10 April 2018 – Ubud, Bali, Indonesia – Day 2 – YES!!!

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We had a working bank card again!!! Paden and our bank branch had pulled through for us. What a relief. I am sure it was the guy at the Flower Dome in Singapore that swiped my card instead of tapping it, that caused the issue and triggered fraud!

We had a great breakfast this morning at the resort, overlooking the pool. The breads and pastries came in a woven basket. Really nice.

It was just so relaxing sitting here enjoying a leisurely breakfast.

Paden had told us about a path they had taken through some rice fields and how beautiful it was. We decided this is what we would do today and headed out.

We came across a temple and decided we would tour that first.

Doug posing with his new girlfriend/girlfriends.

Temple done, we headed off in search of this path Paden told us about. Part of the movie Eat, Love, Pray was filmed in Ubud, Indonesia. It is absolutely breathtaking almost everywhere you look.

Tried my hand at another ‘trick’ photo as they had these mirrors on the sharp corners of the narrow road. It may or may not have taken me a few shots to get us.

We found a path, but had no idea if this was the correct one or not, since this Private Property No Tresspassing sign was there. We went ahead anyways.

If it wasn’t the correct path, it sure was an amazing substitute for our day.

There were little cafes and shops scattered around. Seems like yoga is very popular here.

Even though we did see some rice fields, I am pretty sure now that we didn’t go far enough to see the terraces of rice fields that people talk about. We thought we had gone so far and decided to turn back. The return trip seemed so short and we were wishing we had gone a lot further.

As we were headed back we heard some quacking going on in the rice field. We thought Ted and Susan had followed us over here. Ted and Susan are a pair of ducks that have been coming to our pool for the last 8 – 10 summers. They don’t have their nest in our backyard, but come for their spa days and hang out. Swim, sleep and eat the bird seed and cracked corn. They even get their own food and water bowls placed in the shade for them. LARGE ones. We use large plant saucers for them.

At first we saw one duck, then two ducks.

Then three ducks and four ducks.

Then five, six and seven ducks. Stopped counting and moved along at seven. We found it hilarious.

We explored the town a little a grabbed a couple of smoothies. That walk took a lot out of us. Did I mention it was HOT & HUMID?

We turned up a side street and came across a little Mexican restaurant. That was it. I wasn’t going any further. Margarita time! After all it was 2:30 pm by now. It was hard to get a good picture of the place as the sun was coming right at me. The place was small and getting busy.

Food and drinks were good and really hit the spot!

So my tostados were really good, but I am still not sure how you are supposed to eat them, since they are on a crunchy shell and can’t be folded. I managed somehow though.

Total was IDR Rp 395,000 = Cdn $34.00 Not cheap by SE Asia standards, but not expensive by Canadian standards. Indonesia is definitely more expensive than Thailand and Cambodia are.

Time to head back to our room. Those margaritas were GOOD! Saw some new construction on our way back. They use bamboo for supports. Actually they use bamboo for everything. It is really strong. Saw a lot of bamboo being used in Vietnam also, when we were there in 2016/17.

Not sure if you can tell from the picture or not, but these leaves were humungous.

We were back at the resort and in our pjs by 6:30 pm. We are just worn out. Often when we get back to our rooms early, the evening would be spent researching and booking our next leg or two of our trip. It was unbelievable how stressful this could be. Finding someplace that met our requirements, as in NO BAMBOO walls, yet was in a good location and affordable, since we did have a sort of budget for our 3 month vacation.

We had already cut out a few places that we had planned to visit and were now cutting out more. We we were just too tired of moving around every few days. This time around we cut out Nusa Lembongan, Lombok and unfortunately Komodo Island. Komodo Island was just going to be too expensive last minute. Most places were booked up and it would have ended up costing us between $1500.00 – $2000.00 for one or two nights for airfare and hotel. Next time!

9 April 2018 – Travel Day – Kuta to Ubud, Bali, Indonesia – Day 1

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We were moving on today. We had booked a private van to take us from Kuta to Ubud and he was to arrive around noon. It was a great deal for IDR Rp 150,000 = Cdn $13.25

We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then wandered around the grounds taking pictures for a while. This was our balcony where we hung laundry and actually did relax a couple of times.

Our view

If you look really hard you can see the ocean.

We checked out, paid our bill and waited for our ride. Still owed quite a bit, even though we had purchased their upsell offer. Pay IDR Rp 1,000,000 (Cdn $88.50) and get IDR Rp 1,250,000 (Cdn $110.50) credit. We should have bought a few of those upsell offers! Mind you, we had been here for 5 nights and had eaten all our dinners here.

