Tuesday, October 12, 2004

"BALI WAS A BLAST"

Soul searching
Today, i dont feel like working, i still have my Bali fever. When i reach home, i threw my bag on one side & take out everything & scatter them around,...it still feels like the room that i stayed in "Ramayana Hotel" in Kuta. It was one of my best holiday so far...The area around Kuta beach was full of energy. I can just sit there for hours staring at the sea, enjoy the breeze, carassing the sand between my feet & looking at people passing by. Kuta area is famous for surfers or tourist especially from Australia & Japan. That's why some locals are fluent in Japanese & most signages will have "Katakana" by the English or Indonesian word. It was a 4 days company trip. Thursday night we reach the hotel & i already started scouting all for the cool stores & shops around the area.

tetris
In Bali sun sets around 6 o'clock just like Sabah/Sarawak earlier than Peninsular Malaysia & sun rises around 6 in the morning. Me & Kim wake up quite early as soon as the sun rise & getting ready for the tour programme provided. After breakfast allovus hit the road.From Kuta to Ubud, Along the way i saw a magnificent sculpture of Ramayana in the middle of the roundabout. It was so amazing, the sculture was so alive & animated or in motion.The weather now is so hot & high in humidity, just the way i hate it plus the long journey in the bus that gives me a pre-migraine. Most of houses have a mini temple & there's lotsuv Hindu sculptures around wearing a Chequered-Sarong. Ska-ptures.

ska pture
The famous "BabiGuling" or Grilled-Pork is among the famous among the locals. Ubud was far from modern or commercialism. You can't find any ATM machine or McDonalds around here. The first stop was at this market, where we were told of the cheap stuff compare to Kuta where the prize tags are made for tourist. Many of my colleagues get a good bargain & i enjoyed watching them fight for the good prize.I entered a local house where its open for tourist to snap pix, & what caught my eyes was the chicken that's bigger than the normal Malaysian size. Below is the pink Gojira displayed in front of "LOW Gallery".

gojira2
After the sightseeing & shopping we went to this place called "Monkey Temple". Like the name says, it was infested by monkeys. Tourist are advice to buy packet of peanuts to feed them or to prevent them from snatching some other nuts, which i think may boost the peanuts industry here. Everything seems fishy after one round of monkeys & fruit bats sightseeing, we were lead by the 'Guide' to the local shops nearby to boost the local economy. I wonder who's behind this scam.

graff1
Next, we went to ......where there's a spectacular view of a temple near the sea, where the locals go to get their holy water & asking for blessed from the Hindu priests. Nothing great here, at this moment my migraine have already started cuz of the hot weather & i felt like shiat.

surfbots
Right after that, its dinner time beside the beach watching sunset, my migraine was at its peak, thanks to pills, it went away before dinner time. It was quite sumthing watching sunset & eating dinner with a background soundtrack by the live unplugged band, the bass player was the illest, he looked like one of the homeless people from New York. The food was crap. Beside our table, there was another a bunch of Japanese what look like their company trip shouting 'Kampai!' & having some booze game. Ian & Stuart drank many 'Bintang' till they can see them...
Back to the hotel, i went for another round of scouting around Kuta hoping to get some cool stuff. Since Kuta is a surfing mecca, there's lotsuv Billabong & Quicksilver stores every corner you turn. Well the stuff here are much more updated than KL where these brands been pirated gazillion times.

band3
The next day Kim,Lisa,Jenny & the rest plan to go for sum spa & massage which i was told not to be missed in Bali. But i changed my mind & plan to walk the beach alone, doing some soul-searching. I was looking for the bombed-place but couldn't fine so i just scour the beach looking at people, the beach patrol,the beach masseur, the joggers, the strollers, the tanned, the apprentice surfers, the temp-tattooers...after getting a good spot, i landed my tired-ass & enjoy the sea. Shortly the masseur came & ask for her service, i didn't have any intension of for it but the lower the prize offered the more i tempted & it hits 20,000 Rupiah which equals to lees-than RM10, awww what the heck...its was good, i lay down on a cloth & the 'ibu' massage me like a dough. After all that i felt fresh from Kuta's oven. Everything was so peaceful that i forgot to meet Kim & the gang back at the hotel. We went for a lunch which is better than the previous, previous meals, well, the fish & chips look like fried bananas.Then it was my first time taking a crap in Kuta.

tan1
Later in the evening Pauline offered to join her at the beach since she heard me wanted to learn to surf.It was the best part of Kuta, learning how to ride the waves, it was extremely fun & ends with some photo shoot with the sun setting quite quickly in the horizon.After shower my intension was to finish up my Rupiahs so we hit the stores again, followed by a satisfying dinner & a good banana split. That night me & Kim was quite tired compare to night before where we chatted until 2 in the morning...

sunset
The next day its was the last day & my group flight checking out from the hotel around 11.30am. So i rushed & managed to finish up my last bits of Rupiahs. From millionaire to zero in 4 days. The last item was a painting of a surfer with a shark biting on his ass while surfing the waves which reminds me of Mambo stuff.

BOMBED
In airport i bought a Dark'ie candy what look like a Polo candy but it was a pun from the toothpaste once called Darkie.The flight was smooth, i collected some barf-bags, airline food sucks, the cab sucks, everything else was just fine. I already missed Kuta beach.i just wish i have a shop & a house there. ^_^'

Sunday, October 03, 2004

Shieko no neko tsuro-appu

shieko

The Art for the dressing room was done few months a go during SLAP party, i just did the black & white cat throw up last weekend ^_^'

Arigato Joe-chan!