Bali Day 1: Seeking Inspiration & Cost-Saving Taxi Driver

Just arrived at my first Airbnb stay, in Bali.

I’m no alien to Airbnb, I have spent an unhealthy amount of time virtual travelling through some of the most gorgeous and unique stays offered by actual home owners around the globe. I almost broke my Airbnb virginity last year during my Eastern Europe trip till I broke my ankle. Then that was the end of it.

Now I’m staying in a random stranger’s home, situated in the most awkward alley in some unknown area close to the Sanur beach; which house a beautiful small pool surrounded by luscious greens and a pool deck where I foresee myself spending a hideous amount of time catching up on my readings, and of course, painting.

To those of you who don’t know this, I have fully jumped into the art scene and this is my first trip away from homeland to do some inspiration drawings. A work trip, if you may, or a soul-searching trip; or both. It’s hard to tell when your income is based on a relaxing activity that requires you to be at your most peaceful self, it is when inspirations hit fastest.

Speaking of which, I almost had an infuriating moment with my taxi driver. Even though hired through the airport counter, and I know I’m paying slightly more expensive than the usual rates stated on many forums online, this taxi driver was doing everything he can to cut cost.

I arrived in Bali in the heat of the mid-afternoon and after spending too much time in the comfort of my air-conditioned home back in Malaysia, I almost melted under the intense heat and very close to being blinded by the blazing sun. And he did nothing to help but to try to switch on the air-conditioning in his car whenever he thinks I’m not looking. WTF? Dude, it’s fucking hot in here. Of course I bloody hell notice, even if you switch it on for like 1 minute!

When I got onto the car, he didn’t want to switch it on, so I asked him to, considering I have paid 50% more of what I should have paid, and if I didn’t want the comfort of an air-conditioned taxi, I could have taken a more localized means of transport. He did reluctantly switch on to the weakest power, power 1.

After 5 minutes, I couldn’t take the building up heat in the car and the pollution on the road was so heavy I don’t want to risk breathing in traffic fumes so I asked him to turn it up. He flicked slowly to power 2. Wtf.

I’m beginning to think he’s never going to switch it on to power 3 or even 4. Nevermind. Fine. Power 2 is fine.

Then some 8-10 minutes later, he switched it off!

I was annoyed but said nothing and asked him to turn it up. He said okok then switch it on, to power 1. -.-

Then he switch it off 10 minutes later, again!

This ping-pong action between us occurred for like 3-4 times when he decided to get lost! WTF?!

Then to make matters worse, he left the car to ask for direction, with the engine on, but the aircond OFF!

OMFG.

I decided to give in and wind down the window. But then the nearby kids that were playing football stopped what they were doing and started crowding the car, and few even purposely kicked the ball in the direction of the car as a tease. I was worried they kick the ball through the window and hit my face, so I wound up the window. It was still too hot. This time I decided to take matters into my own hands. So I leaned in to switch on the aircond to power 2, in case I pissed him off for switching it to power 3.

1 minute later he came back to the car. And the first thing he did was to switch off the aircond! And then reverse the car to get into the right land.

I was finally so pissed I told him it’s too hot and if he doesn’t want to switch on the aircond, I wasn’t going to pay him.

That did the trick.

Even though the remaining ride was just one minute. T_T

He only missed a turn that led to my stay for the next one week.

Anyway, the biggest surprise arriving at my stay was to discover that the house doesn’t have any internet connection. But also surprisingly, I didn’t mind it as much as I thought I would.

It was a great opportunity for me to stop playing my iPad, iPhone and surf the net for a while and really do catch up on myself.

Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise, and I need this break from all this technological “stress” I have every day.

So it's ironic that I'm in Starbucks now surfing the net and posting this post (ok, maybe just a little internet a day) while trying out their food menu here: Pandan Coconut Brule Cake, Smoked Beef Quiche and SKIM MILK green tea latte (why don't we have skim milk option in Starbucks Malaysia). Yes I have a thing for Starbucks. As seen in my trip to Starbucks Beijing. 

Oh, and mom called.

I haven’t told her I’m here.

Shit.

Sorry mom.

It was kind of a last minute decision. I love you.

Starbucks-ing in Sanlitun, Beijing

I'm sorta a Starbucks fan. Every city to every country I go, if there's a Starbucks, I would want to pay a visit.

Beijing was no exception.

To my delight, I did find a really nice double chocolate chip muffin which it's not available in Malaysia.
Yumz.







This area was probably the favorite part of moden Beijing for me. Lots of shopping, youngsters and occasional families.


San Li Tun (or Salitun, 三里屯)










Impressive Apple flagship store (selling Apple products more expensive than Malaysia).

The Forbidden City and Imperial Palace of Beijing

When I visited Beijing years ago, The Forbidden City was the top list of my to-visit places. It was the place I've seen countless of times in movies, Chinese drama, historical documentaries and spent my entire second senior year reading about the magnificence of it (I did a year in China history).


Meridian Gate


Gate of Supreme Hamorny

To get into the main palace was no small feat, much like my experience walking through Angkor Wat, it was a long road in, but with the majestic-ness of the forbidden city, you would have to walk through three grand gates (much like the two photos above) to get to the main Hall of Supreme Harmony (where most of the initial imperial scenes in films were shot).


