Just intermezzo

I remember a while ago, I told my friend Julia, it seemed to me blogging from Ipad seems much easier, it takes seconds to open an Ipad rather than opening a laptop.. But she had different opinions at the time.

But now that I've done the writings several times to do my blogging from Ipad, it is not as simple as it seems.. 

Writing very long paragraphs on touch screen is something that I haven't get used to do..especially with my big fingertips, I can find more typos here and there. 

 Plus somehow, when the writings get very long and turn out to be more than the screen of the ipad, I'm not sure why it is but it is hard for me to go back to the bottom  below the screen ...or else go back and forth from 1st or 2nd paragraph to some paragraphs at the end..  I don't know is it only me having this problem..  Hehehe...  

So whatever I write on the pad , before I update it, I still need to go to the laptop and get a final retouch    before I publish it.  

Hehehe,, just an intermezzo.. I guess it needs more time to adjust....  

Bali - Paradise Island

Been a long time for real family vacation.

The kids and I had been wanting to go to Bali since like years ago, but there was always something .. basically either not enough money to spare or no adequate leave off time.  So the beginning of Ramadhan when my workplace has closed operations and we had mass off days, would be a good timing to have my vacation.

Off to Bali , Saturday July 13th with Lion Air.

Mendarat (Landed in) di Bali sekitar pukul 15.00 dan dijemput oleh Hard Rock Bali hotel.  From then on, for the 5 days we were in Bali, we used the driver, pk. Dewa with his car,  toyota Innova who drives us around Bali.  I was thinking rather than renting other kind of car like avanza or apv, Innova would be more comfortable to ride around for longer hours. Plus this Innova has individual seating in the middle - just perfect for the 4 of us.  (me, 2 kids, and my mom)

Hard Rock Hotel BALI

sangat strategic terletak di Kuta, tinggal menyebrangi jalan sudah area pantai Kuta.  We booked 2 rooms and got a great deal from one of my bank.

When were helped to check in, the staff gives us a bunch of coupons that we can use in all the entertainment area and facilities inside the Hotel.  We also get 1 free hour of massage from the spa for each room,  1 free photo by the photographer in the hotel location, and other Rp discounts that quite usable -- on the Hard Rock Store, Cabana in the pool area, dining restos, etc...  I used almost all the coupon available.

Unfortunately, we got 2 rooms that are located in different floors, so that is quite disturbing for us (this is probably the small disappointment I had of all the times we were in Bali) , it doesn't really bother us so much though , since most of the times, we are outside the rooms.

The rest of the afternoon, we spend the time in Kuta beach for a while just playing around, and after beach, looking for something to eat at Kuta Beachwalk.  A very nicely and uniquely design shopping places, half outdoor and half indoor,  only about 10 or 15 minutes walk from Hard Rock Hotel.  I especially like he nicely the layout of this builiding is. Great Ambiance, great place, variety of people from all over the world, east and west. There are many eating places or resto in there, and we chose to eat at one dining resto called the Velvet, a very good location to see sunset and the ocean from there - it is in the upper level of Kuta Beach Walk. The food is so-so, not too great, but ok lah, not much complain, because we were in the good spirit from the ambiance and nice weather, looking at the ocean, sky and beach.. over here, I can see the view of Sheraton Hotel, this hotel is actually has the best ocean view, I think...  Just so wonderful feeling.  We wander around the Beach Walk Kuta, but we don't buy anything except enjoying the atmosphere.

oouu...  INDAHNYA LIBURAN ... 

how many years ago since I have enough time to go out of town for holiday. ..  

the last short vacation was going to Tanjung Lesung, 2 days only during the weekend, took 1 day leave off... This is my 1st time for 5 days vacation with the kids since I worked at SnowBay ~ a rare opportunity to be able to do this.  I used to envy my friends who can take their vacation , not really envious of the places they can go, but mostly envious of the times they can easily take their leaves off as they desired. 

the rest of the night from 9 o'clock, well spent in the hotel swimming pool area. We didn't go swimming since the pool is already closed at the time, but just sat there near the pool.  Amazed at how gigantic this swimming pool is.  the middle part of the pool has part , they made it as if we are in the sandy beach, and the flooring based of the pool in this particular area is SAND...  I don't get how can the Sand stay below the water without floating and dirtying the pool... around the pool, there are several Cabanas .. so nice,,, some of the Cabanas have direct short stair to the pool directly.

