It’s the last day of 2006 and in less than 24 hours, we are going to enter year 2007. It’s time to reflect what I have gone through during the year 2006.

I got to say that 2006 was a very fruitful year for me, as I achieved quite a lot of things / achievement, personally and financially. However, I would not say so for my academic as I flopped to the deepest point in my second and / or third year. With year 2007 marching in, it means I have a maximum of 3 years to complete my studies. If I don’t graduate anytime during or before the 3 years, I am in deep trouble, really deep.

Well, lets do a flash back.

January

1) Jose Lee came back to Malaysia to visit us, after moving to U.S. 5 years ago.

2) Jason-made brownies for her birthday.

February

3) Met new / old bloggers / readers at Kepong’s Milwaukee’s bloggers’ gathering. (Shiau Lin, Lee C.S. and etc.)

4) Slapped with a RM300 “bak gua“.

5) My 2006 wish list.

March

6) Bought my Nokia N70 for RM1600.

7) Met JiNz for the first time. (I only met her 1.5 times for the whole 2006.)

8) Got myself a part time and soon-to-be permanent job, stringer for The Star publication.

April

9) Received a RM210 Logitech MX610 Laser Cordless Mouse from Ahnee.

10) Significant event between me and her.

11) Met new bloggers / readers (Emily and etc.) during my KL Trip / Mid Valley’s bloggers’ gathering.

May

12) Our house got splashed red paints by loan sharks.

13) Feeling helpless when you can’t do anything and 70 minutes seemed to be like eternity.

June

14) Met new / old bloggers / readers (Meng Zhee, Cheng Sim, Mikel, Tien Soon and Sook Ying.) during my KL Trip.

15) My car got broken into and CD player was missing.

July

16) I received my first pay cheque.

17) Participated in Spirit Of Melaka.

18) Got a first hand experience shooting a Steyr AUG.

19) Bought my first digital camera Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 for RM2300.

20) Met new / old bloggers / readers (Ivan, Joan, Boss Stewie, Boss Lepton, during my KL Trip and KLCC’s Burger King’s bloggers’ gathering.

August

21) Completed my 2006 wish list. However, conflicts appeared.

22) Fun filled Spirit Of Penang and Penang trip.

September

23) Met Amber Chia, Daniel Lee and Jaclyn Victor.

24) A 4 digits pay cheque.

25) Attended my first court session / hearing.

October

26) Visiting Singapore after more than 15 years.

27) Bumped into Hong Kong food show host, Choi Lam.

28) Met bloggers Ice Queen, So Gua, Ah Kwong, Paul Ooi and friends at Malacca.

November

29) Biggest flop of my academic results.

30) Met Uncle James and other old timers bloggers at the Sri Damansara’s bloggers’ gathering.

31) 2 years anniversary for “Jason Mumbles”.

December

32) Earning a decent amount from blogging advertisements.

33) Met a bunch of anonymous bloggers except Cely and Daniel.

34) Snail mail from the U.S.

35) Oversea trip with my family, to Bali.

Looking back, how time flies. There are no life changing events, but it is a fruitful year for me, not for my parents though.

Happy New Year and wish you all the best in 2007!

From Part I, II, III and IV…

It was the last day for our Bali trip. To kick start the last day, everyone except me woke up at 6AM and went to the beach. You read it, freaking 6AM! By then, the sun has slightly rose and there were people strolling along the beach already.

We then checked out and proceeded to Kuta town to buy some souvenirs. I was looking for a traditional Balinese baju kebaya but most of the shops didn’t sell ready made. Even though its traditional, I find it quite beautiful and elegant. We also stopped at a shop called Joger or something like that. The shop even encourages you not to spend too much at their shop. I find their products very unique, especially the T-shirts, slogans and other stuffs. Worth checking out, really.

We then had our lunch at Bali for the last time before we left for the air port. Food here was good, I would say. I had a variation of our local nasi lemak, which came in a lot of side dishes such as potatoes, eggs, crackers, veges, fish, fried peanuts and etc. We had mutton satay, siew mai Malay style, a bowl of I-don’t-know-what that tasted funny and weird and lots of teh botol (bottled iced tea). We also had chendol with fermented gula melaka. Nice, but not my type.

It wasn’t long before we boarded our 2PM flight.

Bye bye, Bali!

My thoughts :

Bali is a nice place to have your holidays, as everything is slow paced and relaxing. With beautiful and splendid view of sunsets, sunrises, seas, mountains and greeneries, its a really nice island to explore. However, there are more than just sight seeings in Bali such as snorkeling, swimming at the beach, para-gliding, spa, massage and etc., but with only 3 days to spare in Bali, everything was kind of packed and rushed. I would suggest a 5D4N trip would be better as you get to really chill yourself.

