Bali Retreat Day 2 and 3

Day 2: 19 Apr 2014

Rise and shine! It's an exciting day ahead!! The main itinerary for Day 2 was White Water Rafting and Ku De Ta in the evening. Eden hotel provides international breakfast buffet at Paradisus Restaurant (Level 2) for all their guests, from 6.30am to 10am. You can choose from indoor or outdoor seating, and they have quite a range of food which tasted decently good.

Eden Hotel's Mascot at the Lobby

White Water Rafting
Telega Dewata, The Real Adventure Rafting
Website: http://www.telagadewatarafting.com/

Our tour's driver was waiting for us at the hotel's lobby at 8am sharp. We boarded the car, picked up another family of 4 from Sweden at Sanur and made payment of the remaining IDR 576,000 at their agency HQ before we continue riding on to our rafting destination. The guy at the tour booth on Bali Day 1 along our hotel's street was not lying. Indeed, we paid much lower as compared to others. I peeped at the receipt of the Sweden family and found out that they were charged at around 1 million rupiah per pax! =O We only paid rp 392,000 per person.

Telega Waja River is 14km long! Meaning your rafting experience will be around 2 hours! The flow of the river was quite strong and there were so many boulders that we knocked into. To be honest, it's more fun when we hit the rocks! =D

Don't book online!! It's USD 85 online and you can bargain for a much lower price when you're at the travel agency!

Approximately 2h car ride from Kuta to Telaga Waja River

Holding Area before the fun

At the holding area, they sell food and drinks at a rip-off price. Lol. You can purchase DVD of your photographs which will be captured by their photographer along the river, priced at IDR 300,000 (SGD 33.40) per disc. I would recommend you to buy it as the photographs (below, with date at the bottom right) are actually nice and memorable.

First Pitstop

Sitting on a rock, feeling the relatively strong current flowing through my feet, shiok!

I guessed this was where HP scratched her arms. Be careful when the raft gets near the rock/wall!

Anddd we disappeared

Thank you for your great service!

Now, we have to climb back up. T.T

Free towels were provided for us to dry ourselves after washing up. As we didn't bring any soap, we just cleaned ourselves with water and changed into new clothes. The view out of the buffet lunch area was magnificent! It's full of greenish plantations, looks very similar to the ones I witnessed in Bandung in Oct 2013. Honestly, I think the view in Bandung's tea plantation was better.

Indonesian Buffet Lunch - Tasted not bad! :)

First out of many many servings =X

We got back to our hotel after about two hours of drive. The Sweden family of four were very friendly and the daughter actually looks a bit like Jennifer Lawrence who starred in Hunger Games as Katniss Everdeen!

Getting ready for Kudeta

Plenty of taxis were easily spotted in Bali. We took the 1st taxi that came, the driver quoted IDR 70,000 (SGD 7.80), boarded the taxi as we thought that the price was reasonable. Due to heavy traffic in the late afternoon (4.40pm), it took us approximately 50-60 minutes to reach Kudeta. We arrived Kudeta at 5.36pm.


Ku De Ta
Address: Jalan Kayu Aya No. 9 Seminyak Bali Indonesia 80361
Website: http://www.kudeta.net/
Phone: +62 361 73 6969
Facsimile: +62 361 73 6767
Email: info@kudeta.net

Please note!! There's a dress code for Ku De Ta in Bali. GG wore a singlet and was denied entry until he changed into Ku De Ta's t-shirt that they provided for free.

Dress Code (Courtesy of Ku De Ta's Website):
Daytime: Neat and casual attire shirts must be worn in all dining areas.
Evening [after 4 pm]: Smart casual attire. (No singlets / sports or surf branded apparel / board shorts)
Beer & alcohol branded apparel is not permitted at any time.

Typical Tourist Shot

Art gallery (for sale) along the pathway to the washroom

Very clean and nice toilet

Indoor seating on Level 1

Station for cleaning the feet from the beach side's entrance

Here's the funny part. There were many empty tables in the dining area of Ku De Ta and we thought that all of them were free for guests to sit. So we chose a table with a nice sea view, sat down and started chatting. A few minutes later, a waiter came and told us that the table was reserved and the restaurant was fully booked, we can enjoy Tapas and Alcohols from the bar counters. =O We made a wasted trip to Ku De Ta then?? I was quite disappointed at that time. Thus we went to the reception counter, fortunately, the receptionist offered us a table on level 2 which faces the sea on a condition that we have to finish our dinner by 8pm (2 hours dining) before the people who reserved arrived. Also, we could only choose the 8 course menu given the time constrain even though there were 2 choices between 8-course and 12-course. The 8-course menu costs rp 640,000++ or rp 1430,000++ with wine pairing. The prices are subjected to 10% government tax and 6.5% service charge.

Embarrassing moment at Level 1 of Ku De Ta

Our 8 course menu

Open concept kitchen!

