One Last Summer Escapade—Bintan

Hello Yalls!

I know I probably already said this but, I c a n n o t believe it that this summer is flying by! With college move-ins and new adventures happening in less than a week, I am of course terrified  so excited! In case you didn't know, I graduated from high school (and copped that IB Diploma bread) in January this year. So the feels of a loooooong holiday ending is pretty surreal. 

A few weeks back, my boarding school friends and I went on our one last summer escapade to Bintan! Honestly, we just wanted to chill in each other's company and get that last bit of sunshine together as a group of friends. We did not do much: lazing by the pool, swimming till the sun sets above our heads and our bodies begging us to leave the pool as the water started to go cold. It was a few nights of deep reconnecting, but truly, it was our sensibilities towards each other that craved for more than just a meet-up. We knew it had to be a few nights of talks and movies. And I am so grwteful we had the opportunity to do just that.

To give you some contexts, these few people are those who literally stood (and slept) by me throughout the arduous late-nights we pulled to submit our IAs, the emotional break downs when things were not okay, and of course throughout our illegal cooking/hotpot adventures in our boarding school. So yes, they hold a really special place in my heart. This is especially so as two of them are leaving for the States while the other 2 are going to be in Singapore but going to different colleges. As sappy as it sounds, I will definitely miss our heart-to-heart talks. Oh so much. So if you are also feeling those leaving-for-college blues, hurry and grab your loved ones, hug them tight, and tell them how much you are going to miss them. I know not everyone has the luxury of money and time to go on a getaway with the people they are going to miss, so a simple heartfelt letter will do. Remember peeps, it is the heart that yearns for love and care, so listen to it. 

Enough with all the romantic descriptions of blues and fear, because boi I really need to go and pack my luggage(s). I am about halfway done....o LOL I wish. My room is in an absolute mess but my heart and mind were not ready to pack... at least until now that I have acknowledged my blues and have written it out here. After this I am going to plug in my pods, blast some good ol Vampire Weekend (check them out I am jamming to them so much right now it is an addiction), and start packing. Recently I have also been binging on "How to edit your videos" on youtube so I may put together a vlog style 'what to bring to college' or 'finally packing' or something of that sort if I can produce a good enough video to publish.  

Until then, see you soon folks! Enjoy this beautiful sky in Bintan 

and have a restorative weekend reconnecting with people who are dear to your heart, alrighty! x

Love always,

Maretta Simon

Bali Guling! Part 3

Hello again!

I know I haven't been consistent in uploading these travel diaries but hey, one post per week at least, am I right? ;) So let's jump in with the next itineraries, shall we!

On the third dawn, we decided we wanted to go for a sunrise trek at Mount Batur before leaving Ubud for Seminyak as Ubud is higher up in latitude and therefore closer to Mt. Batur comparably. So we (again) asked Putu to link us up with a guide who would trek together with us to the summit. (price was $50/person) Mt. Batur is only about 1717m above sea level, so it wasn't a tough hike as per say, but with all the darkness and the c r o w d s it took us longer than expected. Before anything, here's our trekking itinerary:

02.30 AM: Pick up time from our hotel in Ubud

03.45 AM: Arrival at the starting point of the hike at Toyabungkah village.

06.15 AM: Arrival at the summit of Mount Batur (sunrise point).

07.00 AM: Continue our trek around the entire crater.

08.00 AM: Begin our descent to the finishing point of our trek (Toyabungkah village).

09.00 AM: Arrival at Toyabungkah village and board car to go back to our hotel.

11.00 AM: Arrival at our hotel

And yes, sunrise in Bali happened at about 6.30+am, so we had to leave our hotel at 230am. Just saying, my 2 lovely friends still had time to put on some foundation and prep themselves up, so do not fret my friends, this trekking itinerary is completely doable and totally worth it! (believe me, we are major sleepers) 

We trekked up in our yoga pants, good pairs of sneakers we didn't mind getting dirty of, crop tops/usual T-shirts, and sweaters/windbreakers. To be honest, the coldest part of the trek was when you were just starting out because the wind there was CRAY! like actually crazy. But the best thing was that if you forget to bring a thick enough jacket for this hike, you could find so many local sellers offering up jackets for rents. 1 jacket for the entire hike cost ~$5, and honestly, they were all of great condition and best of all, not stinky. 10/10 for convenience. 

