As brought up in my Day 3 post, we didn't get to enjoy our spa as everywhere in Kuta was fully booked. Fortunately, when we're back at Matahari Cottages, the staff helped to booked slots for 3 of us at Sang Spa at 930am, which is located just a 5 to 10 minutes walk from our accommodation.
Haha, I can't resist snapping pictures of doggies!
And here it is! Sang Spa 2! I'm guessing the '2' meant there's other Sang Spa branches, for a google search on Sang Spa generated even a Sang Spa 3 in the result.
And it's actually a pretty long walk in from the street, surrounded by lush greenery...
To their main reception area, which is pretty well done up! We were given a booklet to read through, which states all of their packages and what it comprises of, and to choose our treatment for the day. KK and ZH both chose the same sets of massage packages and hence got a couple room, while I opted for a 2 hr 45 mins Balinese Massage plus Full Body Scrub (I chose green tea scrub out of the many scrub flavours) but requested that they cut the massage time from 1 hr to 30 minutes. Extremely ticklish and wishes to cut the torture. Heh!
I couldn't really remember the original price of the full package, probably RP 240, 000 or more, but I was charged RP 200, 000 due to the decrease in massage time.
And here's my single room, equipped with a side table and rack (to place all my belongings), a shower area and a pretty big (but short) bath tub. I was then handed a pair of disposable underwear and spa gown and asked to change into them.
The masseur soon came in after I've changed and started the 30 minutes massage, which was much better than I expected it to be. For those 'hardcore' massage-lovers, I bet you'll find it too soft and 'no kick'. But for me, who's both ticklish and with body made of tofu, the massage turned out surprisingly well. The masseur also constantly checked by asking if everything was okay. :)
After the massage, she left me in the room for a while before returning with the scrub, which was pretty different from those body scrubs I've tried elsewhere (which has pretty long scrubbing time). The scrub was really liquidy and she slathered them all over my body in one shot and left me lying in the bed for a while before 'scrubbing' them down in a minute or two.
Come to think of it, it resembles those facial exfoliating product whereby we apply it onto our faces and wait for 30 seconds or so, before rubbing our face in circles to rub off the dead skin cells and such.
I guess this was how it works, for when ZH and KK saw me after the spa, they both commented that I've turned visibly fairer and my skin was really smoother to the touch.
Anyhow, after the scrub, the masseur asked that I proceed to the shower area to wash away the bits and scraps of the scrub with the shower gel and then use the yoghurt to 'wash down' the skin (which she helped me with the back) before entering the flower bath. The yoghurt smelt just like, well... soured milk. Not pleasant at all, but it did its job by giving me fair and smooth skin, so heck about that smell for it'll be masked by the flower bath anyway.
And after the yoghurt shower, I was asked to enter the flower bath, filled with many rose petals and smelling like a rose garden, and relax for 20 minutes while she served me a plate of fruits and hot tea.
And after all that, I was done! Had to wait about 15 minutes for ZH and KK, for they only had 1 shower facility in the couple room and had to 'queue up'.
After we bid the friendly staff of Sang Spa 2 goodbye, we met up with Made back at Matahari Cottages, checked out and headed off for lunch. And our final meal in Bali? I'm guessing you already have an idea, how can you not have Babi Guling in Bali, right?
However, instead of bringing us to Ibu Oka, Made decided to bring us to their local road side stall to try out the true local taste, for according to him, Ibu Oka has tweaked the taste to suit foreigners more.
And so here we are, at a very local Babi Guling eating place nestled by the road in Ubud.
And you can't really say that the interior is humble looking, for it's covered by awesomely pretty Balinese paintings!
BTW, cheap thrill for the day. The 'antique' glass bottle soft drinks!
We were served the soup first, which was cooked with pork ribs and banana tree trunk. The soup is very salty (no go without rice, people!) and rather peppery. Very tasty when coupled with big mouthful of plain rice, but on its own. I prefer not go. Really, really too salty. The banana trunk (or stem) is pretty much tasteless on its own, but with a little bit of bitter after taste and very crunchy. Kind of reminded me of lotus root in a way...
