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Barely Even a Person

Peaky Blinders fans, where are you?! You must know a Cillian Murphy meme’s circulating on Instagram with a question: Are you a morning person or a night person? To which he replied: I’m barely even a person?

Well.. I felt that was exactly what happening to us. Oh! who is us? me and my favourite Biatch Irina! Our inbound flight started early #let’s not talk about outbound flight! -_-

This trip was my reward to myself ~ my one last holiday before starting at my new company. Irina chose Sofia, my job was simply to tag along haha if this trip hadn’t happened, I would still visit her in Amsterdam ~ stayed at her place then eating Indonesian food everyday 😉 One way or the other, I am seeing her!

Since I was preoccupied with my recent Australian Trip, I didn’t even do nothing ~ as I said, purely tag along #Facepalm. She found an amazing AirBnB, its pricier than our usual accommodation but it was absolutely worth it! We had the entire aparment to ourselves, complete with two full separate bathrooms. It’s called 5 Vintage Guest House, chose the “One-Bedroom Apartment with Garden View”. Address: 49 William Gladstone Street.

Barely Even a Person Day #Arrival

I arrived an hour and a half earlier than her, not realizing that Sofia is an hour ahead from Germany, which is enough to messed with my still on jetlag body. Since nothing was opened yet, I waited at the airport until she came to rescue me 🙂

Took U-Bahn where a good Samaritan offered her a Vitamin just because he heard she was sick the week before. We obviously didn’t take it, as a fans of true crime, we don’t accept thing from strangers.

Once we checked into our beautiful AirBnB, we did absolutely nothing except grabbed food at a wonderfully kitschy restaurant called Shtastlivetsa Vitoshka~ the kind that reminds you of a fancy old grandma’s house ~ I had an amazing Veal toung there. Afterward, we hit the supermarket for snacks for our following trip then watch The Nanny on Amazon Prime after several attempts on fighting the Audio which was defaulted to French.

Repeating Barely Even a Person Day #Strike two

We had a packed schedule in front of us. Iri bought the perfect 3 in 1 day trip:

Boyana Church

    The Frescoes inside the church were still legit! It’s good to see that some places really took care about preservation. They only allow 8 people inside for no more than 10 Minutes to maintain humidity.

    Our guide Lubo explained the imagery at the top of the church is always God in the center watching over and guiding us. Even though photo isn’t allowed inside, you can see similar frescoes in other churches around Sofia.

    It’s a very small church, entrance fee is 10 Euro, no timeslot, it’s consider inexpensive compare to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. I’d say do it! otherwise what are you gonna do anyway. The park around it is very small.

    Rilla Monastery

    Wow! Magnificent! + located at the mountain, so breezy. Inside the Monastery is very beautiful, again, no photo. Behind it, there is a small Cafe for breakfast ~ the choices aren’t that broad, ordered a big round bread to share while Irina add a plate of Cheese. Some says to have a Yoghurt there, neither of us did. Later on Irina tried from the supermarket but she wasn’t convinced.

    The Cave

    Saint Ivan of Rila, he was a monk stays in this cave for about 10 years before his followers built the church. Super dark, we had to turn on our mobile flashlight, tiny too. While we were queuing, Irina’s main takeaway was being amazed that the cave doesn’t have rats haha, focus yo! There’s a very tiny stairs where it was believed or joked by our guide that if we pass through that hole, use the stairs to climb to the other side, meaning you are born again, the hole has washed all our sins.

    The hike itself is quite something, full of rocks therefore you really need to watch your step. It doesn’t take that long maybe only 25 minutes up and down.

    When we got back to the city, we decided to get dinner at Ribs Brothers, it was so good! After being told that some of the main roads would be closed the next day for Sofia Marathon, we took advantage of the evening to walk around the city while we still could.

    Sofia is beautiful! It has lots to offer considering their compact size.

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    Double-double – Part 4

    Who was my first guest to host in my new set up apartment? my fav biatch Irina! Welcome to Dortmund 🙂

    When she arrived on a Friday, Dortmund had a small Music Festival where we had places to move around #it ain’t that full haha, we saw one singer, to me & Iri she’s good, to Dom is the opposite. Once she asked the Publikum to sing along, the result is obvious: noone sang. As an entertainer… the Germans are very spaß bremsen.

    On Saturday we went to Köln, she found a very nice Korean chicken wing restaurant + had a must drink Kölsch #Alcohol time. Last day, we had lunch at Phoenix See, then we sent her back to Flixbus station.

    Thank you for visiting me… and Dom too! I’m starting questioning the reality… was she come to get to know my boyfriend or to meet me? haha anyway girl, we had fun having you here.

