Anyway, may the pictures speak!
Flight
We booked our trip around 6 months in advance through AirAsia. With our baggage and food included, the flight ticket summed up to around RM1200 / pax for us from Penang to Bali with a transit point at KLIA2 (normal passengers) and RM1600 / pax for my parents (seats with extra leg space).
However, due to mom's radiation therapy, she and dad decided to forfeit the trip. As we bought these tickets during AirAsia sales, we thought the tickets were non-refundable anyhow, but just out of sheer curiosity and luck, I decided to talk to AirAsia customer service. We explained our situations, and AirAsia told us that refund was totally possible, provided we have medical letter on this issue and the proof of relationship which in our case, it was referring to the marriage certificate between dad and mom (since dad is not flying too). And well that was very easy, we got our refund in credits form within 2 -3 days. Kudos to AirAsia for such speedy service!
PS: We actually thought of swapping the passenger name to Shane's brother, but to no avail. AirAsia doesn't allow this. So as my parents withdrew from this trip, our trip was instead joined by Shane's mom and brother through other separate booking.
Transportation
We flew from Penang at 1pm and reached Bali at 8pm after all the transits and layover. So it was basically a day of travel for us. To avoid any hassle, we pre-booked our transportation through instagram, @baliwide one week prior - no deposit was required and that everything was paid by cash by the end of the trip.
Pre-booking your transportation avoids you being exploited upon your arrival, so we really recommend everyone to pre-book. It also allows you enough time to compare between few transportation companies before committing to one.
Anyway, our transportation breakdown was as follow :
2 full-day transportation (10-hour service): IDR 600k / day
2 airport transfer : IDR 150k/ trip
It converts to around RM450 in total, which we thought is quite cheap!
PS: Grab is not well received in Bali, most premises would not allow Grab driver to go within their premises, and therefore you might need to walk a long way from the entrance to the lobby. So beware of this!
Accommodation
Bali trip is not complete without a floating breakfast in a private villa pool.
There are actually many villas offering similar services, so be sure to check out the packages and prices! As for us, we chose In Vie Villa at Legian as our accommodation for the trip. We booked our bookings through www.booking.com (as it was cheaper than on the official website), however we later on realised that had we booked through the official website, there were many more complimentary services than what's not available on our package - such as free afternoon tea/ free Jacuzzi decoration / free airport shuttle etc...
Anyhow, I decided to text the customer service and asked if we could get similar services, and we ended up gotten a free afternoon tea/ free coconut drinks upon arrival and even free Jacuzzi decoration. PS: Lesson learnt - to be brave to ask!
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| Jacuzzi decoration |
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| You may order your selection of breakfast through the breakfast menu. |
For 3-nights stay, our 2-bed villa (sleeps 5 pax) sums up to RM3600. An additional RM20 will be charge if you want to convert normal breakfast to floating breakfast, and you may even rent floats from the hotel. PS: We brought our own floats, and only asked the hotel staffs to help us pump it (hence, free of charge, LOL!)
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| Cheap-sake Malaysian trying to save on float rental .... HAHA |
Day 2 - Danu Bratan Temple/ Hendara Gate / Wanagiri Hidden Hills / Caffe Hopping in Kuta
When we were planning on this trip, there were two factors that we had to take into consideration: the heat and the time.
We only had 2 full days to travel and we don't have the luxury to travel too far, hence all attractions need to be in close proximity to one another. We also don't really enjoy the heat / sun that much, as we have had enough sun already in Malaysia LOL! so to avoid this heat and also the crowd, we try to depart as early as possible. The early you go, the better the shots too since there is no crowd to ruin your photo.
We departed from Legian at around 4.00am, hoping to catch the sunrise at Danu Bratan Temple. We ended up catching sunrise not exactly at the temple but the hillside, but we managed to catch how the sun slowly rising up between Mount Agung and Mount Batur.
As we continued our journey, we were the first to reach Danu Bratan Temple and well, we got the whole compound to ourselves, and the sun wasn't up enough to create so much glare and havoc to our photos, so all is well.
Anyway we paid a small entrance fee, snapped a few photos and then left for Wanagiri Hidden Hills, which is another 15 minutes away.
Wanagiri Hidden Hills are where the Bali Swings are. It is a must-do shot, if not it would too render your Bali trip incomplete.
These Wanagiri Hidden Hills Bali Swings are not the original Bali Swing. (The original Bali Swing is located at Ubud area, near to the Tegallalang Rice Terrace), but the queue is definitely shorter. It is too just a photo gimmick, so unless you are avid instagrammer/ photographer, you wouldn't enjoy it that much.
For a price of IDR 150k / pax, you get a variety of swings to choose from, from titanic to bird nest to love nest etc. #allforthegram
As we started early, we finished all these three locations by 11.00am and we then started heading back for lunch at Kuta area. We dropped by Mexicola for the beautiful indoor shot (not very much for the Mexican lunch). The food was honestly not bad if you know how to enjoy it, as for the price, if you compared it to Malaysian prices, you would think the food are quite expensive.
More cafe hopping at Sea Cruises Co...
And after some rest back at the villa, we headed out in hope of catching the famous Bali Sunset at one of the beach bars. Potato Head Co is quite nice place all in all for both the ambiance, sunset mood and even services. The building itself is an art, featuring sculptures made of colourful beach slippers and facade made of wooden windows. And within it, there were different restaurants / beach bar / land bar / chilling spots to suit your different needs.
Day 3 - Saraswati Temple / Green Village Bali / More Cafe Hopping
We had a later start on the 3rd day, thinking that Ubud area is only 1 hour away from Legian based on Google Maps. We were wrong. It took us nearly 2 hours to reach Ubud area, due to the heavy traffic as well as the narrow winding road around Bali.
PS: Always double up the time that is shown on Google Maps.... The same goes to Eastern Bali, while Google Maps may show that it takes merely 3 hours plus to get to Lempuyang Gate, but in fact, the whole drive would take more than 4 hours.... (Be sure to clarify stuffs with your driver prior)
Back to my story, we were running out of time so we only managed to have a quick stop at Saraswati Temple, which entrance fee was free ! (probably the only tourist spot which hasn't charged a cent ... yet) Same as other spots, be early to avoid the crowd.
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| Mr & Mrs Low |
We had a nice tour guide that brought us around 3 villas for 1 hour. While he didn't describe in terms of the more technical stuffs (such as the construction joinery etc), we at least get a glimpse of the different bamboo species used to construct a villa.
While I liked this tour alot perhaps due to my own architecture background and my exposure to bamboo, our mother and brothers didn't really enjoy it that much. To them, it is just another villa. so I guess that's worth taking into consideration...
Day 4 - Cabina Bali before flight
our flight was at 4pm so we had some morning allowance to go more cafe hopping. We went to Cabina Bali for the floating brunch set and again for our instagram feed #forthegram . It is a nice place to stop by should your villa doesn't serve floating breakfast.
Remember to grab your swimwear / bikinis !
Penning off now. See you soon !
The Budget
As I mentioned, I don't think the elders / the kids would love this place very much though, it might suit the youngsters / couples more as they might know better in spending for good views/ good food and good photos. But then again, that's my view.
Honestly, Bali is not an expensive place, though the food prices do vary from places to places. The whole trip costed us around RM2200 per person excluding food, with breakdown as follow:
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