Category: Travel

  • Shillonging Day 2 – To Cherrapunjee

    Continued from Day 1

    Day 2 was slightly kinder as we got up at 7.30 and had plans to start off for Cherrapunjee by about 8.30. Breakfast was paratha and omelette, served at 8. We were slightly delayed though, but set out just before 9. The journey took us through some extremely picturesque landscapes and we stifled the urge to tell Ajmal to stop the car so we could take snaps. We were secretly afraid that he might continue without us. We stopped at Duwan Sing Syiem on the way to Sohra, and then at Nohsngithiang falls before continuing to Cherrapunjee. Soon, it was easy to understand why Meghalaya is called the Scotland of the East. It has to be those endless meadows.

     

     

    It was immediately after that, soon as we passed the Mawsmai caves, that Ajmal got it into his head that we had to see the Indo-Bangladesh border. Of course he had no idea where it was. So he just vaguely drove around for a few hours, despite several suggestions from us that we turn back. I have a feeling that his ancestors must have come from Bangladesh, that is the only plausible explanation for his extra bout of madness. It passed at about 11.45 and we got back to the caves. That was another bizarre experience as we splashed into the cave with another large set of tourists. Slippery as hell, the only way out was to just keep plodding ahead, amidst shrieks from kids and their parents alike. Ignoring Ajmal’s suggestions to eat at a restaurant there, we decided to proceed to our hotel, following spirited little yellow signboards along the twisty, curvy way that had some amazing views.

    The Cherrapunjee Holiday Resort, about 15 kms away from the main road, is an establishment that’s totally unique. We reached just in time for for a late lunch – Pork Chilly, Chicken  Neiiong and Butter Tawa Rotis. There is something very homely about the place – the people, the large hall with the computer, common television, and photographs and handicraft items on the wall. We rested for a while in our clean and functional room. A musty smell was mostly solved by the freshener that the staff sprayed just before we got in. 🙂 There are  costlier Executive rooms too, but we had an awesome view from our room. D went out to take snaps while I napped. Around tea time, we were given a little file on local legends, and the treks we could go for. THE thing we wanted to see was the famous double decker root bridge, unique to this part of the world. But that was for the next day.

    Sipping tea, watching the sunset and a view that’s one of the best I’ve ever seen, we chatted about the resort itself. The main building had a bungalow feel to it and we wondered if it was government owned. I had become a fan of the place – the little yellow signs on the approach road, the way the staff interacted with us, the copious documentation available on various aspects about Cherrapunjee, their efforts on sustainable and inclusive tourism etc- and told D that I sensed a smart and creative mind behind this. As we strolled, an oldish gentleman stopped to chat with us. We gathered that he was in charge, and wondered if he was probably a government employee, a very amiable one at that! 🙂 Probably an IAS officer who had chosen to skip the bureaucratic rat race? It was only a few hours later that Google pointed me to the amazing love story of Denis P Rayen, who owns the place. The love in this case for not just his Khasi wife, but for Cherrapunjee itself. 🙂 Suddenly, everything we were seeing around us, had an explanation. I kicked myself for not recognising him from the photo in the little office room and having a longer chat, which would undoubtedly have been an interesting one! Several times on this blog, I have written about the purpose of life, I think this guy has at least gotten close to nailing it.

    Meanwhile, the view progressed further on a scale of awesomeness, and even the two noisy couples (and their noisier children) couldn’t take away from our experience. It wasn’t just the view – mountains and plains and the tiny town on the hill nearby, or the lights far away slowly flickering on as the sun set, it was the entire ambiance, the spells of silence…. It was magical, and by far the best part of our trip.

     

     

    (more pics)

    Dinner consisted of Pork Dohkhleh (highly recommended) and a Jadoh Stem Chicken, which seemed like a regional variation of the Biryani. We also made elaborate plans for the trek the next day – a guide, packed lunch – and were guided perfectly by the staff. Sometime during the night, I was awakened by a loud noise. It was a thunderclap, Cherrapunjee had just said hello. But that’s a story for the next day.

  • Shillonging Day 1 – 4 states

    To protest against people being unwillingly sent back to the north east, we decided to willingly go there. Actually, we had booked the tickets quite a while back. 🙂 It had been a while since “Gang talk” happened, and since D seemed to be acquiring the taste from Zingron, we thought now was as good a time as any to go Shillonging!

    Early we woke – 3.45ish – to catch the cab at 4.15 and reach the airport in time for the 6.40 AM flight to Kolkata. 6E is known to be punctual to a fault and we had no intention of taking any risks. We arrived early enough and true to form, the flight took off right on time. Kolkata airport was exactly as we remembered it, but then 2 years is hardly time enough for that phenomenon to change! We thankfully didn’t have long to wait since the connecting flight to Guwahati was just a couple of hours away. Breakfast was at Subway! Kolkata is not the kind of airport that gives you a wide array of choices, so you can probably stop smirking now!

    We had been informed by the tour operators that a person would be at the Guwahati airport to collect the balance amount, and with him we would find our driver, Ajmal. We saw a person carrying a placard with D’s name. In just 5 minutes, we were able to establish, with the help of a passerby, that D was indeed the D he was waiting for, and in turn, he was reasonably sure he was Ajmal! Introductions done, we started our journey towards Shillong. From the massive bovine presence on the road, we figured out how Cowhati got its name! Lots of greenery dotted with brick kilns and markets. We seemed to have arrived just in time for one of their celebrations, which involved people trying to spit on moving vehicles, including our own. White cars were given preference – probably more points.

    The person who was supposed to meet us for the payment finally met us outside town, and wished us a pleasant journey after he counted the money. We stopped to fill petrol at a station that had its own complex patterns of how differently sized vehicles should exit. Just to spice it up a bit, they also used a larger board for smaller vehicles. But Ajmal was smarter by a league, and used the entry path to exit. Ha!   In fact he was so good that we didn’t even know that we had already crossed into Meghalaya. 4 states in about 6 hours. 2x Chetan. We stopped soon at the L.C Woodland Dhaba and dug into rotis and Chicken Butter Masala, which actually turned out to be quite tasty. My friend from previous travels – the splitting headache  -announced itself immediately after. Ajmal celebrated by playing Silsila. (Hindi, not Malayalam)

    We slept most of the way to Shillong, though we did wake up in time to catch the amazing scenery as we climbed. Though the journey is a 3 hr one, we took double that. Part of it was the last mile traffic jams in Shillong. That’s a story in itself! Once we crossed that hurdle, it was time for Ajmal to do his bit. Having no idea of where our hotel White Orchid was, he promptly took us to Orchid, parts of which were white in color. It was also the home of the village idiot who proclaimed that he had been living in Shillong since 1979 and there was no place named White Orchid. He played the same sentence in a loop until I said I could pay him to shut up. While he considered that, we called up the hotel. They were very helpful and gave Ajmal directions to get there. But Ajmal, whose IQ cannot be measured by petty human standards, rebelled against directions, and stopping near a petrol pump gave that as the landmark to the hotel people. The hotel staff said they would be there in a couple of minutes. In subsequent calls, he also created a fantasy world nearby which had a hospital and a bridge. I used Google Maps and urged Ajmal, but he silenced me with a glare that would have made internet watchdogs proud! Finally I made him move in the direction that Google gave me and voila, there was another petrol pump. Ajmal complained about what the world was coming to when a town could have two petrol pumps.

    White Orchid was a tiny guesthouse but we were given a warm welcome by Chetan Kumar (aka Chintu bhaiyya) who would prove to be a godsend many a time in the next few days. We skipped dining there and asked for directions to one of the many places on our list – Sesame in Laitumkhrah, just over a km away. We used the most common transit form – the Rs.10/head taxi, but just couldn’t find the place. We finally settled for Cafe Shillong.

    A cosy little cafe on the first floor, a few buildings after the famous Jadoh. We were the only customers though the only big table had a ‘Reserved’ sign. Tiny tables on the balcony gives you a good view of the street. From the not-so-elaborate menu, we asked for a Pork Momos with soup, and for the main course, a Shillong beef steak with mashed potato and a Chicken Bastenga. The soup was thin but flavorful and the momos, tasty, though not a match for the Delicacy ones in Bangalore. 🙂 The Shillong beef steak was well, a beef steak in Shillong, with a tangy sauce and well cooked meat. The local rice wasn’t available for the Bastenga, so they used white rice instead. It had a spicy chutney and a very strong bamboo+other shoots flavour and smell. To wash it down, we asked for a Hot Chocolate, a reasonable drink. The bill came to about Rs.700.

     

     

    We took the taxi back to Malki Point, home to White Orchid, and slept in a spartan room after watching Kung Fu Panda for a while. 🙂

  • Baliday – Days 6,7

    Continued from Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

    Breakfast at Tanaya consisted of a sandwich. They alternated between a muffin + croissant  + roll/ sandwich/ chicken sub as part of the package. Not too heavy, it managed to always set the stage for a more elaborate lunch. The breakfast area overlooked the street and we watched the road get ready for a regular day even as we ate our last breakfast in Bali.

    We had asked the guide to skip the Sukawati Art Market, so we started out a bit late, straight to Sanur beach, which has played a part in Bali history. We found it quite desolate, save a few tourists and boat operators who tried to take us to Lembongan, with its marine walks (saw something about a unique helmet that allowed to walk under water) and other attractions. We skipped that too, and went ahead with our regular lazing on the beach routine. When we got back and asked the driver/guide about the beach being quiet, we were told that it was mostly popular with the locals on weekends and with older tourists.

    Lunch was Babi Guling – suckling pig, whose ads you would see all over Bali. I had this vision of an entire pig brought in front of me and had shared it with D many times. When they said it would be delayed by a few mins, it just seemed to consolidate that vision. D smirked as the dish was brought. It was a normal looking dish – the same rice, sambal, with the pork, fat, and masala replacing the chicken/duck earlier. The best part of the dish was the soup like thing which we weren’t sure whether to drink or mix with the rice. We drank. 🙂 A grease bomb of a dish, but it was tasty too. The other big blunder was Tehbotol, which I had assumed to be local cola! Should’ve guessed tea, and a rosewater flavour added! Ugh. As always, D got lucky with her Fruit Tea! We had now developed a little bit of an aversion for the rice + combo.

     

    We got back to Kuta to explore the Kuta, Seminyak beaches, but diverted ourselves to finish some last minute shopping! A sling bag, a travel bag, and laughing at the non-telecom simPati possibilities later, we stopped at ‘The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf‘ for some thirst quenching. The very friendly staff also gave us a complimentary berry juice which was a competitor at a Barista championship. The beaches, meanwhile,  reminded me of Calangute and Baga for the stretches that just went on and on, and for the fact that these were the tourist favourites, despite incessant hawking of everything from tattoos to pedicure on the beach! The perspective on Starbucks was worth a shot. 😉

      

    Next up was another spa visit, but this one – the Kupu Kupu Mas spa, was extremely good! On the way back, we decided to check the menu of Ketupat, a restaurant that was on our shortlist. Quite an amazing menu – Javan and Sumatran cuisine too, and a wonderful ambiance, but a combination of the rice aversion and distance from our hotel made us decide against it. We got back to the hotel, and walked slowly along Legian, shopping a bit, and gazing for the last time at the Ground Zero monument, a memorial of the 2002 Bali bombing.

    We had thought of returning to Batan Waru for dinner, but as D got into yet another shop to do her last minute purchases, I discovered a restaurant that was on our list. Amazingly, we had been walking in front of it all these days, but thanks to it being inside a tiny lane (next to Made’s Warung) we had completely missed Uns! They had some excellent Ravioli with a Bali twist. We also had some house wine, after they served us a complimentary drink and a cutlet! The Ravioli Uns (with a hint of coconut) and the Ravioli Carousel (six kinds of fillings from across the world) were both awesome. We finished the meal with a subtle and smooth Creme Catalane and a delicious Chocolate Mousse. Serly, the lovely girl who took and brought us our order, reminded us of an adorable cartoon character. 🙂 Uns had a buzz to it that indicated a crowd comfortable with the place. The music, the decor and the ambiance made it seem like a place that had somehow gotten time to stand still. This one is a must visit if you’re in Kuta. (it also has Indonesian food) The perfect last dinner @ Rp.276342 🙂

      

      

      

    The next day dawned early – another 3.30, and Tanaya also gave us a breakfast box – we just had to tell them the night before. Our driver-guide arrived on time and also brought us a farewell gift! The lethargy of early morning travel was rattled by an adventure that D created. A sad and silly ending was averted by our guide who was extremely helpful and went out of the way to make our experience memorable in the right way! In the rush, I also managed to get a chocolate pedicure, thanks to a half filled cup someone dropped on the floor! The sunrise was the perfect backdrop for our departure from the ‘Island of the Gods’.