Food wise, everything tasted sweet and might take sometime for your taste buds to get accustomed to it. It wasn’t a problem for me since I am willing to try anything, but for those who are picky eaters, perhaps fast food is a better and guaranteed choice. Not to mention, they are relatively cheaper too. I didn’t get to try their bebek bengil (dirty duck) and babi guling (roasted pork), which are quite famous in Bali.

I think I will go Bali, again. I don’t know when, but I want to go there again.

From Part I, II and III…

After having another round of so-so breakfast at the hotel, we went to Tanah Lot. Tanah Lot, a perfect place to enjoy sunsets and there’s a temple as well. I suggest you visit Tanah Lot during evening time instead of morning though. However, the view during the day time isn’t that bad too.

There’s a temple at Tanah Lot too. At the cave (bottom of the rock), there’s a holy place where it’s really holy and mysterious. When it is high tide, the sea water will roughly cover / flood the cave. However, when it is low tide, there’s a fountain that flows out plain / holy / mineral water, not sea / salty water. High tide, it’s covered with sea water. Low tide, it’s plain water.

There are lots of shops and stalls at the Tanah Lot’s square. Be sure to check it out as they sell a huge variety of items such as beaded shoes, T-shirts, handicrafts, paintings, artworks, dresses, pants and etc. I didn’t buy anything unless you want to count the hat that I used to protect myself from the heat rays.

After that, Wadthir (our driver / tour guide) drove us to Bedugul for sight seeing and lunch. Bedugul is another highland in Bali which is like1300 feet (meter?) above sea level. There’s a lake up there, it was formed after the volcano went dead, very similar to Lake Toba. The weather is very cooling and there’s even strawberry plantation nearby. There were peddlers selling strawberries and we bought 3 packets of freshly picked strawberry for RP50000 / RM20. You can do jet skiing at the lake too! Although it was about to rain when we reached there, we had ample time to take photos before it rained cats and dogs.

We had lunch at this restaurant, which is directly opposite the lake. The food tasted much better than than the previous 2 days. We didn’t opt for the buffet this time. I ordered nasi ayam bertutu, which tasted something like a dry version of gulai. It was delicious, really. The rest had nasi goreng, nasi ayam goreng and spaghetti.

While we were going downhill, we saw many durians stalls. My mum, being the durians fanatic, decided to stop at one of the stalls to try out the Balinese durian that ended up as a normal durian. The price was expensive too, RP60000 / RM24 for 4 durians.

We visited a few more places to kill time since we wanted to watch the Kecak Dance at 7.30PM. We went to Sanur Beach (A not-as-popular-as-Kuta-Beach-beach.), a Bali monument (It’s something like museum, telling the history of Bali island.), the royal family’s “official” temple (Nothing special about it, just another temple in Bali.) There were some ceremony going on and people were carrying their offerings (food) to the temple. We didn’t stay long enough as it was drizzling.

Kecak Dance is another traditional Balinese dance. However, the story unfolds slower and more boring than Barong Dance, although both of them were talking about good versus evil. They don’t have musical instrument, but they have a team of 60 men singing “Cak Cak Cak… Cak Cak Cak Cak Cak Cak” throughout the 40 minutes performance. I would recommend you to watch Barong Dance, but definitely not Kecak Dance. Furthermore, the show started at 7.30PM and the hall were dark, a little bit of mosquitoes and very hot. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t get a decent shot throughout the whole show.

It was too late to do any sigh seeing and the allocated time for our tour guide has ended. We went back to hotel and headed back to Petit Cafe for our dinner. I ordered ginger ale beef with white rice. It’s something like stir fried beef with gingers and onions, but much spicier. My sisters ordered seafood in green curry (or something like that) with white rice, chicken curry with white rice, two sets of gulai mixed sea food with white rice and black pepper steak. The bill came up to roughly RP230000 / RM92 for 6 of us, if not mistaken.

I’m sure everyone enjoyed the dinner throughout our stay in Bali, but not for my mum. Never mind about her, trust me, this cafe is worth trying out. Unless you can’t take spiciness, make sure you ask for extra pedih (hot / spicy / chilies). The restaurant is at Legian, next to Nikomoto Hotel (Not sure about the name, but it’s a Japanese name.). Other landmarks to watch out are the All Season Hotel. Give it a try if you ever happen to be in Bali and at nearby the place.

From Part I and II…

While we were on our way back to Kuta, we passed by Cekingan. A small village situated right in the middle of the mountain roads and hills, overlooking hills of paddy fields. There is a cafe there, where you get to have your tea at the huts or tables. We only stopped here for toilets and to refresh ourselves.

