Bedugul Bali Saranam Resort

Bali is not only kuta, legian, ubud or nusa dua! There is one treasure almost be forgotten nowadays. Bedugul!

Bedugul is only one of many tourist destinations in the area.. The area is in high land with really nice cool weather.. Bedugul is a place in Bratan Mountain with Bratan Lake.. Another 2 lakes are Buyan dan Tamblingan Lake.. They really close to each other.. about 15 minutes driving.. It seems only Brantan Lake is managed well until now.. You can go around the lake by boat.. rent a jet ski.. there’s a hotel.. and the latest one.. there’s villas which only can be reached by boat! this is really cool.. only 700K per night.. I will spend my night there someday.. just to find the right partner.. imagine there will be nothing else but trees and fishes..

As the area getting famous.. More and more attractions coming.. there’s a tree top in the botanical garden where you can be a tarzan.. there are two places offering horse riding, atv, etc..

The best view for me still in Puncak Bagus where you see two lakes from the hill.. I wrote about that long ago..

One of the best hotels in the area is Saranam Resort.. Nice rice field scenery.. unfortunately, you cant see the lake or mountain from here.. they have rooms and bungalows.. stay in bungalows.. really quite.. really nice to clam our brain.. but i can’t stay more than 1 day here.. except..

Crab Food in Bali

I am a big fan of crab food.. In Bali the choices are not many.. there’s only 2 restaurants (that i know of) specialize in crab.. others are more to chinese food restaurants.. damn I really miss those chili crab in east coast seafood center singapore!..

The nicest one is in Jalan Bypass Ngurah Rai Tuban.. the name is Crab Chubby.. Google Maps: -8.741985,115.181737. They sometimes have those big big crabs.. for those who like egg crabs.. they normally have them.. Price around 180K – 200K per kg.. for me I like the one with saos sambal.. *glek*

The second nicest is in Pasar Kuta.. Google Maps: -8.722515,115.176437. They call Kepiting Sukro.. They have more variety taste.. but they rarely have those big crabs and egg.. They have 3 different type of crabs.. 55K per portion for dead crab but still taste OK.. smaller crab (300gr and below) for 120K per kg.. bigger crab (350gr and above) 180K per kg.. The best is saos pedas sukro.. beware this is HOT..

Take a look at above picture, this is the kepiting saos pedas sukro.. 1 crab of 400gr.. *glek*

Uluwatu Blue Point – True Paradise

I was really amaze how beautiful Blue Point is.. It’s a true paradise.. while there is no beach.. the hill edges and “caves” make it’s really really beautiful.. I went there last week.. it’s really different from the first time I came few years ago.. a lot of cafes, massages, the stairs are made from concrete.. and it looks busier.. car park was full!

The place is right on the south of Bali.. facing the Hindian Ocean.. there’s only one way to get there.. Go towards Uluwatu Temple.. just before the entrance of the Temple.. turn right.. this is the last right turn of the street.. follow the street.. you’ll see Blue Point sign on the left.. there’s actually a shortcut.. it’s kinda hard to tell..

Just after parking the car.. I’ve already seen how beautiful the scenery is from this top of hill… I walked down the hill.. cafes and massages along the walkway.. the best view was when down the last stair.. a small beach along big rocks.. it’s like a cave beach.. it’s really amazing.. Some locals told me that it used to be a nude beach last years back.. when less people know this place.. where’s the nude beach now !? anyone !?

If you like to surf.. this is the perfect place to go.. the waves are constantly come.. don’t have to wait longer.. but if you’re a real beginner.. don’t surf here.. the waves kinda strong.. do some classes at Kuta beach before you surf here..

After spend some times enjoying the water.. I went up to have massage and beer while enjoying the scenery.. this is A MUST GO place!

Bali Tourist Areas and Characters – 1

I would like to describe some tourist areas in Bali and their characters..

PART 1

UBUD
This place can show you the real Bali is. You MUST MUST visit Ubud when you are in Bali. When people (Australian especially) hear the word Bali, they mostly will think about beautiful beaches, hot weather, excellent waves, hot babes ahah.. etc etc.. That’s exactly right.. but there’re more things as beautiful as its beaches.. They are the cultures, the people, the scenery which all you can find in Ubud..

