Monday, August 29, 2005

Bali - Day 3 (Tour, shop & gamelan)

We took slightly a long time to get ready today. Enjoyed our breakfast at the restaurant, sipping our coffee, looking out to the sea & listening to the soothing gamelan music in the background. Suddenly a guy came & asked if we were Malaysian. Only when we identified ourselves did he introduced himself. Huzni Muit, the operations manager for the hotel...and he's Malaysian! We had a good conversation later. Having been living in Bali for the past 1 year, he gave us lots of info about going about there. He recommended a place to visit or more likely to shop...Geneva. Hey, if only we had met earlier.

Putu & Bpk Wayan were already waiting for us at the lobby at about 10am.

Today, we didn't have a proper agenda. We thought of covering the places that we didn't manage to visit for the past 2 days. Didn't know if we were going to have some time to visit Geneva. Not only that, was thinking about the things that we had bought...Not even sure if my bags could fit all of them...ehem.

The first to visit was Sukawati. Read so much about it & decided that we check it out. It's basically a small village with blocks of single storey, wooden shophouses. The locals were buzzing about, carrying out their daily business. The ladies donned in their kebayas were carrying trays of fruits, knick knacks, etc. Having had the terrifying experience with the street vendors in Kintamani, Ati was basically clinging to me or Putu...She was being paranoid! :P Actually, the street vendors in Sukawati were quite polite. We only needed to say "No" & they were okay with it instead of pestering us.

The market place was a 2 storey building (reminded me of Pasar Payang in Kuala Terengganu) and next to it was a small street, flanked by rows of wooden shophouses. There was so much things to see & buy there at fraction of the price we paid for elsewhere. Was so tempted to buy more paintings but had to resist it. There were lots of carvings, paintings, knick knacks, etc.

Bargaining was expected here. Ati had proven her skill in bargaining. She bargained for my white cotton blouse which we got for only Rp75K and tank tops for Rp25K! "Harga pas gitu"

Bought few other stuffs there...bought a salt & pepper shaker set, made from cinnamon that matched my cinnamon bowl that I bought earlier in Tampaksiring. By the way, the shakers cost me only Rp 10K (and that's like RM4 only!!!)...I couldn't resist buying a pareo that cost Rp10K only...and a great carved, wooden chess set for only Rp35K. Even Ati bought the chess set too. We thought it was a good buy & didnt want to bargain much. So kesian at that makcik...her stall was way at the back on the first floor of the market place.

Ati bought lots of t-shirts...So much so that her plastic bag looked like the santa's christmas bag. hahaha...Putu must have thought that we had lost our mind. Good of him to help carry Ati's shopping bags.

[It'll be good to check out Sukawati first if you intend to buy lots of stuffs. The price is so much cheaper than other touristy area.]

After Sukawati, we had lunch at a nice restaurant on the way to Pura Taman Ayun. Can't remember the name of the town. Well, each of us had a big portion of nasi & mee goreng and fruit juice...To our surprise, it cost us both slightly Rp100K. Cheap, huh.

Later in the day, we visited Pura Taman Ayun & Pura Tanah Lot. It's basically, crossing from East to West of Bali.

But before we ended the day, Putu & Bpk Wayan drove us to Denpasar since Ati wanted to get another travelling bag. Well, with all the shopping that she had made, she definitely needed another one. Denpasar seemed quiet but somewhat developed. We were admiring the kebayas on the mannequins in front of some of the shop. Made a mental note to ourselves to drop by in Denpasar, the next time we visit Bali.

While waiting for Ati to buy the bag at the departmental store, I checked out the music store. Hey! I found the gamelan CDs...tons of them...ohhh the passion of my life. Bought 4 of them at Rp40K each...and that's RM16 each. Putu & Bpk Wayan didn't understand why I went nuts at gamelan. To them, it's just some music in the background. I had always loved listening to gamelan...and these CDs add to my collection.

There's separate postings on both Pura Taman Ayun & Pura Tanah Lot.

No comments: