It is like fixing a cup of warm cocoa and snuggling under a warm quilt in front of a cozy fire in winter.

Posted under Random ramblings | [6] Comments 

Mom and I touched down in Bali international airport at 9.35pm on Friday. By the time we reached our hotel, it was already 10pm. Yeah I know..wasted one day…

Not bad…The budget airline (Valuair) serves simple meal and beverage.

We stayed at this fantastic villa (Sri Phala Villa and resort) at Sanur, away from the hustle and bustle of the city (and the bombing sites) and yet just 20 minutes downtown.

Our double-storey villa

The entrance to our villa..

Outside…Each little path leads to other rooms/villas.

The upper floor has 2 single beds and the lower one has one huge king-size bed. Honestly, I also didn’t know why we need so many beds.

Love the serenity outside the room.

My favourite spot of the villa – our private jacuzzi pool!

The cafe near the main pool..where we had breakfast every morning

The villa is also 5 minutes walk to the Sanur beach. No offend, but I think Penang beach is better than this.

Most of the balinese are Hindu so you can see statues like this everywhere in Bali.

This boat was stuck for more than 30 minutes. Obviously the poor boat was overloaded.
Reminded me of my train ride in Sabah though…

Hawkers by the beach…Gado-gado auntie.

A lady selling assorted marinated fruits

Bali is a very “tourist-centered” place, and it is quite expensive to travel around if you don’t bargain. We spent a lot on “taxi” fare because there wasn’t any “taxi” that ran on metre and I hate bargaining! One 15 minutes journey cost about Rp. 50,000 (S$ 8.15). Why “taxi”?? Well, basically, anyone who owns a car there can be a “taxi driver”. Even those that were called by our concierge.

The typical scenario was that the driver often tried to offer us a ride back with extra charges. Our drivers offered to wait 1 to 3 hours on one destination and gave us a ride back. And of course, the longer we took, the higher charges we incurred.

But I was glad that I was able to speak Malay. Though Indonesian and Malay is quite different, but we can still understand each other. The drivers can’t really speak English and to bargain is quite difficult sometimes. To learn about their livings and cultures is also another challenge. They could explain better in Indonesian.

I must say, I have never spoken so much Malay in my life…and I just did in these 3 days.

Coming up….the highlight of the trip..(Nope..not the beach!)

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At Ocean Seafood Village, next to Promenade hotel…

Our sumptuous seafood dinner after water-rafting.

Cheesy lobster

Chilli crab

Roy’s happy face…before knowing the “truth”.

Red crab and mantis lobster….which, actually, didn’t “belong” to us

The waiter kept placing exotic seafood dishes on our table and we just dug in. No one knew what dishes the organizing committee had ordered for us. And who knew that there were 5 dishes that didn’t belong to us? No wonder we had 2 types of crabs, 1 fried rice (on top of our white rice), a sweet mantis lobster and crayfish. We had more than 10 dishes on my table!

After we finished our sumptuous dinner with a big grin on our face, the supervisor asked if we could pay for the seafood that “didn’t belong to us”. Well doh! Of course we didn’t pay lar!!

Posted under Glorious food! , Travel | [3] Comments 

I am down again…what’s new??!!

Vomitted 5 times in 5 hours on wednesday and had high fever of 39 degrees. Thanks to Sean who “graciously-volunteered” to take me to see a doctor at 10pm. Doc said it was gastric flu…AGAIN!!

Felt stupid for having nasi lemak for lunch. It made me sick and unwell. I passed the virus to my mom the next day. Now she is vomitting her heart out and having mild fever.

This is my 3rd time getting gastric flu in these 3 months. Something must be very wrong with the food I eat and my working hours and late lunch (1.30pm) everyday.

The previous one was caused by my very first barley drink in singapore. It tasted bitter. Stupid me..even asked my colleagues if the singapore barley supposed to taste bitter…*hit hard on my head*

Well, they said it might be because of the lime. No ler…my barley don’t have lime ler..

I only took a few sips. But that didn’t stop me from getting stomach upset.

7 hours to departure to Bali and I am still consuming soup only. Great….

Posted under Me! Me! | [2] Comments 

“A group of armed militants forced their way into an American Apparel clothing store and shot several customers before planting a bomb outside a Reebok store…”

And it all happened in Second Life.

I blogged about using Second Life as an e-learning tool in May, whether going virtually was good or bad.

Before we could even draw a conclusion, this was what happened just weeks ago.

It makes me wonder how angry people are nowadays. They are just so desperate to find a channel to do vices that they are eagerly to do in real life. That really makes me sick!

Posted under Thoughts & musings | [4] Comments