Couldn’t leave without checking out the public washrooms, now could we?

It was a nice drive and I tried to take a few pictures along the way. The closer we got to Ubud, the hillier and curvier the roads got. Some of the sculptures that we saw in stores along with road looked to be amazing. Can only imagine what they would cost to ship home.

We turned off the main road and proceeded along a very hilly, rough ‘road’. We came to where we thought the road to our hotel was, but the driver was not going to risk driving up it. It was narrow, steep and curvy. We couldn’t tell for sure if our accommodations were even on it. We unloaded and proceeded to walk up the ‘road’. For every down hill there seemed to be an up hill also. 100 M sure can be far at times. We had made good time and had arrived in Ubud by 1:30. We have to laugh now as it is approximately 26 km (16 miles), but seemed much further when driving over here. Can you imagine taking 1 1/2 hours to go 26 km back home? And thinking you had made good time!!

We were welcomed with drinks and got all checked in. They sure make the room keys large enough. Don’t want you loosing them. The room was quite large and really nice. There was a welcome letter and flowers laying around that instantly kicked my allergies into high gear. Thankfully the flowers were gone the next day.

We decided to explore a little and found the restaurant. What they serve Bintang? We figured we deserved a rest and an adult beverage. After all it was really HOT here.

Couldn’t go wrong with the price of a large Bintang here. With tax and tip it was IDR Rp 35,200 = Cdn $3.10

We were rested and hydrated now, so decided it was time to head into town. Yup, that meant we had to walk down and up the hills again. At least this time, we knew our hotel was actually here. We walked by rice fields that lined our little road.

We got to town and stumbled upon a barber shop. Doug had been wanting to get a haircut for a while now. He was going to chance it. Really, how can you mess up a man’s haircut? There was an Aussie guy in the seat next to Doug that had the most beautiful long blond curly locks. I really wanted to take a picture of him, but that probably would have been a little weird, even for me. He wanted ALL the curls cut off. He wanted his hair short. His poor barber was terrified of cutting his hair. The client kept telling him to cut more and more off. Doug’s barber just took the shears to Doug’s hair and sheared away! The sign on the window was amusing. GOOD Haircuts ARE NOT Cheap, cheap HaiRcuts ARE NOT GOOD

They are everywhere! We didn’t stop in, but I am sure we probably will at some time.

We were now in search of food. We found this place and decided to give it a try. When I saw Ginger Ale on the menu, I had to have one. We don’t drink pop often, but a good Ginger Ale now and then is great. We ordered shrimp of some sort and I also ordered the Tian Avocado Shrimp Cocktail. Wasn’t fond of all that stuff on the top. Meal wasn’t bad, but I won’t hurry back. A bit too fancy for my tastes.

Here are a few pictures of our walk to and from town. There are a LOT of hills here.

Another part of the road we had to walk everyday.

We stopped at the local Mini Mart to pick up a few snacks and headed back to our accommodations. Saw a good sized gecko in the gardens, but didn’t get a picture of it.

8 April, 2018 – Kuta, Bali – Day 5 – Still Not Working

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Nothing planned for today. We were going to walk back to the downtown area of Kuta and see if we could get some money. Walked along the water and saw these people flying a kite. Perfect weather for kite flying.

Tried the bank machines from the other day and Doug was able to get Cdn $50 from one machine. After that it appeared that his card had stopped working also. With our whopping $50 in hand we stopped in Starbucks for a couple of cold ones. Had to laugh at how they labeled the coffees. Mr Joan and Mrs Joan.

We browsed around the mall for a bit enjoying the air conditioning.

Headed outside to check out the area and found a strip of bank machines on the street, but none of them would work for either of us.

One of my favorite restaurants, but we did not go in. We need to come back here one day.

Saw these cool stools at an outdoor bar.

We each bought a t-shirt and then decided it we would head back to our hotel and enjoy the afternoon there.

Once we got back to our end of town, we tried the bank machines near us. Doug was able to get Cdn $50, but of course mine still did not work. We asked Paden if he could stop by the bank, speak with them and try to get my card working. Thank goodness everyone at our branch knew we were traveling and knew me quite well. He said he would go tomorrow after work. Please let them be able to help us.

We needed to relax and it was time that we put our feet in the ocean here on Bali.

That was enough ocean time and we headed back to the pool.

After all it was Happy Hour at the pool bar.

We had a few drinks or more, and a delicious Crispy Chicken Wrap. The same meal we had had the other day at the pool bar. It really was good. Good thing we could charge it all to our room and pay by VISA when we were going to check out.

We stayed in the pool until the sun went down and really relaxed.

