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Sun 11 Sep, 2005 02:13 am
BALI AND SINGAPORE
August 31 - September 9, 2005
This was a rather short trip; only ten days that included travel time - six nights in Bali and two nights in Singapore.
Our hotel, the Le Meridien, was fantastic. Located near the Tanah Lot Temple on the southwest coast, about one hour drive from Kuta and Ubud. They have a very large garden with many pools and two slides - at different levels looking over the ocean.
My roommate was a retired school teacher, five years my junior, and we hit it off pretty good on this trip. We're sharing a suite on the Insignia for a ten day cruise in November. If we don't kill each other by then, we may travel again to another destination with the same travel agent.
We had a included six-hour tour of Bali on our first morning - after traveling for 33-hours from San Francisco to Denpasar airport and a good night?'s sleep. Our first stop was at the Royal Temple, then on to a art gallery to look and buy paintings, then to Ubud and the Monkey Forest, and finally to a place to view some terraced rice fields - the primary geographic character of Bali. It's just beautiful with the mountains and greenery. Six of us went to the hotel's dinner-cultural show that evening. I really enjoyed it.
On the third day, Bill and I took the hotel shuttle to Kuta to spend the day walking, shopping, and having lunch. We returned about mid-noon to the hotel, and changed into our swimming trunks to enjoy the hotel garden and swimming pools. The hotel has Happy Hour daily at 5PM - two drinks for the price of one. We ate dinner at the Italian restaurant at the hotel.
On the forth day, a couple from Washington DC, Bill, and I, rented a van for the whole day to take us to the Bird Park that has birds from many parts of the world and includes the Bird of Paradise and a white peacock (first time for me), Volcano, and to Ubud for some shopping where I purchased a painting (I'll post a picture of it later on), and finally to the Elephant Cave Temple before we returned to the hotel. Bill and I went to the Ocean restaurant not far from the hotel, so we took the hotel car (free) to and from the restaurant. I had baked lobster that was just delicious, and Bill had crab that he had to work hard for, because it was so small.
The fifth day was our rest day. We spent most of the day in the garden hotel in our swimming trunks keeping cool in the water, talking and drinking, and took the hotel car to the shopping arcade close to Tanah Lot Temple to do a little shopping and to look at the temple up close and personal (and to take some pictures). One of the vendors at the shopping arcade had a boa constrictor (snake) and a bat hanging on a branch in front of their store. I remember seeing some huge bats in Bali many years ago at the Monkey Forest, but this one was rather small at about 12 inches. For dinner, eleven of us went to the Mozaic restaurant in Ubud (a six hour function with two hours to travel and four hours to drink and eat). According to some in our group, the Mozaic was named the best restaurant in the world in some magazines such as National Geographic and New York magazine. The four at our table had the tasting menu that included foi gras. We shared our varied dishes, and enjoyed many different flavors. It was great!
The next morning, we had to have our bags ready by eight, and ready to leave by ten for the one-o'clock flight to Singapore. We arrived at Singapore at 3:30PM. After collecting our bags and going through customs, we arrived at our hotel about 6:15PM. For our first evening meal, four of us, a couple from Washington DC, Bill, and I, took a taxi to the river walk restaurant row. We ended up at a Thai restaurant where all of us ordered too much food. We took a taxi to the Night Safari, and got back to the hotel about 11PM. None of my pictures I took at the Night Safari came out. (Damn new camera that I thought had good low-light abilities.) They have many African and Asian wild animals with over 900 nocturnal animals of 132 species. They include Oryx, Red Lechwe, Hippo, Serval, Hog Badger, Clouded Leopard, Stripled Hyena, Tapir, Red Dhole, Bearded Pig, Capybara, Gaur, Giant Anteater, Mousedeer, Flying Fox, and other unusual animals. We took the tram for a 3.2 km ride to see the world's creatures of the night. It was fascinating to say the least.
Our group gathered in the hotel lobby for a included half-day tour of Singapore at 9AM. We visited Chinatown, Little India, Mount Faber, and the botanic garden, one of the most beautiful in the world with the greatest variety of orchids you'll ever see. After the bus dropped us off at the hotel after the tour, The couple from Washington DC, Bill, and I went to a local shopping center food court for lunch where most of the food was Chinese. I had steamed fish with ginger and string beans with Tiger beer; it was delicious.
Bill and I went back to Mt Faber to take the cable car to Sentosa Island - a 22 minute ride with three ladies from the Philippines. We just walked a few feet, took the bus for a short ride to the Ferry Building, then took a taxi to the Raffle's Hotel for a Singapore Sling and some beer. When we walked into the Long Bar, seven from our travel group had the front table. We joined them, and enjoyed some small talk.
We had to return to the hotel by 7PM, because I had invited my Singapore friends to join me for dinner at St Julien's French restaurant at 8:30. I tried to invite them when I was in Singapore last February, because John had saved my life on a tour to England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1998. John is a physician, and he had pain killers that helped me survive the shingles while on tour. However, when they picked me up at the hotel last February, they took me for a tour of Chinatown, then took me to their beautiful home for dinner. When I contacted them before this trip, I insisted that they be my guest.
When I got back to the hotel past twelve midnight, Bill was sound asleep. I was snoozing as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Since we were not leaving for the airport until 1PM, Bill and I went for a short walk towards the botanical garden that was supposed to be located about a 10-minute walk from the hotel. We detoured inside a cool shopping mall, then zigzagged towards the garden, but ended up taking another way back. I saw several in our group through the window at Dan Ryan's located next to our hotel, so Bill and I went inside for a beer and lunch.
It was hot in Bali in the mid-eighties most of the time and over ninety degrees in Singapore and both with very high humidity. I walked about 38-miles during the ten days on this trip. Yeah, another great voyage. I'm looking forward to the cruise this coming November to the Med.
Tanah Lot Temple close to our hotel.
The cultural-dinner show at the hotel.
A water lilly at the hotel.
The first sunset in Bali.
Will post more tomorrow. Gotta hit the sack; it's 1:40AM. ;(
Beautiful pictures cicerone, and the sunset is just
breathtaking.
A scene at Ubud, the artist colony.
Corinne going down the big slide at the hotel pool.
I did the lie-down too, and sank into the water at te bottom, and almost drowning after my first try. GULP!
The bat at the shopping strip mall near Tanah Lot.
The golf coarse at our hotel - walking back from Tanah Lot.
Was the flying fox a pet? It looked very comfortable all bundled up.
Hi farmerman, Yeah, it's there in front of one of the booths where they sell clothes and trinkets. They also have a boa constrictor. It shouts WELCOME!
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