Ubud @ Bali, Indonesia

Update(June 30): I would be away helping out at a children's camp till Friday. So I won't be blog hopping in the next few days. So don't be anxious if I don't reciprocate your visit =D


Next morning we headed to Ubud, took a slightly long journey. It wasn't super long but I don't remember it being short either. But still I was pumped up for the second day of Bali-awesomeness!



There were people selling newspaper outside the van on the streets. Guess what? They even have Star Newspaper! Thought of buying but the tour guide told me that is costs Rm15. (?!!) Rip off....

Arrived at Ubud Town, and started walking. There is this whole stretch of shops where you can just spend your whole day walking through. We had an hour.....




Scene on the streets...




Isn't this awesome? Why didn't Malaysians ever thought about this? Donuts on motorcycles! Bought a doughnut for 2000 rupiahs I think which sums up to less than 1 ringgit. Not Big Apple quality but you can expect something around Dunkin Donuts.

A little narcissism is good for the soul =)




Ken Jon and Ovira posing. Imagine this whole stretch of beautiful shops.

One of the souvenirs sold at one of the shops. Pretty colours caught my eye =D

These are some kind of traditional Bali instrument which I don't know the name of. Can't believe that I did not even thought about asking. Bought one for less than Rm 10 ! It has a very hollow and enchanting tune. Sounds something like THE Bali tunes.

Ubud is a nice place to just get lost around. I don't think its a great place to shop but I think the ladies will definitely have fun browsing through.

But there's this one amazing treasure at Ubud town which you absolutely MUST visit if you ever go to Ubud. Won't tell you what it is but it is going to be....(wait for it...wait for it.....) LEGENDARY!!!(Those who watch 'How I Met Your Mother' would get my drift). I think that it might be one of the awesome-est post yet on this site.

BRATs in Kuala Kangsar

Alright, lets take a SHORT break from Bali posting. Don't want you all to go jelak and overload on Bali. So lets come back to somewhere more local, iPoh!

Ole BRATs came out today. For those who do not know BRATs stands for Bright Roving Annoying Teens, a young journalist program by the Star. We have a pullout in the middle of Star Education every last Sunday of the month. You get to meet awesome people like Ian, Ivy, Niki and Sharmila (names in alphabetical order for diplomatical reasons).

Joined the workshop last year and came back to help out as a senior. So the stories you read in today's pullout are the blood and tears of the Ipoh 2009 workshop held few weeks ago. Can read some of the articles online here.



Some BRATs interviewing a lady at a handicraft store.

Shot of the handicraft store..........the whole place, Kuala Kangsar in general is pretty quiet.

I actually chatted up some senior citizens. The riverbanks is like their 'hangout' spot where they will just sit and chillax for the whole day, and chat with their fellow senior citizen friends.




Met this uncle who owns this old shop selling vintage sewing machines. Has a very nice smile. And it was in the morning so the beautiful sun provided some flare.




Old fan....




This is one of the not-so-vintage sewing machines.




BRATs had to do their food review! Lol, most of them ended up in the same food court =_= Imagine it was a whole food court selling the exact same thing! -which is laksa and chendol. Had some really good mee rebus. (Did a short post on Kuala Kangsar too a while back)




Chendol was nice but I thought the shopkeepers were a little too stingy with the fillings so what you get is mostly ice. Hmm....perhaps next time request for more fillings.....with extra charges of course. But I appreciate the fact that their ice is nicely shaved.




Lastly, we made a stop at the royal palace. This is them BRATs best attemp at a High School Musical poster jump. lol

Sunset Dinner at Jimbaran Beach @Bali, Indonesia

Right after visiting Uluwatu Temple, we rushed to Jimbaran Beach for the sunset dinner. Tables and chairs were lined up all along the beach for people to have dinner while enjoying the sunset.


There's lots of people there already. The beach is crowded most of the time, so there goes your dreams of a romantice dinner for two, with the whole beach to yourself.

But the beach is full of life! You can see the half-naked 'ang moh' (white guy) with his DSLR, a local helping a couple catch their moment, and people armed with their cameras capturing the sunset.



Friends running on the beach. Bali sure does make you feel very carefree and relaxed. Lol, everything is made to resemble a resort, even the airport!



Couldn't resist some sillouette pictures.



Next, we have the food!


Vege....



The sauce is MAGICAL! Perhaps its because I've never tasted anything like it before. I think we had it refilled twice.




Everyone had a plate. Seriously, this is the best BBQ seafood that I've ever had. They have a very different kind of marinate from what we have here in Malaysia. Main ingredient is santan (coconut) so it was delightful to discover this new taste.



Pic of the table setting.

Sue Jan obviously enjoying her food....

There was this guy selling roasted corn by the beach. Its another thing that I noticed about the locals in Bali. They LOVE corn. You walk and walk and...hei!....a shop selling corn....then walk again, and there you have another shop selling corn. Not a corn fan so I did not buy.



This band really added to the beach mood that evening. They went table to table singing songs. So you have the setting sun, sounds of waves crashing on the beach, gentle sea breeze, great food and sounds of a band playing in a distance. Sounds perfect huh?


Last shot of the sunset =D

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Uluwatu Temple @ Bali, Indonesia

We made our way to Uluwatu Temple right after we landed, so I was pretty psyched up! Wohoo! I just landed at Bali (Oops! Lawl, major typo error here. Typed Bangkok, LOL! Thanks Jenn for the heads up xP) and we're already going somewhere. It took us about 45 minutes to reach the temple.

This is the grand entrance to the temple. Funny thing I noticed about Bali is that the main entrances from the road are not grand at all. In fact it was just a small left turn by the road and *bam!* you're at Uluwatu Temple.