After our long pool time we headed over to Flavaz to get some dessert. The apple crumble pie and ice cream were yummy and hit the spot.

The hotel had set up for a private party, with all kinds of food and entertainment. We headed back to our room around 7:30 pm. Late night for us!

7 April 2018 – Kuta, Bali – Day 4 – Amazing Race

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Today was going to be fun filled touring day. We had so many places to see on the agenda. Thankfully we had booked a private tour with Balik Tour in a comfy SUV for just the two of us and we would have no waiting around for bus loads of tourists. You know how those tourists can be! This was the busload leaving from our hotel.

We were picked up from the hotel at 9:00 am in a nice Toyota SUV and headed off to the first destination, a temple. We hadn’t been to a temple in over a week and were starting to feel temple withdrawal. Not really! Before we got to the temple, we had to battle the rush hour traffic. The scooters reminded us of Vietnam, where no one was safe from them, as they droved everywhere, including the sidewalks. Same here.

But not only did we have to battle scooters, cars and trucks, we had to deal with the wildlife on the road. Coming right at us.

We got to our first stop, a Hindu Temple, Pura Taman Auyn in Mangwi-Bandung. Had to drive under an arch.

Driver dropped us off and would wait for us. In we went to tour the place. It was a big area.

Out we went to find our driver. We are always happy when we are able to find our driver. Some are easier to find than others.

Next stop was a small family-style coffee plantation, Tegal Sari Kopi Luwak. They grew and made their own coffee, plus other herbs and spices. It really was just a drop and shop stop. What was amazing to us though, was how the place looked like nothing from the road side, but once you got behind the wall, the place was amazing.

You get a short tour and then you taste their products, but can’t get out of there without going through their shop.

Beautiful lush gardens. Our guide was pointing out all these different plants that they used to make the coffees, teas and spices. Of course, neither of us remember what was what now.

I do remember that they make a very expensive coffee out of this guys poop! This is a Civet Cat

Coffee Beans + Civet Cat Digestion = Poop Coffee

Here are the poop beans. Poop coffee beans are collected from the poop, washed, roasted, brewed and transformed into aromatic cat poop coffee. That is a definite PASS from me!!!

After a little education, we had to sample the products. Can’t say I was overly fond of any of them. Then we were shuffled into the shop. Of course we ended up buying something that we will most likely never use. I always feel obligated to make some kind of purchase.

UPDATE: Three years later we still have the unopened product. I just happened to see it the other day. Guess it is time to throw it out. And to think that we carried this around the world, taking up precious space in our backpacks. LOL IDR Rp 60,000 = Cdn $5.31

We headed off to the next stop. The clouds were starting to roll in. Really hope we don’t get caught in rain today. Our one big day of sight seeing here on Bali.

Our next stop was Daya Tarik Wisata Ulun Danu Beratan, a Shaivite water temple (Hindu Buddhist) in Beratan which is up in the mountains. That probably explains why it looked like rain.

Tickets in hand we proceeded through the entrance way. This place had pretty big grounds to cover from the look of it, including a lot of water front property.

It always amazes me when I see ‘house’ plants that I have growing, out in the wild here. This is a plant that I called a ‘shrimp plant’. I have no idea if that is the proper name or not, but I had one for a couple of years before it died on me.

I have 2 of these Brugmansias and even though mine are in pots they still grow big and I have to trim 2 -3 feet off them every fall to bring back in the house. I store them in our unused bathtub for the winter months.

Everyone was taking pictures of this and standing on it taking selfies, so I figured it must be something important and needed to take pictures of it also.

The clouds are quickly moving in. Hope they move right on by us.

There was this small group of men fishing. Sure looked relaxing. I wonder if it was some of the workers, during their lunch break. There were many workers around building and sprucing up everywhere.

Doug was getting tired of taking selfies. For every selfie that I post, I have probably taken 100 or more. You would think by now, that I would be better at it, but I am not. Either part of us cut off, background too blurry or we are too blurry. Don’t they say “Practice makes perfect?” Well I am still practicing and a long way from perfect!

We had been here an hour by now and we always feel like we shouldn’t leave our drivers too long. Mind you they probably enjoy the break and are many times found chatting with other drivers. I would imagine they all know each other in this business. I am sure that there were many other buildings that we could have explored but we decided to head out. Of course there was a shopping area on the way out. A pretty random sign for their EXIT. We didn’t get rained on!

We were now headed off to get some lunch. Our driver took us to a beautiful restaurant here in the mountains somewhere. We were seated at a great table near the side, with a spectacular view overlooking the valley and hills.

