T I N G Z: July 2016

IT'S TIME FOR DA HIKING POST WEW!!!

Mt Batur's view

Usually everyone goes to Bali for the beaches, but this time we decided to slot trekking into our itinerary during our stay there :>
If you actually look around, there are many tourist shops and agencies which have packages to climb up to Mt Batur, with transport and food all covered. However, you'll find out that the prices are est. 1 500 000 IDR/pax (around S$150) without bargaining.
So we decided to just take the leap of faith and go ourselves.

We booked a GrabCar at 2am from our hotel, J4 Hotels in Legian (usually you'll need to book it earlier as the traffic conditions are not very good) which took us 2h to reach the base of Mt Batur. The driver was really nice to wait for us to finish trekking and drive us back to our hotel. So technically we booked a one way ride but luckily he could wait for us. Especially when we don't have an internet connection and we were wondering how were we going to get a cab back if there were no metered cabs in the area.

Total Transport price: 800 000 IDR (S$80) round trip

Still trekking but the sun was starting to rise

ANYWAY, we thought we could go up without a guide but NO we actually need a guide haha. At the base of Mt Batur, there is a 'guide house' where they explained to us the few possible routes to reach the summit of Mt Batur. We took the shortest one cause we needed to get back to the hotel in time to check out HAHA. Since the trips all start at 4am, the shortest one was supposed to end at 8am, a total of 2h trek up and 2h trek down.

In the end we got a guide and they actually lent us torchlights (YES you definitely need it because it's so damn dark; your phone will probably not last)

Guide: 350 000 IDR/pax (S$35)

Throughout the whole way up there were no lamp posts or anything and it was pitch black, so the only light sources were our own torchlight. The road is really uneven so you must be vigilant when walking!

It would be advisable to wear long track pants and a jacket as it is REALLY COLD at the base at 4am. However as you start trekking, the temperature would start to increase but it would still not be TOO HOT. The roads were really rocky and dangerous, so be careful not to lose your footing. There were also many trekkers trekking with us together which made trekking feel much safer tho HAHA like everyone is in this together. So no matter how tired you are, you just keep going!

it looked like people but it was actually trees HAHA

There's an area with volcanic ash WHICH IS CRAZY HARD TO CLIMB UP but after climbing up is WORTH IT!!! The sunrise was at 6.20am and we BARELY MADE IT HAHA. We actually speed trek at the end to catch it.

We BARELY made it but it was BEAUTIFUL

The skies were purple and pink!

Our guide!

above the clouds

Actually we sat for really long, like around 1h, just taking in the scenery :> and the sun came up HAHA so we left the summit at around 8am! It was REALLLYYYY COLD at the summit cause of the wind and all but I really liked the cold :> but ya do bring a jacket along!

Actually they also provided us with hot drinks and food :>

The wind was in our direction so the area started becoming really cloudy but WE TOUCHED THE CLOUDS :>

Going down was really tough tho HAHAHA cause the volcanic ash was quite slippery but Dong kept falling so it was really funny HAHAHAH

There were a family of monkeys too!

Do you see the little plot of land within the whole volcanic ash? Its called lucky island, cause the volcanic ash didn't cover that area LOL.

And while we were coming down we were playing music from our speakers which was really loud but made going down even more fun!

Saw these steps and WE HAD TO DO THIS.

We also met this guy called Tom (right) from Germany cause he saw us with our NUS drawstring bag and he came to us asking if we were from NUS!! Apparently he's going to NUS the next sem for graduate studies SO IT WAS RLY COOL!!!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDDDD!!! HAHA The sunrise is really really amazing is you'll definitely not regret!!

But to save money I would totally just recommend you to take a cab there yourself then get a guide there HAHA.

Est. total cost/pax: 510 000 IDR (S$51)

Luv,

Tingz

Heyyy :>

I'll stop the Taiwan Photodiary for a while and slot this post in :>

So basically what happened was I FINALLY WENT TO BALI!!! I have always wanted to go Bali with my friends and we finally got down to booking the flights and hotels and all so I'll just blog abit about Bali cause it's really very memorable and I wanna keep it here :>

I'll just give a little summary of the whole trip on where we stayed, what we did etc :>

Where we stayed: J4 Hotels, Legian Bali (in Kuta) ~S$319.16 for 4 nights in total

We booked the hotel through Expedia which was really cheap. Since we only had 5 people, we didn't want to stay in separate rooms so we shared a deluxe room which was HUGEEE, with a King size bed. But one person had to sleep on the floor usually which was quite sad :< cause the bed could only fit a maximum of 4 people.

