I was in Bali for this years company trip. We left for Denpasar on the 6th Feb, which was the fourth day of the Chinese New Year. The flight was shorter than I expected, it took about 2hours and 10mins.
I had never been to Bali before but I've heard so much about it. I was actually planning a trip there years ago before the Bali Bombings happened but it didn't work out.
I've seen so many beautiful pictures of Bali before. Heard so much of its beautiful beaches and surfs, the Hindu culture and its people. As you know, Bali is 80% Hindu, so you get lots of pork dishes but surprisingly you get lots of Beef dishes too! Weird!
Anyway, upon touch down, we were guided by our tour guide to the bus. Everything was smooth so far and weather was hot as usual being a tropical country. No sight of the nice beaches so far.
As the bus moved off from the airport, we went through the streets of Bali, at this point, the guide started the usual introduction to Bali, he told a few cold jokes which were pretty bad in my opinion. That did not distract me from the sights I was looking at through the windows. To be honest, it was not a nice sight, the first thought that ran through my mind was, is this Jakarta or Bali? The streets looked exactly like Jakarta, apparently there was a storm the previous day and the roads were flooded. So what they did was opened up the drain covers and dug all the silt and mud out onto the roads and pavement. And left it there. Nasty.
So far Bali as a paradise island has been totally wiped out of my memory.
As it turned out, I learnt over the days spent in Bali that all the beautiful beaches that I saw in Tour brochures and online were extremely far away from where we stayed and Bali was like 4-5 times bigger than Singapore. The cost of staying at those private beach front resorts were like $700-$1500 per night!! Ouch!!
We stayed in Dama Beach Resort, it was a nice little resort, fully landscaped in the authentic Bali styled natural decor. It really made my stay there felt like a holiday with all that greenery and rustic kampung feel. The rooms were big and well decorated unfortunately the air-condition was quite weak and in Bali, you really need cool air as the whole stay there was extremely humid.
We had a fully laid out itinerary for the 5 days there.
We did 4x4 land rover rides for the whole of the second day and had a great time. The rovers went through Padi plantations on the hills and we had lunch at a beach side hut, the sand on the beach was really black and was shimmering under the afternoon sun. We did however had a little incident on our rover as we got lost from the main group. We ended the day riding the rovers on the beach! It was a quite exciting as I thought these kind of things only happened on TV!
Third day was hiking, which surprisingly, was quite uneventful. Still it was a great workout for me. Rest of the day was spent shopping and foot massaging.
Fourth day was Rafting in the rapids!! And I have one word to sum it up! Shiok!! I had never did river rapid rafting and I must say it could have been more faster to increase the excitement but of course safety concern is the main issue here as we wouldn't want to be pulling dead bodies up from the river! After the rafting, we had to climb this ridiculous high staircase up the cliffs to our lunch and tour bus. On the bus ride back, everyone was knocked out due to fatigue.
Fifth and last day was a 1 hour foot massage followed by a drive to the airport.
Overall, a few things to note. Bali is a huge island, getting from place to place takes time and the traffic jams don't help one bit. You can only do one activity per day as travelling takes up 3 hours to and from. Road conditions are like Jakarta or similar. Narrow one way and two way roads. Individual shops decor is quite interesting to me, some are quite creative and up to date surprisingly. Nothing much for guys though other than the usual knock-off surf shorts and Bintang singlets. Clubbing is a must for those that like it, lots of cool clubs. Lots of chill out places too.
One thing that you will notice is that the local folks are really nice and friendly. Well I guess they have to be, as the whole island is dependent on tourism as the main industry.
Food? for me, surprise, surprise, not fantastic. I suspect a lack of research before the trip was the main cause. It was not a case of "any" stall would taste good. There was one or two outstanding ones. Still, do your research before you go.
Would I revisit? Very unlikely, as I've done most of the main activities available.
I would return to Pulau Tioman in Malaysia anyday if given a choice between the two.
I getting old I guess. Quiet, uncrowded places are my choices of relaxing resorts nowadays.
And of course, the sand there is white and the water is blue, plus it's 2 hours away by bus from Singapore and cheaper!
