘boom boom’ and we had to bend backwards , flattening ourselves completely as we watch the bamboo bridge passing literally a few cm above our noses! I envision a beer bellied man even after flattening himself on the raft, would still get his belly hooked :P

With an expert guide peddling hard and steering the raft behind us, it was really

easy for us. Just don't fall out of the raft like my friend in the shades did :P

Halfway down the river, there's a pitstop for drinks and some time to chill by a mini waterfall.

We were so thirsty we bought the drinks without realising it was superbly overpriced. Bah, tourist traps..

The final adrenaline rush before we head for their little hut perched by the hill side for

one of the best buffet lunches on my trip

After being blessed in the river waters of Bali, we hit the clubs. We tried Seminyak at first, which is a slight upmarket area where streets are lined with foreign brand boutiques. No luck here as we spotted only one happening bar for the gay community. The male dancers were really hot though so we stayed a couple of minutes to check out the scene much to the discomfort of my very straight male friend. So next we headed south to Legian, located in between Kuta and Seminyak, and here’s where all the short and singlet backpackers party. So of course the street was noisy with pumping bass and neon lights flashed from every corner.

The deejay in Paddy's perched high above the dancers, in this aquarium-like perspex case.

Perhaps he got attacked previously and this is a safety measure. Afterall, I did hear a couple of hits

for the third time playing in my two hours clubbing there...

You know you're on an island when clubbers wear beach sandals to club :)

Day 3. Today we have a local Indonesian Jakarta dude, thanks to my fellow traveller’s contact. Meet Kamal, who came to Bali to study and is now happily in love with Bali to call it home with his wife.

He was one jolly happy-go-lucky dude indeed, peppering our drives from one tourist must see to another with his stories on his ex-gfs, his days as a radio deejay in Bali, his adoring female fans and stories on the power struggles between the local powerhouse families. It never dawned on me how big Bali was until he told us each drive from one place to another was between an hour to and beyond. Bali is indeed a little idyllic island.

First stop was the volcanic Mt Batur. Here, peddlers are a little overzealous since they’re not as moneyed as their counterparts in town. They carry their goods around and follow you like flies, calling out their prices again and again, just in case you would change your mind and hand over your dollar. Prior to disembarking the car, Kamal has warned us not to buy anything her, but a man blocking my path and showing me a beautiful wooden chess set for a mere 1 US$ made me dizzy with wanting. After giving a few longing glances I quickly snatched myself away before he could capture me in that sale. You must be thinking I was crazy not to have bought it, but when I returned to KL, my colleague told me a friend once bought this beautiful collapsible wooden basket for a dirt cheap price in Mt Batur. Happy with her purchase she carried her basket away only to have the many pieces collapse before her eyes. So yeah, phew…..

The volcanic mountain in the background was 'bald' , totally derived of any trees or any other vegetation

At the monkey forest, wildly mischievous monkeys waited to grab handouts from tourists amidst a mystifying mossy jungle setting. Definitely a good place to shoot the Bali edition of Twilight.

At the entrance, we bought a bunch bananas to distribute to the monkeys, but no such luck.

The monkeys don't believe in handouts, they rather grab it straight from your hands. Oh yeah, we lost two mineral water bottles to them too. If you're planning to go, watch out for your pockets too, they love slipping their sneaky fingers in there

A couple arrived for a wedding photoshoot in the monkey forest. The lush greenery, moss and undergrowth does make for a mystifyingly dramatic picture, that is if the monkeys don't run off with the camera lenses first.

Our hunger for the day was well rewarded with Babi Guling (Roast Pork stuffed with herbs and spices) at the famous Ibu Oka café in Ubud.

In Ibu Oka, you sit Japanese style on the floor. Her packed shop is a testament to how popular this place is.

The famous BABI GULING. Some green veg,roast pork, crispy pork skin and down below some unidentified object that tastes just as good

A tourist must visit was Tanah Lot, an ancient temple perched in the sea. There were lots of people already taking positions there to see the sunset, but what caught my eye was a bunch of surfers riding the waves. The waves here are much higher than those at Kuta, but what makes it chillingly exciting to watch is that the bay is totally rocky. One wrong maneuver and crash you go baby, surf board and all.

That rocky outcrop is the temple. When the tide rises, it will be surrounded by sea water. Right under the outcrop is a little cave where fresh spring water spouts and because of that oddity, tourists are welcomed to go there to have blessings. Funnily enough, while watching the sunset here, Kamal mentioned that locals who are dating never visit this place as a couple because there's some strange belief that they will SURELY breakup after that

Throughout the trip I expected bad food, as my mum had a pretty bad experience when she went a couple of years back. ‘Flies everywhere, lousy tasting food and disgusting toilets’ were her haunting reminder. Well I had none of that, in fact every meal was simply lip-smacking delicious! Though I must say I was at cafes for all meals until the last day when I finally found a warung where the locals themselves dine plus a few adventurous tourists.

Some random cafe along the streets of Kuta. Food was okay, more promising things to come....

First night. Nothing says welcome better than great food. Warung Made (Ma-day) in Kuta. We ordered a lipsmacking combo of meat boiled in some melon thing, pork in curry, gado gado which is some vegetable dish.

Even more meaning to the word delicious. We had a little bit of Mexican at Santa Fe Restaurant in Seminyak

On the last day, when our pockets were running dry we went up to some locals and asked them where we can have good local food. They told us Warung Made, and I protested asking for a place where the locals actually ate, which led us to Warung Nikmat.

Down the alley we go in search of Nikmat. Good food is always tucked away you see..

Alas, the search for Warung Nikmat concludes in a splendid lunch. The dishes here are all laid out ala nasi campur, and you simply pick what you want to eat. My rice with fish satay, veg and chicken came up to a mere 15000 rupiah.

And at every meal, we couldn't stop ourselves from ordering Avocado Juice! Creamy and slushy with choc sauce, I can taste it just by typing about it...

I tried surfing too, hoping I could at least decently stand on the board by the last day in Bali. I’m not too sure if successfully squatting on the board for a mere 4 seconds counts :P Prices on the beach for surf and body boards are to be haggled just like everything else in Bali. I think the cheapest I managed to haggle to was 100,000 rupiahs. In addition to renting a board, you can pay more for surfing lessons. I was lucky as I arrived eeeearrrly in the morning when tourists were all still suffering from the previous nights hangover so my friends and I were alone on the beach with the surfer boys cum beach equipment rental boys. So I had some ‘free’ surfing lessons from them, which unfortunately didn’t make me surf any better but they gave me some balls and sense on how to handle the big waves a-crashing. So if anyone wants to continue teaching me, by all means I’m an eager student :)