The district we stayed was the clubbing district, so the music was really loud and there were clubs everywhere. Sky Garden was just right beside our hotel (literally 2min walk there). Sky Garden is one of the more popular clubs in Bali, and everytime we took a cab, we had to say 'Sky Garden' instead of 'J4 Hotel' cause that's where the cabbies know. HAHA. There was also Engine Room opposite our hotel and there were TONS of bars along the streets. Clubbing and drinking? Checked.

Flight: TigerAir ~S$250 return tix/pax

we were all at diff departure gates LOL

Preflight dinner (subway was the only affordable one fml)

WE B IN BALI

Attempts to block ray's face

It wasn't really VVVVV cheap but at least it was one of the cheaper options :> We were deciding between Jetstar and Tiger but went with Tiger and Jetstar's timing was quite shit (4am flight???). I'm q sure we would be late for the flight LOL. HAHAHA. ANYWAY, our flight departed from SG at 3pm and reached Bali at around 6.20pm on 9 July, Saturday :>

We departed Bali at 7.20pm (delayed from 7pm) and reached SG at around 9.45pm on 13 July, Wednesday :>

Bali felt like a getaway from all the responsibilities in Singapore (although I still had to do some work there), I felt so so so carefree, not caring about the time, not caring about anything but just focusing on having fun. IT WAS SO AMAZING. Most of the time we were chilling in the hotel and just taking our own sweet time for everything.

yay to green slippers!!

AND I FINALLY GOT TO SURF. But we only had time to surf for 2h which was rly q sad cause it was actually hard but it felt so amazing being able to stand on the surf board :> Really can't wait to go back to the beach to practice surfing again!! The waves were really different from those in Singapore AND I ACTUALLY LOVED THEM. Watching the waves were really calming and made me feel really peaceful :>

handsome not

We were at Kuta beach most of the time, although we went to Potato Head Beach Club on the 4th day which was a different part of the beach. The waves was really strong when we went to Potato Head so we didn't really see people surfing.

Kuta Beach!

Potato Head

HAD TO PUT THIS HAHAH it was so funny cos ray was sick (i dun think any of them will see this anw HAHAHA)

The pains we went through to get a photo together without asking people LOL

Meals were really fucking cheap, and we had a common fund where we just pooled money together to pay for most of our stuff, such as food and transport (which is what we mostly spent on LOL) BUT ANYWAY, we ate like KINGS. Basically, we just ordered whatever we wanted on the menu, around 3-4 mains and some sides, plus drinks. Sharing made it cheaper but in general the prices were already cheaper than in Singapore so we ate till we were really full usually AHHAAH.

Didn't find the food really amazing tho except when we went cafe hopping in Seminyak where all the good cafes were!

Shopping

Money brought: S$350 ~ IDR 3 000 000

(if you intend to buy more stuff/do water sports etc, do bring more money!)

Shopping in Bali was like heaven. There were so much stuff all around!! And they were all really cheap. You'll definitely need to bargain for the items you buy there, since the prices they usually give at the start is REALLY HIGH. For example, I wouldn't pay >S$5 for singlets there so we basically bargained like mad for the singlets. Their starting prices are usually CRAZY high so YOU MUST BARGAIN!!! There were many stalls selling the same clothes so if one doesn't give you the price you want, just go to another stall ;>

Got cheap magnum!

The alleyways are really amazing with many stalls

We wanted to get white singlets cause they looked alot nicer, but we couldn't find 5 pieces from the stalls there and they were usually sold out (sobz :<) so we settled on the black colour which is still nawbad!! Really loved the singlet cause it's so comfortable and CHEAP (S$5/singlet). We had to buy from separate shops tho cause there was no one stall which had 5 pieces so we split 3/2 HAHA.

Finally got our same singlets on the last day!!

Also bought a dreamcatcher and a tiny bag!! :> vvvv happy wif my buys hehe <3

We also went for a massage there cause it was FUCKING CHEAP, you can get a full body massage for less than S$10 there which felt really amazing. Too bad we only had time for 1 sobz :< Really dm going back for the massage and surfing and food and clubbing!!