Birthday
in the Island of the Gods
The
Elysian
Oh my God.
Those were the first words uttered from my mouth the moment our van
turned into the property. The resort is
located in a quiet little back lane in trendy Seminyak, and the first sight of
it already screamed exclusivity, luxury and romance.
For the entire first day and night, we never
left the resort.
Entrance to the villa revealed an irresistible
8X3 metre pool that just begged us to jump in, even with our cloths on! Heck, nobody would even bother if you did so
in your birthday suit, the villa had ultra seclusion, courtesy of a 2 meter
high wall and leafy Balinese plants surrounding the pool and villa. Resistance was of course futile and we
splashed into the pool, our luggage still somewhere at the reception.
Sometime later fresh fruit was delivered to our
villa, and we pulled our sun-kissed skin on to the sundeck, munched on the
fruit, and somehow fell asleep till the evening…
We woke up to rain drizzling on our body, and
finally started to explore the villa’s interior. Absolute 5-star! A huge king-sized King Koil mattress, Wi-Fi
internet access, Apple TV pre-loaded with box office movies, an iPod Nano
pre-loaded with an amazing music choice, L'OCCITANE bathroom amenities and best of all –
slippers so comfy that we ended up wearing all the way in Bali.
The rain showed no sign of slowing down, and
our first plans to head out to Kuta for dinner didn’t seem like a good
idea. Such an amazing holiday so
far. How to make it even more memorable,
I thought? Browsing through the resort’s
information, I suddenly had a wicked idea.
It’s My Birthday
But I’m Surprising You!
I called up the reception and told them of my
plan. I wanted dinner served in our
villa, and I will whisk Ada away for 45 minutes for them to prepare. Boy it wasn’t easy! Ada was getting hungry and fidgety, and here
I was trying my best to create an ongoing conversation while the time slowly
ticked…
When it was time, I told Ada that my stomach
was feeling queasy and we rushed back to our villa. The moment we entered, Ada noticed our open
air deck beautifully decorated with candles, our petal laden pool illuminated
by even more candles, and there was a soft music playing in the
background. We slowly took in the
beautiful starlit night, the amazing environment that the staff had created in
our villa, the fresh roses floating in our pool. Ada went delirious, I think she was close to
tears! Oh yes! The taste of success!
Even the villa was not spared. More candles led us into our villa, where a
dedicated butler was waiting to serve our first of four courses. We almost didn’t recognize our villa, which
had transformed into a personal 5 – star restaurant! After serving the entrée, our butler left the
villa and there we were, two ladies having a romantic dinner in our very own
villa. Ah, the fun of it all! Food was fresh and well done, hats off to our
chef. Service was impeccable, and for a
moment we thought: “this is how life should be”. Price was reasonable too at IDR 650,000++ (about
RM209) per dinner. It was the end to a
perfect first day in Bali, a memory that will stay in my mind forever.
My Big
Day
Good morning Bali, and happy birthday to
me! We opened all the doors and windows
that fold away, and immediately the open living and dining room was filled with
fresh air and little insects chirping away.
What an amazing feeling to wake up in such relaxing atmosphere. The great thing about the Elysian is that if
you don’t feel like getting out of bed in the morning, your breakfast will come
to you – at no extra charge. There are
four sets of breakfast for you to choose from – American breakfast, continental
breakfast, Indonesian breakfast or you can even mix and match your own
breakfast. Cool! Our American breakfast came with a basket of
bread, two eggs (any style we wanted) served with sausages and bacon or ham,
mushroom, spinach and baked bean; tropical fresh fruit platter; fruit juice and
yoghurt; and if you managed to finish all of the above there is also your
choice of coffee, tea or chocolate.
After the amazing breakfast, we were finally
ready for Bali. I for one was not so
keen on shopping, so our guide, Suja suggested a tour around East Bali.
Does
Batman Live Here?
Goa Lawah, or Bat Cave is in Pesinggahan
Village, Klungkung, approximately an hour drive from our villa in
Seminyak. The small temple is famous for
the thousands of fruit bats that inhabit the cave opening where the temple
itself is built. Legend has it that the
cave extends all the way to Besakih Temple, more than 30 kilometers away. Apparently it is forbidden to enter the cave
or to discover whether the legend is true as it is too dangerous – you will die
from lack of oxygen from the strenuous journey.
Another legend has it that the fear of a giant dragon-like snake called
Basuki living in the caves (and feeding on bats!) has kept everyone from
exploring the caves.
