Bali Day 6 (Bali Safari)

Hi you guys...

How are y'all doin'? Me and #Undecided's been feeling under the weather the last few days :(, i hope you guys are doing better than us! I actually been hoping that this week #Undecided would start writing more regularly *meaning : more than one friggin post per week!!* but since she's so miserable and sick then i guess i *annoyed* could cut her some slack. Anyway, i really cannot believe it's February already! It feels like we just celebrated New Year yesterday -___-.. And that means my mission to finish my Bali report in January has failed miserably.. Oh well, at least there's only two days left so let's just get on with Day 6 already, okay!

Day 6 is the day when we finally got to do one touristy thing LOL.

OOTD

Lighthing in 100 Sun Set sucks -___-

First thing first. A plus for 100 Sunset Hotel? The room price’s included breakfast for two. LOL. I hate it that most hotels charge more for the breakfast (well maybe they reduce the price for the rooms without breakfast but it still annoys me LOL). I LOVE hotel breakfasts, the international one (but I still wouldn’t pay extra for them), I always have the same thing though : scrambled eggs + toasts with butter. Not many hotels managed to serve great scrambled eggs though, most of them are too dry (I’m thinking of the scrambled egg served at our Macau hotel right now, *drool*) and the scrambled egg here is so so. Let me show you the breakfast area :

Breakfast area quite small but cozy

Hunny looking very gluttonous

As I told you on previous post, my brother and his family were staying at Mara River, in Bali Safari imagine that. Sleeping surrounded by safari animals LOL. His family (especially his daughter Au) are animal lovers, in fact it was Au who asked her mum to stay there. They sent me pictures of the lodge *yeah I think it’s much more a lodge than a regular hotel* and while it seems… err… interesting.. I’m not sure I’d want to stay there. Maybe if it’s for free. LOL. I think they are quite pricey as well. (Actually I just checked the price in Agoda and they are not that expensive, almost the same price as 100 Sunset LOL. If you are interested you can try staying there. Keep in mind once you are inside the lodge area it’s very hard to get out from there because you cannot ride personal vehicles inside Bali Safari, unlike other Safaris in Indonesia. Even to go to the Bali Safari’s restaurant you’d have to call the front office to send a golf cart to get you LOL)

So, I originally wanted to go earlier, so we can check  out their lodge and I can get pictures for you guys, but not only it is quite far away (1.30 to 2 hours car ride), CL bbm-ed me asking me to get BiGul (OMG. Really) because the food over there’s very expensive (LOL. She’s kiasu as well lah. Much to KC’s annoyance), off course then my mum freaked (you must be familiar with her freaking out by now ya?) and demanded to buy food for ourselves too. Since my dad doesn’t eat pork due to health problems and Baby Boy’s nanny’s a Moslem so we had to stop by at McDonald’s to get them food *for me too because I seriously cannot eat another BiGul. Seriously*.

In the end we spent so much time getting food *and it was drizzling again so hunny and i had to ran around like crazy people and my mum demanded to withdraw money at an ATM and then nature calls for majority of us… Dammit… in the end it was like 11.00 when we finally headed to Bali Safari zzz.

We reached Bali Safari at 12 or so, entrance fee (for Indonesian) was about IDR 150.000 (I forgot exactly), and using BCA credit card you’d get 20% off. My dad refused to get in (my dad’s really stingy FYI, except to me LOL) and he waited outside with Baby Boy’s nanny LOL. My mum hesitated as well because she claimed she wasn’t interested but in the end decided to join us. 

Baby Boy wearing a cardigan awwwww... apparently i have a thing for guys in cardigans -___-

From the entrance we had to ride a special mini bus to get into the safari. 

And then we had to walk a little bit (of course, my mum started complaining again because she expected us to just ride the bus the whole time FML. Seriously, we went here before, a few year back (with #Undecided and A. #Undecided finally got together with her now hubby in that trip LOL) andd I swear she didn’t complain about the safari at all back then. I guess she was too busy complaining about the hotel. I hope I won’t complain so much when I’m old. Please God.