Ubud is located at the heart of Bali island.. It’s less contaminated from outside cultures.. people here is really really nice.. most of their job are artist and farmer.. you will see a lot of art galleries include painting, statue, craving, etc etc.. you could also see beautiful tropical forest, rice paddies, natural river, etc etc.. please don’t ever expect any wild attractions in Ubud..

One of the favorite place in Ubud is monkey forest.. it’s a tropical forest with monkey all over the place.. there’s a temple just near the river.. I really like the ambiance.. the sound of forest.. it might get a little scary at night though..

Things todo in Ubud:

  • browse some galleries, museums
  • go to the forest, rice paddies, rivers.. you can enjoy some attractions there also such as river rafting, elephant and horse riding, off road cars, etc etc..
  • Ubud has the nicest restaurants and cafes in Bali.. those really worth a visit..
  • join some classes such as yoga, meditation, etc..
  • enjoy open air massage with rice paddies / river scenery..
  • see Balinese paranormal.. watch the eat pray and love movies.. staring Julia Robert.. if you are into this kind of things.. Balinese reading will give another side of your stories..

Things don’t:

  • getting around drunk and naked..

KUTA / LEGIAN
Kuta and Legian have the same characteristics.. The area just next to each other.. Kuta is like the sea.. Legian is the mainland.. when people mention Kuta.. it’s usually mean Legian as well..

These places are the most famous area of Bali.. they’re considered the first tourist area in Bali.. Kuta has one of the most beautiful white in the world.. honestly!.. it’s endless beach from end to end.. beginner to mid surfers love the waves.. a lot of waves but not really hardcore… just perfect when you are a beginner.. many surf lessons on the beach.. i wish i could be those guys who teach surf.. arrggghh..

You’ll see lot of backpackers.. cheap hotels.. cheap foods.. you can go as low as 75K for a room without AC.. 150K with AC..

Things to do in Kuta / Legian

  • Get drunk!
  • Enjoy the beach.. sunbath, massage, beer, surf, soccer, etc etc..
  • Enjoy the clubs.. there’re lot of clubs, bars, cafes.. side by side.. in Legian.. visit them one by one.. it’s free for foreigner..
  • Enjoy the girls.. this is not for everybody allright!.. see my other articles about having girls in legian..
  • Get magic mushroom and flyyyyyy..
Things dont
  • Do NOT have sex on the beach!.. you’ll get caught..
  • that’s about it..
to be continue..

Bali Holiday | Nyepi 2012

Nyepi probably the most unique and strange thing about Bali. It’s a holiday in Bali and Indonesia. Indonesia treats Nyepi is just like another holiday, but not in Bali. Nyepi is the first day of new year in balinese calendar. It’s a day (24 hours) of complete silence. I put a word complete because silence not only applied to your ears, it’s also applied to your eyes! You can see complete information of Nyepi in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyepi.

I won’t go into details of what Nyepi is.. that information is everywhere.. just googling on it.. and the fact is i dont really know either.. haha.. Nyepi is on 23rd of March this year.. I’ll list what to expect on Nyepi if you are in Bali:

1. On 21st of March.. supermarkets will be full of people.. some foods will hardly to get.. you should prepare yourself before that.. buy some foods to survive in 1.5 days..

2. On 22nd.. shops, restaurants, department stores, supermarkets.. mostly all businesses in bali will be closed around noon time.. 1 or 2 PM..

3. The ogoh ogoh parade will start around 6 PM.. Get a bike or walk to the nearest big intersections.. they normally do some attractions in the intersections.. Ogoh-ogoh is statue that built from wood, paper etc.. It’s part of Nyepi ceremony.. search youtube for ogoh-ogoh to get the idea what it is.. this is cool.. you should see this if you happen to be in Bali on 22nd..

4. You won’t be able to go anywhere by car since 6 PM.. the street will be full of ogoh ogoh and people..

5. The parade normally finish by midnite..

6. On 23rd.. Nyepi day.. Nyepi will start at 6AM.. No one is allowed to go out.. even the airport will close!.. NO TV, Paid TV nor Local Radio!.. If you have free satelite tv or radio, lucky you!.. dont forget to get some series DVDs.. or a 2000 pages novel..