Unfortunately the skies opened up, the winds picked up and the rain poured down. We were in for a big thunderstorm. Everyone had to move from the open sides of the restaurant as there were no window coverings at all. We moved more into the center of the restaurant, but had to move again right up to the wall, as the winds were so strong and we were still getting wet in the center. The water was even seeping down the interior stone walls, but at least we were out of the wind now.

They offered an all you could eat buffet, but we ordered off the menu as we would never eat enough off the buffet. We of course bought our driver lunch also. Lunch was inexpensive here, but they did add on 20% tax and service fee. IDR Rp 201,000 = Cdn $17.50 Can’t go wrong with those prices to feed three people lunch.

Since it was still pouring down, the driver went out and backed the vehicle up to the entrance, so we wouldn’t get soaked.

We were headed of to the Monkey Forest, Pemerintah Kabupaten Tabanan. The rain had let up some, but we were still getting wet.

Quite the monkey to greet us. The guide took a few pictures of us. She obviously had a difficult time with focusing as most turned out blurry.

We didn’t stay here long, as the rain had not stopped completely and I am not even sure if there was much to do here, or if it was really a stop to bring business into the shops here. They had a whole area of bats and there were so many baby monkeys around. Just adorable. Monkeys were adorable, not so much the bats.

Of course we ended up in the shop owned by the guide. It gets tiring after a while. And yes, we did purchase something. This time it was can ‘cozies’ that we can at least use by our pool.

Next stop was the whole reason for us booking this tour. We wanted to go to Pura Tanah Lot for the sunset. Pura Tana Lot means temple in the sea. Tanah Lot was the Leg 6 stop in Season 29 of the Amazing Race. Air date was 4 April 2016. We are great fans of Amazing Race.

Once we got in, we could go left or right. We went right, of course the wrong way to get to the Tanah Lot, but we still saw plenty.

There was a small beach here and we saw a surfer or two.

Pura Batu Bolong

There were A LOT of people here. I bet they were all tourists!

I will pass on the snake and that is what we did, passed right on by.

When the tide is low, which it was, you can go into the temple. However, the line was at least an hour long to get over there. We didn’t have the time, nor the energy to bother with that. We wanted to see the sun set and would have missed it. So we toured around the grounds.

This is the entrance to the Tanah Lot, photo taken from the back side, since we didn’t walk back up to the actual entrance side.

My failed attempt at trying to get a picture of Doug holding the sun. Oh yes, we tried numerous shots! Plus a few other ‘trick’ shots. Epic fail! LOL

The attempt of getting a selfie with the sun setting behind us.

However, I think I got a few great shots of the actual sunset.

Out on the hillock is the Batu Balong Temple. You can not go in this temple, only photographs, which I took when we went right instead of left. It sure makes for spectacular photos during sunset.

It was now 6:15 pm and time to head off back to our driver and back to our hotel. It had been a long day, as we had been on the road since 9:00 am. The traffic was absolutely insane and it took us 1 1/2 hours to get back to our hotel. Tanah Lot is approximately 20 km north-west of Kuta, where we are staying.

6 April, 2018 – Kuta, Bali – Day 3 – Banking Emergency

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I decided to try something new for breakfast. Still don’t know what the red and green stripped item was. Tried it, don’t need to try it again.

We had planned nothing for today, but knew we needed to get some cash, if nothing else. And we wanted to book a private tour for tomorrow. We decided we would walk along a brick path that we had seen. It ran along the ocean, the beaches and resorts.

After 30 – 45 minutes we came upon the shopping mall. Have I mentioned lately how HOT and HUMID it is here? We couldn’t wait to get inside to cool down. Most of our walk had been in the full sun.

They do a security check as you enter the mall from the beach side. Scan and inspect bags.

Took us a while to find the bank machines as they were well hidden. When we did, there were so many different ones, that we had no idea which ones were safe and compatible with our bank. I had been using my TD Canada Trust card since the beginning without issue. We tried one machine, no success. Tried another machine, still no success. And another with no success. Another guy came along and got money out no problem. What was going on with my card? Finally decided to try my Scotiabank card and was able to get some cash out, but was limited to the equivalent of Cdn $50 plus a $5 service fee. Something wasn’t right. The day we had gone to the Flower Dome in Singapore, they guy at the ticket booth had swiped my card and asked for my signature. I had freaked out about this as my card was set up to use a PIN to prevent fraud. This was the first time I had tried to use my card since that day. We would now have to somehow get in touch with the bank to see what was going on.

We looked around inside the mall, knowing we couldn’t buy anything until we had figured out what was going on with my bank card. Here were baskets full of Mangosteen and Snake Skin fruit. There was a Baskin Robbins and a Starbucks in the mall. PLUS right outside the door was a Cold Stone Creamery!!! My favourite. And we had no money!!!!