    A few hours later, we were back at LCCT. This time we got seats and slept in the ‘traditional way’ – legs on the luggage trolley, during a 7 hour wait. Despite some Boost juices, we were massively hungry by lunch and decided to hog at Marry Brown. Fish’n’Chips and Chick-a-Licious with pepper sauce and a Mi Kari Ayam Goreng, that turned out to be slurpy good!

      

    From super cute Japanese babies, we quickly moved to spoiled brats in the boarding area, and had a fair idea of what to expect on the flight. But the kids went even beyond that and several times, I had to give them a piece of my mind as they rattled seats, opened window shutters, and did as much as possible to make everyone around uncomfortable. Air Asia’s tagline is “Now, everyone can fly”. I add “unfortunately” to that, and wish there was a way to transport some kids/people as check-in baggage!

    The airline magazine gave us clues on a potential next holiday. 🙂 Though the flight had taken off close to 5 PM, the sun blazed on and refused to set, as I read Paul Theroux’s consul tales from a geography that used to be part of the empire on which the sun never set. After touching down at Bangalore, as I climbed into the Meru, I mumbled a thanks to Indonesia for maintaining a platonic relationship with us and not screwing us over despite the earthquakes at its other end. We were home!

    For those interested, our tour guide was Astrawan. If you are not into reading about the places beforehand, you should ask him for a driver who will be with you and is able to explain landmarks. We customised our tour as described, and without dinner, it came to Rp 4100000 for 2 people. Tanaya cost us close to Rp 3400000 for 6 nights. Despite the Day 1 a/c disaster, I’d recommend it. A rough estimate for the trip, including everything would be Rs.1.5 lakhs.

  • Baliday – Days 4,5

    Continued from Part 1, Part 2.

    A welcome late start to the day at 10 AM to Goa Gajah – elephant caves. Unlike what the name suggests, there’s no relation. It involves some amount of climbing, and wearing a sarong that they provide, and you are rewarded with some interesting visuals including a bathing area, and what would’ve been a nice little stream if only tourists didn’t insist on leaving it dirtier than how they found it. Ganesha idols can be found in quite a few places here.

    The next destination was Ubud, which is quite a popular base for many tourists who are more inclined towards art. But we had a simian pursuit in mind and were dropped at the Monkey Forest, with oral and written warnings on taking care of hats, cameras etc and what to do if a monkey decided you were a tree. This was a photo treat as we walked around clicking monkeys in various poses – contemplation, saying no to paparazzi, relaxation, family moments, spa treatments, junk and natural food consumption etc.

      

     

      

    Lunch had been arranged at the famous Bebek Bengil Diner (Dirty Duck restaurant)  Awesome crispy duck in which we could easily crunch through bones if we so liked and with excellent sambal and other side dishes that just added flavour after flavour. My only faux pas happened when I slurped the water melon right at the end without realising that the spicy sambal had seeped in during the meal! I almost choked to death. D tried to get me killed another way by pointing me to the ladies rest room, but i saw the symbol just in time!

    Ubud market was next, crowded, hot, winding mazes on two floors. Intense bargaining is a must and you can pick up knickknacks of all sorts, including Angry Birds paintings! We bought some gifts but mostly roamed in and out. It might be a good idea to get out of the market and explore curio shops outside as well. The next stop finally introduced us to one of Bali’s biggest attractions -a spa. (part of the package) This one was reasonably good, though it had seen better days. One of the attendants even regaled D with stories of her financial woes. I felt this was probably the invisible poverty that existed, ‘forcing’ people to spend their days massaging other people.

    By this time, we had conveyed to our tour operator that we would take care of all dinners save one. We had discovered a Bali cuisine restaurant on Karthika Plaza and were dropped off there. Kunyit Bali had very friendly and helpful staff, excellent ambiance but the experience was killed by food that was an oilfield in disguise. We had ordered a 3 course set meal called Bali Megibung with chicken, fish, pork and veg appetisers, a clear soup, a main course with chicken, pork, fish, prawns and sausage. There were 4 kinds of desserts including sweets, but either we were too stuffed to enjoy it, or it was the oil, it just didn’t work. We were left Rp 341946 poorer.

    We had discovered a tonga ride the previous day and decided to test it out. A small distance cost us a steep Rp 100000. This was the figure our driver had asked us to expect too, after negotiation, so we got the horse to take us back to Tanaya. We also discovered a new route, though the last part was a series of humps that almost knocked us off the cart! Most of this was thanks to Jalan Legian being a one way. The place is a mini Bangalore in that respect!

    The next day, after breakfast at Tanaya, (part of the tariff) we set off for Turtle Island to see yep, turtles.  We were wearing a ready-to-get-wet set of clothes and had a spare set ready. But despite the boat trip, we didn’t get wet at all. On the island, it wasn’t just turtles  at various stages of the life cycle we found but iguanas, bats, a python, various kinds of birds, all of whom kindly posed with us in pics! For the umpteenth time, we heard (from the guide for the island tour this time) that he was also a Hindu. In fact, the boat operator even had the Gayatri Mantra as his ringtone!

       

    The next stop was Nusa Dua, almost a gated place that housed the Bali versions of some of the most famous hotel chains in the world. Very hi-fi place, this. The beach was quite beautiful, though the rich crowd was also obviously guilty of littering. We found a nice tree to laze under and snoozed to Mallu songs played on the mobile. 😀

      

    Lunch was at what seemed a branch of Ayam Betutu Khas Gilimanuk and consisted of the increasingly boring duck and side dishes combo. Immediately after that, thanks to some good advice from our guide, we visited one of the Krisna Oleh Oleh outlets which, apparently, was a regular haunt of locals, but was also the best place for souvenirs which wouldn’t force you to mortgage your house. We ended up doing a fair amount of shopping there. Later we realised that it was open 24 hours!

    On the way to the Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) Cultural Park, we also saw a neat rendition of Arjuna and Krishna at a highway circle. At the park, wall graphics related the story of Garuda. The Park also had a huuuge statue of Vishnu, with a very Bali kind of face. 🙂 There was also a show happening every hour, another version of the Barong dance that we had seen earlier. The unending fight of good versus evil, just like the one I was waging against a headache! We stopped at the cafe to have a milkshake, and it was only late that I realised that they had a Cendol! 😐

      

    Dreamland beach, now known as new Kuta beach, was supposed to be next, but we ended up at Padang Padang, famous for its appearance in Eat, Pray, Love. 🙂 I did none of these, and snoozed off again to get rid of the headache, while D walked around and took some wonderful snaps! The entrance to this place is worth a mention, a tunnel like thing made of limestone that comes down from the road. It’s not a big beach and was pretty crowded, but that couldn’t take away its inherent beauty.

    Uluwatu was up next, quite a superstar in the itinerary in its own right. Since Turtle Beach had allowed us to keep our clothes dry, we did a change of clothes routine inside the car, even as a guard suspiciously looked in the direction of the shaking car. 😀 We quickly climbed towards the temple complex, and caught some monkey acts and breathtaking views before rushing to the Kecak performance, in an amphitheatre of sorts. There was already a crowd when we got there. The storyline was a warped version of the Ramayana – the Sita kidnap episode, but for some reason Garuda replaced Jatayu! In parallel, I was also trying to capture the sunset from amidst gigantic zoom lenses. The performance itself had its moments, especially the slapstick routine and when some of the cast made it interactive by jumping into the crowd, talking in English, posing for photographs and dragging unsuspecting tourists on to the stage and making them dance. Meanwhile, the sunset was magnificent, just like the guide had predicted, when we had insisted on catching it at Tanah Lot.

      

      

      

    Dinner, the only one we took as part of the package, was at a restaurant in Jimbaran. Seafood stuff, nothing phenomenal, with a live band which performed at each table, and then, in a very unsubtle way, left a hat on the table for a tip. The good part though, was that dinner was on a beach. Watching waves is always a calming experience for me.

    We asked to be dropped off at Jalan Melasti, which ran perpendicular from Legian, because wiki said there were tons of shops there. We didn’t notice any and returned to the hotel disappointed, especially since the Starbucks closed just as we were about to go in! The next day, broad daylight showed that Melasti indeed had shops packed away in rows after rows off the road, but thankfully, it was standard fare. The next day was to be the last full day at Bali, and we were clear about our plans. 🙂

  • Baliday – Days 2,3

    Continued from Part 1.