7. Evening.. no light.. no candles.. it has to be completely dark!.. you will be notified by the pecalang (security in the area) if you have light coming from your house..

8. On 24th.. 6AM.. Nyepi finish.. back to normal..

most points don’t apply if you stay in a big hotel.. Hotel is allowed to have some lights in the room.. Some hotels will have some channel on their TV… restaurant will be opened in the hotel.. they might close earlier though..

it’s really the best day when you want to have 12 hours sleep without any disruptions.. there wont be any sound of constructions, dance musics, concert, crowd playing guitar, people talking on the street, sound of cars.. etc etc..

only some people really do the nyepi ritual.. some choose to stay in hotel.. some choose to darken their home.. i used to do this when i was a kid.. i chose a room with less windows.. i closed those windows with cartons.. so it’s completely dark from outside.. brought the tv in.. and i spent the whole night there watching tv.. daytime was easy.. tv could still be on.. but now.. tv will be off.. gov rules.. hopefully gov wont turn the electricity off.. can’t understand why gov force people tolerance this far.. this topic is for another blog.. haha..

Bali Accommodation | Sanur Beach Hotel

In one golf gathering, I was really lucky. I got a door prize, 1 night voucher for sanur beach hotel bali. It was like my second door prize in my whole life. I’m not that really lucky person for this matter. Anyone knows how to increase my luck? I tried some odds things but none works haha.

This is an old five star hotel.. They don’t really do any major renovations to the building.. The lobby is small and oldiest.. But clean.. I got a room on 2nd floor.. 214 if I’m not wrong.. It’s a twin bed room.. Single size bed.. Room pretty small… 3×4 I guess.. With balcony facing to garden and beach.. Nice relaxing view.. They had this beautiful garden.. Bath room quite small also compare to nowadays five star hotels.. There was only few channel on tv.. But they had australian open.. OK!

The best thing for this hotel.. It has beach.. The hotel is along sanur beach.. The pool, resto and bar are in the area.. After some sun bathing with some beers *my fav!*.. Went to the pool.. Got some more beers.. Seat by the beach after with some snacks and beers.. Whata life!

Sanur beach is facing east.. One of the best sunrise you could ever see in bali.. I set my alarm at 5.45am the next day.. I rushed down to the beach.. I saw many people walking running cycling along the beach walk-way… Sanur has this long walk-way along the beach.. But don’t expect to see many hot chicks here eyy.. Sanur is always for those looking for quite relaxing atmosphere which mostly oldies.. If you don’t like surfing.. dont like party.. you can add this to your bali accommodation wish list.

The sky begun blue not long after I arrived at the beach.. Begun yellow in minutes.. And the sun rised from the sea.. I left my phone in the room! I wish I can capture this..

 

 

Internet Money Maker: Direct Selling, Affiliate, Arbitrage and Pay Click

One day, I was really wonder when I heard my friend quit his job. How’s he gonna live? Just until 1-2 months ago, I knew how he’s got his income. It’s from GOOGLE! He rely on Google for everyday eat. He’s making around 2000 USD per month. It’s a big money for people who live in Bali.

I’ve read some articles about making money online. I actually tried some of them. But nothing I’ve tried made me rich. I didn’t put a lot of efforts to it either. Let’s do some brainstorms!

Some famous “techniques” of internet money machine (that I tried) are direct selling, affiliate, arbitrage and pay per click.

Direct Selling
Same as it’s in real world, what you gonna sell? It has got to be something unique, which market demands them, and ability to be delivered using internet. This is 3 must requirements! I’ve been thinking every single night to meet these 3 requirements but still couldn’t find one yet. Check out this website fiverr.

Affiliate
This techniques is like multi level marketing in real world. You have down and up line. Basically, you’ve got commission from selling stuffs. I’ve joint some products mostly books about this and that. The best is of course Amazon. They have huge number of products. You can choose the right product for the right market. It’s really easy to say really. Famous product means large competitors. No competitors mean no one buying the products. So what do you do? Let’s forget it for now.. argghhh..