The first part of the trek was on winding asphalt road and it was not that tiring, actually. We trekked for a good 45 minutes before stopping at a rest stop that let us overlook the nearby lights from sleepy Toyabungkah Village. By then, we were sweating enough to take off our jacket and trek with just our tops and yoga pants. The wind was chilly, but it was comfortable and refreshing. Following this, you will see more people streaming into the trek roads as this stop is also the highest part where cars and motorbikes could park at. 

Following this, the trek got harder—the roads were no longer asphalt, but they were filled with loose gravels that were slippery, to say the least. Along the way, you would hear people blasting Old Town Road off their speakers (aka us) while concentrating really hard to not fall down lol. Honestly, this part of the trek was not that fun and mesmerising as we were all concentrating on the ground instead of the views we're surrounded by as the traffic of people was really high, and that meant that more loose gravels and thuds of people's butts on the floor were heard more frequently than ever. We took another 30 minutes+ hike to reach the semi summit and rested for a bit. There were also people with torchlight selling crazily inflated beverages at this semi summit. After a while, we wanted to continue trekking to the summit for the sunrise.

After another 45 minutes and more slips here and there, we finally made it to the summit!! Our guide prepared breakfast for us in a small hut nearby and we sat at the edge of the road(?) to warm up. It was sooooo surreal watching the dark blue skies gradually brighten. It was like this vast dark blue blanket surrounding you slowly break to reveal a concoction of the richest red and yellow hues at its seams, and the flickering of sun rays slowly warming your soul with a cup of hot coffee/tea as you gasped on. It was honestly so beautiful. And we were so lucky that the weather was so clear that we could spot Mt. Agung (an active volcano nearby) from the top. We just took pictures and chatted for a long while after our hike. Oh, even talking about it now makes me want to trek again! Super recommended peeps. Please slot this in your Bali itinerary if you can! :) <3

Here are the pictures that I believe did not do the whole experience justice but still are a feast to the eyes: 

view upon reaching the summit at 5.45+am

the neighboring mountain and a crater lake starting to show up... 

right at sunrise <3 x

A couple caught in action teehee

sun was completely up by then

  THE ultimate golden/rosy hour you can get...😍

 

 beware of cheeky monkey(s) that are lurking for your breakfast(!)

 or attract them intentionally to get cute pictures like this i guess o_o

After the hike, we were completely gone. Like dead-in-the-car-i-don't-care-anymore type of gone. So we just deadass slept like babies once we sat on Putu's comfortable car seats. Oh, and also, another important thing is to remember to tip your trekking guide! They earn minimal amounts from a regulated local tour company in order to become a licensed Mt. Batur guide, so your tips go a long way. Our guide was so nice that he held my friend's hand most of the way because damn girl, I got massive anxiety from her mini screams whenever her feet lost their grip on the sandy grounds. We gave him ~$30 and we thought it was a decent amount to tip your guide with so, be generous and 

Initially, we planned to check the Uluwatu temple I believe, but on the way back we were too tired to bother getting outta the car, so we decided to skip it and just go back to the hotel to check out immediately and head to Seminyak! 

1230—we arrived in Seminyak and we went for lunch at Revolver. It was pretty decent, like a 7.5/10 cafe food rating I'd say. !0/10 for varieties, though. Singapore gotta catch up with their cafe food options, mate :/ Since were famished, we over-ordered (again) and it cost us ~$70. Not the cheapest, but again, decent! We basically just chilled a little bit in the hotel and then scoooted out for our Yoga class at Yoga Shala :} Oh and we stay right smack in the middle of Seminyak at Amadea Resorts and Villas which I would say was pretty basic with okay amenities and facilities but hey the location was 10/10 so nothing to complain about, really. And yes, we managed to sneak in a third person without them knowing again. I feel like as long as only 2 people are there during check-ins, you should be fine.

fish taco was really not good... we didn't finish it lol others were decent!