I think that its nice that they do not have glaring neon signs that say "Welcome to Uluwatu Temple". Takes away all the authenticity. There are also no highways in Bali. Driving in Bali is like driving back to your kampung-one lane ROADS and such.

The sun was about to set. The visit is timed in a way that we would still have time to rush to the beach for sunset dinner afterwards.



Japanese tourists are everywhere! Here is where we are served 'pisang goreng' (banana fritters). Hmm...must be really precious because all we got was 1 piece each! LOL



These people were eating exactly 1.5 metres from the cliff edge. One wrong step and *whoosh* goodbye my friend.



View of the garden. This is one of the wedding hotspots. Looks perfect huh =D Invite me if you ever happen to have your wedding there!



Peeing Statues (self-named) next to the swimming pool. Yes! There is a swimming pool directly next to the restaurant. Looks great but no privacy. Its hard to de-stress I guess, with 40-50 people looking at you while eating their pisang goreng.



Nice refreshing Coke by the pool. Those are Ovira's crocs by the way.

And finally the view from the edge of the cliff. Sun was at the perfect angle to give some flare. I would love to stay there, sit, and enjoy the view as long as can, but the sunset dinner awaits! So, I had to reduce a little 'gazing' time.

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Bali here I come!

Update: There's this other girl who joined us slightly later on the trip and she felt left out cause' I did not include her name in the post. Happy now Gillian? =D HAhahah....

The weekend in Bali was AWESOME! Went there with another 6 awesome friends from Tabernacle of David. It was my first time travelling overseas without my parents so it was a pretty big deal (for me)! LOL.

So armed with my luggage and camera, I set off to LCCT (Malaysia's infamous Low Cost Carrier Terminal) to meet the rest of the crew and go! I have to say that its changed so much since I went there last November.


I went with dad to have breakfast at Old Town. Just noticed lately that Old Town is ALL over the place. Wah, the son who took over the business is doing a really good job expanding it. There were LOTS of people eating there so I had to line up...




This Nasi Lemak my friends, costs Rm 11. In which the same amount can buy you roughly around 11 packets of the same thing (minus the chicken). Aiyoh, they really cut your throat at the airports. But I'm on vacation so what the heck xP




With some of the crew. From left- Ken Jon, Andrew, Sue Jan, Avis, and me in front.




Still camwhoring all the way to the plane!




3 hours later we landed on Bali. Walauwei....the airport itself looks like a resort. Lol, I was so relaxed it never crossed my mind to take a picture =_= But here's a group shot! From left- Ovira (friend from Bali!), Candy, Sue Jan, Grace (another friend from Bali!), Avis, Ken Jon, Andrew, Ah Kit, and mE =D




Grace's mom helped up arrange the tour and stuff. So it was easy to get around cause' we had a van. Next stop, the breath-taking (yes....I am aware how overused that word is) view of Uluwatu Temple at Jimbaran.

Jalan-jalan Ipoh

Note: I'm still in Bali! And this post has been scheduled. Will be back on Monday so stay tuned!

Most posts on Ipoh. I was there for a whole week last week, went two days earlier than the BRATs workshop. It was really fun hunting down shops recommended by 'the Star Street Food Guide'. We got lost so many times (I blame Ipoh's one way street system) but I guess that's the fun part about travelling.

I have here a set of photographs that I took at some of the coffeeshops I went to. Ipoh has a very dull kinda setting so I took these pictures in black and white to give more emphasis on its character. Its my first week with the new camera so lots of experimenting!


This is the brew of coffee that Ipoh is so famous for. Parents insisted on looking for this particular coffeeshop (can't remember the name). But its famous lah! I think everyone know these (two) coffeeshop being famous for being directly opposite each other. Competition much?



Typical scene in a coffeeshop-family with cups of coffee+someone stirring the coffee with the 'soup spoon' to cool it+kids look vored with nothing to do.



Another scene from a coffeeshop....




This was SO spontaneous. I saw this uncle cooking the noodles and thought (yeah) I'll just snap a pic of him. Then as if by clockwork he just smiled at me! This reminds me how unpredictable photography can be (which is why I love it so much, you never know what shot you will get next!).




Finally, one of my favourite shots from the coffeeshop set. I'll let this picture do the rest of the talking =D

Old Man on the Streets

I saw this old guy while walking on the streets of Kuala Kangsar. He was standing outside a barbershop (more on that later). I really liked the details on his face and thought that it would make an interesting picture. He was really kind enough to pose for me, and even puff on his cigarette.

Btw, I'll be heading to Bali on Friday. This means more cool material coming up! Stay tuned =D

Bitter+Sweet=Bittersweet

HAhah, lame title. Yeah I know but that's the name (Bittersweet) of the band that the fellow BRATs got to interview last week. They're pretty well known in the local indie scene and are based in Ipoh so it was really nice to have them stop by.

Bittersweet Myspace Account(clickable)

Four man band-Hafiez, Herri, Pijie, Emai




Sam Tham, the Star Newspaper photographer was the one actually conducting the photoshoot. I just hopped in and grab a few shot =D

They're really nice guys. Two of them actually knew each other way back and decided to form the band. You can read all about their history at their myspace account. Listened to some of their stuff and they have similar sound to UK bands aspecially Coldplay.

So if you like Coldplay you might dig them. I liked the fact that their Malaysian accents are not recognisable in their music so it sounds more 'international'. Surprisingly for a rock band they were quite soft spoken during the interview. Yeah! So who knows that quiet guy in your classroom may turn out to be a rocker in the future!




Another shot I got of them.




Sam posing all the BRATs with Bittersweet for a group photo.




Its like the BRATs are posing with the Beatles. Cool retro hairstyles!




Finally, ahahha I had to get a picture with them myself. Thank you Niki for helping us to ask them!