Goa Lawah is considered holy and is a designated
place to honor the God Maheswara who resides in East Bali. There are daily religious processions in the
temple, particularly focusing on religious rites associated with the
afterlife.
You will need to pay a small entrance fee plus
put on a sarong as a sign of respect before entering the temple premises.
After visiting the temple, we discovered two
interesting things in Klungkung. Right
opposite the temple is a beautiful beach filled with soft, black volcanic sand. It was the first time we ever stepped on
black sand, and it was an extraordinary experience.
The area was also surrounded by curious empty cages,
which we later found out were used to store fighting cocks! It seems that though banned, cock-fighting is
very much alive in Bali, especially during religious ceremonies. Blood spilled during the fight is thought to
placate ambivalent spirits.
Hungry after all that walking, Suja hesitantly
recommended us to have lunch like the locals do. It was a stall right before the Bat Cave,
called Lesehan Sri Dewi. We got to try
seafood satay, and a spicy soup that
tasted like our local sup kambing (mutton
soup) and boy it was amazing! We were
all sitting on a mat and ate with our hands, at the same time admiring the
peaceful beach and tranquility of East Bali.
What a great afternoon.
Walking
on Water
After lunch we moved on to Tirtagangga, a
well-known water palace belonging to the royal family of Karangasem. The picturesque palace hides a turbulent past
– it was fled by the royal family and looted by its servants when
Mount Agung erupted, gained as a gift, lost to gambling, bought back – the
palace has remarkably survived in spite of countless family struggles.
There is a hot spring on the highest northern
level and two decorative ponds, one with four fountains reminiscent of
Versailles, and the other with Victoria lotuses. The experience here is to step on the maze of
stepping-stones that seem to float at the pond’s surface while admiring the
huge Japanese kois that are literally swimming beside you. Since I didn’t know how to swim, it took a
huge amount of courage to step on the stones, especially the ones that were
subtly submerged. Shiver! If you aren’t a chicken like me, then by all
means you should try it, each stone is engraved with a sun pattern, and in the
center of the pond are the main deities of Hindu cosmology surrounding an
eleven tier Shiva lingam fountain.
Village of Colorful Chicken
At
first sight the ancient fortress village of Tenganan screams of “tourist trap”,
what with the many small stalls and items on sale throughout the village. The villagers here have really embraced
tourism as means of additional income. It
is nevertheless a village worth visiting, especially if you’re one to reminisce
of your own childhood days when buffaloes and chicken roamed freely right
outside your door. Find some chicken
eggs in shady spots and pat the buffalo (it’s a gentle giant!).
The
village is surrounded by identically shaped houses, and almost every house here
will hang a sign saying “ikat demonstration”, the reason being that the women
of Tenganan are well-known among the Balinese for their traditional Geringsing double ikat weaving – a fabric found nowhere else but here!
Our
guide explained to us that Tenganan Village is probably one of the most
secluded and conservative villages on the island of Bali, protected by a strict
code of isolationism. The rules of
Tenganan forbid marriage to outsiders, and those that did so faced banishment
from the village. Probably the main
reason the population is only around 300.
The
predominantly Hindu community shares a strong belief in animistic spirits just like
the rest of Bali. The difference between
them and the other Balinese people are in their rituals, ceremonies music,
dance and the burying of the dead instead of cremation. Another significant difference is that many
villagers here don’t speak native Balinese; instead they speak their own unique
dialect that is unrecognizable by many outsiders.
Last
of all, the most fascinating sight here is probably the colorful fighting roosters
placed in woven cages in front of many homes.
The prized roosters are not only for display purpose; it is also a
showing of wealth! These prized fighters
are bathed and pampered by their owners every morning!
Art
After
the eventful day we had a short stop in Ubud to check out some paintings. Ubud is a place famous for their paintings,
and the variety was amazing – aboriginal art, Balinese landscape painting, Buddha
art painting, wood carvings etc. Both
Ada and I loved paintings and we were ready to spend! We dropped by several galleries, and finally
found a good stop at Pande Lukisan and ended up buying 8 paintings. This gallery had very reasonable pricing and
the paintings were also of high quality.
The service was quick and professional and they would nicely wrap the
paintings for you to check in at the airport.
Do remember to bargain for a good price before settling!
Pleasure
To wind down after a day out, we quickly took a
bath while the therapists prepared our villa for a spa session. Yes, you can have your therapy either inside
the Spa or they could come to your villa.