1600—yoga time! As a first-timer, the instructor, Ms. Delia, was super understanding and nice. What's best was that the class consisted only of the 3 of us, so we literally giggled our way through the class without judgement. 10/10 would recommend if you want to just stretch out your tired body from the hike and chill out for a little bit with your friends. Yoga lasted for an hour and we paid ~$7 for Indonesian citizen aka me and ~$14 for foreigners. This was a little bit on the expensive side for Bali, but since the class consisted of just the 3 of us, it was worth the money, I'd say!

1930—Potato Head Beach Club. Honestly, we were lowkey tired af on that day, but we decided to go anyways. Potato Head was just as you'd imagine it to be, and I'd recommend going for a dip there in the afternoon because the sea was just right outside it so it must have been beautiful during sunset and really snazzy for tanning. But still, the vibe was great, food was a solid 8/10 and they had a lot of cocktail selection. Potato Head truly lives up to its reputation, I'd say. Perfect place for a cozy night out. 

Pictures below!

Annnnd that concludes our Day 3! It was eventful as always, and I cannot wait to share my cafe recommendations to you! The rest of the days in Seminyak are pretty chill honestly, so I won't bore you with our meager itineraries and I'll get straight to what I feel is a must-go and what you can skip! See yalls in part 4 xo

Loads of love,

Maretta Simon 

Bali Guling! Part 2

Hey Peeps,

(I'm back on with the second part of this travel diary) Continuing on from our uber tiring night at Ubud, we had an early night to prepare for the morning boat to Nusa Penida. From the Bali map in the previous post, you can see that Nusa Penida is on a smaller island right next to the mainland of Bali. With this, we had to travel by land from our hotel in Ubud to the Sanur beach port and upon buying a ferry ticket to Nusa Penida, go on a 45 minutes ride to the beach port in Nusa Penida. Again, for this arrangement, I will recommend you to contact a driver in Nusa Penida to pick you up from the port for a day trip. This is because a lot of the roads (if you can call them roads even) towards the beautiful geographical wonders aka your congested tourist attraction sites are really bad—like my butt hurts from lowkey galloping on this car seat kind of bad. You really have to be a daaaaarn good driver who is comfortable driving off-roads to brave the roads, really. Of course, you can choose to ride a rental motorbike, if you are more comfortable with that. But still, extra caution. 

More on transportation and the details. For ferry, we rode on Mola-Mola Express, which is one of the more recognized ferry providers alongside Maruti Group, and the ticket was Rp.70.000(~S$7) for Indonesian (aka me) and Rp.140.000(~S$14) for foreigners (aka my friends). Technically they did not check your passports but that is also partly because we came with Putu who talked to them before they went on to ask where we were from. Just don't risk this one out, friends. This price is actually pretty reasonable. Furthermore, we had Putu to arrange a driver in Nusa Penida for us, and it cost us S$75/person. This is definitely more expensive, but it includes a lunch meal (trust me just get the Mee Goreng everything else is quite minimal with a bunch of white rice aka not filling/satisfying enough) and the driver had on a super funky reggae music whilst steadily driving/speeding through the unforgivable terrain towards the beaches we wanted to visit. As for this one though, I am really sorry but I could not remember the name fo the tour group that the driver was from. So sorry guys!!

Here is the itinerary completed with timestamps and pictures:

0800—Waiting for the Mola-Mola ferry to deck at the Sanur port while taking some vain shots. Lucky us, the sun was scorching sooooo brightly and the sky was truly clear. We were off to a beautiful start!

0830—The ferry set off for Nusa Penida. The journey will take about 45 mins, so choose your seats, take some vlogs while trying to fight the sounds of the crashing waves and sleep! we basically took every chance we could to just sleep because honestly, sleep + sea breeze are perfect together I'd like to have a cocktail named after it. 0 seasickness, just chill vibes all the way. 

