Shopping in Bali

I hardly shop whenever I travel. Shopping doesn't interest me cause most of the stuff that I bought used to end up at Cash Convertors or in the recycling bin.

But during my recent trip to Bali, I did a bit of shopping cause I went there with family members whose sole purpose whenever they travel is to shop till they drop.

Here are some stuff I bought in Bali which I would like to show you.

Don't know why, but I tend to get attracted to beer t-shirts whenever I go to a country that has its own beer.

Bintang Beer is the national beer of Indonesia, like what Beer Laos is in Laos.

Since Indonesia has its own beer, I bought a Bintang Beer tank top and t-shirt to add to my collection.

You can find Bintang Beer t-shirts almost anywhere in Bali. I bought these from one of the shops along Jalan Legian in Kuta. Cost: IDR50,000 (RM18.30) for both t-shirts.

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Celuk is a place in Bali that is famous for its hand crafted silver jewellery. There are numerous shops in the area all selling silver jewellery of various designs.

On our way to Tanah Lot, the driver stopped at one of the shops there for us to browse around.

The last time I was in Bali in November 2007, the driver also dropped us at one of the shops in Celuk. But at that time I didn't fancy the designs. I thought they were old fashioned.

But this time around I saw this jewellery set that I fancied.

Pendant and chain

Matching earrings. Don't know why this photo is elongated.

The sales assistant will pack your jewellery in cute woven containers like these.

If you're interested, this picture contains the address and contact details of the shop. Just click on the photo to enlarge it. Otherwise, please drop me an email.

Costs me IDR600,000 (RM219.30) for the pendant, chain and earrings. Had to pay by credit card cause didn't bring enough cash.

 

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The Art Market in Ubud is a dream come true for anyone who has the shopping DNA in their genes. There are many shops here selling stuff like home deco, paintings, hand crafted wooden boxes, clothing, costume jewellery, shawls and the list goes on.

When my family members stepped into the art market, heaven came down and glory filled their shopping soul. So I excused myself and headed to Milano Spa to get a Brazilian wax. The spa is located near the football field on Monkey Forest Road.

After getting myself as clean as a baby (huge grin), I walked back to the art market to look for my family members.

As I was passing one of the shops in the art market, a leopard print dress caught my eye. I quickly enquired the price cause I had developed a crush on animal print clothing lately. Opening price was IDR50,000 (RM18.30) and I bargained to IDR20,000 (RM7.30). So what else but grab lah!

My dirt cheap leopard print dress bought from Ubud Art Market

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I had one bad experience about shopping in Bali when I paid quite high a price for 4 pairs of earrings. Story goes like this ...

I had just finished a traditional herbal (lulur) massage at Sicilia Spa in Kuta. I was so relaxed and happy after that massage that I was not thinking straight.

Can you blame me for not thinking straight when the spa was so damn gorgeous? A traditional herbal (lulur) massage here costs IDR165,000 (inclusive of 10% tax), which is approximately RM60.00. In Malaysia I would definitely be paying more than RM150 for a similar treatment!

Anyway, at the entrance of the lane leading to Sicilia Spa on Double Six, there are many shops selling costume jewellery at wholesale prices. Since I had extra Rupiah to spend before my flight back to KL, I walked into one of the shops to buy a few pairs of earrings.

The lady quoted me a price. After stating my price and the lady stated hers, I thought it was a fair price and paid up.

As I was walking back to the hotel I did a mental calculation to convert the amount into Malaysian Ringgit. It was then that I realised I could get similar earrings for a much cheaper price in Malaysia.

IDR50,000 for four pairs of earring is expensive.

I think I must have gotten all confused with the Indonesian Rupiah which come in a bigger denomination and difficult to convert to Malaysian Ringgit. Anyway, no use crying over spilled milk.



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Ok, so enough of shopping in Bali. I'm not gonna shop anymore when I head to Surabaya and Jogjakarta on 16 February. Mt Bromo and Borobudur ... here I come !!!

4 Reasons to Get "Unfriend"

The word "Unfriend" was chosen as the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2009 Word of the Year. To "unfriend" someone is to remove that person from your friends list in Facebook, Friendster, MySpace or any social networking site.

We all have unfriend someone and we ourselves could have been unfriend by others. If you belong to the latter, have you wondered why you got yourself unfriend? Here are 4 main reasons, told from my personal experiences:

1) You pissed someone off.
There are so many reasons to this - you guys had a fall-out, you said or did something that offended the other person, and the list goes on.

One of my colleague got unfriend cause he made some comments on one of his friend's photo on Facebook.

The moral of the story here is to think before you make any comments online because something you find amusing could be offensive to another.

2) You are no longer important to that person.
Steven added me because we had friends in common. We chatted online a couple of times on Facebook. When I realised he wanted to become more than friends, and I was not interested, he unfriend me.

I've encountered few other guys who were looking for the same thing as Steven. But when I turned them down, we remained on each others friend list cause even if I'm not interested in that kind of way, we can still remain friends, right? But Steven was different; I guess his ego must have taken a beating when I turned him down. Well, what can I say ...

3) You didn't bother to keep in touch.
I was introduced to Ken through a mutual friend while at Hard Rock Cafe in KL. It was me and my big mouth who suggested that we add each other on Facebook.

