BALI PARADISE -- Day 1 [Kuta, Made's Warung, Best Babi Guling]

HEY GUYS!

Omg i just realized how i have to finish blogging on all 5 days on bali before my next trip to Cebu (again) in just 9 days wtf.
Ah well about time i started blogging more often anyways!

So as i mentioned in my previous post, Bali was AMAZING.

And i really hope maybe after reading this post you might want to plan your own trip there as well.

Because similarly to Taipei it's rather easy to DIY your own trip and i ALWAYS questioned why people would want to follow tours to such places?!
Like really, is it that hard to just spend one entire day researching on the place instead of paying a lot more for a tour, eat at restaurants that usually suck, allow them to bring you to some stupid herbal / tea / silver / gold place just for tourists to spend a bomb?
It's really wayyyy better to just DIY your own trip so you only end up doing what you want to do right!

teehee couple tee with my boyyyyyyyyy never worn couple clothing out before but i really liked dissss

I'm going to launch a couple wear collection on www.StyleHacks.net! 

Dont really have many couple wears as of now but will try to expand on that~

We were flying with tiger air and as per normal, tiger ALWAYS has flight delays so we reached Bali's airport at 4+pm instead of 3pm.
I was angry of course like my whole day's plan was ruined just with an hour's delay ok because Bali is honestly very dangerous especially at night.

They are famous for robbery (duh practically everywhere in the world is) but also like... what's the term for this... er taxi robbery?
I don't know how to explain but they basically just drive tourists elsewhere after they enter the cab and idk what would happen to you next.
But it's actually all over in the newspapers especially due to the high unemployment rates in Bali.
The LOCAL was the one who advised us on how dangerous it is at night so yeah i guess you can imagine it for yourselves.
So we didn't have a choice but to go back rather early like 9pm on some nights
UNLESS you have a trustworthy driver with you you could stay out till super late or even go clubbing (till 5am)!
We haven't tried clubbing but i heard of how many singaporeans actually go there and club like every single night lol so i'm guessing its good!
Going to try it when i'm back in Bali for sure.

ALSO, they have this cab company known as BLUEBIRD which is known to be amongst the most trustworthy ones so just avoid other cabs!

Anyway there are 3 forms of transportation in my opinion for tourists in Bali
1. Cab as per normal, it's about 50k rupiah ($5.50 SGD) for a cab ride of 30minutes.
But if you decide to go to places that are extremely deserted and less developed then it'll be a problem trying to get a cab back to your hotel.
2. Hire a driver for the entire day or you could choose their half day package as well.
Hiring a driver for the entire day -> 450k rupiah ($50 SGD), half a day -> 300k rupiah ($33 SGD)
Maybe you'd think it's expensive but you'll have him from morning 8am till late at night when it gets dangerous so i think it's good.
PLUS you can request to go to places as far as you like, because they don't charge extra for driving far, and you would end up saving more money.
Whether you have 2 or 4 people with you, it's still 450k rupiah a day.
PLUS he'll bring you to many places you'll never read up on the net that's super SUPER cheap for buying souvenirs
These places are along the way while you make your way to the place you asked him to bring you so no detours.
When i say cheap i mean like $1 SGD for a tank top lol.
I'll leave down the contact for the driver i hired for like a full day on day 3, half day on day 4 and even got him for airport transfers on my last day!

3. This is probably the most common one, which is to rent a motorbike or a car.
I honestly wouldn't recommend this anymore unless you have done adequate research or you know the place very well.
If not you wouldn't know how to make stops between for good food, cheap souvenirs etc.



Anyway, you might think after doing enough research and finding out what's "good" for dinner, you might still be wrong.
Ritche and I did our research, and we wanted to go to certain places for meals but the locals were telling us about how it's overrated and it isn't the best.
We ended up going with their advice and they were never wrong!
I swear i asked quite a few of my friends on their Bali trips and one thing they mentioned is BAD FOOD and that almost never occurred to me on my trip.
They probably went to the wrong places!

Omg i swear, bali has a lot of info for you to absorb at one go, this is especially so when it's your first time there.
One thing good is that locals would fill you in or you could read this so you know all about it already haha.
ONE LAST THING BEFORE I MOVE ON WITH THE POST, get a SIM card with internet package when you're there because it costs less than $7 SGD and the internet is pretty much unlimited. With this you can contact the local driver you're hiring + spam instagram and whatsapp LOL.


We were staying at The Bene near the famous Kuta Beach!
It costs about $95 SGD per night and their service is THE BEST

First thing that attracted me would definitely be the beautiful pool. It's actually a new hotel so everything is in very good condition!

Got the room with pool access of course. And the room is like 5m away from hotel breakfast and a metre away from the pool (oh how i miss bali).

Asked for directions on how to get a SIM card right after we checked in and the guy immediately printed out a map for us and annotated on it!
Already got us familiar with our location on day 1~

San Miguel at $2 SGD in comparison to like the doubled or tripled pricing in singapore

Marlboro for like $1.60 SGD LOL you could get like 8 packets with the price you're paying in Singapore

Most locals can speak english so it's all good, you wouldn't have to keep hopping between shops to find someone who speaks english

Honestly speaking our hotel was near to the famous kuta beach, but not near to any of the shopping districts.
It's like 15 minutes away from the nearest mall which means it's even more dangerous than it already is when we walk back late at night.
I would recommend getting a hotel nearer to shopping districts for sure.

Hard rock cafe~~~~ Visited on day 2 you'll see

Kuta square which is very similar to Siam square in bangkok. It's just rows of shops facing each other, not an entire mall.

We were looking for this place known as Made's Warung because we heard from a local that they had the BEST Babi Guling (suckling pig) and they were right!
It's pronounced as Ma-dei's Warung btw not made. You need to get your pronunciation right if you have to ask for directions (you probably would la).

This is the famous Babi Guling 89k rupiah ($10 SGD). If you're going to Bali i would strongly recommend this!
I have never tried a babi guling but it's now amongst my favourite food in the world.

Gado Gado that i didn't know how to appreciate lol i just never liked the tofu thingy 35 or 39k rupiah ($4 SGD)

and our last dish was the fried calamari which didn't look good in the picture so i decided not to include it haha but it was not too bad.
It costs like 79k rupiah ($8.80SGD)! Here is their address:
Jl. Raya Kuta Banjar Pande Mas Benoa Kuta Selatan Badung 
Bali, 80361, Indonesia
I really have no idea how you're going to read out the whole address to the taxi driver or whatever but they should know "made's warung"!  LOL

Alright that's all i have for day 1 because we really started off our day too late.
but i bet if you read every word i typed on this post, you'll have too much info to absorb anyway LOL.

Till next time~~
My next post would be on Seminyak and Legian for some boutique shopping and cafe hopping on day 2!