0915ish—we saw our driver, Kadek (I think that's his name, I am sorry mr. guy I couldnt recall 100% :<<) with a signboard with our names. We shook hands and the reggae adventure began!! His playlist honestly was bomb though. Loved every single guitar riff that induced head bops from us. Or maybe it was just the car's tires which accidentally got snubbed by the many big pebbles on the sandy road... We really couldn't tell. (Don't worry, if you are really tired or just simply an avid sleeper like our dear friend Grace, you will still sleep fine. Rest your head on the seat belt, she said—it helped balance your head bops!) We were on for about 1+ hours of ride to Broken Beach and Angel's Billabong. 

1030ish—We finally arrived at Angel's Billabong! This is the first view you will see once you have reached the parking lot. Just a little warning though, we came during late July, and boy was it crowded!!! Literally there were sooooo many other tourists from everywhere and of course, we all wanted to take that Instagram photos that looked hella bomb so be prepared to queue up a little bit (and sneak in to pose whenever you have the chance pssh)

 the color gradients were honestly waaaay clearer irl i swear it was beauti xDD

Another thing about Nusa Penida is that the 4 popular tourist attraction places are Angel's Billabong, Broken Beach, Kelingking Beach (the iconic dinosaur looking land protrusion) and Crystal Beach (the most underwhelming of all, so skip this if you are tight for time), and they are all pretty close to each other. Angel's Billabong and Broken Beach are right next to each other, so you definitely will get to visit both if you choose to go for one. Besides, during the drive, you will encounter a 2-ways only road, and if you choose to go left you will head to Angel's Billabong, whereas if you take left, you will be on route to Kelingking Beach. They had a pretty clear road division and signs following this, so don't worry you won't be lost even if you choose to drive/ride a motorbike on your own. But just remember that the roads are bumpy and connections are definitely not reliable, so download the routes, tank up and hold tight!! 

Here are more pictures of Angel's Billabong/Broken Beach:

[Broken Beach] wind was hella strong so get ready 1! 2! 3! pose <3

[Angel's Billabong]

look at the crowd! oh my my 

a closer look on the colors because i simply just can't get enough of it 😍

ok I high key miss this honey tan I cannot keep it up back at home someone sponsor me to go back to Bali pls

 Kadek went up a log pile thingy to take this! still couldn't open our eyes tho ><

1215ish—we went on to Kelingking Beach! It took us about 45ish minutes to get there and by then the sun was really pretty harsh so don't forget to re-apply your sun protection, folks;) Kelingking was surprisingly less crowded than the Angel's Billabong despite it being the 'landmark' of Nusa Penida. It was more chill, and there weren't as many photo ops there, I guess. Of course the dino protrusion was the highlight, but that is about it. You can totally opt for a hard trek going down the 'neck' of the dino, but Kadek told us that he had only gone down once and it was a really hard trek down. Initially, we wanted to trek, but since we only had a day's worth of exploring Nusa Penida, and the fact that we wanted to swim a little at Crystal Bay, we decided to skip it. TLDR, skip crystal bay for this trek down! I coincidentally had another friend group who went there a day after us, and she said that the views, the sand, and the beach area are all waaaay more mesmerizing than those of Crystal Bay. It was pretty empty too considering the number of people at the top part overlooking the Dino head. So if you are feeling adventurous, definitely trek down and swim for a bit!

Here are the pics of the beautiful Kelingking Beach aka Dinosaur land:

[Kelingking Beach]

 Kadek deadass CLIMBED a tree to help us take this picture. Major props to Kadek we love u!!

and yes, the pictures are not edited the color gradients are truly to d i e for.

 Thank u Kadek!! <3

1330ish—We headed to a small warung—a small local eatery—for our packaged lunch. For the S$75 we paid, we get a personal driver, a car, petrol as well as a set lunch. Pretty sufficient, I'd say. I had nasi campur—a Balinese mixed rice with chicken strips, local sambal matah, and fried noodles—while my friends had fried chicken with rice. PSA: the meal set was pretty meh, they gave very little proteins with heaps of white rice. I hated not finishing my food but plain white rice is honestly not my favs so I left quite a bit of it on the plate :(. So bring along energy bars of some sorts to fill your tummy, alrighty!

