Bali Day 2 : Bedugul, Alas Kedaton, Tanah Lot, Legian

We woke up and took our breakfast by the pool. Nasi goreng, bread with butter and strawberry jam, bread with egg filling, hot drinks and orange juice, it was no big difference than what we had in Jogja. (I think satu Indonesia served strawberry jam tu). While eating, we saw one of the hotel staff brought offerings and placed it all around the hotel. Even though the interior design and landscape were fully seemed to be liked Japan-oriented, we can see lot of Hindu statues at almost every corner of the hotel. Nonetheless, barongan still been placed at the reception as the guardian for the hotel (lama-lama tengok barongan ni cam hebat lak watak ni…muka ganas tapi ada kepak besar…ha, macam Ryuk dalam Deathnote!). One fact about this hotel, it was mainly being occupied by Japanese. And half of the hotel staffs can speak Nihongo. Amazing! I was impressed coz they really talked like Japanese. (No wonder the hotel was named after Matahari, means sun, and we know that Japan was known as the sunrise country). For those who love Japanese chicks, Bali will be the right place! (If takde duit nak pegi Japan la…).

Right after we had our breakfast and snapped few pictures, hubby met the car rental agent in front of the hotel. A grey-colored Avanza…with ‘offering’ on its dashboard! (Should we or should not we throw it out? Memang la tak percaya, tapi…bab kepercayaan ni, takut gak la jadi pape…). So we just let it stay there…anyhow, the odor of pandan leaves made it so sweet-scented. Plus, candies and cookies, added up the chocolate aroma. (Believed me, we still didn’t know what this offering for).

We went to Minimart opposite the hotel and bought a cheap Bali map to start our journey. Being advised by Rio, the hotel staff, we divided our expedition to 3 areas, nature, art, and beach spots. We happily off to Bedugul, listened to Bali channel, till our happiness being taken away by a group of policemen!

“Allah, roadblock!” we shouted in the car.

Smiling at them, they requested from hubby the dokumen perjalanan together with driving license! Hubby passed him the passport and Malaysia’s driving license.

“Yang internasional nya mas?” he requested.

“Ha? Ngak ada.” Hubby replied.

“Wah ngak bisa gitu mas, kalo ya di sini butuhkan internasional license. Dari Malaysia ya?” He smiled.

I terus enter-framed you! “Ya pak, dari Malaysia…gini ya, masa di rent ini mobil, dibilangin ngak butuhkan internasional driving license, yah, yang Malaysia nya udah cukup pak. Iya pak.”

“Ngak bisa, ngak bisa…” he smiled. “Gi mana skarang? Mau ke pengadilan atau…”

(Ting! We remembered what Rio, the hotel staff said “Kalo ketemu sama polisi, jangan repot-repot…jangan diberantakan sama mereka…ya udah, hulurkan ajja Rp20,000…”).

Hubby whispered “Bagi je…bagi je Rp20,000”.

“Pak, kita selesei di sini ajja ya udah” I persuaded and hinted him by taking out the note.

HE RAN TOWARDS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CAR (my side la, co-driver) AND QUICKLY TOOK THE CRUMPLED NOTE FROM MY HAND! HAPPILY! “Di sini ajja ya…tapi jangan dibilangin – ah polisi di sini ya semua korupsi, ngak boleh di pake…ya?”.

We giggled and replied “Ya ngerti pak, ngerti…biasa deh…di Malaysia nya jugak samaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”. KAHKAHKAHKAH! This experience really cracked our joints! Then we drove away to the top of Bedugul.

Bedugul, where it holds a beautiful temple that seemed to be risen from a lake. Welcomed by a symmetrical Bali-typed gate (typical gate that being cut into two),upacara of worship the god being held! Lots of people wearing white (men wearing white shirts and sarong, while women wearing see-thru white kebaya with white bra and makeup, and all of these people having yellow sash on their waist). We stood at the corner of the opening and watched the upacara till the end. They played gamelan and muttered some praying words with baskets and baskets and baskets of fruits! (Serious banyak gile!). Once these people walked away from the temple (didn’t know where they headed to, dismissed kot) we peeped inside the temple and saw mountains of fruits in the middle of the temple! (I wonder what happened to all those fruits…hmmm). we entered the temple.