Saw this shirt. Today was definitely a SHITDAY! A no money SHITDAY!

Walked around the town for a bit. So many scooters, we could almost be back in Vietnam.

We were just so hot that we decided to go to Starbucks and get a couple of French Vanilla Iced Lattes. It had been a while since we had had them and we needed them. Yes needed them.

Crazy people that we are, we decided to walk back to the hotel along the water again. Actually, we had no idea how else to get back. Maybe we would get some shade by now. Or maybe not.

The beach up here was nicer than our hotels beach. Not far from our hotel there were a lot of rocks. There were even a few surfers out.

When we got back to the hotel, we tried the bank machines in our area. No luck there either. Definitely will have to try and contact TD Bank.

It has been a while since I had seen weird flavours of snacks, but I found some.

Got back to the hotel and tried to contact the bank. I was having no success and so went to the front desk to see if they could possibly get through. They told me how to do it and went back to our room to call their operator. She tried 3 times and got nothing but a busy signal. This was not helping my stress level. It was Friday night here and early Saturday morning back home. Couldn’t do much else about the banking situation right now. Will have to try again.

We had dinner at the hotel again tonight, but we sat beachside, instead of in the actual restaurant area. View of the sunset was amazing.

Doug had fish and chips and I ordered Bolognese Linguine. No drinks tonight. I say I ordered Bolognese Linguine because all I got was the linguine part. There was this adorable kitten/cat that was roaming around and looked to be starving. I kept giving it all the meat that was in my dinner. It was heart breaking to see. I didn’t need the meat but this little thing certainly did, and vacuumed it all up.

We headed over to the Flavaz Cafe inside to order dessert. We had discovered that they had half price desserts after a certain time of the day. Plus, they had more choices than the restaurant did. I got a slice of German Chocolate Cake and Doug ordered a banana smoothie. The cake tasted great. Plus I was still a little hungry, since kitty got all my dinner protein.

By now it was 7:30 pm and time for us to head back to our room. We had a big and busy day tomorrow. Good thing part of that tour was already paid for and I still had enough cash to pay the rest!

5 April, 2018 – Kuta, Bali, Indonesia – Day 2 – Leisure Day

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Today was going to be a rest day. We sure needed one of these, as we were getting pretty exhausted. Got up and headed down for our included breakfast. Breakfast was great. The bacon on the buffet left a lot to be desired, as in, I like my bacon cooked. Many places over in SE Asia barely cook their bacon. However, I did ask the cook if I could get some crispy bacon. To my surprise he pulls out a tray of crispy bacon. Guess they keep it hidden so that people don’t take it all.

We checked out the resort a little.

This is our room on the second floor. It had a pretty large balcony.

Did a quick check of the beach area, but the beaches here are not the best we have seen. I don’t think Kuta is really known for spectacular beaches though.

Picked out our loungers for the day. Pool area wasn’t busy which was great for us. Bali is known for having thousands and I mean thousands of Chinese tourists. They come by the bus loads, but tend to go out on full day excursions, which leaves the resort pretty empty, nice and quiet.

We scored one of the few air mattresses for the pool. It did have a slow leak though, which could be challenging at times. We took turns floating around on it.

We enjoyed lunch of a crispy chicken wrap, that we shared and a beverage or two at the swim up bar. Doug had one of his favorites, Mojitos (light rum, fresh lime , mint leaf, sugar syrup, peppermint syrup) and I tried a drink called Blue Frozen Kamikaze (vodka, lime juice and curacao) and an Illusion (vodka, triple sec, melon liqueur, pineapple juice, lime juice and sugar syrup). Both of course were great.

Headed back to the room for an afternoon nap. We would head back down for Happy Hour.

Someone had booked a private dinner on the beach. We watched while they set up the table and a BIG beautiful heart on the grass area made from rose petals. It looked pretty special. Once the staff member had left, 3 Chinese girls went over to the area and were taking turns posing, while their friend took pictures of them in the heart set up. They also sat at the table pretending to be drinking from the glasses, while having their pictures taken. This went on for a good 10 minutes or more until a staff member came and shooed them away. Once the staff member left and was out of sight, the 3 girls went back and continued taking more pictures. Just so disrespectful! They finally left and thankfully a staff member went back to straighten it all up, yet again, before the actual people showed up for their romantic dinner on the beach.

Happy Hour and watching the sunset was just so relaxing and spectacular.

