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10th June 2023
Day 1 – Bali, Here we come!

The day that everyone in the family was waiting for. The day started early, way before dawn for some of us. Bus pickup was at 6.30 am. The Faizal family and the Ishairi family were boarding the 10.45 am flight (QZ 503) while the Roslan family were on the 5.10 pm QZ 507 flight. Yes, it is an extended family trip… and we are going to Bali!

Upon arrival at Changi Airport, we checked-in our bags and got our boarding pass. We were taking the budget airlines, AirAsia and it was our first time at Terminal 4. We lounged around as we ate our breakfast, waiting for our boarding announcement.

It was a smooth take off and touch down. We arrived at
Bali Ngurah Rai Airport as scheduled and had our bus pick up waiting for us. The journey to the hotel took about 20 minutes. We reached Harris Hotel
and Residences and this is home for the week!

Meanwhile, the Roslan family left home much earlier to explore Changi Airport! Bus pick up from their place was at 10 am. They reached Changi Airport Terminal 4 and ate at Burger King before they boarded the plane. However, there was a 40 minute flight delay. They finally arrived in Bali Ngurah Rai Airport at 9.30 pm and a surprise awaited Kak Wati and Abg Lan at the hotel as it was their 28th wedding anniversary! Their daughters planned the surprise while Rabaah and Arisha executed the plan! The hotel room was decorated with a ‘Happy Anniversary’ sign and rose petals scattered on the bed with some petals made into a heart shape. How romantic!Hope it was a nice surprise for the couple!

Day 1 was spent on air travel, exploring the hotel facilities and the unpacking of our stuff. Looking forward to tomorrow’s activities.

Created by Rohani

11th June 2023
Day 2 – Swimming, Spa day and Jimbaran dinner

Most of us gathered at the Harris Cafe for our breakfast at around 8 am and the rest trickled in soon after. After breakfast, all of us went our separate ways for some free and easy time. Today is ‘Lepak Day’ so the plan was to either explore the hotel facilities, swim, go for a massage or a trip to the mall to explore.

So after breakfast, the kids were very eager to get into their swimming gears and play in the pool. Some of us then got ready for our massages, while the others went to the nearby mall to get lunch and window shopped.

Later in the evening around 5 pm, we gathered in the hotel lobby to go to Kampoeng Seafood at Jimbaran Bay, for a seaside dinner by the beach. All of us were dressed in our best and in the colour-themed of various shades of red.

The journey took us about 30 mins by coach and it was a worthwhile trip. Tables and chairs were lined parallel to the beach. We were shown to our table and nearby, there was a lovely photo booth set-up. We spent a couple of minutes taking family photos there and appreciating the mesmerising view of the surroundings against the backdrop of the sunset. It was a magical moment and to appreciate it with our love ones was priceless.

The dinner spread was inclusive of several seafood items such as crabs, prawns and even lobsters made an appearance! The lavish, flavourful and savoury spread was lovingly sponsored by the matriarch of the family. What a treat indeed!

At the end of dinner, we made our way back to the hotel with our tummies full but our hearts fuller!

Created by Fitri

12th June 2023

Day 3 – Ubud – Breakfast in Kintamani, Lunch @ Bebek di Tepi Sawah,

We woke up very early, way before 6 am when especially our next trip were to enjoy the very fresh morning of Kintamani, way up in a mountain area, the other side of unexplored district of Ubud, North of Bali. Ubud is known for its arts, culture and handicrafts of Bali and along the sides of the roads lay all these artefacts which are an eye opener.

Arrived around 7-8 am, we were totally stunned by the natural beauty of the scenery especially Mount Batur which you can see from the Cafe in Kintamani. We had our chilling breakfast here, at the most picturesque dining of the trip on top of yesterday dinner. The breakfast was ok but I thought the generosity far overwhelmed the great taste. We took many more minutes there taking pictures of ourselves with the splendid natural backdrop.

Next we moved on to the most awaited Bali Swing, for the ladies and kids of course. The girls and the kids enjoyed every moment of the swings, I could hear their excitement across two storey high waiting gallery where I stood. For the individual swing, the ladies were provided with a batik kebaya robe with long tails stitched to it, that comes in many colors and will flown by the wind like a kite as the kids swung up. The kids were really enjoying these rides.

We head lunch to Bebek di tepi sawah restaurant, and like the name suggest, we dined in the middle of a sawah, Rice paddy field, and most of them had grilled ducks or chickens. I still could not forget the dark brown glazed of the bebek salai, or grilled duck, it must have been as good as it looks like. My brother had it and he said, it did taste nice and he love the crispiness. It is especially difficult to cook a duck dish and if the chef were to cook the dish wrongly, the duck will give an awful smell or taste (hamis). I had bebek betutu instead, the taste seems similar to the Malay rendang and the duck meat is very tender and of course straightaway win over my taste bud. So Kudos to the Chef!

We took more pictures and videos of this rustic yet meaningful place as memoirs to bring back to Singapore.

We gave Kopi Luwak sanctuary visit a miss as the driver and guide had promised to bring us to a place call Oleh Oleh Krishna, as the name describes it is a place where you get Bali oleh oleh; or souvenirs and handicrafts or foodstuffs to bring back home. You need to know that when you are in any country, you just had to try savour their local delicacies. I bought the kopi luwak, pie legong or pie susu and the dancing peanut or kacang joget, also got keychains and t-shirts to go and more of the foodstuffs for the game prize hampers.

We headed home feeling exhausted and had our early nights off.

13th June 2023

Day 4 – Free and Easy – Kuta Square and Kuta Beach

We surely wanted a more relaxing day ahead after a back to back trip to the north yesterday. The kids decided to go swimming after breakfast. I was not very sure about the swimming though as we had quite a breakfast. You will want to know that the Indonesian local not only in Bali, must have rice meal every morning breakfast no matter what. So we have heavier breakfast than normal almost everyday. The black pepper beef is the best and the sauce were unique. Our mum visit her favorite kiosk almost everyday to get her Jamu and other woman stuff.

The kids were enjoying the pool very much. They had this traditional cousins/siblings pushing and pulling each other to the pool back since Krabi times. They would not stop until all of them are in the pool. Another instance, they perfectly form a line on the pavement, just in front of the pool water, starting with the shortest to the tallest, surprisingly the Roslins are in the middle… hehe… and hehe.. quite proudly I presumed, hehe… and from the shortest, our youngest Yaya, will jump first. Next the other adjacent to her, will jump in sequence, less than a second apart from each other, forming a wave, you know like the “Famous Singapore Wave in Singapore Stadium” that eventually ends with the tallest one, Irsyad. They had to do it several times to get the “perfect wave” stunt. They did it at last, and we managed to recorded all this in video. We also had volley ball playing in the pool and other ball games. For some, I think went for SPA and massage in the rooms.

We spent other half of the day having lunch in Kuta square and most importantly we step on the World Famous beach to play telematch games conducted by Irsyad and Ashraf. Yes we had our games even volley ball and soccer in World Famous Beach, Kuta. Enough said.

Back and rest. We had another rounds of games too.

14th June 2023

Day 5 – Pulau Penida

The day that we been waiting for after almost a week in Bali. Pulau Penida, a 20 min ride by boat distance from Sanur Jetty. There is no need for an island hopping like we did in Krabi as the local describe this one island is a real deal. Breakfast all packed courtesy of Harris Hotel Cafe as we were leaving the hotel for the jetty from as early as 5 am in the morning,

On shore , the guide led us to a 12 footer boat and we ride to our next destination far from the jetty. We reached Manta ray point which is the name of the first snorkeling site. The local did mention that if you are lucky you could see a mermaid.. haha.. no lah.. most likely a manta ray as the name suggest. The sea was so choppy and dark we could not even see what is inside, so no manta ray. As I swam without the life vest, I find it is very difficult to stay balance and afloat as the the sea is too rough. However, I am able to snorkel peacefully to other site as we moved on to a more calmer bay and point.

We moved in land and visit a few beautiful places; Kelingking Beach, angel billabong, broken beach.

Kelingking Beach

Angel Billabong

Broken Beach

15th June 2023

Day 6 – Free and easy games and spa

Day 6 is mostly free and easy, more swimming, games and spa.

Games are manned by our Game Master Irsyad and assist by Ashraf and breakup into two teams. They set up many games since day 1 and each of these players collected as many gold coins as possible and the team with most gold coins will win the games. They had games like Teka teki, telematches, phototaking and charades. Each of them also collect as much gold coins for themselves to secure their places to be the top places in the most popular and classic game called the Lucky Draw. So the top players will have their lucky draw lots to be inserted as the last ones in the lucky draw bag making him/her higher chance to win the lucky draw.

Turn out Team Airi wins the team game and the following winners getting the Lucky draw prizes

First – $100 – Fitri 

Second – $70 – Irsyad.

Third – $50 – Ishairi

4th – $30 – Roslan

5th – $30 – Nur

6th – Bose Headphone – Arishah

7th - Camera Tripod – Suyati

8th – Sony wireless earphone – Faizall

16th June 2023

Day 7 – Kuta last minute shopping, Japanese shabu shabu steamboat and grill buffet dinner.

Half of the family made a second round return to Kuta to have a last minute lunch and shopping before they joined us in one of Bali shopping mall. We had japanese wagyu shabu shabu steamboat and grill buffet for dinner and head back to hotel to start packing.

17th June 2023

Day 8 – Goodbye Bali

Today we had our last breakfast in Harris Hotel and prepared to head off to the airport. We had the last picture together with the drivers, guide, hotel concierge and staffs who helped us and thanked them. We left the hotel for the airport and headed back to Singapore.