1430—we continued our journey to the last destination of the day: Crystal Bay for a quick swim! Kadek told us that we had to be done by 1530 in order to make it on time to the Nusa Penida port to catch our 1630 ferry ride back to Sanur. So we had our throwovers off, and just had a good swim not too deep in. Crystal Bay was as I said, meh, but good enough for us to unwind and soak in the last bit of that Bali sun while we could. 

 [Crystal Bay]

1630—we hopped on the ferry to go back to Sanur! the ferry was way less crowded as compared to when we departed for Nusa Penida. Also, the tides can be hella strong so please hold on to your slippers tight because Erika almost lost hers on our ride towards Nusa Penida and gal could have missed all the photo ops without her slippers. So be careful!! 

1900ish—we headed back to Ubud for a hella scrumptious dinner at Iiga Warung. According to Putu, this is a fierce competitor of the famous Naughty Nuri's, and a local pick over it too! So we trusted Putu and over-ordered right away. He was absolutely right, though; it was sö g o o d. we spent ~S$75 in total but it was super worth it.

we had 2 Iga Bakar (grilled ribs), Sop Iga (ribs soup, unfeatured), Bebek Betutu (Balinese smoked duck), Green Veggies

We called it a night pretty early on Day 2 too because we would be picked up at 0230am the next day (I! know! right! cray cray baby) for our sunrise trekking. Overall, day 2 was one Instagrammable day filled with reggae music and gradients of blue that we sank right into our bed and fell asleep like babies.

I'll be back for Bali Guling! Part 3 for more adventures and details! 

Love you all, 

Maretta Simon x

Bali Guling! Part 1

Hello Peeps!

*just a mini PSA: I am starting over with this blog (yes, again) but I truly hope that this attempt will follow through. New post weekly, then!

So I recently got back from a super fun, activities-packed girls trip to Bali with 2 of my closest friends from high school. And, boy was it tiring! From planning excessively to skipping activities for our sleep sessions, I would say that this trip was definitely one of my favorites. So, if you are a fresh-out-of-high-school graduate (congratulations, by the way!) looking to plan an adventurous trip to Bali, read on!

Before sharing my itinerary, let me just explain our aim for this trip: we wanted to get the most out of Bali, and since we were young and strong (apparently), we wanted to have a real adventurous journey around the island. Meaning, almost no time to lounge by the pool at the hotel/villa areas. Here is a map of Bali Island, and below that with the red circles are the general places we managed to visit for the 6-days-5-night trip we had. We basically covered the South-Central-East regions of the island—the most touristy parts.

(from Bali Tourism Board)

So here begins our trip!

Day 1:

0500—flight took off from Singapore to Bali. It was about 2 hours and 30 minutes, nothing special really. We basically just died serenely on our teensy Jetstar seats. What was there to complain anyways since we got our tickets for about S$200 without checked-in baggage.

0800—we met our s u p e r incredibly nice driver for the entire trip: Putu. If you are genuinely interested in contacting him, you can dm me via Instagram for his contact! He mostly uses WhatsApp and is fluent in English, so that's a great relief for us. Putu literally gave us the best deals for the activities we planned on doing and he doesn't smoke. (yes, this is quite a game changer since people in Bali smoke pretty openly and secondhand smoke can be excessive at times). He charged us S$45/entire day including petrol and his service. This is definitely a reasonable price for Bali and since his service was really good, we gave him tips/ invited him for meals with us too, so it was really chill and fun with him. 

0830—we made out first stop at Babi Guling Pak Malen nearby the airport. Balinese food is quite affordable, at about Rp. 40.000.000/plate or equivalent to S$4. But they can be really spicy, though. Both of my friends actually struggled to finish half the plate so... if you cannot take spice, please opt for the non-spicy option! So sorry to Grace for crying during her first meal, but honey was it hilarious!! ;;) Here's a snippet of what a Babi Guling package looks like:

Next, we hopped on the car to catch some sleep while Putu drove us to Ubud. We immediately went for White Water Rafting at Ayung Dewata Rafting. Since we told Putu beforehand that we wanted to white water raft, he arranged a 3-hour-rafting package for S$30 per person. This was a mega steal because the brochure at the rafting place showed the price of Rp. 900.000.000/per person (~S$90 equivalent). Sometimes getting a local who knows people from the tourism industry really has mega perks, so, highly recommended! The rafting people basically gave us our paddles, helmets and floating jackets. Before going for that adrenaline-filled ride, you have to traverse through flights of stairs (which we did barefooted and we recommend that for lighter packing!) with gorgeous paddy fields as your views until the starting point of your raft. 

The rafting itself was quite an experience! This was easily one of my top 3 things to do in Bali. A definite must-try for first timers! The waters tend to be clearer, but when we came they had a recent asphalt layering of roads nearby and it was raining a few days prior to our raft, so the water was a little bit murkier—but still very fresh and clean. We were accompanied by a guide per raft and were told simple instructions on how to use the paddles. There were some parts of the river where you will see small 'waterfalls' and you can totally hop off the raft for a small swim too! You have to listen carefully to the guide before doing this, though. At some parts of the river, the current can be quite strong and dangerous otherwise. Moreover, the coldness of the water, as well as the intriguing sounds of nature, will certainly take your minds off things, so despite it being a rigorous activity, it is calming to its own degree too. We hella loved it!

A small reminder before I insert the pictures: if you want to take your GoPro or phone with you, be extremely careful. We bought those plastic phone covers as necklaces and one of my friend's had a loose end in its knots, and she lost her phone to the strong current. :< 

you also have to climb those stairs after your raft—be prepared!

oh, how lush! <3

1530—It was about then when we finished rafting, and holy moly was that an exercise! We took some time to dry off and we did not take the meal provided after rafting by the rafting company but instead, we went off to one of the sites overlooking Tegalalang Rice Terraces, specifically to Dewi Cafe. The view from there was sooooo gorgeous<3<3 Besides the beautiful view, Dewi Cafe was more of a hidden gem known to locals, and that made it very peaceful for us. It was kind of cold, but the view was breathtaking that we could not sit still to wait for our food. We basically snapped pictures right away. Also, Dewi Cafe is a stone throw away from the super Instagrammable Bali Swing, so extra points for convenience. We were too hungry and too lazy to queue up for pictures at the Bali Swing, so here are the pictures of our decently-priced food and the sceneries. (pro tip: Bali Swing closes at 5pm, so come earlier as it can get crowded. For about S$15 for a few snippets, we thought it was not worth it, so if you are tight on schedule and budget, definitely skip this!)

Had our meals while waiting for sunset with this gorgeous view!

The three of us almost died tryna climb this egg o_o it's free and right next to the Bali Swing by the way xD

Alrighty, we were soaking wet, well-fed and justifiably VERY exhausted. We only had 2 meals that day and we checked in at night (sneakily) into our very spacious 2-people room at KajaNe Yangloni Ubud. (Sorry no pics because we checked in after the sunset and we needed to sneak the third person in... but it was LOVELY!!) Do give that hotel a check if you are planning for a serene getaway in Ubud. We were super pleasantly surprised by the entire space and facilities they had. Definitely worth your bucks, and even more if I am being generous!

Overall, our Day 1 in Bali was as you can tell... pretty tiring. But it was really jam-packed with so many natural sceneries that let our eyes feasted for as much and as long as we wanted though. Honestly, it felt like just the perfect amount of adventure for a just-outta-school-girls-trip. Especially the white water rafting. We felt that the 3-hour course, although daunting at first, was actually really worth it. There is just something magical about that first dive into the cold water that replenished the soul with vitality so as to continue paddling past the rocky riverbeds. So we ended our day with a good skin care routine and some girls talk and headed to bed at around 10+pm. We had to wake up early for Nusa Penida the next day. So keep following this travel diary if you want to peek through what to wear, where to go and what to do during a day trip to Nusa Penida :) 

To be continued,

Maretta Simon x