Eastern Europe

Munich

December 2012

Coming up soon on my travel blog.. Germany, Eastern Europe and Norway. 

There's a lot to fill in for you guys. So meanwhile, a little snapshot of me & Mr Potter in the cold winterland of Austria..

Breathtaking Bali!

Bali, Indonesia

We went to Bali to attend our best friend's wedding. There was a lot of planning for the couple and they haven chosen Bali for lots of reason. The groom was from Bali and family members are all there. Second, Bali is such a romantic place for wedding. Weddings are always so touching. And we flew over to bless this couple with everlasting love.

On the plane towards Bali

The wedding was held in Conrad Bali, Nusa Dua. This is my second time in Bali but first time staying over in Conrad Bali. Reviews on Tripadvisor are pretty positive. So I went with a open heart. We were going to stay there for 5 nights. And we had planned lots of activities after the wedding. With friends all over the world, we were really looking for this wedding and "gathering".

We had the hotel concierge to pick us up from the airport. Bali tourism is really impressive. The hotel pick up service was excellent and they were also very patient when we had to purchase a Indonesia SIM card for Mr Potter to "work". :(

This is the tent outside the airport where you can buy the SIM card.

It took us a good long hour to reach Conrad because traffic was really bad in Bali. Upon reaching the hotel lobby, the view out to the pool and sea was magnificent. It really is "Asia Hawaii"!

We were given a room on the 3rd floor and the room was "ooh la la"!! With a balcony, the room was huge and so was the bathroom!

The Conrad Bali signature Balinese Monkey. Every Conrad property has its own signature toy. In Singapore, Conrad Singapore will give their guests a Conrad Bear which is sitting in my study. Today, Mr Conrad Monkey sits on my bed. :) They also gave us a Conrad turtle in the bathroom and it is now sitting in my bathroom too! Haha!

The bed was wonderful. Soft, nice and oh how I want to go back soon!!

We made our way out to the beach and to visit the Conrad Infinity Chapel where our dear friends are going to get married. Weather was scorching hot!!

Infinity Chapel

Private Beach @ Conrad

The next 24 hours in Bali was busy helping our friends to get ready. We met up with the other friends who arrived from all over the world. Congratulated the bride and groom's family members and did what we can. We went dinner with Uncle William at Kuta beach. Kuta was really crowded with tourists but we had a good foot massage after dinner which cost only SGD$8 for an hour!

Nasi with Chicken and Crackers

The next day, we met our friends in our room for some light lunch and the groomsmen went to prepare themselves in "pink" shirts.

Mr Potter in Uniform

Mr So trying to wear his shoes

And so call brother is not helping but only looking

Dressed!

Ok.. I'll help you.. but where's your wife?

Groom is not ready. He's too hot to even button up!

We had to let Alex get ready instead of having fun. So after getting ready, he looked much professional and ready to end his "single" status to "married".

Ok.. this photo is not serious enough. Let me show you another one. Lol..

Oops.. sorry.. this one is also not serious enough.. he was trying to model with my clutch. Another one...

Ta-Da!!! The handsome groom is now ready to get hitch and was looking forward for his bride!!! But before that.. while walking into the chapel.. he was still very happy playing and joking... let me show you..

The Wedding was beautiful and we give this wonderful couple our best wishes. :)

We proceeded to Jimbaran for the dinner. We reached before sunset and it was a beautiful view. The place was decorated in sakura pink and luckily the weather was not too hot already. 

The garden setting

The table setting

Me & Elia

Me & Mr Potter by the Bay

The Couple & us..

Live show!

The dinner was sumptuous with a lot of food and all kinds of drinks you can ever think of. It is one of the best wedding I have ever been to. :) Thank you Alex & Vanessa!! Wonderful wedding!!

We arrived back late at the hotel almost midnight. The next day, Mr So, Elia and us will be visiting the monkey forest and tour a little around Bali as Mr So was in Bali for the first time.

Mr Potter & the Monkey @ The Monkey Forest

The Monkey forest really have a lot of monkeys. You must be really careful with your belongings in there. The monkeys are trained to take away your things, this is what our Balinese friends have told us. We hired a driver to send us there and around Bali. One thing about Bali drivers, they are extremely friendly and patient. They can wait for you for hours and never complain. So we did tip them quite a bit at the end of the trip.

Mr Potter tried to tempt the monkey up his shoulders

I know he was scared.. I can feel it..wahahahh!!

"I don't want to give it to you anymore!! Don't scratch me!!"

"The Amazing Race" In Bali!!

"Nice ass Monkey!"

 We went for lunch at the famous Babi Guling. (Roast pork rice). It's really very nice. :)

Let's go for the food!!

