Bali Family trip - Part 3

Soon, it comes to Day 3, as usual, we wake up in early morning to enjoy our breakfast, as Wayan will picked us up by 8am, but he actually arrive around 7.40am and waited us to get done and check-out.

 Simple breakfast but nice.

My brother and Dad are enjoying their coffeee

We proceed to Bedugul. On the way to bedugul we actually stop by some crafting shop, as well as the silver making shop next to the craft art center. Wayan told us that they tooks 2-3 months to get a product complete, some even take years, depends on the complexity to make the craft.

 A master is doing the art work

Nice art work

 Silver maker

Products sold in the shop that next to the making center, quite pricey

In fact, Bedugul temple is quite far to travel from Ubud, but finally we arrived here.

 Nice view even before entering the temple

Impressive

Soon, everyone feel exited and trying to snap the photo in jumping in different pose.

We rest here for a while, took some group photo, couple photo, Single photo, etc...

Spend about 1 hour here, then we proceed to our next destination.

This place was suggested by Wayan. to pay a visit to his friend. They are doing some different things compare to normal tour agent, this place is aiming to provide tourist on true local Balinese living style.

In fact, you will need to sign up the package if want to visit there, they will teach you on how to cook Bali food, you may overnight there to experience their life, even you can organize a wedding there, they will prepare you everything. However, we are invited to try the food and visit the place by Wayan since this is operate by his friend. The food is great!

 The Entrance and the wedding ceremony stage

 Nice local delicacies prepared by them.  

After spending 1 hour to try out their food and explore the place, we are departing to Tanah Lot to see the sunset!

Everyone is waiting for the suns to go down, however weather of the day is not so good, can't see the sun clearly.

After sunset, we spend some time to walk around the market at Tanah lot, the price is slightly higher than Batu Bulan, maybe due to here is famous tourist area.

Sun goes down, is time to check in our hotel for tonight. After Ubud, our 3rd night hotel is chosen to locate at Jimbaran, which is Southewest of Bali.

This hotel is called Pat-Mase Villa, a nice villa that have 4 rooms, every room comes with big King size double bed, a small living hall, a personal swimming pool inside the villa, kitchen and dining area. Everyone love this place so much.

Entrance of hotel, and hall way to living hall 

                                                Rooms in the villa and swimming pool 

Soon, they feel hungry, so just ready the cup noodle that purchase from 7-11 while boiling the hot water. Some eat before swimming, some eat while swimming, what a good experience to swim at late night :)

Parents and grandparents rest early after arrive, but youngsters still enjoy the time to swim and chit chat till late night.

To be continue - Part 4...... 

Mt. Kota Kinabalu (Mt. KK), Sabah - Part 4

Sometimes, I don't even fall asleep at this hour, but today I must wake up at 1.30pm, so that I can enjoy the supper before continue my mountain conquering journey. It was a nice sleep, although the weather is freezing cold.

After battery recharged with the food, we start the 2nd part journey around 2am with a tiny headlamp. As it is dark, so tour guide told us must follow the step carefully, and surprisingly there are so many people queuing up to walk up the staircase. Whenever we feel tired, we must stand aside to let others to walk up first. 

After 3 hours hiking in the darkness, finally we reach the top!!! However, the wind is so strong, and we just try to find some place to hide. As tour guide told us that the sun rise around 5.20am, so we can come back to here after 15 mins. 1 of my friend was so tired and really find a place to take a short nap. I was salute this act, as no matter how tired am I, with this kind of weather, I don't think I am able to take a nap.

Waiting sunrise in the dark

We start enjoy the scenery and snapping more photo when the days turn brighter.

South peak

Shadow of the peak

So happy to reach the top 

Donkey ears peak

Around 7pm, we are ready to return to Laban Rata, as according to tour guide, the sunlight could be harmful to our skin, so we must goes down before 8am, and we will need to depart to the entrance gate before 10.30am. So, is time to go back.

Follow the rope to go down.

Start to climb down

Returning journey

Around 9pm, we arrive at the rooms that we sleep last night, start packing everything, then having our breakfast at Laban Rata resthouse. Just do simple clean up and around 10.30am, we start the journey of going back to Timpohon gate.

For this trail, it was totally different scene with Mesilau, the path is full of rocks and it is consider very big step we need to take for every step.

 Finally, we reach are close to the Timpohon gate...

After 5 hours, finally we can rest and take our tea break at Balsam Cafe while waiting for the tour guide to fetch us back to Kinabalu park office. We need to report ourselves at the office to make sure they record us safely come back from hiking. 

Then, with the tired and painful leg, we return to Kota Kinabalu town.

With this, we end our hiking tour and back to Penisular Malaysia.

Mt. Kota Kinabalu (Mt. KK), Sabah - Part 3

Today, we wake up unusually early compare to the other day, as we need to ready ourselves to be picked up by Mt. hiking agent. 7am we need to be at Borneo One to wait for the van to pick us up.

Proper hiking shoes, with 1 pair "kampung adidas"

From the agent, we know that there are in 6 person under him for the group, including 4 of us + 2 travelers from Hong Kong.

With agent, everything can be arranged properly, however, different agent may charged differently. For our package, it cost about RM 550 which included:
Entrance fees, hiking fees, tour guide fees, Laban Rata lodges charges,
All the meals - Day 1 lunch (bring along while hiking, pack in tupperware), D1 dinner, D1 supper, D2 breakfast and D2 lunch, all buffet style.

Stop by at the Kinabalu park for registration

The contact of agent: Ah Han --> +6019-8608211.

It took about 3 hours for us to reach at the National Park entrance. We need to register ourselves before start climbing, due to the will  and from there, we chose a walking stick each, to assist us to have a better hiking journey. It cost about RM 3 each stick. At here, we meet our tour guide too, there are 2 of them, and they are brother, who partner with Ah Han.

Due to we chose the longer trail to hike - Mesilau trail, thus we need to travel for another half an hour to the trail entrance. Although take longer time to reach the rest point, which called Laban Rata, (as it is 2KM longer than Timpohon trail), however this trail will take you through a beautiful trek of montane forest, pass streams and ridges, which make you worth to do so. 

Extract from http://www.trailofasia.com

And, we started our hiking journey around 9.30am after some briefing given by the tour guide. 1 of them will walk with the first person and the other will follow the last person in the group. The tour guide is great, they will ask you don't rush, walk slowly, and most importantly, you can make it! They will advise us, don't simply give up, unless you feel that you really not able to continue the journey. Or else, they will walk with you to the destination. In our group, non of us hire 

There are different types of road condition you may encounter in this trail, sometimes is smooth and easy to walk on, sometimes we need to climb the stairs, sometimes we need to climb the big rock.

After rest, continue the journey

Nice scenery all the way up

Due to cold weather and high latitude, most of the tree has no leaves

Easier to walk on this kind of path

Challenging hiking path just started

Looking up to where we are heading to

Challenging path

Finally, we reach the resting point around 5.30pm, after 8 hours hiking. However, the scenery make us forget our tiredness

Sun is peaking at us

Beautiful scenery

Tour guide looking at the friends who play "sepak takraw"

At here, we rest and take our light dinner, although is buffet style, but tiredness make us not really eating much. Afterwards, we need to walk for another 10 minutes to our room, which called: Gunting Lagadang Hut. The location of this lodge is higher than Laban Rata resthouse.

Then, we not really take bath because it was freezing cold there and there is not heater available in the room. So we just make some simple clean up, then prepare to sleep. I thought that I can't fall asleep at 7pm, however, it was so fast to fall asleep... 

To be continued in part 4..