Tag: Indonesia

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.