1st Dish: Coral Trout Ceviche - Blackened Eggplant, Sambal, Betel Leaf; with complimentary cocktail from the bar

1st Dish: Coral Trout Ceviche - Blackened Eggplant, Sambal, Betel Leaf

2nd Dish: 'White Cut' Chicken - Szechuan Salad, Oyster Cream

3rd Dish: Prawn Royale - Water Chestnuts, Kaffir Lime, Seared Scallop

3rd Dish: Prawn Royale - Water Chestnuts, Kaffir Lime, Seared Scallop

Can't stop looking at the GORGEOUS LADY sitting on the table next to us!! *We were totally stalkers during the dinner*

4th Dish: Sop Buntut - Oxtail Soup, Dashi, Tomato Raisin, Charred Onion

5th Dish: Crab & Bonito Ravioli - Sambal Dabu Dabu, Toasted Nori & Sesame

5th Dish: Crab & Bonito Ravioli - Sambal Dabu Dabu, Toasted Nori & Sesame

6th (Main) Dish: Wood Fired Duck Breast - Caramelized Fennel, Almond Skordalia, Confit Orange Zest

6th (Main) Dish: Wood Fired Duck Breast - Caramelized Fennel, Almond Skordalia, Confit Orange Zest

PERFECT MAIN DISH

Complements very well with the duck!!

Table Setting for our desserts

Complimentary wine

7th Dish: Caramelized Earl Grey Tea - Cinnamon, Pomelo, Red Wine - THE EARL GREY WAS AWESOME!!!

8th Dish: Kalamansi Meringe - Milk, Chocolate, Amaretto

8th Dish: Kalamansi Meringe - Milk, Chocolate, Amaretto; Very special dessert where you'll taste sour first, then bitter and ended with a sweet taste

Complimentary Macarons! They don't actually taste like macaron. Lol

Here comes the bill..... We paid  rp 2,350,000 and gave the rest as tips. Approximately SGD 87 per pax.

Photo of us after the wonderful dinner at Ku De Ta

The fine dining experience at Ku De Ta in Bali was simply amazing. Their food, service and ambience are greatly commendable. I'll definitely visit Ku De Ta again if I'm back to Bali and I'll make a reservation beforehand!

Walking around Ku De Ta after the very filling dinner

So misty at the beach!

Group #selfie at the beach

Our dinner was on the 2nd floor

Strolling around the area of Ku De Ta in Seminyak

Spotted a funny bar

Very creative design

Many cool shops around Seminyak Square

Came across my waxing shop!

Take note: Please take Blue Bird Taxi in Indonesia as it's the only trustworthy taxi group that I know of. Blue Bird Taxi goes by meter and will not quote you an amount when you mention the destination. A very good example I can give - We were going back to Kuta, Eden Hotel, while we were in Seminyak after having dinner at Ku De Ta. The first taxi we waved quoted us rp 300,000 (SGD 33)!!!! That's ridiculous. Guess how much the metered Blue Bird Taxi cost us? Less than rp 50,000.

Back to Eden Hotel

Day 3: 20 Apr 2014

We spent the last day in Bali relaxing, having a breakfast spread, swimming (not me) and shopping at Lippo Mall nearby where there's an outlet store selling clothes from Topshop, Lacoste, New Look, Miss Selfridge, etc, at a great discount! HP and I spent quite awhile in the store while GG sat down to surf the net. Haha.

Sunken Pool Bar

Exactly the same dressing as my last day of BKK Trip last year

Lippo Mall

Hailing a taxi is never a problem in Bali. We took Blue Bird Taxi from our hotel to the airport, it was only like rp 25,000 (SGD 2.80) for a 10min journey.


Ngurah Rai Airport
Address: Jalan Raya, Gusti Ngurah Rai, 80361, Indonesia
Contact: +62 361 9351011

Remember to save rp 200,000 in cash for your airport tax! Else you will not be able to enter the immigration area! If you are taking Tigerair Mandala (RI), their meals cost rp 40,000 (SGD 4.50) and above, relatively cheap as compared to it's sister, Tigerair Singapore (TR). RI and TR both belong to Tigerair Group.

rp 200,000 (SGD 22.30) DPS Airport Tax to be paid at the airport before immigration

Payment Counters of rp 200,000 (SGD 22.30) DPS Airport Tax

RI 836 DPS-SIN

Waiting at the gate

Taking off!

Awed by the view

Good Bye Bali~ We will meet again.

I felt that 3D2N was a little bit too short to go to Bali. I'd prefer to stay for at least 3 night for my next trip so that I can explore more attractions and play more water sports which will take minimum of one day as you'll need to travel to different spots for different activities. The highlight of this trip is definitely White Water Rafting and Ku De Ta on Day 2. White Water Rafting was absolutely fun!! You'll never regret choosing rafting over everything else if you can only pick one activity. We did not manage to go to Potato Head Beach Club due to limited time though. =/ Nevertheless, it was a wonderful trip! Long weekend should be spent like this. =)