The dish came in the form of a form of our local 'chye prng', served not only with Babi Guling, but also other dishes like the long beans, fried pig skin, and chicken satay.
And we couldn't get enough of the Babi Guling! The skin was indeed roasted till crispy (you will sound like you're biting through a cracker) and very flavourful and the meat was so tender we all thought we're served chicken!
And after lunch, we hopped onto Made's car again and headed to Oleh Oleh, which is just 5 minutes away from the airport.
My verdict, get ALL your apparels at the market places once you see them, people! Do not wait till Oleh Oleh just to avoid haggling prices. The choices of apparels (all those pretty sun dresses we say at the market places T.T) were truly disappointing, and all 3 of us just couldn't find any dress we are okay with buying. Other than that, Oleh Oleh will be a good place to get snacks (the dried banana chips were so good, omg!), those wood carving ornaments, footwears (sandals for SGD $2!), bags, clutches, scented candles, soaps, body scrubs and lotions, hair and other accessories and etc. Just NOT the clothings, yes.
And yup, after getting our bags of purchase, we got onto Made's car one last time and headed for the airport.
Time to say goodbye to both Made and Bali. :(
Made was really nice to give us a discount (shan't say how much) for the last day, but we still gave him an extra amount for the awesome service he has rendered us for the past 4D3N in Bali. For Made's contacts, please visit my Day 1 post.
And just a small rant plus a small scare at the airport. After checking in our luggage, we were told that the boarding gate hasn't been confirmed and it shall be broadcasted once confirmed, at least 30 minutes before boarding time. And so, we conveniently forgot that we still had to clear the Bali customs, and started chillaxing at the benches located at the side of the check in counter and started surfing net and etc while on the airport wifi.
Then came the big big frown. It's barely 1 hr to our flight and our boarding gate is still a big question mark. And then someone said, "We should go in first."
And so we gathered our hand luggage and trudged in, to find this horrible queue that goes 2 way at the custom! Shucks!
And guess what, we decided to make a left turn at the split and obviously, it wasn't the right turn. No puns intended.
I really have no idea how they work, but these 2 queues obviously were equally long, yet the right queue led to 3 open counters yet our left queue was tended by just 1 counter, with custom officers coming by to the closed counter to flip the papers around and then leave, giving us false hope of having more counters opened to ease up the queue.
The people in our line were sooooooo frustrated and this Asian lady in the zigzag line behind us (meaning 1 turn of the line away from us) was so annoyed she just yelled at her Caucasian partner, who obviously had cleared custom via the right queue, "THEY ONLY OPEN UP 1 FUCKING COUNTER FOR THIS LINE. THIS IS SO FUCKING RETARDED!"
And of course, she got her partner to go ahead to the boarding gate and I really hope she made it in the end.
Anyway, while in queue and just 30 minutes away from our flight and 10 minutes before boarding gate closes, our boarding gate is announced. And at 5 minutes before gate closes, the 3 of us finally cleared custom and off we sprinted (me with a heavy backpack and a heavy hand luggage T.T) to our boarding gate, which was so friggin far away.
And as if our insect-attack at Matahari Cottages wasn't enough, we had a fluttering dragonfly on board the airplane shuttle with us! *sigh*
Nevertheless, these 4D3N was still made extremely fun and enjoyable with Made and Bali has definitely made my re-visit list. Well, not a beach person but I guess I should give Kuta and Seminyak a shot, yeah? :)
Till then,
Mia
I couldn't really remember the original price of the full package, probably RP 240, 000 or more, but I was charged RP 200, 000 due to the decrease in massage time.
The masseur soon came in after I've changed and started the 30 minutes massage, which was much better than I expected it to be. For those 'hardcore' massage-lovers, I bet you'll find it too soft and 'no kick'. But for me, who's both ticklish and with body made of tofu, the massage turned out surprisingly well. The masseur also constantly checked by asking if everything was okay. :)
After the massage, she left me in the room for a while before returning with the scrub, which was pretty different from those body scrubs I've tried elsewhere (which has pretty long scrubbing time). The scrub was really liquidy and she slathered them all over my body in one shot and left me lying in the bed for a while before 'scrubbing' them down in a minute or two.