Then we walked around the temple and stood near the lake. It was windy like sepoi-sepoi bahasa and peaceful. And the air was quite breezy. One of the visitors (Japanese girl) drew the scenery in her note book. Some were taking pictures and few visitors were on the boat to reach the floated temple. It was so damn beautiful! The lake was so appealing, with a pyramid-shaped temple…awww…how nice! (This is one of the temples that always being portrayed in postcards and websites during sunrise and you can find it all over Bali shops). Satisfied with the place, we left this wonderful memory to another location, Alas Kedaton, the monkey temple. It is in Kabupaten Tabanan and Kecamatan Mengwi (if I’m not mistaken). Along the way to this wisata (places of interest), a lot of statues being spotted at almost every roundabouts in Bali (it seemed to be A MUST TO HAVE idol (berhala), even its a small roundabout…no wonder Bali was known as the most sacred and suci place for Hindus…as if all Balinese ni kuat sembahyang la…kira kalau masuk Islam ni, warak! But for Islam, Bali ni tempat setan besar ar…hehehe!).

This monkey temple is REALLY a monkeys’ temple. (Not to forget, we have to pay to enter it. Same goes to Bedugul just now, parking and entrance fee were chargeable. Remember this, NO GRATIS/FREE TOURIST SPOT IN INDONESIA!). This temple was full of families of monkeys from the monkey leaders, followers and the babies. It also being occupied by thousand of bats that hanging on the tree top. Similar to Kraton in Jogja, we were guided by a girl in touring the temple. She told that, they, the care-takers of the temple, must accompanied visitors to ensure that those monkeys didn’t get wild. I started to take off my glasses and hold it tight. Hubby started to take picture of monkeys and bats, only when he felt safe to do so.

“Ayang, amik la gambar monyet ni…ketua ni!” I forced hubby since he didn’t take any photos of monkeys at all.

“Shhh…shhh…” meaning, he knew what he’s doing.

But the babies were so cute and always attached to the mother. Not much to entertain us, we walked out from the temple and the girl started to hint us.

“Yah, disini, kita ya ada system giliran…ngak boleh sukak-sukak ngambil orang yang datang…kalo mbak sama mas mau titip barang kenang-kenangan, bisa ke toko saya, yah, lihat-lihat ajja, ngak apa-apa…bisa belanja-belanja…ambil satu, buat pelaris ya mbak…”

There were rows of shops selling souvenirs but we were leaded to her shop, a.k.a, we were ONLY allowed to shop at her place! And pitied her, she waited for her turn for I didn’t know how long lah, but we didn’t buy anything…hehehe! (So expensive and yet, tak banyak choice, how to buy kan?). There she goes, waited for her turn again and hope that her guided-visitors will buy something from her shop. Peace!

“Ngak pa pa, bukan rejeki saya lagi barangkali…” she sighed with smile while we walked to our car. (Mesti dia rasa cam buang karan je guide kitorang…kihkih!).

We drove away and headed to Tanah Lot, but we stopped at one Minimart for lunch. I prepared instant pop mee for both of us (macam Maggie cup la), and we ate in the car. This next wisata (places of interest), again, it’s a temple. But this temple was popular as a sea temple. We were informed that this temple was the best place to view sunset, from the cliff. There was a big pintu gerbang welcomed us (yeah, kena bayar lagiiiiiii!) and we parked near the street shops that selling souvenirs. I WARN YOU. PLEASE BUY ANYTHING THAT YOU WANT HERE OR YOU’LL FEEL REGRET LATER WHEN YOU GET BACK TO KUTA! (Don’t tell that I didn’t warn you guys).(Ha marah sungguh ni!). Key-chains, t-shirts, paintings, wood-carvings, scented candles, tattoos, sandals, you named it! The Bali-printed ‘kaos’ (t-shirts) were totally nice and superb! And along the walk-way to the temple, loads and loads of souvenirs to be taken home! Hundreds of street shops were waiting for you to spend your money like there was no tomorrow!