Instead of having canned drinks, you have bottled drinks. It’s really old school, you don’t see bottled drinks anymore in Malaysia. I put a picture of a plate of paddies, just in case you never see it before. At least, I haven’t. -shy-

We continued our journey to Ubud town to visit the palace, or rather Ubud King’s residence. Nothing much inside except its huge. Art pieces, handicrafts, beds, gifts from other countries and etc. were being displayed in the open air.

After that, we walked over to the nearby market to have a look at the local products, art works and handicrafts again. In Bali, everything is about arts, handicrafts, paddy fields, temples, beaches, sunrises, sunsets, beautiful scenery and praying activities. Everywhere you go, you will see similar stuffs. Unless you are willing to travel to further distance or spend more money on other activities, be prepared to see the same thing again and again.

Next stop was the Kuta Beach. Kuta Beach stretches a few kilometers long, so, if any hotel websites stated that they are 5 or 10 minutes walk to Kuta Beach, it’s true but it won’t be at the more popular / crowded spots only. -lol- The waves and water currents are stronger, making it a decent place to do surfing. Lots of peddlers will pester you to get your hair tied up or draw a tattoo, and they won’t give up even after trying to persuade you for 10 minutes. You will face this situation no matter where you, especially those tourists attraction spots. They are literally everywhere to bug you.

We then walked to the top of a hotel to have a bird eye view of the Kuta Beach. The hotel is just next to the Hard Rock Cafe / Hotel. Splendid view, isn’t it?

Not long after that, it was sunset. Beautiful. We had McDonald’s for dinners after that.

Parents decided to call it a day and went back to hotel. After cleaning up ourselves, my dad, myself and my 2 sisters sneaked out for supper at the nearby Petit Cafe, a very small cafe with not more than 8 tables in the shop. Comfortable and cozy environment, with friendly staffs to serve you.

The portion of the food was just nice, but it contained a lot of ingredients. If you order seafood, you would get a decent amount of prawns, fish, sotongs and other vegetables. The food was really good and worth trying out. I ordered gulai mixed seafood with extra chilies. In the end, the bowl was bottomed up. We spent about RP90000 / RM36 for the supper, with 2 main dishes and 4 fruit juices. Reasonable and even cheap for a tourists spot, I would say.

From Part I…

We woke up early in the morning to start our tour around the island. Before that, we had a so-so breakfast at the hotel’s cafeteria, which is next to the swimming pool. Breakfast were some fried rice, bacons, potatoes, pan cakes, corn flakes, toast breads, fruit juices, coffees and teas. It’s very simple and you don’t have much choice.

Our driver, Wadthir reached the hotel right on time and off we went to our first stop, the handicrafts shop. I think we went to the same shop as Egghead’s, because I saw the same statue. I got to say, the Balinese sure has very good skill in crafting and batik painting. There were two hot Japanese chick, but I didn’t manage to snap a clear picture of them. Guess what, the employees here can speak multi national language. I heard them speaking fluent Japanese.

After that, we went to watch the traditional Barong dance. Barong is a fictional character in the Mythology of Bali. He is the king of the spirits, leader of the hosts of good, and enemy of Rangda in the mythological traditions of Bali (Wikipedia). In other words, it was a musical play / story between the good and evil. You have to take note of their effort in creating the tools, costumes and etc., very detailed and fine piece of work.

It was nice to watch and they even incorporated dirty jokes! My sisters and I were laughing at the last part though. My sister did record some videos, but I am too lazy to upload and wait for her to unload those videos. Therefore, I hope you can get a rough idea from the pictures. The entrance fee was RP50000 / RM20 per person.

Did you feel like as if you were there and watched the show? If you did, glad that my objective was achieved. If you don’t, too bad. -lol-

We then went too Padangtegal’s sacred monkey forest. The entrance fee was RP5000 / RM2 per person, if not mistaken. The monkeys were one heck of a poser, they would sit still and look at your camera. -sweat- They didn’t try to snatch anything from us though.

Next stop was Kintamani. Kintamani is one of the active volcanoes in Bali. Tour guides will bring you here to have lunch, where you get to sit and eat directly in front of the volcano. The weather up the hill is very cooling, even cooler than Genting / Cameron Highlands. However, when we were there, the weather wasn’t good as it was about to rain. Hence, the clouds covered the peak of the volcano. There’s a lake on the far left of the hill too, making it a very pleasant view for your eyes. You don’t get such view in Malaysia. We had our lunch at Batur Seri Restaurant, which I think, has the best view of all the restaurants there.

We opted for the buffet, thinking that we could eat more food compare to ala carte. It wasn’t a wise choice. The food was sweet and tasted so-so only. The Balinese satay was unique but it’s an acquired taste. My mum didn’t like it while I took it without much problem. I think we ate more fruits than the dishes. -rolls eyes-