We chose the Signature Massage that promised a
deeply relaxing full body therapy to soothe tired muscles. Maybe it was the aromatherapy oils, we both
slowly fell asleep while the experienced therapists kneaded away all the twists
and knots gathered during the last few days.
We were however, momentarily woken up by strange moans coming from the
next villa. Oh blush!
Third
Day Already???
Oh man… this is the most sickening part of a
holiday; the thought of going back to work, to reality, to life. Sigh!
After some discussion we finally agreed on an
appropriate climax to our Bali holiday.
Waterbom Bali! As experience goes,
the body would definitely hurt after all the extreme rides, so we booked a spa
session at our villa right after our return from Waterbom. And then we were off for a day of fun!
Our first ride was the Boomerang. Perhaps not a very wise choice, since it
wasn’t the mildest of rides. But it was
a good warm up as the ride made us scream our lungs out as we twisted down a 20
meters drop, got swept up and then dropped again for a free fall! Massive heart attack!
We also really had fun on the Race Track, where
two people could race each other to the bottom by zipping down the slides! Other thrilling rides we recommend at
Waterbom Bali are the Super Bowl, Smash Down, Boogie Ride, Raft River and for
the ultimate ride – Climax. Make sure
you leave this for last because it is THE most horrifying one! The scariest part of this ride is probably
when you enter a small chamber and there is this electronic voice counting down
3-2-1, then whoosh a trap door right below you opens up and you plummet 19
meters down a near vertical dip. This
ride has 2.5 G-force of speed and really, is not for the faint hearted. To bring down the adrenaline, we suggest Lazy
River, a place where you can drift along in a tube raft and lull your heartbeat
back to normal.
Bluebird
Back
at our hotel in the evening, we took a taxi to Kuta for its nightlife and to
stroll along its famous stretch of beach.
Before our trip out we were advised to only use Bluebird taxis to avoid
getting cheated by unscrupulous taxi drivers who refused to use meters and
charge exorbitant fees. Bluebird taxis
have a good reputation of always using their meters, and will display an ID
card with the driver’s name and photo.
The taxi number will also be displayed on the dashboard, the top and the
left side of the taxi, near the windscreen and also under the ID card. Bluebird taxis have a distinctive dark
metallic blue and mid blue, but many competitors have copied the color and
corporate identity by using a sticker that says Blue Taxi Group, so always make
sure it’s a genuine Bluebird taxi and not a lookalike before entering.
Malboro? Mali Borrow?
Malioboro?
Our final meal in Bali was a restaurant in Kuta
that is quite popular among tourists and locals alike. The specialty? Fried chicken that is so crispy that even the
bones can be eaten… Daring enough to
try?
Appetizer was sambal mangga, a dish with mango and sambal that was crazy spicy. It was somewhat similar to the Thai mango
chilli dish, and it had the desired effect of wetting our appetite for the main
dish.
The deep-fried chicken comes without any sauce,
and when our tour guide, Suja, urged us to try the bones and feet… I
freezed. I was never a fan of chicken,
not even KFC. So for me to swallow the
bones, I really didn’t feel up to it. In
other words, I chickened out! Ada
swallowed everything though, high dose of calcium there. Other than that, the chicken was really
fragrant and crispy like crackers. Real
good.
We also had blanched kangkong topped with sambal
belacan which was delicious! The
chilli was also spicy but went really well with the vegetable, it was very hard
resisting the urge to order a second dish!
The bill for our 2 person meal came to a total
of IDR169,050 (RM54.43). Not expensive,
but not cheap too. One thing I realized
I had difficulty in during my entire trip was to count the correct amount for
the cashier. So many zeroes in their
currency! I felt like a millionaire.
Heading back to Malaysia, Leisure Travel would
like to announce special thanks to PT. MITRA GLOBAL HOLIDAY (MG Holiday) for
making our holidays an amazing experience.
For your information MG Holiday is Indonesia’s largest hotel wholesaler
supplying hotel rooms to retail travel agents and over 3,000 sub-agents across
Indonesia. The company is also a top
producer and winner of multiple awards from major hotel groups in Indonesia. Our guide Suja was amazing, knowledgeable and
had a sense of humor, it did make the long journeys on the road more endurable!
Special thanks also to The Elysian for
providing us with a villa so dreamy that it was beyond our wildest
imagination. There’s no two ways about
it, The Elysian is definitely our choice on our next trip to Bali.
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