Air Asia – My Wanderful Life

After 6 hours of flying we arrived finally at the Ngurah Rai Airport Denpasar Bali Indonesia. It was the same small airport as i have seen 10 years ago. No improvements despite of the influx of tourists coming from the world over.

A blast of hot, humid air greeted the three of us as we stepped on the Indonesian soil. Despite of that we are all getting excited to meeting our long time friends and co-workers who’ve established their families and made Bali their home. They’ll be taking care of us for the next 4 days. But we’ve got to get to our hotel in Legian, change our dollars into rupiah and change into our most comfortable summer clothes.

Finally, we’ve arrived in our $29/night/villa (2bedroom villa) located in Legian a short stone throw away from the airport. First thing i’ve noticed was the offering in front of a small temple just right outside our villa’s main door.

There are temples everywhere be it in the market or at the side of the road or at a restaurant’s entrance, at the park, airport, outside of a local’s house . In fact, Bali is known as the ” island of the thousand temples”.

Here’s some pictures of our hotel and the interior of our villa. We stayed here for 2 days and changed accomodation due to insistence of our hosts and hostesses. Our friends has a big house in Kuta with 4 bedrooms . Who wouldn’t want free stay?

Simple breakfast included with our rate. Nothing much but with inexpensive food you can get in Bali you wouldn’t have to scrimp on meals during your vacation.

By mid afternoon we arranged to meet our friends at a supermarket and they promised to bring us out to dinner at the famous Jimbaran Bay where you can order seafood to your heart’s delight. Though, price is quite on the expensive side. Our hosts of course pays for it . . .

Tomorrow, we are off to see Bali temples. We have an early day ahead of us .

During our recent trip to Sabah Borneo i had a chance to visit Shangrila Rasa Ria in Kota Kinabalu. Ms Cathy Nepomuceno , the Director of Sales for Shangrila Rasa Ria was gracious enough to allow us this one day visit .

Upon entering the resort , you immediately get a feeling of never wanting to go back home again. First thing you notice is the big open air lobby with enough comfortable chairs for the weary traveller jaded with jet lag and tired from the Borneo’s hot blaring sun.

The resort itself was huge! There are 2 wings the Garden Wing and the Ocean Wing. The latter is more spacious and yes it’s more expensive but worth your every penny.
The resort boasts of a 3km white beach offering all sorts of water sports activity such as Banana Boat Ride, Water Skiing, para sailing, Jet skiing, wind surfing and Lepa Lepa (traditional wooden boat charter) .
Must do in the resort is indulge in their spa facility. The SPA at Dalit Bay (located at the Dalit Bay Golf Club) offers CHI Signature therapies and massages.

Everybody in the group was excited to see the Orangutans. We planned to go to Sandakan to witness the Orangutan feeding but due to lack of time we felt it wouldn’t be possible (it’s 7 hrs overland from KK to Sandakan). But i was truly overjoyed when i learned that Shangrila Rasa Ria has its own Nature Reserve wherein they take care of the baby orangutans in the wild and transfer them to Sandakan Orangutan Sanctuary when they grow older.Cute baby Orangs play with their trainers during feeding time. And that’s when the viewing starts. We were at the viewing deck saying oohhh and wooooww and aaaahhh everytime the baby orangs do some tricks. Makes you wanna adopt one and bring home. LOL!

The Nature Reserve offer many activities for the whole family. To name a few Jungle walk, Bird watching, Nocturnal Animal walk, Ranger for the day and their latest add on is the Canopy walk. Now you don’t have to go to Poring Hot Springs to experience this type of activity. FYI, this resort sits on a 64 acre land forest.
Well , after the show we were guided to see the room types both the Garden and Ocean wing. We cannot help but be amazed how huge the rooms are that you don’t want to leave. One thing more, we were told that the refrigerator provided in the room does not have anything in it because they let the guests buy their own food stuffs at the resort’s convenience store. I said that’s great coz we never eat or drink anything at the hotel room’s bar anyway because it’s kinda expensive.

Ocean wing rooms even has a bath tub in the terrace! And take note: they use L’Occitane toiletries !! Only for those who can afford the Ocean Wing rooms.