Day 1
It was so irritating that I arrived at KLCCT at 9am, 2 hours before the flight but ending up queuing for 1 hour at the line which was not moving at all. I really wonder what was the Air Asia staff doing, are they really that inefficient? I had to wait for the emergency announcement 1 hour before the flight that asked us to go to the special counter for immediate check in. Luckily the flight took off punctually.
I arrived at Denpasar at 2.30pm (30 minutes later than the arrival time as the queue in custom was long) but no one was there to pick us up. We called the emergency contact in Indonesia and apparently they forgot to pick us up. While waiting for the driver, a person came over to asked us where we are going, quite dodgy, luckily that person is part of the travel agent’s staff. We waited for 30 minutes for the driver to arrive.
We reached our hotel, Dreamland Villa at about 4pm, and found my hotel room to be quite nice. I went to the Klapa Beach via the hotel’s shuttle bus at 5pm. The wave was huge at the beach, but there is nothing much to see there. The sky get dark very early, by 6.15pm, it was already like 8pm in Malaysia. We went back to the hotel at 6.15pm.
Homepage for hotel - http://www.dreamland-villa.com/
Day 2
I had plenty of rest and woke up at 10am and went for breakfast at the restaurant. Breakfast was very simple with minimal selection, but enough to fill up your stomach. I went back to sleep again after taking some pictures. The tour guide called us at about 1.45pm and we went to the lobby to meet up him.
We went to Uluwatu Temple. There were a lot of monkeys. While I was sitting down taking pictures with Choong, one monkey actually snatch my earring and my ear bleeded. I shouted like mad because I got a shock. I may have fell down the cliff. The monkey put my earring in his mouth and bite my earring and climbed up to the roof. The children there have to give the monkey some food to exchange for my earring. To think on the bright side, luckily the monkey did not snatch my necklace, otherwise my diamond pendant will be gone. I really hate monkeys and Uluwatu temple after this trip. My mood was greatly affected after this incident and I don’t have mood to take pictures anymore.
When I told my friends later on, the told me that they had similar experience when visiting Uluwatu temple. The monkeys actually snatched their sunglasses, hair pin, bag and camera. It’s really a stupid place to visit.
After that I went to Nyang Nyang beach. I thought it was supposed to be a beach, but it is actually a “coffee shop” that can oversee the beach. We had a free drink there, nothing much to see other than the nice scenery.
The tour guide brought us for dinner at 4.45pm, yes, quite crazy at this hour. Wasting our time since we had to wait for 1 hour for dinner since the dinner is not ready. After dinner, we visited the Gwk Cultural Park (next to the restaurant) at 6.15pm, in the dark. Nothing much to see. We went to see the Kecak Dance Performance at 6.30pm. The dance was really boring and the performance looked so silly, I can’t understand why so many people seem to enjoy it and kept on laughing. Luckily the performance was only 30 minutes. I was waiting for it to end after the performance started for 5 minutes.
I went back to the hotel after that and soaked the Jacuzzi before the spa at 9pm, arranged by the hotel, done in my hotel room. The spa was quite nice, started with foot soak and massage, body massage and scrub, face massage and finally flower Jacuzzi.
Day 3
Jimbaran Dinner and Tanah Lot
We left hotel to the Tanjung Benoa watersport paradise and the tour guide get upset when I don’t want to play any of the watersports (I have told him in advance). They really think that I am stupid, asking me to pay for the “coral boat tour – to see the corals”. I told him I only wanted to go to Turtle Island which was included in the tour. We then took the boat to Turtle Island and the boat will actually stop to show you the coral on the way to the island. Luckily I was not tricked and did not pay for this “extra” itinerary. The beach was so dirty and beyond imagination. Can see bottles, rubbish and weed, can’t imagine those who go diving and snorkeling at this dirty beach.
Upon arriving at Turtle Island, there is this “volunteer staff” to bring us to see the turtles, bat, bird and snake and then asked us to order drink at the hut. After that she told us to donate for the “development” of Turtle Island as they have no funding. After donating Rupiah 50,000, she asked us to give her tips as she is a volunteer and has no salary. We wanted to give 20,000 but she demanded that she wanted 50,000 (although it was just 5 min service bringing us around). To avoid problem, we gave her the tip requested.
We went for lunch, in the itinerary, they promised that we will have a cruise lunch today, but they changed it and said we can’t have cruise lunch. Very angry and disappointed. We went to Tanah Lot after lunch. It took us 1 hour to reach there, but worth it. Very nice scenery, temple along the beach. After that we went for horse cart riding. It was so funny, I thought it will be in the field. Out of sudden, the tour guide asked us to get off the car and ride on the “horse cart” (a bit like trishaw) and the horse cart actually took us for a ride on the road, yes, same road as cars. It actually caused traffic jam and was really dangerous. We will be gone if a car/ motorcycle knocked us from behind.
We went to Jimbaran for dinner. Very nice view to have dinner along the beach. Food was so so only. We went to Kudeta (a bar) after dinner. This is a very nice bar, located next to the beach and can see the beach when you are having drink. I did not drink here as it was raining and I can’t sit along the beach. This looked like a high class bar and drink seemed expensive.
We went back to the hotel after that. We checked in to a new hotel today, The Oasis Hotel, Tanjung Benoa. The hotel is very horrible, with a lot of stains on the floor and bathroom. There is also one kind of smell and a lot of ants crawling on the floor. The only plus point for this hotel is it is located along the beach. It was so hard for me to sleep today because the bed is so uncomfortable, air-cond is not cold enough and the funny smell at the hotel. Initially I wanted to change room but the reception guy told me I have to add US$120 to upgrade to their suite as all other rooms are fully booked. I asked for a discount since it was already 10pm and I will check out early next morning, but he did not allow. Very bad customer service.
Homepage for hotel - http://www.theoasisbenoa.com
Day 4
Nothing much today, breakfast was ok. Went to the beach to take picture but it was really hot, so we went back to the hotel to take a nap. Checked out at 11pm and went to the airport, arrived by 11.30pm. We waited so long at the airport as our flight is at 2.25pm. Yes, the usual Air Asia trend, flight got delayed again, we only left Denpasar at about 3pm.
Conclusion
This trip was enjoyable if I forget about the Uluwatu incident and the horrible Oasis hotel. It will be good for those who wants to relax, but there is definitely nothing to buy here, not recommended for shopaholic.
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