    On the second day, we began with all the predictable touristy stuff – the Barong dance was first and we saw Sahadev and Kunti take on prominent roles in local mythology! On the way we had also seen a statue of Bhima battling snakes at a city circle. Our driver- guide looked barely out of his teens and required prompts to get talking. 🙂

     

    A batik gallery was next, and after the silver workshop that followed, we begged off the wood carving center which was on the itinerary and moved to Lot Tunduh village for some paintings. Very interesting stuff, but seemed too costly for our meagre wallets! On hindsight, we could’ve bought at least a small one – Tanah Lot or a local Rama/Sita version. In case you plan to, do some heavy bargaining. The rice fields at Tegallalang Village were up next. Picturesque stuff, and we trekked a bit, refusing help from kid guides, before it suddenly started to drizzle. We were then off to Kintamani, Mount Batur (an active volcano) and its neighbouring lake.

    Lunch was arranged as part of the package at The Grand Puncak Sari. It was a buffet and we couldn’t complain much, consuming fish, pork, beef and chicken while enjoying the splendid view.

      

    A coffee plantation was up next and we managed to see (well, the later parts at least) one of the world’s most expensive coffee being made – Kopi Luwak! Or poop coffee, since it’s courtesy a civet that consumes the berry and shits it out in the morning. The berries are collected in the morning, even as the civet sleeps as part of its call centre shifts. In addition to several free flavours we got to sample, we tasted a pot of the famous poop coffee for Rp 50000. Strong stuff. We liked the vanilla and coconut coffees best though.

    The last official item for the day was the Tirtha Empul temple, which had a back story involving Indra. As if to prove the point, it started raining heavily. Thankfully, umbrellas were part of the package. The watchful attendants asked us to wear a sarong, but that and the rain made us all too lazy and we just ambled around a bit before walking through a conveniently placed collection of shops near the exit where shopkeepers just shouted out a price without even asking whether we were interested and in what! We saw very few people buying anything, and I wondered aloud if any of them made any money!

    Though we had a dinner option in our package, we had asked for a package without, but there was still some confusion. So we decided that we would take a call the next day and would buy our own dinner. And thus back in Kuta (where Legian is located), we dropped in at The Kopi Pot. I tried the local Arak while D ordered a Bali Cooler. The former was standard strong arrack fare. I don’t know about the rest of Bali, but both of us felt distinctly cooler after we drank the latter. Excellent stuff. The food consisted of Ikan Balado and an Ayam Betutu. The first being fish (ikan) in stir fried chilli paste, that was spicy and tasty and the second being a traditional chicken dish, mostly bland except for the sambal accompaniment. We felt Rp 189420 lighter. 🙂

      

    On the way back, several shady people (separately) kept popping out and asking if we wanted hashish! To the point when I said my name wasn’t Ashish. Yes, a very bad one, but strangely, that worked like a charm every single night! Thus ended day 2. 🙂

    Day 3 was the one I’d been dreading! Wake up time was 3.30! We were supposed to be on vacation, but the dolphins at Lovina Beach couldn’t care less, I guess. So wake up before 3.30 we did, and set out for the 2 hour+ journey to catch the dolphins dropping their kids to school. We were dressed in readiness for getting wet during the boat ride, and our young driver decided to set the a/c to full blast. We spent some time shivering before asking him to unfreeze us. D’s spare sarong managed to save 2 lives!

    We reached the beach around 6. Thanks to the sub zero car temperature and the journey, we had to use what was euphemistically called a toilet there. Scarred! And someone had the temerity to charge money for it going by the sign, though they seem to have backtracked on that! It was just before sunrise when we set off on one of the many boats out for the same purpose. Typically one person per plank with about 6 planks and some kind of wooden structures on both sides would describe the boats. The Japanese were out in full force!

    Sometime during the ride, we witnessed the sunrise. We stopped the boat in about half an hour, hoping to catch the dolphins. And see we did, though unlike in the movies, they don’t jump too high. The moment someone in a boat spotted a dolphin, all the boats would rush there, scaring away the creatures. Both of these meant that I got just a couple of Loch Ness like pictures! Our ‘captain’ had about 10 English words in his repertoire, but he insisted on chatting to us in his language. I tried Hindi and Malayalam and gave up! He was very excited about the whole trip though, to his credit and told us to shush even if we saw a dolphin so that the other boats wouldn’t rush there. He also took us to a part of the ocean where the water was clear enough for us to see some very colorful fish and a few corals! As we landed back at the shore, one of the boatmen introduced himself as Rahul, and further started humming KKHH for good measure! Heh, SRK apparently is a very popular figure here!