Got photo-bombed by this guy -__-. He took the same ride as us and he's quite funny and friendly :p

We finally met up with KC’s family at the queue for the actual safari ride, I immediately felt better. I just shoved my mum to CL and kept close to my brother LOLOL.

Quite a long line to the actual ride

Then we ride the mini bus around the Safari. Sorry I didn’t take any pictures of the animals because this is our second visit and we took a lot of pictures on the first one and I lost interest already. Went here only for Baby Boy mainly, I had my fun shopping and stuff and now it’s his turn.

Cray cray people in da house!

Baby Boy with his beloved Koko Mt

Oh, hunny did take one picture 

The Lion lovers which apparently hadn't move since the day before according to Au

CL asked me earlier if we should watch Bali Agung show, but she said it was IDR 250.000 per person which I found to be ridiculous so I refused, but when we arrived I asked the front desk and she said it’s IDR 150.000/person which is reasonable so I said “let’s watch it!” LOL.

Because it was raining by then, if we did not watch the show then there’s nothing we can do anyway. The rides and animal shows were closed and mostly cancelled (make sure you visit this safari during summer instead to make the best of it) and walking around would be hell too with the rain. 

Here’s us taking pictures while CL’s purchasing our tickets :p.

Au also wanted to join us :p

This made KC start yelling because we're making him wet HAHAHAHA

Wah, my bangs really needed a trim back then LOL

Isn't Baby Boy adorable? *very biased mummy*

Then we headed to the Bali Agung theatre, none of us went in before *on my previous trip Bali Safari was newly opened and theatre was not even fully built* so I was pleasantly surprised to find it to be huge and beautiful, I instantly felt I was overseas or something (not putting down my own country but when it comes to tourism attractions and historical preservations Indonesia’s kinda bad :(. But Bali’s definitely an exception! I wish other parts of Indonesia would take notice and follow suit because we have so much beautiful and interesting culture and tourism objects!).

The security’s really tight as well (that’s why I don’t have anymore pic, but I took some after the show so you’ll be able to see the interior in the waiting area and souvenir shop, you have to leave you cell phones and cameras outside *they have a special section for you to deposit your cell and cameras safely, don’t worry. I actually kinda like the tight and no-nonsense protocol, this shows me that they are serious and took this theatre seriously. Very professional indeed. *nods in approval*. The theatre’s super COLD I was shivering and I chose that day not to bring my cardigan FML, on the actual day I needed it most FML. Thankfully my mum brought her pashmina (she’s always ready for anything!) and we shared it like a blankie LOL.

So, I do not have any pictures that I took myself (there was a Caucasian taking a picture despite the warnings and his camera was confisticated, applaud on that because usually Indonesian tends to act like Caucasian are above them *FOL* and would do anything to keep them happy including letting them getaway doing forbidden things, seriously Indonesian, treat local and foreign tourists equally!! Not that most of Balinese thought I was local, they kept on trying to talk to me in Japanese or Korean and kept on offering me mushroom LOL).

But I searched for some pictures to show you the breath taking stage and costumes, it was really top-notch and in par with international standard! All pictures courtesy of Google!

They also incorporated the safari animals into the performance. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that in this story the Balinese king was actually marrying a Chinese princess (being of a Chinese descendant myself, we sometimes felt left out watching Indonesian shows about Javanese or Batak people, etc. hey, we’re Chinese descendants but we’re true blue Indonesian too!). Here’s a little sneak peek on video

Like I said, it was about an ancient Balinese king who fell in love to a Chinese princess (when the Chinese “vessel” about the arrive the song suddenly changed into a Chinese melody, much to our surprise LOL) but they couldn’t have a kid so the king then went on a  dangerous journey to meditate but met with a Goddess and was seduced by her instead *itchy bitchy king! Pfffffftttt*. How it ended? You should check it out yourself! It was totally worth it! I love the stage and decoration the most, also the costume was very grand and beautiful. Everything was top notch and of a high quality.

The Chinese characters :p

Went to the souvenir shop in Bali Agung afterward, the souvenirs in Bali Safari were actually very nice! I was pleasantly surprised. Really, in Taman Safari Prigen and Bogor I didn’t find their stuffs to be tempting at all but I cannot say the same about Taman Safari Bali *le sigh*.

