Bali - sight

I always thought Bali is more of a secluded hideaway for tourists to unwind, to get away from the hustle bustle of big crowded cities. Boy, was I naive! Whether you are a nature lover, a history buff, a spiritual scholar or a shopaholic, there is no shortage of places to visit in Bali! Hehe, there is even a trace of our handsome prince here, remember this Yong Joon’s Manstar CF shots? @@ Gorgeous!

Since our interest was to watch the sunsets over Indian Ocean, the hotel concierge arranged to have a chauffeur driving us every late afternoon to the spectacular sunset spots in Bali. This worked out perfect as we could relax and took a dip in the cool ocean during the hot day, then ventured out to enjoy the beautiful scenaries and dinner in the city too!

Uluwatu Temple perched on a steep cliff 250 feet above the roaring Indian Ocean. Founded in the 10th century by a Hindu priest, it was built to ward off evil spirits from the southwest. Don't these interesting shaped temples look like they just came out from a fairy tale?

Breathtaking view of Indian ocean and Uluwatu cliff
Sunset over Uluwatu is a sight to behold, thousands of toursist flock here every evening just to enjoy this moment.
Monkeys have claimed the Uluwatu temple ground as their home. They are considered sacred but very naughty. We saw them snatching sunglasses and hats from a few tourists. See, this one has 'confiscated' the tree branch that our driver used to protect us :)

We were amazed to notice the silhouette of this sacred monkey in the foreground with the temple and sunset as its background, so surreal :)

Kecak dance performances are held at the temple daily around sunset. It is a combination of ancient ritual, dance and drama. Native men sit around in circle chanting tribal rhythms while the characters dress in colorful costumes dance out the story in the center. You see, the entire performance has no musical instrument, the men just chanted out 'tsa tsa tsa .....' in high and low, loud and soft, fast and slow as the background music, so now my son and I always refer this as the 'tsa tsa tsa' dance :)

Tanah Lot temple is most famous for its sunset Kodak moment. It was built around the 15th century on a holy rock island for the worship of the Balinese sea gods.

Just like Kinkakuji (Golden Temple) in Kyoto, there were crowds of tourists aiming their cameras and persistent vendors hustling around. Because no one could get close to the temple ground, it managed to retain its sacredness and mystery in this fantasy setting.

Spectacular sight of the waves against the sunset @@
As usual, commercialism interferes with nature - the many local stores selling colorful touristy stuffs

Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK for short) is a private cultural park devoted to the Hindu god Vishnu and his mount, the mythical bird Garuda, who is his companion. It was built on the site of an abandoned quarry mine.

The current statue of Vishnu is 75 ft high, the original plan was for a 480 ft gold plated Vishnu riding Garuda on top of an 11 storey entertainment complex. However, the developers ran out of money and the construction is halted midway. As you see, both statues are unfinished, still the size is humonguous!



Jimbaran Bay is a fishing village and tourist resort in Bali, widely known for the fresh seafood restaurants and its night life. It came highly recommended to us for a candlelight dinner (hehe, for 3 :) right on the beach. Jimbaran Bay is also the site of the 2005 bombing, that's why security check in this area is very tight. See, there are miles and miles of restaurants right on the beach.


You chose the type of seafood and they grilled it for you in the kitchen. I personally find this a bit disappointing as the seafood was not really live and fresh. I felt sick after this dinner, luckily got over it quickly.

Sigh no wonder! It was so dark that night with that teensy weensy 'romantic' candle on the table, I couldn't even see what I was eating. Now when I am back home studying this picture, we ate all these black burnt fishes (and who knows how many more flying insects around us)! Cough cough cough ......

For the remaining of our trip, we decided to play it safe and stayed put in the hotel, what a pampering experience! Thanks for reading, last part - Bali touch .....

Weekend delight

Hi Hi sisters .... hope you are enjoying your weekend. We had a fantastic shopping day and as usual, everywhere was packed with people. It is actually a good sign to see that consumers have the confidence to spend and keep the business cycle turning. When I returned home, I found these never-been-published Faceshop pictures posted by tomato in byjgallery, am so very tired but our prince's face is just too gorgeous not to post :)




from baidu by YJ影之国

Bali - taste

We had a very deep sleep (you know the kind of sleep that you feel all your bones have sunk into the mattress?) and woke up to a glorious Bali morning!

After much of a struggle, we dragged our reluctant son out of bed (btw, if anyone knows of an effective and pain free way to wake a teenager up in the morning, please write a book about it :) I was curious to verify if the breakfast is really 'out of this world' as everyone had attested to. The set up of Boneka restauarnt has a separate kitchen/buffet area, cheery relaxing dining room and an outdoor terrace, all surrounded by infinity fountains overlooking the hotel ground.



As soon as we settled at our table, there are cheerful servers parading around offering you their fine delicacies du jour and freshly baked pastries. Of course, you can also order from the endless selection on their menu or choose from the cook-to-order buffet area, but why walk when you have everything being brought to your table? Hehe, that's why I got punished with this supersize tummy :) Now, hope you are hungry cause there's a lot of food coming up .....

The vitamin drinks - fresh fruit smoothies, the passion fruit is heavenly!