Another one, we could write some books about some interesting things. Sell it under multi level marketing or direct selling. I might fool 1 or 2 people to buy my books, but they won’t tell their friends or buy another of my books. Because I’m not a good writer!

Arbitrage
Only in the internet you can do this. There’s 2 type arbitrages that I’ve tried: forex arbitrage and sport arbitrage. Forex arbitrage is like you have 10 money changers side by side. You make profit from the difference rate of buy and sell between money changers. Same thing happen with sport arbitrage. Profit is from the difference betting rate of team A and team B between dealers. It seems so easy right? In fact, arbitrage happens so fast. As soon as people knows, people will start buying or selling, it will balance. Arbitrage normally happens in small infamous dealers and the profit / arbitrage is really small: 1-2% in most of the time. When I did my research, we need to open more than 50 accounts in 50 dealers. We, of course, have to put a lot of money to the account before we can buy or sell. To profit $10, we have to put $1000 in each account. Lets say dealer A buy $1000, dealer B sell $1000. There’s 0% losing, BUT some chances that the dealer will take away your money and run. Let’s forget this forever..

Pay per Click (PPC)
We got paid when people click the ads on our website. There are number of ad providers. Some that I’ve tried: adbrite, black label and google adsense. Let’s think about this. Pay per click is useless when the ads come out in a different topic web page. People will just click it for fun. More likely there won’t be any sales from the ads.

When company joins the ppc provider, they will be asked for keywords. These keywords will be used for putting the ads to the right page. The provider will scan the web page and decide which ads should go to this page. We all know, this is what google do best. Google seems to be able to read web page nearly as how human read it. Other provider.. hmmm.. not really sure.

This is why some companies willing to pay a lot for their ppc with google. Google can bring them to the right market and show the ads. Simply, the companies are making money from their ads at google. Keyword such as buying auto insurance online is cost USD $50 per click! I’m in indonesia, if I googling with that keyword, I wont see any ads that I can click. Google way! I don’t think company willing to pay such amount to other ppc provider.

As for us, let’s use google as our ppc for sure. The most difficult part is putting our website to the top search. Google always updating their search algorithm to make sure their search result correctly so that the company putting the ads actually making some sales from them. Methods which are used some years back, are now useless. How’s the keyword density in title, meta tag, body, building links, using some html tags, etc, etc are now becoming less important. As more and more people abusing that techniques, google finds other way to give better result. More proper website. I think google is more interacting with the user directly. I notice different search result when using different computer. customization? really? WOW.. think the impossible..

Villa 3V Kerobokan for Accomodation in Bali

The Villa

Traveling with group or children to Bali? Need bigger space but don’t want to spend to much on accomodation?

3V Kerobokan villa is one of your best accommodation in Bali. 3V is located at Kerobokan, Bali. If you hate kuta of its busiest and noisy atmosphere, you’ll love this place. It’s a right in the middle of denpasar and kuta. Don’t expect to walk to the beach. You can’t run either to some rice fields. You have to rent a car or grab a cab to be in those places. Well.. what you pay is what you get. But the nearest “civilize” beach: seminyak beach is just 10 minutes away. You could see more details about this villa at their website.

They have 6 private villas side by side a long the garden walkway as pic below. Each villa has 2 bedrooms, kitchen, jacuzzi, tv, etc.

The villas are cozy, quite and well maintain garden. An open air restaurant and pool complete our needs. If only we can leave our children back home! but don’t worry.. They have a kids club which will take care of your children while you getting drunk by the pool. What make 3V different with other villas is their staffs who really really take care for their guest. Especially the one at the kids club, forgot his name, he’s really best at his job. Kids love him! You just can feel it when people serve you with their heart. oh so mellow!

The Fitness Club

They have the best fitness class in town. I’ve been to many fitness clubs in Bali from 15K to 500K per month. 3V has the best classes and instructors. Not the best club as a whole though. Some points are not enough to be the best. Parking is just not enough. Towel is too small if you want to have shower. And it often smell bad. Toilet! They only have 2! Hopefully they’ll do something about that soon.

