When Air Asia soaring the sky with its slogan Everyone Can Fly... it makes travelling accessible to everyone, and of course it was Pre Covid Pandemic.
Taking Air Asia all over South East Asia was a blessing, we were able to go places we never dreamt off.
January 2020
During this time, world news has already inundated with the spread of corona virus in Wuhan China. Our planned trip to Xian in February had already cancelled and refunded by AirAsia.
Now, flight AA AK374 was delayed by almost an hour from Klia2. It seems it was delayed by the previous flight.
While waiting, we search for airport transfer. From review, it could costs up to 550K to go to Candidasa by taxi and have to buy the ticket at the counter. Trip advisor is very helpful with lots of review and we decided to wa Pak Wayan. He immediately responded. At 375K rupiah or about RM111 for a 1.5 hour journey to the resort at nearly midnight. Then we search the simkad needed for a week. We decided to buy online from Klook and pick it up at Bandara Ngurah Rai once arrived, at RM28 each.
The nasi padang and bukhara chicken we preordered were delicious or maybe we were really hungry.
This is our 3rd trip to Bali. First was in 1996. Using RCI exchanging our Leisure Holidays unit for a 1 bedroom ground floor apartment in Kuta. Bali was already popular amongst European and Ozzie tourist but not amongst Malaysian or even Indonesian. We had difficulties looking for halal food. Walking from hotel to kuta beach, we were greeted with warung and mobile vendors selling babi guling.
We were lucky to have met a mat saleh, forgot already from which country, who took the trouble to show us the only halal small warung selling nasi padang and we frequented the outlet for our main meals almost daily.
From my observation, the parawisata industry in Bali was just beginning. Most people we met were honest, hardly try to skim off your tourist money. I hardly met a fat local, all slim bodies and work hard for their living.
It was a good first impression. we also found out that Balinese are very religious towards their hindu gods and goddesses, everywhere you go you will see people praying and give offerings to their gods, even on dashboard of a public transport or on the walkways of their shop. Always be careful not to purposely step on it.
Ten years later, in 2006 we made our 2nd trip with our no. 2 and no. 4 sons. We booked a resort in Jimbaran in exchange for our Royal Holidays unit in Haathi Mahal Goa. It was post Bali bombing incident and the scarred venues were visible. With a lapse of 10 years, Bali has changed a lot. With the influx of local tourist (Indonesian from other islands), there are more halal eateries owned by muslims from Java and Sumatra. So food is no longer a problem.
But the culture of authentic Balinese has somehow becomes degraded. Scammers are a plenty, for instance, if you want to exchange money, they sometimes give you counterfeit or not enough or badly damaged notes. The place of exchange is also a bit questionable, dark and isolated alley. maybe everyone is trying hard to survive in this fast growing communities. Even the Balinese we met felt very sad of the great eroding of their honor and culture. There are also many fat people around and difficult to find slim ones.
The 3rd visit is yet more surprises.
