More Bali

Friends have asked for more photos from our trip to Bali so here they are!

Look at this great Ginger plant at a spa we went to. I can only hope the ginger plants I added by the side of the house will someday be as beautiful!

The Botanic Garden of Ubud

One of the places we visited on our trip to Bali was the Botanic Garden of Ubud. The place was empty when we went. You start up at the top entry building and walk down a series of stairs into different gardens. There is also the "Rainforest" that we attempted to walk through but after the second falling-apart-bridge literally collapsed in one section as R walked over it, we turned back. On the way out of that part of the botanic garden we noticed a sign that had been put to the side of the entrance, from the back we could read that the Rainforest was temporarily closed.

This strange tree pod was in the herbal garden, I think. Anyone know what it might be?

I love these, they kind of remind me of hostas in New York, but these were taller and on or near the water.

There was a huge orchid building with many orchid plants. Nearly every plant was not in bloom though.

Bali Trip

I've written about Air Asia's cheap flights in the past here. R and I finally had a chance to try Air Asia out. Overall, the experience wasn't that bad and because of the low airfare it made our trip to Bali very reasonable. The plane tickets were not booked during one of those very cheap Air Asia Sales, so we could have done better on the price. But who can complain for round trip tickets at 393myr each (about $125 USD).

We decided to stay only in Ubud, Bali during our seven day stay. It was good, but after a few days we found ourselves booking a driver to take us to temples and other sites outside of Ubud which was fun and a great way to see the rolling green countryside. The view above is of the rice paddy field behind our hotel.

As the trip was to be economical, we decided to stay at Nirwa Homestay where we bargained the price down to 200,000 Indonesian Rupiah (about 72myr or $23 USD) per night. You can see from the photos the place was charming, but for reasons I won't go into R and I wouldn't recommend the place. There are plenty of other places to stay that are nicer.

The terrace outside our room on the ground floor

Inside our room

The food in Ubud was pretty good compared to Malaysia, I guess because they have so many picky western visitors. We enjoyed some dishes you can't find easily around Malaysia. But, our favorite place was an organic restaurant out in the middle of the rice paddy fields (see above) it was a long walk from the main road, but actually not far from our hotel. We ate at Sari Organic almost everyday. A couple times for early dinner because it closes at 8:30pm -- you have to walk back in the non-lit rice paddy field paths and it gets very dark. When we were there it was around full moon time which meant that the place could stay open a bit later and the paths were not as dark. Actually, around full moon is a good time to go to Bali we were told by our guide because after full moon it is considered a good time for ceremonies and cremations (we saw a few of both while we were there). Anyway, food, alcohol and treats cost us -- I'm guessing -- no more than 475,000 Indonesian Rupiah (about 171myr or $54 USD) per day.

All in all, it was a great trip; we plan to keep checking the Air Asia sales and see where else we can go in Southeast Asia... the airport is close to our house and the flights aren't that long because Malaysia is centrally located!

I'll post some photos of the many unique plants we saw soon.

Air Asia Amazingly Cheap Flights

One of the best things about living in Malaysia is Air Asia. The flights are cheap and I recently purchased some tickets for travel in the fall. Well, I always see on the Air Asia website these amazing deals, but when I key in the dates and destinations of my travel the prices are never as cheap as the promotion. Although they are cheap enough.

Yesterday morning I received a newletter in my email inbox from Air Asia stating "The Big Sale in On Again". So I went on to the site to see what they were offering because 10 sen flights (about 3 US cents) seems unbelievably low.

First I searched Kuching, Malaysia because R and I want to go there. It is in Sarawak. The price for two round trip tickets (duration 4 nights in February 2012) was a total of 30.40 RM (about $10 USD) meaning that each of our round trip tickets were only about $5 USD amazing!

The Air Asia site was so busy, it put me in "the Waiting Room" where it counted down my wait and noticed me that I had only 10 minutes or so to search when my search began. Now I know why the prices were higher when I searched in the past, I think it is because everyone on their email mailing list gets noticed and then these customers get all the good deals.

So I searched Jakarta, Indonesia just to see (duration 7 nights in February 2012) and the total for 2 round trip tickets was 50 RM (under $20 USD for both!). When have you last heard of a flight out of the country, roundtrip no less, for less than $10 USD?

I checked one more desination Mumbai, India and the price came back 524 RM (for duration 2 weeks in February 2012). It seems Air Asia wasn't letting any flights to Mumbai go both for 10 sen so they had one leg of the flight at 125 RM and that with the taxes made it up to 524 RM. But 524 RM is about $175 USD meaning that each round trip ticket to India was about $87.50 USD! Unbelievable.

What is unbelievable is that I had to close out of the site not ordering any tickets because R and I don't have our travel plans set for 2012 as we plan to visit the US. It pained me not to book anything. I can only hope that Air Asia stays in business (at these prices how can they?) long enough for R and I to really enjoy visiting more countries in Asia.