Despite a crazily long first day and 1am bedtime, my eyelids fluttered open at the ungodly hour of 6.54am! I squinted out the window and sheer curtains, and was greeted by a lovely morning outside. Immediately all contemplation of lazing in bed for another half an hour vanished. I fumbled around for the camera and leapt out of bed to drink in my first Balinese morning!
Armed with a cup of hot hotel room coffee and my book, I ventured out to the balcony to wait for Nicole to wake up. I just sat there, sipping my drink, ocassionally reading, breathing in the salty air, staring at the tranquil pool and listening to birds chirp (I'm not exaggerating, there are 3 birdnests in the bushes outside the balcony!). It was so serene. Mornings are pretty rare for me the late-riser, and this one was just beautiful.
The lovely sight I woke up to.
The pool, all peaceful and quiet in the morning.
After a sumptuous buffet breakfast, we gathered at the lobby and waited for our tourguide of the day to bring us on our Volcano + Village assumed-half-day-but-supposed-to-be-full-day-Tour. We almost had to reshuffle our very packed itinery, but our fellow Singaporeans were really nice and helped us bargain our way out of useless stops along the way such as souvenir shops and whatnot, so that we could be back at the hotel by 2pm for our next activity. :D Thank goodness for them!
In the end we still stopped by a huge batik store where Balinese people demonstrated the art of making batik. It was pretty awesome to see these women weaving and colouring with the most traditional of tools, but the batiks there were just madly overpriced! The only thing I bought was money. Hahaha because the exchange rates up in the mountains were really in our favour for some reason and I was already running short of cash!
Me at breakfast. 8am explains the squinty eyes. Haha.
Sunny picture! (Due to overexposure but you didn't need to know. Haha.)
On our way up the volcano.
Spinning and weaving.
Filling in the details.
Colourful!
Along the rest of the way up to the volcano, we chatted merrily, sharing everything from stories of dishonest travel agencies to freaky tales back home. In between our trying to learn more of the Balinese people's life from the rapidly changing scenery outside the car window, we smeared layer after layer of sunblock lotion on.
Ohoh, we also passed by an impressive stretch of step terrace rice fields! I exclaimed so loudly that the driver decided to pull over and let us get out to take pictures. I was so happy and excited! I mean, step terraces! Like the ones we learn about in Human Geog back in Sec4! So pretty!
Yay step terraces!
The local women can ALL balance stuffs on their heads. It's awesomely cool.
I like this self-shot! (:
With our Singaporean travel mates.
And I can understand why people kept asking if Nicole and I were sisters from this pic. Haha.
After another 30mins of negotiating the curvy roads up the mountain, we stepped out of the car... and was greeted by a blast of cool air. Cool as in 16degrees Celcius kinda cool. There was almost steam coming out of our mouths as we spoke, seriously. And all I had on was a tank top, shorts, and an excessive layer of sunblock. HAHA. It was pretty hilarious, in the most ironic of ways.
The sight of the long-awaited volcano and crater was a total anti-climax. Due to a very light rain and cloudy weather, there was heavy mist, which naturally settled in the valley, which was exactly where the crater lake lay. So, 2hours of travelling brought us the sight of a vast expanse of white! Hahaha.
Lunch on the mountain top, though, was good! The restaurant was a charming place, with great views, attentive staff and decent food. They prepared a huge buffet for just the 5 of us! There were probably more people coming up later in the day, because I sure hope they didn't waste all those food. Haha.
Half way through lunch, the mist cleared up abit and the scenery behind us became visible! It was very cool because you can really see the mist rushing past. It's like we're in the middle of thin clouds! I abandoned my food, rushed out to the deck and took pictures. Everyone was laughing at me, and guess what? THE MIST CAME BACK IN 5MINS AND SWALLOWED EVERYTHING UP AGAIN! Hahahaha. See, always trust the camwhore for photo opportunities. :D
I look like a bird perched at the entrance.
HAHAHA compare and contrast with a postcard the tourguide showed us.
1717m up in the air!
Lovely setting. Very romantic!
Their artistic and slightly obscene Ladies sign,
with me trying to imitate the fully clothed version.
Look at all the foooood nicely arranged!
Hurhur, when the mist cleared abit.
This is as good as it got. Haha.
Oh, and freaky/cool picture of school kids on our way back.
We got back at the hotel at 2plus, changed, packed more things and off we were to Waterbom! We were actually pretty worried if we would be able to try all the different rides/slides in 2hours, because they close at 6pm, and we only got out at 3.20pm. It turned out we had nothing to worry about, because there were no queues at all and you will only want to take the slides so many times. Haha. Hmm, not exactly worth the USD20!
Some of the slides were really pretty fun and thrilling, but this particular one gave me a terrible wedgey! It was horrible. I am never going on one of those things in a bikini bottom without a float/map again, I swear. It even kept me away from the highest slide.
We were also laughed at by AngMoh guys as we sped through one of the tunnel rides, screaming and laughing our heads off. These boys just stood at the end of the tunnel (they went before us), screaming and squealing back at us, before running away as we came through. And that was the closest we got to hooking up with any hot surfer dudes with washboard abs and bulging arm muscles. HAHA.
Balinese handicraft decorating the walls of our hotel.
Resort-style.
341, our room!
Hahaha the 3 funny ducks in the duckpond downstairs.
Bali streets in the day.
Huge signs - all food!
Theme park time!
Us two, ready to take on the slides!
High up there, pretty scary!
I LOVE these mats. They should allow it for ALL the slides, really. 
Or these huge floats, though they are quite some weight to lift up the 4 storeys.
Going down!
Spot Nicole the Brave coming down the tallest slide! At 6pm we rushed out to the beach to wash the sunset, without even bathing and all. Hahaha. Gosh was it a brilliant sunset! I was mesmerized by the blues, pinks, purples and oranges. The way the sun slowly paints the world gold before night takes over. Poetic. I could get lost in the moment.
Dinner was at the huge Discovery Shopping Centre (which is probably the size of Taka I think), and we had A&W! Just because it's no longer in Singapore, and we felt like having something simple after the long day.
I love the convenience of our hotel's location - we could actually pull off running to the beach behind our hotel from Waterbom without bathing, and then washing up at the hotel, and heading out to the main shopping centre for dinner. The convenience just continued to prove itself over the next few days. You don't need any form of transport other than your two feet man! And the convenience just continued to prove itself over the next few days. Damn awessome!
The sun's almost disappearing over the horizon.
The golden hues.
Nicole and I, all clean and dressed for dinner.
So cute right, the A&W background with the rootbeer, and Nicole in the foreground.
Hee, me and my super cheap icecream.
We match the background colours!
I visited the Crocs outlet there!
It's quite cool to see the staff wearing the same work shirt I used to wear. Haha.
Oh, and these things. Yes, they are what you think they are.
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