We ordered dinner and dessert. Doug ordered the Prawns in a Thai Green Curry and I had a Mediterranean Salad. I was still full from our lunch and drinks. Our bill came to IDR Rp 575,000 which is approximately Cdn $51.00 Might not seem to high, but was certainly higher than what we had been paying in Thailand and Cambodia. They also automatically add a SVC charge on here.

I had obviously been bitten a few times while enjoying happy hour and dinner. Guess it will be another itchy night.

4 April 2018 – Travel Day – Singapore – Day 6 -to Kuta, Bali, Indonesia – Day 1

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Originally, we were supposed to go to Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Malang all also in Indonesia for a few days each, totaling 10 days after Singapore, but, we were finding that we were so exhausted from moving around constantly that we decided to cut out all those places, and go directly to Bali, Indonesia. That is one advantage of booking as you go. We had no cancellations to make.

Today was a travel day, but breakfast first. I decided to finally try one of these bun type ‘things’. Not too sure what I think about them, but won’t be having any more any time soon. There seemed to be some kind of BBQ’d meat inside.

Our flight wasn’t until 1650 hrs, so we packed up, checked out and stored our backpacks, while we headed back over to the shopping mall for something to do. We don’t really plan to do much on travel days, as it always stresses me out that we won’t make our flight in time. When we were in Tokyo in 2017 on our last day, we had headed out doing tourist things. When the time came to head back to our hotel to catch our flight home, we couldn’t figure out how to get back there. We had to take a specific subway and we just couldn’t find it. I was so close to panicking. Never again will I get into that situation.

The shopping mall was BUSY, especially the food court.

Checked out a few items in the pharmacy. Always find it amusing. They need to show a before picture as well as the after picture. Saw these things everywhere.

Must be laundry day in Singapore. Can’t quite figure out how they get their laundry out on these things. Also, kind of surprised that they are even allowed to hang their laundry outside here, considering all the rules / laws there are here.

Headed back to the hotel to get a taxi to the Singapore Changi Airport.

Arrived at the airport and got all checked in. OMG! We should have come here, first thing in the morning, as this is one amazing airport. So much to do!!! There is a movie theatre, a swimming pool, a Butterfly Garden, a Cactus Garden, and many more attractions in the many terminals of this airport. Thank you to the security lady who stopped to chat with us and told us all about the different things to do in this airport!

Of course I had to check out the washrooms. These were definitely nice washrooms.

The Cactus Garden was in the terminal we were in, so of course, I had to check it out. Doug wasn’t interested and watched TV while he waited for me.

We were on our way to Bali. I don’t think that I ever thought we would ever get to Bali, and here we are, on our way!

Of course we got fed, all the airlines over here seem to feed us on their flights, no matter how long, or short, the flight is. We both had the same meal, but Doug had red wine, while I had white wine. Included!

We were almost there!

We have arrived! No VISA required for Canadians, as we will be staying in Indonesia less than 30 days.

We have discovered a new fascination since traveling for washrooms, bathrooms, water closets or whatever name you call them.

Have to mention how HOT it was here! It was hotter than hot! And we have been in some hot places lately. And the sun had already gone down.

We had arranged with the hotel to have a driver pick us up from the airport. The cost was 100,000 Indonesian Rupiah (IDR Rp), which was approximately Cdn $8.75. We find this is sometimes easier, since we don’t know where we are going, and have had issues getting taxis in some places. Plus the price was definitely right. Talk about a wild and crazy driving route this guy took.

When we got to the Holiday Inn Resort Baruna Bali, there are security gates to enter. The security guard checks under all vehicles with mirrors. Can’t say I have ever experienced this before, but I am all for safety precautions. We were greeted with leis and welcome drinks, along with warm, moist towels to clean up with. We also received a complimentary 90 minutes Balinese Massage for 2, which we totally forgot about and never did use.

All checked in and headed off to find our room. Our room was upgraded and it was HUGE. Room was huge and the bathroom was even bigger.

We found the restaurant and had a bite to eat, then walked up to the MiniMart to get some snacks. It was now getting late for us and we called it a night.

3 April 2018 – Singapore – Day 5 – Gardens by the Bay

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Our plans for today were to walk back to Gardens by the Bay and tour the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. We are certainly getting our steps in, here in Singapore. This city is just so beautiful. Will definitely need to come back here one day. So much to see on the way. Some of the tunnels were painted with murals.

They had these informative signs around. Tourists can’t say “we didn’t know!”

Passed by lots of restaurants, but these guys caught my eye, even if I am not a big seafood fan. They were HUGE, I think.

We saw many statues all around Singapore, but I thought this one in particular was just so whimsical. I am sure that there was probably a sign around somewhere telling people NOT to jump in the river.