Oh, Wow,,, Pasir di dasar Kolam,  Cabana di atas kolam renang ...

This hotel facilities are just so nicely decorated.

2nd Day -- Tanah Lot ~ Bedugul ~ Jimbaran 

early morning visit to Kuta beach, which is just across the street, and breakfast time, delightful varieties of hot and cold dishes.  

There are so many beautiful places to go, but seems that 5 days are very short, so I had already planned from Jakarta, just to go to places that we really wanted to see.  Secondary options would be skipped concerning time and time to get there and back from one place to another.  

So we decided to go to Tanah Lot -- the most definite place to go if going to Bali.  

From Kuta to Tanah Lot it took about 1 hour or even more. It was shiny when we arrived there, but for a while it was raining. Fortunately, it wasn't raining for long, the sun is Up again... Took many beautiful pictures in Tanah Lot, from different angles..  I personally Loved watching how the Ocean Waves hardly tumbled and sometimes even though I stood on the higher ground, waves could catch up too...

If you don't bring any cameras, don't worry, because there are lots of local photographers over there that offer you Polaroid pictures.. We also have some photos taken by one of the them, and the results of the photo are satisfying , I think it's probably the camera that he used can turn the colors to be much brighter. Plus, I think it is a chance for local people to earn some money from tourist like us, also to boost up the tourism over there. 

Going to Bedugul from Tanah Lot .. Perjalanan mendaki karena sudah memasuki area pegunungan (mountain area).  It is different view going to Bedugul ~ views of vegetables and flowers planting .. pk. Dewa, our driver and guide, told us that many of the vegetables at the restaurants are supplied from this area. Another 1 and 1/2 hour or more car trip to get there.

Here we arrived at Bedugul - raining again for half hour - took pictures here and there - nothing very specials I think in here .. But the photgrapher here also told us that the Indonesian Money of Rp 50.000,- got Bedugul pict on it... Hhmm,,, I never paid attention... I took a pict of the place and holding Rp 50.000,- money .. I will post it here, when I got all the picts arranged...  took off and going back down ..

We asked our driver to take us to Jimbaran area because we want to eat fresh fish and seafood.  Jimbaran is famous for its seafood places.  Pk Dewa asked if we already know where do we want to go to eat, and since we have no place in mind, he recommend the resto New Moon. 

All the restaurants at Jimbaran has Beach for their backyards, how nice .. 

While waiting for our fish and seafoods to be cooked and grilled, we played around at the beach.  Jimbaran has nice smooth sand, although it is not white sands, the area is very clean. Feeling so wonderful to be able to freely just sit there on the sand beach and watching people running around the beaches, some play with the sea water.  

dari pantai liat ke arah restoran2, pemandangan yang indah, langit sudah mulai gelap, karena matahari sudah mulai terbenam, di masing2 meja ada lampu2 minyak kecil -- the view looks sensational and romantic ~ Feeling beautiful and wonderful.

woa, bahkan ada gerobak jual jagung bakar di pantai -- there is even stall who sell roasted corn on the cob - we ordered it later after eating dinner .. 

The time at Jimbaran reminds me of  the episodes of  Korean reality show  "We Got Married" of Jo Kwon from 2 AM and Ga In, (another Kceleb the girl from what group I don't know) when they had their honey moon in Bali .. there is the episode where they eat in Jimbaran.

Food is good (our menu is Crab in Padang sauce, Grilled Red Snapper with Balinese sambal,  Grilled Big Prawn, and Fried Squid.) ~ Beautiful views ~ Great atmosphere ~ Good weather = Great Dinner by the Beach.

Finishing the day by stopping over at Khrisna's well-known one stop shopping souvenir place.  

but well oh well, typical of me, I can't find something to buy in here (rather than balinese peanuts) -- one of my weaknesses..