Still Standing: 2017

Bali....destination of our honeymoon place. It is a trip my wife and me have decided to go for our honeymoon visit. Bali was not the first choice in the long list of place for us initially. It was South Korea, followed by Japan and China. After giving much thoughts and consideration, we strike one after another all the destinations.

We planned to go for the trip on 1st May considering that I have not got many more company leaves. As the date approaches, we have yet to agreed on the destination and finally decided to pick Bali as our honeymoon destination. Once my wife has purchased the Ffight ticket and hotel room, we bought the necessary items such as pre-prepared food, swimming attire, casual dress and start packing them into the big luggage travel bag. Off we go to Bali taking a Malindo flight at 9 in the morning. We arrived very early at the airport at 6 am, in order not to get another last minute shocker as what my wife have gone through few days before. She was one of those among hundreds of thousand Malaysians who have restriction going oversea. Thank goodness, she managed to resolve the issue before we reached the immigration counter at the airport, or else, RM5000 will go down into the drain, the amount we have already spent before the trip even started. A tip or maybe two for you guys if you plan an oversea trip, make sure to check your status in Immigration website, depart on weekdays when Government office is open. That was the least that what we have done.

The process of clearing Malaysian Immigration is very smooth if you are holding Malaysian Passport. We just need to go into counter where you will be screened by placing your passport into an automated counter. Once your thumb print has been verified, you will be released when the air gate has opened. .

If you are holding foreign passport, good luck. You have to stand in a long queue lines for immigration clearance.
It was a big relief knowing both of us have just cleared the immigration, and we knew by then we have already passed the biggest obstacle on our way to the dream vacation

Since our flight has been retimed, we just wandering in the International shopping area and took some intimate photos of us together.

Riding on the airport train to the departure gates was also a joyful ride, though the train coach was full to the brim. I managed to get a spot at the rare of the train and playfully acting in font of others and my wife as if I was driving a car, holding imaginary wheel and shifting gear. My wife stared at me telling me to behave, but I just don't care.

10 minutes before flight departure, we need to go through another luggage and body screening at the designated departure gate.Once cleared, our passport were again checked and interviewed by the personnel, asking whether we are going to Bali alone. Everything went well and the enthusiasm running wild once we were boarding the aircraft.

During the 3 hour journey, time was well spent together watching the movie and enjoying the view of the skies outside the plane. Brunch were served, which we considered a okay - the nasi lemak and orange juice to go with it.
We landed at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali exactly at 1 pm. Once touchdown, all the flight passengers were shuttled to the arrival hall on a bus. Once on Indonesia soil, we were no longer hold the privilege that we had in KLIA immigration and so we have to queue in a beeline to get our passport stamped. We could see many tourist from US, Korea, Japan, Australia lining up with us, with some travelling with kids. As we are nearing the Indonesian immigration counter, the same anxiety that we had at KLIA kicks in. We did not talk much, as butterflies starts to kick in, we were quite nervous when we were approaching the counter. As our turn came, the immigration clearance went smooth, with one one question pop up; how long we will be staying there. That was fast.
Next, we went to get the luggage and walked our way to the Arrival Hall. We were shocked to see that there were many people waiting in front of the arrival lobby holding up placards of name, each trying to woo all the passengers coming out from the arrival hall. I was thinking our names could be among the many placard flash towards us,but it came back to my mind that we did not book a porter or agent for the trip. It safe us some time considering that we do not need to read every placard one by one. As we exited the hall, we were approached by Airport Taxi Service , we went from one counter to the other try to get the best deal to transport us to Hard Rock Hotel. With less choice, we just had to grab the least expensive fare which is 200,000 Rp (RM 66 equivalent) for less than 10 km distance. That was considerably expensive compared to a taxi ride in Miri or even in KL. Transaction has been done, we can't complain about it, just follow the potter, sit back and enjoy the view of surroundings from the car, Toyota Innova.
After about 20 minutes, we arrived at the entrance of the Hotel. The car and its luggage has to be screen through before we were let in. The security check has been beefed up ever since the Bali Bombing incident. It was a little bit a chilly situation when the car was screened through especially with the personnel with submachine gun holding a post at the entrance of the hotel.
We reached the lobby few minutes later and walked our way to the counter. We were greeted by the staff manning the counter with friendly smile threw at us. My wife informed the booking details and was verified by the staff. After signing few papers, we were given key to our room.
Travelling pre-arrangement using Traveloka, did help us a lot, in term of time and cost. It took merely few minutes for us to get the card to our room. We were led to our room by instruction given by the Counter Staff, and had a little bit of struggling to understand when the instruction was given. He was speaking with a very fast in English, and I did notice that the Indonesia pronounciate the English the same way as the Filipino do ,as many working experience with the pinoy expats have taught me back in Malaysia. Despite we had to nod to few information that we barely understand, we reached the room on the first attempt. Soon we realized that all the accommodations are housed in the same three-level building, On our to the room, we were amazed with all the decoration in the hotel, where it is fill with musical memorabilia including signature photo by many famous past and present artists , replica of guitars hanging on the wall all around the lobby area. Few of the items would be very exclusive where they are kept in a special cabinet as below.

Posing next to one of the many musical memorabilia in the hotel

Upon entering the room, surprise was waiting for us.....on the bed. Two flamingoes in the form of decorated towel were "kissing" and waiting for us and rose petals were scattered on the bed. Together with it was a rose wrapped in plastic. Quickly I hand over the rose to my wife who were blushing when she accepted the rose...It was not really a surprise to her as she had requested for the arrangement meant for us the newly wed. But it did surprise me though. That's the way how you would like to start your honeymoon vacation.
All the surprises and the decorations simply awesome, it was simply the beginning of the wonderful stay in Bali. As for now, it met all our expectations when we were checking the rest of the room. First thing that we check out was the toilet. There is a bath tub in the toilet, that could make 2 person taking a dip in it, but one have to make space for the other as only one of us could stretch our legs. When we opened the sliding door, the view is so so. We could only see from the balcony a walkway at below and roof of the building. Though Kuta Beach is a stone throw away from the hotel, the view of the beach was missing as our view was blocked by the roof and building in the hotel. We can't even see the swimming pool from the balcony. It was only trees and decorative plants. Despite the minor setback, we were both not bug about it as Hard Rock Hotel has plenty more to offer. What you need is to step out from the room and start exploring.
Minutes later, a potter by the name of Pak Ngurah came in knocking on our door. He came to brief us on the facilities in the room. From him, we got to know a little bit more about Bali , as we asked him essential questions on how to go abound to spend our days in Bali. Questions like where to get halal food, where to go and how to take transport were answered by Pak Ngurah. We also asked him how much is the fee if we wanted to engage him as our drive for tomorrow trip.
As we reached there later in the evening, we hit the beach front of Kuta first just to have a feeling on what we will be experiencing in the next few days.

Checking out what is happening in the Radio studio located in the Hotel

Finally I got to taste Ratatouille, the meal that was made famous in Disney Movie. It is a home cook meal made of carrots, eggplants with red sour sauce.