That is driver uncle (man with the hat)

Delicious!!!

Ibu Oka, Bali

This is one of the place you can have this delicious Babi Guling. After lunch, we went for some shopping and massage again. It's a two storey market and they have a lot of dresses and local handmade stuff.

This is not the best shopping picture but this place have a thousand of shops where you can buy their local produce.

We went for a massage in the town but nothing can be compared to the spa we had the next day with Alex and the rest. We went for the white water rafting the next day and had tons of fun!

Om Bin & Mr Potter

Om Bin has been our driver in Bali for many years. He is the nicest man on earth. As he is a family member of Alex, he would bring us to places where no other tourist would be able to get such value for money stuff. The spa, white water rafting all comes with huge discount with Om Bin with us. Excellent!

The greenery around the place we rafted 

Getting ready1

Om Bin brought us to a different white water rafting this time and it is called the Alam Amazing Rafting. They are a whole lot of professionals and helped us with our gear. We are going to raft the Telaga Waja River. I had no idea that this river is going to be much rougher and longer than the one we went the last time. Mentally not prepared until we went further, further and further... 

The group

Break time after an hour of rafting

The raft was about 16km and it took us about 2.5-3 hours. Buffet lunch was provided after the raft and we had a shower there as well. It was really enjoyable! You can stop to take pictures during break time, or you may purchase the pictures from them after the rafting during lunch. Theirs will look more professional than your own though.. :)

Here is their website if you are interested:

Alam Amazing adventures

www.alam-amazing-adventures.com
Price: USD$88 per person including lunch

We went for spa after rafting. I could not remember the name of the spa already because I was too tired.  It was a very nice spa and huge environment. I guess Bali had a lot of land and it's cheap to build a spa like that. This is the reception table at the entrance of the spa. The rest of the spa picture I did not have because I was snoring already. Haha!!

Dinner 

Om Bin brought us to a place to have dinner. It was a huge restaurant and he told us that it is not expensive and very good food. So we went along. It was indeed very affordable and you can order a lot of stuff and seafood, beer etc. I think I got to ask Om Bin again for the name of the restaurant. Sorry guys...lol..

This is only one portion for one person. It is not for sharing. And each of us ordered one portion like this and a lot more to share. Our table did not have space anymore, and so was my stomach.

The next few days we decided to relax in the hotel by their private beach. We went to play sea sports like the flying fish (highly recommended), banana boat. I realised that if you have a Balinese friend with you who can speak super fluent Bahasa Indonesia, everything is almost at 50% discount. The Banana boat guy made us fell into the sea more than 4 times. And when the wave came in, it was impossible to get back up. And whose fault? Alex's fault. HAHA!!

Our own Canopy by the beach

We had fun and we changed and headed out to Jimbaran for seafood again.

The Jimbaran Bay is famous for its seafood. There are like more than 30 restaurants from you to choose from. And you have to reach there before sunset to enjoy the breathtaking view of Jimbaran. We had a car to send to us to the restaurant and we ordered quite a lot of stuff. I did not have a picture of the food because it was too dark and too hungry. :) Everybody was busy eating and had forgotten about the pictures.

Rin @ Conrad

This is some of us having a spread during breakfast at Conrad. Their breakfast menu changes every two days. And you will never get sick of eating it. 

Now these are some pictures to show you the night time @ Conrad Bali. It has a quaint and quiet environment and you feel so good to be back at the hotel at night. Worth every penny!!

Dinnner

Eight Degrees South

Conrad Bali, Resort & Spa

We had our dinner at Eight Degrees South for the last night at the resort with Jevornf and Elia. This is one of the best seafood dinner and the price does not come cheap too. Service was excellent and the staff paid every single little details to you and you feel like a king and queen dining here. I am prone to mosquitoes and the staff even had repellent ready for me. Well done to the staff at Eight Degrees South! You guys impressed me!

Mine!!

 I ordered the lobster seafood platter. Yummy!! I can even choose how I want the lobster to be done. The prawns and mussels were very fresh and tasty too.

The steak

Mr Potter had his steak which looks small but it's actually very filling. It also taste very good! We had a good long dinner at Eight Degrees South and were sad to say good bye to our friends from Hong Kong. We drank and had lots of laughter. Ok.. seems like another trip to HK is inevitable in order to have a reunion. Hong Kong Alex & Vanessa?

Conrad Property

So we headed for home with our minds filled with questions of how time flies when you are on vacation. However, we have to thank the lovely couple for their wedding in Bali. If it weren't for them, our vacation in Bali wouldn't have been as memorable. Thank you Alex & Vanessa. (Shall we do it again real soon?)

Love,

Cecilia