First Generation Sculpture at Boat Quay, outside of the Fullerton Hotel made in 2000 by the artist Chong Fat Cheong
The Bird by Fernando Botero, is located in Boat Quay, outside the United Overseas Bank (UOB) by the riverfront at Raffles Place, Singapore.

Never get tired of seeing this view.

A few more random pictures of buildings and artwork around. It was everywhere.

We cut through the same hotel as we had cut through last night and saw this. They think of everything over here. They are plastic umbrella bags to keep the water from dripping off your umbrellas on to the floors everywhere. Seemed to be free of charge.

We were heading to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel to check out the upper levels. The view from the observation deck, Level 57 on the roof was amazing.

Flower Dome and Cloud Forest buildings, Supertree Grove
Art Science Museum (top left), The Merlion (top right), The Float@Marina Bay (bottom right), Singapore Flyer (bottom right),
Central Business District behind us

Since we had paid to go up were we allowed to go into the Cé La Vi bar for a drink. Not an inexpensive place, but had to do it at least once since we were in Singapore.

We were able to catch a glimpse of the roof top pool of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. I can’t imagine paying the prices for this place and having a pool this crowded.

We headed over to the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest and bought our tickets. This place is absolutely breathtaking. If you ever get to Singapore and you like plants of any sort, this place is a must. I took hundreds of photos in here. Actually for the whole day I took 786 photos! In one day!

The cactus area of the gardens.

Here are just a few of the many, many art pieces in the gardens.

This was the walkway that I went up on and the view below was spectacular. If I recall correctly, it is the Lost World or maybe this is the Cloud Forest or maybe it is the Lost World in the Cloud Forest? I have no idea what it was called! But it was breathtaking.

The blossoms were phenomenal and plentiful. This is only a few of them.

The cherry blossoms were magnificent.


We caught the MRT from the hotel to a Fort Canning, which is the station nearest our hotel. We are pros at this now, now that we are leaving tomorrow. This will be hard to believe but we grabbed dinner at the hotel’s bake & cook takeaway café. Tonight however, we ate in the courtyard.

Time to pack up for our trip to Bali, Indonesia tomorrow.

2 April 2018 – Singapore – Day 4 – Universal Studios Singapore

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Our plans for today were to go to Universal Studios Singapore. We woke up and it looked a little overcast but not bad. We were going forward with our plans for Universal Studios. After breakfast we headed to Chinatown to catch the North East MRT to Harbourfront. This was a new line for us. We’re expanding our horizons. Living on the wild side….LOL. We only had to go 2 stops but it was a good distance. From the harbour front we should be able to walk over the bridge to Universal Studios. This would work if we had a good sense of direction, but we were totally lost. The security guy gave us direction, but neither of us really got them. There was the option of the tram (I thought he had said train), the bus or walking. We stumbled upon a bus stop that was going to Sentosa, but we had no idea where that was. We asked the bus driver if he went to Universal Studios. He had no idea what we were asking, therefore we didn’t know if he did or did not. OMG! He told us to go ask someone else and drove away. Doug finally asked a lady on the street and she told us that this bus did go to Universal Studios and we wanted the last stop. Thank you lady with the stroller! Next bus came along in a couple of minutes and we piled on. Paid our $1 each and took a seat. Two stops later we were in the garage of the casino on Sentosa Island. Now to find our way to Universal Studios. Lucky for us it’s a popular place and well signed. We were in line for tickets within minutes of getting off the bus. We decided to splurge and went for the Unlimited Express passes. This granted us Express Entry as many times as we wanted to any ride that had the Universal Express line. Pretty much like cutting in at the front of the line.

Once inside we had no plan so just followed the road to the right. First up was photos with Minions.

Came across Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase. Why not? There was an Express line and we were loaded onto the ride right away.

Up next was TRANSFORMERS the ride and went into the Universal Express Line. The regular line wait time was already at 60 minutes. Took us maybe 5 minutes to load onto the ride.

Most of the rides don’t allow photos or video of them. Universal and their copyrights! We or I did pretty much ever ride except a few of the younger kids rides. Doug didn’t do the roller coasters, but I did. I love roller coasters. In their Battlestar Galactica section, they had two good sized coasters, Cyclone and Human. I much preferred Cyclone as it had twists and turns and upside rolls.

Now we were headed into the Ancient Egypt section where they had Revenge of the Mummy. Love this ride. Love having the Express Pass even more.

Out of Ancient Egypt and into Jurassic Park, where they had the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure, a river raft ride, so you know you’re going to get wet.

Something they had here, that we had never seen before were drying pods. Even though it is so hot here, people were using them.