     

    We returned in about 2 hours, appetite whetted, and quickly went for breakfast at the neat and clean Melamun Hotel nearby. It was run by an Australian lady who had been here for over 4 years now. She soon started chatting with us, and asked us where we were from. She had apparently been to Bombay once, when it was still called that and had found the in-the-face poverty too tough to handle. She said that in Bali, the poverty was a little less obvious, something that I’d ponder over and agree with in the next few days. Two sumptuous Continental breakfasts cost us Rp 80000 and kept us well nourished till lunch.

    Stop 2 was the Banjar village – hot springs being the attraction. This time we had to pay to pee as well as store the extra set of clothes. The water was lukewarm actually and we thrashed about for a while in the 1-2m deep pool, with local college kids (some of them ogling from outside the pool) and a few foreigners – one couple with a baby, before moving on. The next stop was the Gitgit waterfall, which included a 500m walk. Quite a nice sight, and it began drizzling as we walked back.

    The Ulun Danu Temple and Lake Beratan in Bedugul was next, an extremely click-inducing venue. The Japanese were relishing this and it was fun watching the various experiments in poses. They had their uses though, since we got them to take good snaps of us together. 😀 This is also a kid-friendly place and we saw several animal shaped boats, which D refused to let me try! There was a good restaurant on the premises with an awesome view of the lake, but our destiny was elsewhere.

    As we continued for lunch, the area looked familiar and we wondered whether we were being taken to Kintamani again for lunch. That wasn’t the case, lunch was at Pacung, but the food was almost an exact replica! Once again, the view was fantastic. The journey immediately after was also the beginning of Ayam wordplay. Ayam meant chicken, and the inevitable ‘Ayam Chicken. who are you’ kind of nonsense happened. 😀

     

    By this time, I had picked up this habit of snoozing off in the car between venues. 🙂 Quite a useful habit, I must say.

    The penultimate stop for the day was the royal Taman Ayun temple, which seemed to have just finished hosting some event as we got there. We got the feeling that this was what it had been relegated to, a pity since it seemed a calm, serene complex, despite the bustle of the event paraphernalia, and with gardens and forest areas behind it. Entry into the actual temple was also restricted to temple staff, so we had to satisfy ourselves with snaps from the outside.

    The last stop of the day was also the highlight of the tour, especially for D, who had taken a fancy for Tanah Lot, from the time she first saw the pics on the web. The place is indeed awesome, and you have to walk a little through the mandatory shopping area before reaching the temple area. A good time to mention that the traditional rabbit cliche has been taken by Ralph Lauren Polo in Bali! One of every 3 outlets belongs to that brand!

     

    We roamed around the temple a bit and thanks to a low tide, could even walk to the temple platform. There was also a cave which apparently housed a serpent tasked with guarding the temple. I heard a foreigner telling a would-be guide that he’d rather let the snake do its duty than disturb it. 😀 Since there was yet time for sunset and we had already clicked away much, D went off to shop a bit, leaving me to guard the place from where we could catch the sunset. We had initially thought of watching it from a cafe along the cliff, but this seemed good enough. D returned in a while, but the sun cheated us by slinking away into a corner for its setting procedure! But here’s a few thousand words that could describe the scene better.

    In our research, the name Karthika Plaza had kept cropping up, and confirming that it was walking distance from our hotel, though a long walk at that, we asked to be left at the Discovery Mall there. The mall was like any other mall with known brands, eateries and versions of our own clothing retailers. On this street is the famous Bubba Gump restaurant which plays Forrest Gump on its screens in endless loops! But for dinner, we chose another name that had been praised much – kafe Batan Waru.

    And it was here that I discovered a drink that will remain my favourite for a long time to come – the Es Cendol. Made from shaved ice, coconut milk, a green jelly and palm sugar, this is superbly refreshing as well as unique in taste. Must must try! D also ordered a Soda Gembira, and thought it was good, it was easily eclipsed by the cendol. We then asked for a Bebek Goreng and a day’s special – Ayam Panggang Bumbu Rujak, duck and chicken respectively. The former was a crispy dish, accompanied by the usual suspects and the latter, a spicy dish. For dessert, we asked for a Klapert Tart, a divine dish with a splash of rum. In essence, at Rp 304843, this was our best meal during the vacation.

    We started on our way back, via Kuta Square and its many brand outlets, dashing in and out of a few, before crashing at Tanaya, after a looong day!