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A recollection of countries i been to.My first travel to the
outside world was when i was working as a photography assistant.It was in around
1996, three months after i joined JOHN CLANG STUDIO the whole crews fly to bali
for a week holiday.
there were 6 of us including my two bosses and their wife and another assistant.We
arrived at about night time sitting a Garuda air.At the time of arrival,we still
have not book any hotel yet.we were like backpackers,asking around for lodging
and finally settled into this inn called AYU BEACH INN
.With
their friendly staff and my boss and college able to speak malay,we were able
to get good budget rooms.I shared with my college,ashri a room facing the pool
at 2nd floor.The weather was not warm as in singapore though you can still get
sunburn,the people of bali are proud of their skin tone,they called themselves
golden skin people with nice tanned skin tone.I still can recall the first day
we went to was the kuta beach.Surfer from all over the world come here to surf.It
one of the famous places to have big wave and current,sometime there will also
be surfer getting kill in the sea.Every water sport you will find here in kuta
beach.Similar place like here in bali is phuket.We were watching people along
the
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beach,they have people came to you for massage,bead your hair,selling drinks,etc.Near
our place,there were alot of food vendor.My favourite dishes like nasi goreng
w/egg,my boss introduce a dish called basoup.It have meatball cooked with tang-hoon(thin
noodle),sadap sia.But one thing to note eating in places like this required
one to have a strong stomach because it not that clean after all.I saw some
just placed used plates and bowls in a bucket of water,when they need to use,they
just bring up and dry it to served.Wow,but who care,that what i think during
that time and guess what,after returning home for two weeks,i have to visit
my toilet 4-5 times per day.
There were lot of shops around kuta beach in bali,espcially art craft shop.Anything
that involved art can be found here.I was very tempted when i walk pass those
tattoo palour,though they were located in a not so clean enviroment nevertheless
it was safe after all to have tattoo done in bali.The artist here were more
sort of talent compare to singapore,talking to a guy by the name of mr. lake
in his shop.they learn the art from institution before coming out on their own.Tattoo
here in bali is cheaper than in singapore but the quality of the ink was not
up to standard.But i respect their talent ,using freehand without any tracing
paper on skin, very accurately.I also recommanded friends going to bali for
tattoo.Oh yes mr. lake had a sister(coulden't remember her name )a very shy
cute girl 
but
she was not able to speak english,she was having a clothe store beside her brother
tat shop.once while i was tatooing,due to my long hair,she kindly hand over
her hair band to me .how nice.I did took a photo with her for memory.
Actually i did not went to any water sport cause i did a tattoo at mr.lake's
shop,so it need to heal at least 1 week.but we did went interesting places.kuta
beaches it self have alot of shopping cater for tourist,but it seem that mambo
and desiel are more popular than any beach wear are popular in kuta.There were
also alot of drug pushers selling marijuana,ecstasy,magicmushroom all those
soft and hard drugs on the street.And mind you they were all cheap but they
were are 100%pure drug,which means it a mixture of some drug combination.Once
i saw a couple smoking ganja while carring their child in the guesthouse,well
i pity the poor child had to suffer the holy smoke blowing out from their parent
's mouth.At night we went to disco called 'rasa sayang singapore' don't know
whether is it open by singaporean or not but the scene only started after midnight
to 1 am.People of bali party in early morning,they can party from midnight to
dawn i think they are into estacy.We were dancing with some girls especially
my friend asri seem to be popular with the girls.They shake their head continuously
for till the disco was forse to close at 4am.Girls there are also very smart,they
want one of my boss to treat them to drinks.In the end when my boss recieved
his credit card statement at the end of the month,he spent 200sgd that night
for i think the girls ordered a lot of drinks and told the waiter to bill to
my boss's card.Heart pain for sure.Coming back to the disco story,when the disco
was raid ,authority switch on lights causing some partygoers to be unhappy.They
throw chairs into the air ,classes smashing.I remembered my boss told me ,when
in a asian country any riot or fighting start the first to get in trouble will
be the western people cause they look bigger in size.So when all those smashing
started the people all rush out of the building,so excited and yet so frightening
.
We left for candidasa a day later,travelling with a driver to an unknown town
to us.Along the way we saw beautiful waterfall where people were living there.The
children played in the water while mothers washed their clothes and some even
took a bath in the fall.The journey took us amost a day,upon reaching candidasa,we
search for guesthouse to put up a night there.We went to snookering in a special
boat where 4 person were required to lift up the boat.It had two side support
that float on water to made the boat balance.My friend asari tried to lift with
the bali guys but once he lift up he giveup,it was fucking heavy he said.Asari
is a strong guy for that he can lift a fire hose stand we saw on the road and
walk up a 4 storey building.the bali guys were small in their sizes but they
were though guys.They make use of their legs to lock the two of our boat together
with the presence the strong current of the wave.The boat travelled quite fast
with the help of a motor,water kept splashing to our body but that ok as most
of us prepare to go underwater except me cause i just done a tattoo on my right
arm so not advise to go in to sea water.While we tried to take photo but i guess
the current was just to strong for us to aim at anything without shaking it.On
the sea there were small rock formation emerging from the sea.It looked like
an island from far as it was covered by plants and algaes.We finished the day
trip at a resturant with seafood(i don't take seafood as always)as our dinner.They
had good deep fried fish dish and the sauces are just to sadap for fingers-lickin.Well
it time foe bed time after dinner as the town fairly had any night activities
like kuta.Off course we were too tired after a day ride and the evening snookering
in rough sea.The room were without air-con cause it built just near to the shore.We
examined the room and we had a good laugh when we saw a very small fan those
hand held fan with plastic plate using batteries.Fuck man,both asari and i kept
laughing and we told our boss john and david to have a look .Another joke was
at one of our boss's room(coulden't remembered david or john)toilet where a
sea crab was found trying to make it way up to the surface.There was no flash
so we just use water to scare it off.The night was a long and torture for me
(atleast i could hear asari snoring away)If anyone ever stay in wooden house
or jungle they would had experience this,gecko i mean crying with rising tone
to fading off and starting the process every 10 seconds
We
departed candidasa and headed back to kuta the next day stoppin by a art village
,this art village was so big that it took 2 hours to walk just a fews street.It
more like a town to me seeing the road end at about 500m with intersection of
few othersn street like the chatuchak weekend market in thailand but much bigger
and wider in space.alot of art craft can be bought here (oh i just can't recall
what the name)from stone craving to carpet to antique lights or whatevere ones
need can be found here.Overall this trip to bali opened up my life to the outside
world and spark a travel interests in travelling places like this.I even told
my david i want to live in bali while on the journey home,he said wait till
i visit thailand i will change my mind definitely.True enough i now love travelling
to thailand for treking...Godbye bali ,kuta beach,ayu beach inn's staffs,food
vendor the basoup man,mr. lake and his cute sister.and all those we met along
the road also to asari,david and john for the opportunity to travel for the
first time in life.thank you....
.
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