Home from Bali

After so many days being away from Hannah (this was the longest time that we had left her), we were really glad to be home. When she saw us come to pick her up from her Ah Mah's house, she was so excited and ran excitedly to meet us. We were so surprised that after only 5 days, she was suddenly so chatty and began talking away, some of which we could understand and the rest of it which was a mixture of words and baby talk :)

We bought her a dress from Bali and tried it on for her. It fit okay, except for the straps which were a little loose. The things there are really cheap, this dress is about RM5.00 only!



I tried to get her to give me a nice expression for the camera, and here are a few of her cheeky faces:

Excited when she saw her Vitamin C sweeties:



Yawn!



Hmm?



Big smile!

Bali Trip - Day 4

There was no planned tour for Day 4 of our trip, so we just spent the morning in the hotel. The guys went for a swim and a few games of water volleyball while I just lazed around in the sun and snapped pictures.



Later, we took a walk downtown to Kuta which was very near our hotel. This was a local handphone shop where Steven stopped to buy credit for his local number.



We had lunch at this pancake place called Flapjaks.



Doesn't the waffle look yummy?



Kuta beach - plenty of activity going on:

Bali Trip - Day 3

On Day 3, we still took the hired van so our first stop was to see a traditional Barong Dance. We didn't really understand most of it, but there was a brochure explaining the dance to us in English.



After that, we stopped by a local market for some shopping. The things here (and in Bali generally) are really cheap. I managed to buy a pair of nice slippers with beading for only RM5.00. In any case, the trader's opening price was only RM20.00! Things like this here are definitely cheaper than in Hatyai.



For lunch, we went up to the hills to have our meal overlooking the view of the volcano. This view was even better than yesterday's rice terraces.





After lunch, we went to another temple. But the difference was this temple involved people getting in a sort of pool to offer their prayers.





The next stop was probably the best part of the whole tour - Sunset Temple at Tanah Lot. The views there were simply breathtaking. It reminded me a lot of Australia's Great Ocean Road.







At the same location, we watched another tradional dance in the evening - the "Kechak Dance". After the show, they allowed us to take pictures with the dancers in their costumes.



The man on the dancer's left is our driver - Pak Nyok.



For dinner, we had typical Balinese cuisine - what they call "babi guling" - some sort of roasted pork. I didn't want pork, so I had chicken instead. But this is babi guling in the picture.



We were back quite early that night, so we took a walk down to Kuta beach which is about 15 to 20 minutes walk from our hotel. Plenty of things happening there, and Hard Rock Hotel and Cafe is also located there.

Bali Trip - Day 2

Our holiday only properly started on Day 2 of our trip. We hired a private van with a driver for 2 days which cost per day was 350,000 rupiah (not inclusive of parking fees, entrance fees and food). Our first stop was Nusa Dua beach where we took a boat out to Turtle Island, which was sort of an animal sanctuary for turtles and other type of reptiles.







Later on, we visited the Monkey Temple and there were lots of monkeys running around in the wild. We were cautioned that the monkeys would jump on us and in fact one of them did jump on Max.



For lunch, the driver took us to this restaurant with a really nice view of the rice terraces and fields. Here is what we saw from the restaurant window:



After lunch, we headed to Bedugul to visit the famous temple on the lake.



Funny picture of the 5 guys:



I suppose a trip to Bali wouldn't be complete without getting some of the "Kopi Luwak" or civet coffee. We did not buy any though, as we are not coffee drinkers. Some of our friends bought the coffee as gifts for people back home. It's not cheap, almost RM100.00 for just a small box.



For dinner, we had seafood on the beach. The restaurant gave us flowers to wear in our hair, even for the guys :)



There was a traditional dance performed during the dinner and we took a few pictures with the dancers.

Bali Trip - Day 1

Hubby and I and a few of our friends took a trip to Bali last week for 5 days. We had actually planned this trip almost a year ago and booked the tickets during one of the cheap flights promotion by Air Asia. Since it was that long ago, one of our friends even got pregnant and just delivered in early March so she couldn't come along (her husband came with us though). When we booked the tickets, she was not even pregnant yet. So in the end it was just the 6 of us.



There is no direct flight from Penang to Bali, so we had to transit in Kuala Lumpur. Quite troublesome as we had a long transit for almost 6 hours in LCCT.



It was a long day and we reached Bali at around 7.30 pm. There is no time difference but it gets dark very fast; 6 pm it is already dark. After a long day, we were tired but happy.



We checked in to our hotel - Bali Kuta Resort by Swiss-Belhotel. We booked it through the internet a few weeks before our trip. The rooms were pretty standard, but quite pleasant.



Our dinner on the first night recommended by the hotel - nasi pedas (spicy rice). It looks pretty normal but the chilli is really really spicy and our mouths literally felt like they were on fire.

Strike a pose

We recently discovered that Hannah is quite the "poser" when it comes to taking photos.

First pose:



Second pose:



I took her to a nearby playground on Saturday while waiting for Hubby to get his hair cut. Posing on the slide:



Excited pose - Mummy, I want to go slide again!

Hannah "working"

I have learnt a new word - "working". Everytime I am busy "writing" or "colouring", I will tell Mummy and Daddy that I am "working" :)

Here I am "working" with Daddy. Daddy is marking his exam scripts and I am colouring in my book. Mummy bought me new colour pencils so now I have both my washable markers as well as my colour pencils. Mummy and Daddy find that it can keep me occupied for a longer time compared to my other toys.



I am fully concentrating - Mummy and Daddy still cannot decide whether I am right-handed or left-handed.



Another form of me "working" is to answer the telephone at Ah Mah's house. I will pick up the phone and say "hello".



"Hold on, please".



"Ugh - prank call!" :)

Update: Good!

Remember in the last post I said that Hannah couldn't coordinate her thumb and index finger properly so her sign for "good" was pointing both fingers like a gun? Well, last night, she finally mastered it. She was twiddling her fingers and suddenly realised that she could do it. As usual, she was really excited and called out to us to see, "Daddy, Mummy, good, good!" We were also super proud of her. Funny how being parents make us beam with pride over the smallest things :)

Here was her "good" sign this morning - a little blurry cos she was excitedly waving her hand around.



Can see it clearer now, but she was not looking at the camera because she was distracted by the TV.



And again - once she discovers she can do something, she will do it over and over again :)



Blurry picture again - cheeky little girl who cannot sit still!