3V has those world famous les mills programs such as body pump, rpm, trx, etc. They also like to have this outdoor activities such as cycling in some beautiful areas in Bali. For villa guest, you can use the fitness club for free. But the rest, you can have 1 entry for free. Make sure you join classes by the master: yvete, pete or min.

Cheap NOT Always Best for Holiday in Bali

We normally hear lots good things about Bali. I was really sad when my friends called me and said: “I fak n hate bali, they all bull sh t”..

I’ve got some friends coming from new zealand. I’ve been helping them to find accommodation and transportation. But they decided to take the one from the internet which was a lot cheaper to the one I recommended.

The night they arrived, they surprisingly called me if they can stay to the villa I recommended. Fortunately, the villa was available. They told me, that the place they stayed was really damn bad. Smell sh t and moldy. The worst thing, they got into some “fights” with the travel agent. What the travel agent said about the villa was totally different, so they asked for refund. This was where it all started.

The other thing, the driver! You should be curious when people sell something too cheap. There must be some catches. But what is cheap? The cost when you rent a car + guide = the car + fuel + the guide cost. Search google for the car cost (keyword: bali rent car). Browse around and you’ll get some ideas what it cost. Fuel cost should be around 100K if you travel around town, about 150K if travelling further (more than 1.5 hr trip). So the rate you get from someone – (fuel + car cost), is what the guide put in his pocket. This is of course a rough estimation, some drivers use their own car. But mostly they hire the car with similar rate to what I saw on the web.

For example, I saw on the net someone offer Rp. 325.000,- for 10 hours transport+driver.
Car cost: after googling find http://www.madusaribali.com/en/index.php renting Avanza for 18 USD +- Rp. 180.000,-. This website is listed in the sponsored link. I am more trusted to the link in sponsored link as they spent thousands of dollar to be in there. Simply, they really have money.
Fuel cost: 150.000,- for travelling to ubud, kintamani and around
So total cost 180K + 150K = 330K. The amount that someone offer is 325K. That someone has to add Rp. 5.000,- for his service? Does it make any senses?
Just driver price is normally 50K for 10 hrs. He will only drive, mostly can’t speak english and you have to know where you want to go. For tour guide, english speaking is around 100K for 10hrs, other language is a lot more. In total, it should be around 380K – 450K.

So so how do they actually profit?
– they will come with a worst car. This was what happen to my NZ friends. Aircon not cold, broken chair, smell bad. If you don’t want that, they just leave. You have to spend another day finding a driver. So most of the time, you’ll take it.
– when they promise you that they will provide a tour guide, they will come with just a driver who hardly speak any English instead.
– they will somehow manage you to go to some places that give high commission. Some places include money changer, restaurants, shops, performances, etc. Basically anywhere you spend your money.

So beware when it’s too cheap!!

 

Bali NYE Party Welcoming 2012

You don’t have any ideas where to go in NYE? ME TOO! I used to go to 66 almost every year.. Now they closed and i kinda lost..

Below some brief info to help you decide..

Raveland Party
This will be the most happening party in Bali. Featuring No. 11 World DJ Aly and Fila. The party will be in Klapa Club (one of the finest club in Bali) at Pecatu, Bali from 12 PM to 8 AM. This is not 12 AM.. it’s 12 PM. You will see the sun set and rise in this top of Bali hill. What a party! Just wondering if it’s rain? FDC:550K. First choice!

Other alternatives:
Sky Garden & Ocean Beach Club
I think there will some special performances etc. Emily Scott will play some sets. Love her! FDC: 150K. Second choice!

EightyEightBali – Lost in Jungle – NYE Package » Sofa 4million (2btl Black JW+Free 10pax),Table 2million (1btl Black JW+Free 4pax) FDC 100k(incld.1st drink). Third Choice!

Huu Bar – One Night Academy with DJ Golddigger UK
Boshe Bali – Renaissance with DJ Riri Mestica & DJ Putri ID – FDC: 200K
Hard Rock Cafe Bali – Back to 90s – FDC: 350K
Potato Head Bali – Fireworks
Kudeta Bali – FDC:750K