Come to think of it, it resembles those facial exfoliating product whereby we apply it onto our faces and wait for 30 seconds or so, before rubbing our face in circles to rub off the dead skin cells and such.
I guess this was how it works, for when ZH and KK saw me after the spa, they both commented that I've turned visibly fairer and my skin was really smoother to the touch.
Anyhow, after the scrub, the masseur asked that I proceed to the shower area to wash away the bits and scraps of the scrub with the shower gel and then use the yoghurt to 'wash down' the skin (which she helped me with the back) before entering the flower bath. The yoghurt smelt just like, well... soured milk. Not pleasant at all, but it did its job by giving me fair and smooth skin, so heck about that smell for it'll be masked by the flower bath anyway.
And after the yoghurt shower, I was asked to enter the flower bath, filled with many rose petals and smelling like a rose garden, and relax for 20 minutes while she served me a plate of fruits and hot tea.
And after all that, I was done! Had to wait about 15 minutes for ZH and KK, for they only had 1 shower facility in the couple room and had to 'queue up'.
After we bid the friendly staff of Sang Spa 2 goodbye, we met up with Made back at Matahari Cottages, checked out and headed off for lunch. And our final meal in Bali? I'm guessing you already have an idea, how can you not have Babi Guling in Bali, right?
However, instead of bringing us to Ibu Oka, Made decided to bring us to their local road side stall to try out the true local taste, for according to him, Ibu Oka has tweaked the taste to suit foreigners more.
And we couldn't get enough of the Babi Guling! The skin was indeed roasted till crispy (you will sound like you're biting through a cracker) and very flavourful and the meat was so tender we all thought we're served chicken!
And after lunch, we hopped onto Made's car again and headed to Oleh Oleh, which is just 5 minutes away from the airport.
And yup, after getting our bags of purchase, we got onto Made's car one last time and headed for the airport.
Time to say goodbye to both Made and Bali. :(
Made was really nice to give us a discount (shan't say how much) for the last day, but we still gave him an extra amount for the awesome service he has rendered us for the past 4D3N in Bali. For Made's contacts, please visit my Day 1 post.
And just a small rant plus a small scare at the airport. After checking in our luggage, we were told that the boarding gate hasn't been confirmed and it shall be broadcasted once confirmed, at least 30 minutes before boarding time. And so, we conveniently forgot that we still had to clear the Bali customs, and started chillaxing at the benches located at the side of the check in counter and started surfing net and etc while on the airport wifi.
Then came the big big frown. It's barely 1 hr to our flight and our boarding gate is still a big question mark. And then someone said, "We should go in first."
And so we gathered our hand luggage and trudged in, to find this horrible queue that goes 2 way at the custom! Shucks!
And guess what, we decided to make a left turn at the split and obviously, it wasn't the right turn. No puns intended.
I really have no idea how they work, but these 2 queues obviously were equally long, yet the right queue led to 3 open counters yet our left queue was tended by just 1 counter, with custom officers coming by to the closed counter to flip the papers around and then leave, giving us false hope of having more counters opened to ease up the queue.
The people in our line were sooooooo frustrated and this Asian lady in the zigzag line behind us (meaning 1 turn of the line away from us) was so annoyed she just yelled at her Caucasian partner, who obviously had cleared custom via the right queue, "THEY ONLY OPEN UP 1 FUCKING COUNTER FOR THIS LINE. THIS IS SO FUCKING RETARDED!"
And of course, she got her partner to go ahead to the boarding gate and I really hope she made it in the end.
Anyway, while in queue and just 30 minutes away from our flight and 10 minutes before boarding gate closes, our boarding gate is announced. And at 5 minutes before gate closes, the 3 of us finally cleared custom and off we sprinted (me with a heavy backpack and a heavy hand luggage T.T) to our boarding gate, which was so friggin far away.
And as if our insect-attack at Matahari Cottages wasn't enough, we had a fluttering dragonfly on board the airplane shuttle with us! *sigh*
Nevertheless, these 4D3N was still made extremely fun and enjoyable with Made and Bali has definitely made my re-visit list. Well, not a beach person but I guess I should give Kuta and Seminyak a shot, yeah? :)
Till then,
Mia