Waited for sunset, we walked down the steps towards the temple. It was actually surrounded by sea water and again, there was an upacara being held by tok sami besar(I guess lah coz he had that santo’s beard, fully-tied white hair, wore white baju and sarong, and being accompanied by few people) kat situ. We didn’t go into the cave (the temple was actually built on a huge rock island) as we saw too many foreigners were queuing in line with purple sarong and yellow sash, asking for restu, kot. We snapped almost every degree of the areas and saw one under-cliff-hollow that stated ‘ular suci’. Of course, you have to pay to see the snake, but hell no, I wasn’t a fan of snake! And never be surprised as you will find a traditional-wearing-camera-guys loitering around and asking you to be photographed by them, even if you own a camera! Hellooooo? (Kelakar sangat sebab we actually wondered, how lah these people bagi gambar yang diorang tangkap…bagi memory card ke, bagi rolled film ke, rupanyaaaaa, siap print! Advance you!). They were pre-equipped with digital printer hanged on their shoulders! Instant photo!

Tired of standing and waiting, we walked up the steps and looked for a good spot to snap sunset from the cliff. There were warong (small restaurants) along the cliff and for god sake they marked up all the beverages like 300% of normal price! Apa kes! We decided not to waste our Rupiah and sat on the sidewalk while all tourists romantically sat on warong chairs and ordered chips and can drinks (huh confirm kena pow tuh!).

“Mana sunset nyer nihhhh…” hubby whined.

Sunset…sunset…it’s already 6.30pm and still, no sunset! We’ve been told that sunset started at 6pm instead. Ada la skit-skit yellowish at the edge of the sea, but our excitement being turned down by group of clouds that TOTALLY blocked the sunlight! Ceh! Buang karan je! But it was a nice and beautiful place to be…we managed to snap few pictures of sunset with temple at the edge of the cliff. Then we slowly walked down the steps together with packs of tourists leaving Tanah Lot, back to hotel. On the way back, we spotted few surf factory outlets and noted in our head (aim tempat nak shopping! Yeay!)

We reached our hotel quite early that night and parked in front of the hotel but the guard said we can park IN the hotel area itself. Looking at the back road that being directed, we wondered. Gelapnyer! We told the hotel guard that we will parked our car later, after we had our dinner. Walking towards the street of Legian, we planned to buy some food at supermarket that we saw earlier on the way back to hotel. (Quite hard to get halal food as Balinese are 90% Hindus. Babi Guling are everywhere…hehehe!). But suddenly we saw a warong (small restaurant) that served masakan Padang and stated 100% Muslim! Yeay! We found nasi and lauk for dinner! (Tapi…………semua kuning-kuning belaka…so I took nasi with ikan goreng and hubby took nasi with telur rebus. Yang lain, sume tak menyelerakan. Blasah je lahhhh). The warong owner just opened it few days back and he told us that this narrow street (Lorong Pattimura) were full of Muslim’s food. While having dinner, we chatted with him in comparison between Malaysia and Indonesia. He and his helper, surprised when we told them how rich Indonesian maids were in Malaysia and how cheap to fly from Malaysia.

Alhamdulillah, we finished our dinner and walked few hundred meters down Legian Street before we went back to hotel. Lots of surf brand outlets like Roxy, Billabong, Quiksilver and such, but we hardly found boutique brand outlets like Guess, D&G, Levis and all. (If ada pun tak sure la ori ke tak coz quite cheap). We noted the prices and planned to buy after we made few comparisons among other shops. Next to the hotel, there were few local guys stopped us and told us they were selling surf brand shades and t-shirts, and they claimed these products were SMUGGLED, not IMITATION. We told them we’ll see it later coz we need to park our car. They insisted and kept on trying to persuade us to have a look first, (siap tau kitorang Malaysian lagi) then only decide whether we wanted to buy or not. (Konon cam tengok dulu la, tak beli takpe. Mesti bohong tu, nanti paksa-paksa beli jugak). To stop them, we let them know that we have another one week in Bali and we’ll come to their shop later. Then they let us off and hubby took the car and the hotel guard stopped the traffic, just to let hubby reversed in opposite way. Good lah! If not, we had to make one ‘big-bumper to bumper’ round just to get back the road next to the hotel! What a waste kan? I later shut the wooden gate close and hubby parked the car.

Hubby suddenly said “La…depan bilik kita jeeeee…bagus la”. We went up and sleep like a baby…zzzzzzz…