Planning for my next trip - Siem Reap, Cambodia 2014

Planning for my next trip in a couple of months with hubby, my sister and her hubby, after all the voting we decided to head to Siem Reap as Angkor Wat Temple is too attractive to resist. Booked our flights online with Jetstar and I presumed we managed to get the cheapest fare at $1068 for that period, for four of us (including tax, selection of seats, etc.) We paid our fare via SAM Machine instead of using credit card so as to save the booking fee for credit card payment. It is easy to use and pay at SAM Machine, just quote the Jetstar Reference No. and the amount to pay.

We have not booked our hotels yet cause cannot make up our minds which hotel to stay, so much to consider lol. Do we want four star hotel near the shopping area or do we want nice and comfy cheap five star hotel but further from the shopping area? Distance is not much a problem, we could always take the tuk tuk to the shopping area that costs a couple of US$ only. But is nice if we could have cheap five star hotel that is near the shopping area but seems nothing perfect for the moment.

Really like to relax and able to sleep well in nice comfy bed and nice hotels whenever I travel cause sleep is so important to senior folks like us lol.

Managed to find some maps and information from the official site of Tourism Cambodia, which will comes useful for our coming trip.

Bali Trip 2014 - Day 5 - Bye Bye Bali - Bali New Airport

Last day in Bali, we had our breakfast in hotel before heading to the airport.

Decided to take the hotel's own car to the airport, it costs us Rp70,000, another option is flagging a blue bird company taxi that goes by the meter (but make sure you have smaller denomination notes or the exact amount for the fare), chances are the taxi driver will show you his wallet that he got no change for your big notes for the fare.

It was only about 5 mintues ride from our hotel in Kuta to the new airport, the new airport looked really beautiful.

Read alot reviews about long queues and not enough seats in the new airport but it was smooth sailing for us and lots of empty seats in the new airport, not sure if it is due to low season or what.

After checking in at the airline counter, we make our way to make payment for the departure tax, there's a few such counters in the departure hall. Please note the departure tax as at 1st April 2014 was increased to Rp200,000 (from the old Rp150,000).

After clearing the immigration, you need to walk though the long line of duty free shops in order to get to your boarding gate lol.

There's many small kiosks selling sandwiches, cakes, buns, etc but most are takeaways.

We decided to lunch at Black Canyon (seems like this is the only restaurant that we can sit and dine in peace), wish they have more restaurants like fast food, etc.

Managed to find seats, need to queue to order and pay at the counter, we were given queue nos, dont have to wait long for the food to arrive.

I had fried mee goreng, tasted good but forgot how much it costs.

Hubby had spaghetti - tasted so delicious too.

While my sis had Thai glass noodle, surprised the food all tasted good and served to us very fast too despite full house in the restaurant.

Could buy bottle drinks (like mineral water, etc) from the kiosk just outside the boarding gate and bring up the plane, defiitely cheaper than ordering from those budget planes.

Sometimes the boarding gate number will not be shown on your boarding pass, dont worry, just keep checking the screen for the boarding gate number to appear in order to know which gate to board.

This bring the end of my Bali Trip's story, hope the information is useful and entertaining to those who read and decide to visit Bali too.

Planning another trip in a couple of months, stay tuned. :)

Bali Trip - Day 4 - Dinner at Warung Made

Dinner, we decided to visit Made's Warung as per recommendations by some bloggers but finding the restaurant was a bit a problem. As the map I followed was not to scale, cause I thought there were more turns of side lanes to find the restaurant but the restaurant was famous enough that the many people I asked immediately show me the directions of the restaurant lol.

Nasi CMP Babi Guling(roasted pork with rice and vegetables)

Fried Rice

Curried Chicken

Gado Gado

Fried Spring Roll

The receipt for the dinner.

I think I still prefer the food served in The Beras Merah Restaurant & Lounge restaurant of Adhi Jaya Hotel(the hotel that we stayed).

You can see the restaurant from this map (but is not to scale).

The maps were obtained with the site's consent to print the map from this website

. There's other maps with different languages too.

Bali Trip 2014 - Day 4 - Kuta Beach and watching sunset at Kuta Beach

View of Kuta Beach taken in the morning after we had breakfast. The sea looked so blue and beautiful. Very strong waves suitable for surfers, one of the reason why tourists love visiting Bali.

View of sunset at Kuta Beach taken in the evening.

Really very beautiful and rich colour of the sun setting.

Tips given by the driver that we hired the day before, to view the best sunset at Kuta is behind Discovery Mall around 6 pm.

Surprised to see so many people at the scene already, all armed with cameras ready to capture the sun setting.

Lots of restaurants near the beach, can dine in here to watch the sun setting.

Locals burning the Ogoh Ogoh Statues at the beach.

Some short videos of Kuta Beach.

Bali Trip 2014 - Day4 - Shopping around Kuta - Poppies Lane 1 and 2 and Lipo Mall (Hypermart)

The best part now is the shopping, did some shopping around Poppies Lane 1 and 2, did not take too much photos of the shops, guess I was too busy bargaining for my goods hahaha.

Do remember to check out these nice graffiti sprayed on the wall around Poppies Lane 2.

Shops around Poppies Lane 2

Do remember to bargain at least 50 to 60% of the asking price especially if you are buying more than one. If you are buying half a dozen easily can slashed the asking price by 60% but for one piece you really have to try very hard by pretending to walk away hahaha. If you are unsure of the price to bargain or do not like bargaining, you can head to one of these shops with FIXED PRICE. Saw some singlet tee shirts and shorts in this shop going for about RP30,000 each but those shops around Kuta (including Poppies Lane 1 and 2) are asking as high as Rp120,000 each,we managed to slash the asking price to RP 20,000 each. Do not get into argument with the shopkeepers, just politely declined if the price is not right for you.

The heat is getting unbearable for us, head back to Discovery Mall to have our lunch, no appetite for big meals cause of the heat.

Glad that A&W fast food in Discovery Mall had some fried chicken and my favourite root beer float.

Went back to our hotel to bath again (hot hot hot) and rest before heading out again for last minute shopping.

Speedy mart next to our hotel (Adhi Jaya Hotel), had very reasonable fixed prices, bought more tee shirts and local snacks.

Then we headed to the newest Lippo Mall (just opened last year), not many tourists know about this mall, but there's a big hypermart at the basement of the mall which I think sold the cheapest in Kuta. The mineral water is so much cheaper than the rest of the marts and not to mention the sourvenirs like Bali Chocolates, Bali Coffee, etc. Even the brand of cosmetics that I bought from Singapore could be found in here and were at least 50% cheaper, OMG, so much to buy and so cheap, I could not list them all in here hahaha but am glad I found some cheap and beautiful agar agar mould that cost less than S$3 for a dozen and etc etc, hahahaha crazy over the cheap prices.

There's so many empty shops in the mall but you need to head to the basement to locate the hypermart.

Lippo Mall is a 10 mintues walk from Discovery Mall, is just next to Ramada Bintang Bali Resort.

Address of Lippo Mall Jl.Kartika Plaza,Lingkungan Segara, Kuta 80361

Map obtained from this website with the site's consent to print out the map. You can also find maps in other languages too.