Recently I got bored of travelling abroad to see the same old thing what Malaysia and Singapore has to offer. We have everything here in Malaysia. Since I am not a heritage lover, I certaintly won't appretiate the Balinese temples. They are just another temple to me. But there is a few unique qualities I like about the Bali experience.
1. The Exotic Balinese Buildings. Many of the buildings in the tourist area have Balinese architecture, so you get those mysterious feeling everywhere you walk. In every corner there is some weird statue showing fierce face at you. But it is only fun on the first day, second day onwards, the wow effect fades off.
2. Definately the beach. The beach is long. It does not have nice white sand but the sand is very fine. The wave is great. In fact is my first time having experience a tourist beach with such a strong wave. Amazingly, the water is very clear although at far it doesn't looks so. The only nuisance is the sales person trying to sell you massage, drinks, tatoo, kite, handicrafts and etc etc. Very irritating cause you can;t get any peace and quiet with those sales person siting beside you staring at you,with a face of he/she haven;t eat for days, waiting for you to buy something. There are plenty of seat along the beach but it comes with a cost of RM 10 an hour. What a rip off.
3. The Tourist. The tourist crowd here are pretty young in nature, mainly surfers and surfer's fans. Bali is really a surfer's paradise. The tourist here are famous for their flirtness to show off their sexy body. Imagine a girl with her sexy slim body, in her red bikini jogging along the beach while listening to her ipod.
4. Shopping. Since it is a surfer's paradise, most of the well known surfer's apparel brands has a shop in Bali. Rip Curl, Bilabong, Quicksilver and many many more.. Some of the handicraft are worth buying but a lot of bagaining is required. I bought a pant for 25,000 rupiah but the open price is 250,000. Bali retailers in the tourist area are spoilt by the rich Japanese and Aussies tourist. I always hate the feeling that I have got rip off by the retailer buying something very much over the original price. I made up my mind, Bali is one place I will never want to do any shopping at.
5. Balinese Massage. Well everyone told me I must try the massage and it is really cheap and Bali is the heaven to all massages. I doesn't know about the others but my experience is really a bad one. This is the story. I was being approach by a Bali massage unty. After she heard I am from Malaysian she would give me stupid talk on the theory of "sama gang". Then she tells me those bullshit about how much he charge the westerners and since I am from Malaysia special rate lar.. Well to handle these sales women, the best way is never to show interest but it was my second day in Bali so just curious wanna know the price. Once you show some interest, die. She will keep on begging you and she will even cheat you with a really cheap starter price. She agreed to give me RM 35 for a 2 hours message.. Well after negotiating for 10 minutes, I went for the massage.
It started well but once she starts to massage you, her friends will start to come and find opportunity to sell you more stuff. You are really stuck cause she is massaging you and you are surrounded by all those sales person, keep talking until you agree to buy something. The was the worst message experience I ever had but the nightmare doesn't ends here. Next a women come to help me wash my leg. She does it as if she is the massage women partner or something. Then she will comment on how dirty your feet is and he say she will offer me a cheap price to wash my feet.. Well I just say no because it is suppose to be included in the 2 hours message.. Well despite the no, she cleans my leg anyway and I just think never mind lar, maybe pay her RM 5 for the leg cleaning service. Half way through she ask me to pay her RM 60 for washing my leg.. WTF. Washing my leg for more expensive than the 2 hours massage? That is definately a rip off. I argue with that bitch but she was cursing me like hell say she did the service already. The massage unty who is still massaging on me also help her out.. Well I refuse to pay extra so the women really curse me like I have cheated her life. Sigh I feel so bad the whole massage session. Are massage suppose to be relaxing? For the first time, I wish the massage session end quickly. After the massage ends, the massage girl ask me to give RM 5 to that unty who wash my leg.. Well no choice lar. The massage is pretty basic, I swear the Bangkok one is definately more comprehensive.
The worst part is the massage girl put a curse on one of my foot. After the massage one of my foot is cramp and it seems injured, wrongly twisted or something. I had to bare the pain for 1 week. I can't hardly walk and it is just my second day in Bali. Definately a spoiler to my wonderful Bali trip. The next day, guess what I saw at a massage centre nearby my hotel? 2 hours full body massage at a nicely air con centre with a nice balinese decor for RM 20 only.
5. Nightlife. Double Six Disco is fantastic with great DJ and it has a really wild european crowd. But the disco only starts to get busy after 2 am. The enterance cover charge is about RM 25 for one drink on friday and saturday.
6. The sightseeing. There is many temples, volcano, monkey forest, rice terrace and islands. I just chartered a taxi for a day for just RM 40 to bring me around. Nothing much to fancy. Just for the sake of touring Bali tourist attractions. The monkey forest is the stupiest. Pay RM 10 to see many many wild monkey. I can see it for free at Penang Botanical Garden.
7. Surfing. In my opinion, surfing is the only reason worth visiting Bali. There are plenty of schools to teach you how to surf. The price for a begineer starts at USD 50 a 2.5 hours class. Alternatively, you can also get the retired local surfer to teach you for only RM 60 for 2 hours. To learn how to surf professionally, it needs lots of practice.