Time to take a rest and take in a show. We caught the WaterWorld show in the Lost World area of the park. It was good, your typical Universal Studios show.

Did some other very exciting and not so exciting rides.

Came across Gloria’s Snack Shack. Gloria, is that your restaurant? Crispy Giant Squid Rice Combo? I think I will pass.

How about a turkey leg? Pass from us.

We found Starbucks and decided to have our lunch here. You can’t go wrong with Starbucks, right? Love these Iced Vanilla Lattes, even if they aren’t cheap.

We walked around the park and took in a few more rides and shows. Enough walking that I put 16,475 steps on my Fitbit today.

Did a little shopping. Can’t come all the way to Universal Studios Singapore and not buy a souvenir.

After leaving the park, we decided to look around. There are other attractions on Sentosa, but not today. We will just have to come back to Singapore some day.

Even stumbled upon some of Romero Britto’s art work. I love his stuff and have a few pieces including an iPhone case that I bought in Miami. His artwork seems to be worldwide for sure.

And saw a cruise ship off in the distance.

Of course the skies opened up and the rain came pouring down.

We caught the tram back to the mainland and did not have to bus it this time.

We caught the MRT to China Town and had to walk back to the hotel, in, you guessed it, the rain.

Our plans for the night included doing some hand washing. It had been 5 days since we had done laundry and since we only had backpacks, we had to be constantly doing hand washing to ensure drying time. We relaxed for a bit and enjoyed a couple of beers that we had bought last night from the 7Eleven. Love having a refrigerator in our room.

This will be hard to believe, but we had salad from the bake & cook takeaway cafe in the hotel! Can’t believe I didn’t take pictures of our dinner! Okay, it was the same thing I have had for the last few nights. Well not exactly the same. Only had salads tonight and no quiche. Told you all that I am not a very adventurous foodie. We weren’t really all the hungry, since we had had a big lunch at Starbucks in Universal, but we were tired.

16,475 Fitbit steps today = 12.09 km

1 April 2018 – Singapore – Day 3 – Singapore Botanic Gardens

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Today was the day we were going to the Botanic Gardens.  It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and I was really looking forward to this, as I love to garden. Couldn’t wait to check out all the varieties of plants there would be. We were becoming pros at taking public transport now and headed off to get the MRT.

Admission was free, except for the National Orchid Garden. Of course, I had to see the orchid garden too.

When you first enter, you find yourself in the Trellis Garden. Shade is always welcomed to us in this hot climate.

The Bougainvilleas were just stunning. So many of them, all colours and all sizes. These are one of my favorite plants.

There was a Foliage Garden with so many varieties. Not sure about this foliage, but the ‘flowers’ sure were fabulous.

They had an Evolution Garden with some primo displays.

When I was 10, I had to get my tonsils out, and the ENT doctor called me “Bees Knees” for some reason.  I have no idea why, but always remember that. Saw this sign and of course I thought of the ENT doctor. The random things I remember. We went in and had a non-alcoholic drink and a rest. I thought for sure that I had taken pictures, but once again can’t seem to find them. Maybe I am getting confused as we have been to so many places now. I definitely do remember the washrooms though as you had to walk up a staircase to get to them! Have to chuckle at their sign, Free Seating Cafe. Maybe I’m tired, but that makes me laugh.

You never know what you might see! This lady had curlers in her hair and was getting her makeup done. We have often seen photo shoots while over here in SE Asia.

We headed up to the Boardwalk through Rainforest.

That is one spikey tree that I wouldn’t want to climb!

The Orchid garden was stunning. So many varieties.

There was a special section inside, VIP Orchids

In memory of Diana, Princess of Wales.

I must have taken hundreds of photos today, so here are just a few more.

We were getting tired and decided to head back. We did not see the whole Botanic Gardens, but most of it.

We took the MRT back to hotel and wanted to make a pit stop at the 7 Eleven. We should have known better than to do this. It started to absolutely pour down. Seems to rain every day around 4:00 pm. Doesn’t rain for long, but can sometimes be inconvenient, if you are out and about! Here is a random sign from the MRT


Since it was pouring down, we decided to try out a ‘shortcut’ through underground garage to get to hotel. It was a little up and down, but we made it, and we didn’t get soaked.

Once again we decided to eat dinner in the hotel at the bake & cook. The lady was getting to know us by now and gave us a couple of free Hot Cross Buns. They were delicious! We ate in our room tonight as we were pretty exhausted from our day.

That is our room. The only one with a light on, as I guess everyone else is still out and about. We old folks turn in early. A goodnight wave from Doug.