BALI TRIP: 21 - 24 MAR 2008

Bali trip was a lot of fun. Can you imagine overspending in Bali? I couldn't but that was exactly what my cousins & our travel mate did. How excellent, and proud of ourselves! We each changed S$200, overspent by Day 3, so all changed an extra S$100! So much hilarious stuff happened on the trip...

Day 1 (21 Mar) - Departed S'pore about 7.45pm, arrived at Hard Rock Hotel at almost 12mn! Kel & I shared a room, we had Madonna as our room-mate. Went for supper and ate way too much.

Day 2 (22 Mar) - booked ourselves a day tour @100,000 rupiahs each. Did 15mins of water spot (Banana Boat). It was fun.. though the wait was almost 30mins for the ride. Went to the wood carving outlets, batik outlets, had yummy balinese lunch, checked out the volcanos, then zoom.... we're off to the Rip Curl/Billabong factory outlet. Spent along time there, but there weren't fantastic stuff. Bought myself a skirt though. Back to hotel to off-load the shopping, shower, then off for late nite dinner again..

Day 3 (23 Mar) - Free & Easy day. Went swimming in the morning, then hit the streets with vengence! But not before Kel & I had our most beloved Coffee (fm Starbucks). This is where we emptied our pockets! Wat did we buy? Polo Ralph tops and more polos, slippers, etc.. we spent an entire day at the main shopping stripe opposite Hard Rock Hotel. I don't even remember the name of the street! I absolutely switch off and just follow the crowd. This is also the day where I signed 3 credit card transactions, total amounting to about 2.5xxx million rupiahs, making me the biggest spender of all!! haha... Bought some souveniors from the supermarket to bring back for mum to distribute. As we break for lunch, we were wondering how come we din stump upon any 'pasar malam' and the cheap cheap buys... Silly us, cos we were on the wrong street, and spending all our money on expensive merchandise! What blur queens we are. But, both Kel and I did exceptionally well at the cheap lanes.. Kel bought a halter dres for 40,000 rupiahs, 1 bought 3 Bali soft material t-shirts for 60,000 rupiahs, we both bought 2 batiks for 100,000 rupiahs, a grand total of 200,000 rupiahs! We were thrilled and proud... and I bargined all the way like a pro!! Kel couldn't believe it, she had that 'I'm speechless' look even when we left the tiny shop. Check out my spree.

Went back to hotel again to deposit our great buys, then quick wash-up and off to more roaming along the streets. We stumble upon a food court, selling cheap food. Then we wondered why we're suckers and chose to eat in expensive restaurants the previous nights! We decided to rest and check out the stalls, though none were hungry. Then Kel took out her money & started counting, cos she was seriously overspending. I quickly took a quick snap of her and her last few precious $. Then it started pouring, and we were stuck for a good 45mins... staring at one another. We decided to brave the rain and headed back to hotel for our free 30min foot reflex. We created so much laughter that the therapists prob thought we were intoxicated. Kel enjoyed her session so much that she forgot to wear her slippers back! My blur cousin...

Moved on to Hard Rock Centrestage, where we had our free Bintang beer and listened to the music. Not so great, but anything for free beer... and I looked like a Bintang beer promoter! Before we went back to our rooms, we had so much fun with our silly poses and the surf boards in the lobby.. It was hiliarious... and quite stupid.

Day 4 (24 Mar) - Last day in Bali. We were up by 7.30am and happily strolled to Kuta Beach for our seaside views and photo-taking. Kuta Beach is just right outside Hard Rock, very convenient. We were having fun snapping one another, doing silly poses as usual. Took alot of clouds pics, seaview and my shadow. Hot and sticky, we headed for our fav pastime of each morning - Attacked the breakfast with a vengence (yet again) and stormed the streets 1 last time for last buys. When we were on our way to the airport, we were stuck in Poppy Lane, where the real bargins and actions are!! Cheap Cheap stuff, lots of ang mohs, cute little shops etc. We could just so smack ourselves in the face. In the van, we swore we'll be back, and we'll attack the water sports big time and cheap cheap cheap shopping at Poppy Lane...

At the airport, checking in.... we came upona signage that says 'airport tax @ 150,000 rupiahs'. 3 dumbfounded faces and 1 super happy one - guess which is moi?? It's the happy one cos i was the only smart princess to put aside 150,000 rupiahs for airport tax and emergencies (to prevent myself fm overspending). The others were digging their bags for money and all were sulking.. I looked at my 150,000 rupiahs and our faces... i decided to keep the rupiahs for our teabreak and we paid our taxes in SGD. We were ripped off, we had to pay S$30 each for the bloody taxes! We had coffee and shared fries at a cafe before boarding time. We all pooled our final resources together and made sure we order within our budget. I've never felt so poor and restricted in my life, but it was a fun experience.... As usual, was busy snapping the bouncy clouds from my plane seat.