CH194: Bali Indonesia Part 2

Following on the first entry: CH193: Bali Indonesia Part 1:

Pictures from this set will be from Days 3 and 4:
Day 3 - Dec 1: Breakfast, Bali Tour - Gunung Kawi (temple), Tampaksiring (where the sacred water is) and Tegalallang (rice terraces), hotel, chill, sunset dinner cruise, hotel, go out for drinks and party, hotel
Day 4 - Dec 2: Breakfast, checkout, beach, hotel for shower, departure

We rented a car to bring us around to places we had chosen. Typically, the tours are packaged for 5 hours or 10 hours. Since we didnt really have enough time in our hands, we decided on select destinations which were the Rice terraces and temples close to it (Gunung Kawi and Tampaksiring). There are other places that could have been visited if we added an additional 3-4 hours like the volcano (Batur) or the arts and crafts village around Ubud, but we had already booked a sunset dinner cruise so we were pressed for time.

One time while we were walking the streets of Seminyak, someone approached us and said: "you want to buy some Valium or Xanax?" I was a bit shocked someone would be peddling those prescription drugs on the streets of Bali! Or, when we got back to the front of the hotel from drinking, a motorcycle stopped by and said, you want magic mushroom? The man brought out a cup which looked like it had black liquid like bile in it and I was like, Uhm, no...

Security wise, I think after the incidents that rocked Bali before with the bombing, there was a strict enforcement of checks. In our hotel and Ku De Ta, cars were checked thoroughly going in. I appreciated the fact that even after it happened a while back, the measures they take to ensure the safety of the guests and patrons still persists. Unlike I would say in the Philippines, were after a few months from an incident, security becomes lax again - to the point that it's just a ridiculous hassle for guards to poke a stick through your stuff in a bag.

First stop of the tour was the Gunung Kawi temple. Surprisingly, it wasn't crowded. But, we reckon it was because of the steps you had to take going down to the place (about 300-350 stair steps maybe). And, considering we just went 600+ steps down to the white water rafting, my legs were pretty achy at this point haha

This is part of the Tamapksiring temple. People went into the water and bathed themselves in holy water as you can see in the picture. It was a nice religious practice to see. Experiencing it will have been nice, but sadly, we didnt bring a change of clothing.

This is Tegalallang. The rice terrace in Ubud. I'm sure the one in Banaue is grander considering that it will be a lot bigger than this one. You could go around and walk through the ups and downs of the terraces, but we opted not to given the time constraint as well as we were pretty much tired of stairs haha

The resort (Amadea Resort in Seminyak). The resort was nice and quiet. It was a bit of secluded in the sense that it's not by the street. Overall, Seminyak was a quiet place as compared to Kuta or Legian were more tourists go to.

Surprisingly saw a college friend Xander in one of the bars we visited. Like I said on Facebook, of all the places and time to meet since college, Bali pa!

The last day was pretty chill, we just went back to Ku De Ta and had some refreshment and lunch while wasting time before we needed to go back to airport

Very chill and upscale. I'll have to say it's one of the best beach front restaurants I've been to

Huge waves that were fun to slam into and just swim in. Felt like a kid trashing around in the sea and waves

The new Denpasar airport of Bali was really nice. Such a  shame the Philippines, after a lot of calls for improvement still has a sucky terminal 1. Terminals 2 and 3 could be better.