Actually I saw two Caucasian girl wore furry elephant vests with stuffed elephant head as the hoodie and I was entranced. I tried finding it in the Bali Agung souvenir shop but there wasn’t any, and Au actually wanted one too so we headed to another souvenir shop outside Bali Agung while Baby Boy went with his daddy and D to watch piranha feeding.

I found the vest but it was very expensive IDR 210.000 for the elephant one (Au got them) but hunny then forced me to buy one and he chose the giraffe one, it was IDR 200.000, but apparently using Au’s guest card we could get a 15% off discount (damnnn, the info came too late lahhh I already bought the headband and the toy for Baby Boy without the guest card zzzz, thankfully they were cheap, IDR 35.000 each) so the giraffe vest was IDR 170.000 after discount.

The vests were made for kids lah *the Caucasian girls I saw were skinny early teens LOL* but I managed to fit into the vest anyway but it became slightly cropped I think LOLOL.

Please do not compare my huge arms to my skinny skinny niece's -___-

I don’t think I’d ever really wear it lah hahaha maybe for silly photo sessions? But Baby Boy can wear it *OMG he’s so round that it fits him perfectly -__- it was pretty big okay and he’s only 5!* maybe for themed party or whateva? So it’s not that useless afterall yes?

Last stop : the teeny-tiny marine life part. Seriously it was so tiny i don't think they have any right to put it in their name (Bali Safari & Marine Park).

yes, i realized i looked like a kid here sucking on lollies -___-

It was about 4.30 already (the safari closes at 5 or 6) and it as raining, so we decided to call it a day. We went out and hop into our cars, when my mum handed us our super late lunch we realized how hungry we were zzz… devoured our food to the last lick then! Everything tastes so good when you are extra starving LOL. 

KC’s family+D were flying to Surabaya at 9 that day (but the flight was later delayed twice LOL poor them) and it was super jammed packed like nutz so we decided to go straight to the airport from Bali Safari because we do not want them to be late right…. The reason why all of us sent them off… not for any sentimental reasons because we’re gonna meet them the next day anyway but because my mum packed most of our stuffs and made them brought it home by plane *big grin*, but somehow the car was still super full the next day *frowns*.

In the end we arrived at the airport super early LOL. But better safe than sorry right? Bali airport was so much different than the last time I was there, much better even though it’s still under construction (they’re making a new one) and there’s a stretch of cafes and restaurants and I spotted Cold Stone Creamery!! We’re also going home tomorrow and there’s not CSC in Surabaya so I said screwed it and dragged them all to get some more Cotton Candy ice cream with rainbow sprinkles !!!

Asked hunny to take one pic outside CSC but he managed to eliminate the CSC sign and took Starbucks's instead -___-

Did I tell you that I bring my own pillow (I use very flat pillow, normal pillow hurts  my neck :( ) whenever I travel by car? I also bring small blanket and towels because I am extremely disgusted by hotel’s blankie (but in some sparkling clean ones I don’t mind) and towels, I even purchased a new towel when I went to Solo for G’s wedding and realized I didn’t bring my own towel! The problem is… I am super forgetful and so I hunny!!! FOL. Just realized I left my pillow at Mercure Hotel the night before :(. So we went to get it from the airport (my precioussssss)… and ended up spending a long time going back to the hotel FML. Zzzz. Super jammed again *seriously Bali… I’m severely traumatized. No more peak season holidays in Bali for me, or at least if we do then we HAVE to stay in Kuta or Legian (my mum’s dead set against staying in Legian because it was nearby the Bali Bomb monument FML) so we can go around by foot *then I’d stay there and not go anywhere else because I cannot take anymore Bali jams!!!!*

Got back to the hotel, showered, dinner was takeaway Burger King chicken+rice (ha! I bet non-Indonesian just went “ha?” reading it. Yes we do have rice with everything! McD, KFC and recently BK also provided rice for Indonesian palate! I noticed lately Malaysian also follow suit, but let me assure you, it was the Indonesian who started it many many years ago. It was once only Indonesian McD serves rice) and then snoozeville!!!

And now it it time for me to go to snoozeville too! Hope you enjoyed this entry!