My favourite - eggs benedict

sausage and potato cake

fresh tuna sashimi

Indonesian rice porridge

assorted dim sum

Indonesian homecooked specialty - personally prepared by the hostess
lobster omelette
American steak and eggsmie goreng
nasi goreng

fresh fruit crepes
whipped cream waffles

my son's craving for a good ol' chocolate donut

Hehe, we were not that greedy, these were different dishes that we tried over the entire stay. Of course, our growing teenager was not satisfied with just a small breakfast like this, lucky there is a delicatessan inside the hotel serving heavenly pastries and fresh sandwiches to keep his stomach happy between meals.

Gourmand Deli
their cutom order cakes and fine chocolates are absolutely irresistable! there is even a chocolate fountain with fresh strawberries for hotel guests to enjoy.
fresh natural gelato pastrami sandwich

This chocolate cake and cafe latte were sinfully rich! There are jars of these fresh chocolate chips cookies for customers to munch on :)

Yes I hear you, what kind of trip journal is that without any famous sightseeing spots. That'll be next, my Bali - sight ......

Bali - feel

To most city dwellers, whenever we think of exotic resorts like Tahiti, Fiji and Bali, a perception of 'lost paradise' inevitably flashes across our minds. After all, all the components of perfect relaxation are here - sunny blue sky, calm turquoise sea, white sandy beach plus a touch of unique mysterious culture. After Seoul, Cairns, Sydney, Hong Kong; Bali was the next dream destination on our family edition of ‘Around Asia in 800 days’ @@ To me, the appeal to these exotic resorts is their catering to the senses – feel, aroma, sound, taste and sight, so I’d like to approach my memory of Bali in the same fashion.

The moment we stepped off the congested JAL flight at Denpasar Ngurah Rai International Airport, we were greeted by our smiling hotel staff and escorted to a spacious VIP lounge. While the attentive hostess was serving us fragrant towels, cold drinks and hors d’oeuvres, another staff promptly took care of our immigration visa and luggage (you see, all tourists are required to apply for visitor visa upon arrival). What a wonderful way to start a stress-free holidays!



When we emerged a good hour later feeling refreshed, we noticed other passengers on the same flight were still lining up at immigration! We were led swiftly past customs to a limousine waiting outside, 3 other hotel staffs greeted us with more fragrant towels and cold drinks. By the time our limo pulled into the hotel compound, it was already past midnight. As we stepped into the airy open lobby of St. Regis Bali Resort, a warm breeze blew onto my face as if it was giving me a gentle welcome kiss. I could hear the remote sound of ocean waves crashing onto shore like it was rushing in to greet me. The whole ambience of the grand lobby, dim lighting, floral fragrance and the warm smiles (and more cold drinks! My poor bladder was bursting already), I felt like I had traveled back to the 1900s glamour era of John Jacob Astor’s hospitality.


The staffs cordially led us to our suite, by then we were so tired that I felt like these fluffy soft beds were inviting me to jump in!


Well, not before the trigger-happy hubby snapped up a few pictures around the room first ....

Foyer/Bar area (see the pretty beach bag and his/her hats, they thought of everything!)

Workaholic area (and it's certainly not me!)

Restricted teen's zone

Suitably for the lady of the suite (yup, that would be yours truly :)


We said a prayer of thanks for arriving safely in Bali and were looking forward to rising early tomorrow for breakfast. What?! Did I hear myself right? I never like breakfast, moreover, I never like getting up early for breakfast! But in all the raving St. Regis reviews I’ve read, everyone pointed to 'this has to be the best breakfast ever served' among lineups of 5 stars hotels in Bali. So we'll see, nighty night zzzzzzzz ......

Screen Captures' series

Dear sisters ..... if you really miss our prince but don't have a long stretch of time to sit down and watch his drama, now there is an alternate way to re-connect with him. Thanks to some sisters in Chinese Baidu - lihuang33, wlbyj, YJ影之国, they have gone to great length to capture the crucial scenes and key dialogue to re-create the whole drama in a picture series! While enjoying their fruits of labour in silence, I wish I could thank them directly in Baidu (but I couldn't type in Chinese). So I'm expressing my thanks here for their dedication to Yong Joon and the generosity to share this love with others.

In response to gosijo and coco's request, I am posting the links to the 3 most classic dramas of Yong Joon - Winter Sonata, Hotelier and Have We Really Loved. Now they are all work in progress, but Winter Sonata is close to completion. Don't worry if you cannot read Chinese, please click on the links in the order of the page and post number. Hope you'll enjoy :

Winter Sonata - Junsang series
Winter Sonata - Minhyung series
Hotelier series
Have We Really Loved series

Quite a handful .....

Hi Hi sisters ..... My elder sister is a bit concerned that I haven't written about my 'man' for a while (to her, this blog kind of serves as a window to my life in Tokyo :) She is just too kind, sob sob. Hehe no worry, it's not because I have nothing to write about. On the contrary, I am overwhelmed with too many thoughts on our prince, and I just don't know where to start anymore. Yes, excuses excuses :) Before I start on posting my Bali trip, I can't help talking about 'our man'. I hope all our sisters already have or will have a man like this. A man who ......

goes out of his comfort zone to extend his friendship to you

who doesn't mind to play along in your invented silly games

who bends down to find a comfortable fit in your new setting

who keeps you warm and leads you when you are at a crossroad

who suffers quietly himself to shield you away from pain

who offers a strong reassuring hand to hold onto till the end of time .......

A man with a beautiful smile like him :)

Heartfelt thanks to lihuang33 in baidu who created the Winter Sonata captures series, thereby providing a complete collection of Minhyung and Junsang's pictures.