We started our day 2 at about 10am when our driver Ali came to pick us up.. you must be wondering why I start my tour so late but well, when we travel with someone older, our pace probably have to slow down… if I were to be traveling alone or with my daughter, chances are I would be cramming as many things as I can into the day schedule… but in this case, I was with Kak Fas, my friend and she wanted to take things easier as well..

Our first destination was at the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park (GWK) , a cultural park located in Ungasan, about 10-15 minutes driving from Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport.

The main attraction of the Cultural Park is the gigantic statue of Garuda Wisnu which is intended to be one of the tallest and largest modern day sculptures. Combined with its pedestal, the statue is planned to reach 120 meters in height with wings span 64 meters across… it certainly is breathtaking looking at the sculpture….

There is also a very pretty Lotus Pond, Wisnu Plaza, Street Theater, Jendela Bali Restaurant, New Beranda Restaurant and Souvenir shops.

We were at the Amphitheatre to watch some traditional performance such as the Barong Keris dance, which was definitely very fascinating… entrance costed us IDR100,000

From there, we headed to one of the new attractions which is a small agro farm promoting Kopi Luwak/ or civet cat poop coffee , cocoa and tea…

We got to walk through a interesting and pretty pathway and learn a little about how the Kopi Luwak is created… which is by letting the civet cat eat whenever coffee beans it wants and then collecting the pooped out coffee, washing it, roasting it over slow fire for a good 15 minutes before pounding or grinding it up to be coffee powder which happens to be one of the most exclusive and expensive in the world…huhuhu

Kak Fas and I got to try out a variety of coffee, cocoa and tea…. And then ushered to the little shop to see what we were interested in purchasing…

From the little agro farm, we headed to Uluwatu,  I had plans to actually watch the kecak dance and sunset there but alas, my plan was foiled because we were there much too early, and secondly, Kak Fas wanted to watch sunset at Jimbaran… so I just resigned myself to strolling around the vicinity.. it was also done reverently as Uluwatu holds a special meaning to my husband and his ancestors and well… I wanted to come here before in a previous trip to Bali but sadly, because of a monkey attack on a previous group of colleagues, our group’s plan to go to Uluwatu was scrapped for safety reasons…

Uluwatu Temple is one of six key temples believed to be Bali’s spiritual pillars, famous for its magnificent location on top of a cliff about 70 metres above sea level. This temple also shares the splendid sunset backdrops as that of Tanah Lot Temple, another important sea temple located in the island’s western shores.

There are some archaeological remains found here that dates the temple back to megalithic time, which is around the 10th century.

You have to go through a small forest lies at the front and the monkeys living there. Be sure to listen to warnings and keep dangling or attractive and loose items to a bare minimum as the monkeys here are famous for grabbing and snatching whatever that catches their attention…and when they do, it is best to give in to them and get help from the staff there who will help retrieve it… 50 percent of the time… lol..

Kak Fas had her new slippers targeted and the monkey grabbed hold, bared its teeth for a bit and pulled… it got her slipper and ran up the nearby tree and proceeded to chew at it… the staff came by and threw food at him which only made him release and let go of the slipper…

Along the way while strolling the vicinity of the glorious Uluwatu, I spotted monkeys with their stolen items… one was trying to put on a cap on his face, another was chewing and examining a pair of glasses….

The views of the water surging against rocks and the waves hitting the cliffs is just plain mesmerizing… it also reminds me of the magnificent cliffs of Moher in Ireland….

Entrance cost about IDR 30,000 and visitors are required to wear a sash and a sarong.. but if you are appropriately clothed, a sash is enough… I was told to wear a sash, but just to play along, I decided to don the cloth and looped it around my waist as well… The best time to visit is just before sunset. A Kecak dance is performed every day at the adjacent cliff-top stage at 18:00 to 19:00, and one you shouldn’t miss as one of my celebrity friends was just admonishing me for missing out on a great experience…   silently crying…

From Uluwatu, we stopped over at the Padang Padang Beach… and we groaned… hahah… why, you ask… but well.. at the GWK Cultural Park, we had to climb lots of steps… then at Uluwatu, more steps and inclines….

And the steps to the beach was pretty steep and also unusual… since it went through a narrow gorge which seem to look like a cave… and you came out at a platform … the beach is glorious and comes with beautiful mossy green rocks scattered all over… I really do not know how or why the rocks are mossy green…

Padang Padang is also known as the Labuan Sai beach and is famous for being a surfing spot in Bali as well.. and yes, Padang Padang beach is also famous as the beach in the movie Eat, Pray, Love with Javier Bardem and Julia Roberts…

Climbing down wasn’t that tiring… climbing all the way up again was… huhuhu…. It cost us about IDR10,000 for entrance to the beach…

The last stop of the day was at Jimbaran beach… where my driver who presumed we wanted to have a seafood dinner while watching the sunset dropped us off one of the restaurants… there were tons of tables lined up… and when we opened the menu, our jaws dropped… it was practically daylight robbery… dinner for two cost anywhere from IDR800,000 to IDR2,000,000 …

Now, I was traveling on a shoestring budget and definitely did not have enough money to feast… huhuhu… so we decided to take a walk along the beach instead…

Jimbaran beach is definitely not my favorite beach… it is actually one of the dirtiest beaches I have ever come across with loads of trash brought it from the sea and no one bother throwing it…. And I thought some of the beaches in Malaysia was dirty… hahaha….the beach is practically sand and trash all over…

The sunset also disappointed me because it was just so cloudy and I barely saw much.. we walked up the jetty and saw many people fishing…and I guess what fascinated me most about Jimbaran would be being able to see aeroplanes taking off from the nearby Ngurah Rai International Airport…

After Jimbaran, we headed to Agung Bali for souvenirs shopping… and yes, if you want to buy souvenirs, you really have to check out ole ole Agung Bali and / or ole ole Krisna … who sells reasonably specially designed and great quality tshirts, and all sorts of other souvenirs all at a very reasonable priced as opposed to other places… for example, a lovely carved ashtray costed me IDR29000 here but at a mall in Kuta, it costed about IDR 100,000….It was definitely a haven for souvenir shopping…

From there, we headed back to the hotel where exhaustion took over and called it a day….getting from one place to another in Bali can be pretty challenging.. so it is best to actually wise to get a car driver to get around..

It only cost about IDR400,000 a whole day for car and a driver ….If you are heading to Bali, try contacting Pak Yuyun’s number is +62 817-9764-006 or Pak Ali’s number is +62 852-2514-3779 to be your driver… it only cost about IDR400,000 and worth avoiding all other hassles….

This 3 day 2 night free and easy trip was made possible by www.touristguide.my 

https://www.facebook.com/myTouristGuide/

Do check them out for some amazing deals on travel…..