Ken told me he only wants to have 30 friends in his friends list, and that he will delete anyone who doesn't keep in touch.

A criteria he sets for anyone who wants to remain in his friends list is that they must send him a message every week at a minimum. And get this: he don't have to send any message to his friends, it is they who must send him one in order to remain on his friends list.

I thought he was joking when he told me all this. After all, which idiot would have such unfair, selfish and stupid criterias to keep friends. But I found out soon enough that he was not joking. And he proved himself to be an unfair, selfish and stupid idiot.

4) You got unfriend for no reason what-so-ever.
I saved the best stories for last. Here are 2 stories how I got unfriend for no reason what-so-ever:

Story 1
Galen is a nice fella with lots of ambition and a heart for charity. I remember he was training to climb K2 for charity. We corresponded occasionally via Facebook. But one day I discovered he had unfriend me.

I tracked back all our correspondence to see if I had offended him in any way, but nothing. I'm still wondering why he did what he did.

Story 2
Like Galen, Spencer and I would send an occasional message to see how each other is doing. We would also send flowers occassionally using the Growing Gifts application.

One fine day, Spencer sends me a message saying he is in China indefinitely. When I asked him what was he doing there, he didn't reply. Since he was in this part of the world, I invited him to drop by Malaysia on his way back to England, but he didn't say anything.

When I browsed his photos, it looked like Spencer went to China to meet a girl.

I also saw a comment on his wall from a lady saying she's unhappy that he had unfriend her for no reason. Not long after reading that comment, I discovered Spencer had unfriend me too.

I think his Chinese girlfriend must have been insecured seeing that her Mat Salleh (Caucasian) boyfriend has a hot looking Chinese chick in his friend's list and she must have squeezed him by the balls to unfriend me, muahahaha ...

In Conclusion ...
I was rather disappointed when I found out I got unfriend. If I had pissed any of them off then they have every right to unfriend me. But I'm not guilty of that.

Then I asked myself why should I get disappointed? Is my life gonna get any more meaningful knowing that I'm on the friends list of these people? The answer is 'no' cause I didn't have a "real" relationship with these people in the first place.

It just goes to show that people you meet online are merely faces. Some of them may move on to become acquaintances and some into close friends.

But unless and until we have a real connection with our friends, or we work at nurturing our online relationships, we are all gonna continue unfriend-ing each other. So let nature take its cause and don't fret if you get unfriend.

4 Great Reasons to Visit Bath

This is Part 2 of my travels in Bath. Click here for Part 1.

Many people only know of London as a tourist destination when they visit England. Take a wider look and you will stumble upon the lovely City of Bath which is an approximate 4-hour bus ride from London.

A return bus ticket from London to this quaint UNESCO World Heritage Site costs only GBP26.80 - quite cheap considering the loveliness that awaits you. Here are my personal 4 reasons why you must visit Bath:

1) It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Heritage Sites are properties which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal cultural and natural heritage value.

World Heritage Sites I've visited include Ancient Thebes and its Necropolis in Egypt, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Luang Prabang in Laos, Stonehenge in England, and of course Kinabalu National Park, Malacca and Georgetown - Malaysia Boleh!

All these sites have never failed to amaze me, and Bath is not an exception.

2) Historical Buildings & Museums. There are many historically significant buildings in Bath like the Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths. Visit all of them if you have the time and money cause they hold mystery and wonder like the Temple of Sulis Minerva in the Roman Bath.

Facade of Bath Abbey

There was a photo exhibition on the sorry state of our environment outside Bath Abbey when I visited the place

What's a pig doing outside Bath Abbey? :-)

The Roman Baths

The Roman Baths is located beside Bath Abbey (in the background). Cloudy weather does not make good photography. But when the sun suddenly peeked from behind a cloud, I quickly ran to the other side and snapped this shot. Look how bright and sharp it is!

3) Lovely sceneries. Take a stroll anywhere in Bath and you'll see what I mean when I say Bath is so pretty.

The River Avon runs through the City of Bath

I thought that these swans completes the shot

Great place to take romantic walks with your love one

Brown and white swans make the River Avon their home

4) Gateway to Stonehenge and the Cotswolds
You can use Bath as a base to explore other interesting places in the area like Stonehenge and the Cotswolds.

Transport to the Cotswolds is scarce and difficult to travel on my own. So I opted for the Cotswold Discovery tour by Mad Max Tours. This full-day tour that costs GBP32.50 brought me to some of the small towns that the Cotswolds is famous for like Castle Combe, the Slaughters and Stow-on-the-Wold (notice how unique and cute some of the names are!)

I registered for the tour by paying GBP2.50 at the tourism office outside Bath Abbey. The lady at the office immediately called up the Mad Max office and confirmed my seat, which happened to be the last one. Felt so lucky!

The next morning I waited at the pickup point which was at the corner near the Bath Backpackers' Hostel and paid the balance GBP30.00 to the tour guide before hopping onto the minivan.

Here are 2 photos I snapped while on tour:

Arlington Row in Bibury. It is probably the most photographed attraction in the Cotswolds

Castle Combe

There are also tours to Stonehenge from Bath if you wish to explore the ancient stone arrangement. As for myself, I went to Stonehenge on a half-day tour from London which you can read about here.

Stonehenge

Now that you have seen the photos and read about Bath, are you convinced why you should visit this lovely city?