Hall of Supreme Harmony

I know, I'm such a geek.

I grew up a pretty genius student actually. I was good in maths but not so good in memorizing stuff; but I have always loved my history, despite being on the brink of failing all the time. You see, in my high school, the way they mark your history papers wasn't based on your knowledge of history but by how much you can memorize, word by word (in the thousands), right out of the text books. It's ridiculous when I think of it. I was never good in memorizing stuff, I was good in handling logical solutions and understanding concepts. Basically I was really good in subjects like calculus, algebra, chemistry, physics; heck I was second in my class at one point (would have been better if my Malay language and history subject didn't suck so bad); and even represented my school in a national math competition against those university students.


But I do remember having a great history teacher, with a penchant of bright red lipsticks, who would tell tales throughout the dynasties of China in absolute detail, up to every gruesome bit in imperial tortures, war tragedies and internal palace conflicts. What a charmer.

Anyway, here are photos taken during my visit to this wonderful UNESCO site.

All the knobs on this gate door was rubbed off color by visiting tourists, Asians no doubt. Seriously, what's with the rubbing. Almost every significant tourist destination I visited from mosque in Istanbul to statues in London has been rubbed till the paint peels by Asian tourists; so long it's within reach, they'll rub it hard till the cows come home. Apparently by doing so brings good luck. Oh sure... -.-


I did realize the guards in the Forbidden City were of equal weight, size and height. It must be a China thing to be OCD-ish symmetrical in everything. I mean, sure, it's visually pleasant.


Rather impressed by this cheap looking but brilliant audio guide device in the Forbidden City. For every area you have visited, the audio guide will auto detect and plays the recording based on your area so you don't have to press on any button. And the red lights will disappear for the places you have already visited. Such convenience. I can even bet you a hand that many Chinese tourists here will bring this device home as souvenir instead of returning them back for their deposits.

As you can see, the Forbidden City was so huge that I didn't manage to finish it even after spending an entire day there. In fact, I had to sprint-walk through the right hand side of the map because it was about to close soon.


Hall of Supreme Harmony, where the emperors of the last two dynasties hosted grand ceremonies like coronations and weddings.




Believe or not, this was their fire rescue system back in the days. In winter, hot coal was placed underneath the giant pots to prevent the water from freezing.




My favorite place in the palace has to be the imperial garden, a playground for the empress and the favored concubines. I have heard wondrous description of the beauty of this place, in books, historical documents, novels, movies, etc. I didn't imagine it to be so small, though I could imagine this to be an absolute paradise back in those days. What with pagodas and ponds, age old trees perfectly grown into such demeanor shapes and artificial life-like miniature mountains topped with a pagoda for moonlight watching.












Qin An Dian (Hall of Imperial Palace)










This was the corridor connected to 'hou gong', the bedrooms of all of countless concubines that has been recruited into the palace. Sadly, it's not as pleasant as you might think.


Then there's the garden for the emperor himself. What a diva.








I call this, the Entertainment arena. Of course it's not the real name, but you can guess its purpose.




Empress and emporer can view performances from this room. Life of a royalty's always good.


This mountain of jade was enormous. You could see my reflection on the glass and gauge just how big this jade was.


Beautiful carvings on a giant jade




A very significant area in the 'hou gong' was the Zhenfei well. Rumored to be where the famous and most favored consort Zhen (by Emperor Guangxu) to have fallen and died. Read more about the story of consort Zhen here, you can also see her photo in the link.


Though how could anyone fit into this well was a mystery to me. I knew people back in the days were smaller in size, but this well couldn't even fit the width of my shoulder in.


A reconstruction of the well.


A last view of the empty Hall of Supreme Harmony as I make my move towards the exit/entrance of the Forbidden City - a rare sight. 

Liposonix Treatmet: One Month Later

Exactly a month ago I went to Bangsar Ageless Medispa and did a non-surgical non-invasive liposonix treatment that uses ultrasound to remove the fats in the abdomen area.

Honestly, I could still remember the painful hour long treatment I went through whereas my friend didn't even feel a thing doing it (depends on individual). T_T But it was totally worth it.

This was me a month ago on the day of doing the treatment.



I know it's not obvious, it was supposed to be a good slim day for me (no bloating, no water retention, clear bowel wtf, etc), but if you peek closely at my tummy area in the black dress, you can witness this little bulge.

Which says a lot because black supposed to make you visually slim.

This is me now (well, technically few days ago).




Oh, check out the new hairstyle. Loving this chic crop.

And necklace from Ollie Jewellery. I should show you this ring I got from them, it's a stunner. Maybe in the next post.


I gave it a bit more saturation to this photo so maybe the hair color here turned out a little bit more blonde-ish than it's supposed to. It's actually more accurate in the photo above.

Focus on my tummy. No bulge whatsoever. It has diminished substantially, and this is a very tight dress fyi.

I'm sorry I don't have a photo of my naked tummy atm, perhaps when I'm more confident in two more months when the Liposonix takes full effect I'll show you a before and after photo comparison.