    Thanks for letting me chill and above all for fixing my head shower, you are welcome to chanelling your ADHD here 😉

    ‘Till we meet again!

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    The Credits – Part 4

    Shout out to Irina for not only taking fully charge of Poland’s trip but also for taking all pictures because either my finger or my phone could handle it.

    Recap of what had we done?

    Above All Else, Take In Any Daily Light Chance

    Sun’s appearance is something we have to cherished on, do German outside activity a.k.a spazieren gehen around the pretty buildings, tried to pay attention to Gdansk’s mysterious bridge opening time or opt for other directions.

    Iri said she hates the fact that our beannie will always go up, so I used two of my hairclips to keep it down. Did it work? Meh… not so sure. Long story short, it became really complicated once we got inside to a restaurant I need to take it out one by one ~ thick gloves + giant bottle + scarf + Ororo + hats. That’s why they said ~ if I was a toy, it’ll be written Accessories Are Sold Separately

    I Can Love You in the Dark

    Around 16:30 the sun has gone, had it not for Roberto and Zibi for sure we would already go back to our AirBnB at 18:00 😀 Not because the city wasn’t pretty, more like our body automatically think it was already 23:00.

    Brought two colors of Beanie, wearing red is the better one. Roberto always found her first while Zibi founds me, thanks to my red beanie, it made me visible 🙂 or even part of somethings bigger or smaller 😉 Mr. Gnome

    Indoor Chance

    I always aim to the mall instead of our AirBnB if I want to use the loo mwahaha ~ if I was back at my place, won’t move out into the coldness everrrr.

    Went to a Pierogi place, their Menu looks very fantastic, Irina reminded me “Marlyn each is 300 gram, are you sure you gonna have 6 pcs?” I ended up with 5. Ordered their beer, OMG it was sooooo good!

    Tis the Season to Be Jolly, Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la

    At first we didn’t grasp the size of Gdansk Christmas Market because it was splitted into some sections, it was the largest they ever got.

    Saw some stand I never saw in Germany before, Oysters! not gonna leave Gdansk before I had it. And one other where people always wait in line, for a small sweets? Marlyn, are you really gonna wait? Yes I am. It wasn’t sweets at all, was cheese! Definitely two pcs is enough.

    Learn About #Solidarnosc.

    Poland’s non violent social movement who challenged the communist government and fight for democracy. It’s important to visit this museum, very well explained about when the strike started in Lenin Shipyard Gdansk that caused another chain of strikes, how they got their 21st based requirement fulfilled only to be taken away few years later. There are some people Polish need to be proud to have, Lech Walesa is one of them.

    Uncomfortable Facts

    We experiences some rasistic behavior from mens in Gdansk. You do not need to be able to speak Polish to understand if someone mocking at you. One guy outside the train station while we were lost at finding our street and one guy while we were taking picture in the dark screaming at us. We didn’t bother anyone, maybe we were too sensitive? No! I walked by three guy with a pumpkin on their hand during day light, one of them looked at me saying “cang cing cong” insulting my Asian face. You three put Polish people on shame!

    Fazit

    Poland really has some history for a quiet young country. I shall revisit you… perhaps in Summer where I’ll know I’ll Survived

    Thank you Irina, I won’t have these beautiful Poland Express memories without you, love you Bitch! <3

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    Survived

    Oh Marlyn, it’s written: better to be overdressed than underdressed for the walking tour ~ informed Irina. Allright, I put on double layer in everything: socks + pants + clothes. We spent 3 hours walking on -6 degree, many people gone in the middle of the tour, had to take a break in a Cafe to buy some drinks or use the bathroom because at some point I wasn’t gonna make it.

    While Irina was on the cashier line, I was on the toilet line, it was only one, we had to squezze, behind me was a guy name Roberto ~ at that time I didn’t know his name yet. Switch position with Irina, I heard her speaking Spanish to…. Roberto! Then I came with our chocolate + rum drink “oh it’s you again!” he also really needed the break for the same reason ~ he wasn’t going to make it. Not long after, his boyfriend called all of us to come out as the tour has to be continued.

    We were enduring for the last one and a half hour of cold Gdansk. Ended up in a restaurant, I had my calamari rice whereas they were only drinking tea. We were talking about what was our plan, turns out we have similar one, we wanted to go to Sopot the next day so we all went together 🙂

    Roberto asked “are we going to rely everything on my boyfriend or we do actually have a concrete plan”

    Oh I’m happily chose the first.

    Zibi is Polish so we do not have to think about which train, platform, when to get off #Pampered.

    Behind the Sopot sign was a church, don’t know if its opened. Roberto mentioned “it’s the house of Lord, you can always come anytime”. He was correct, three of us entered the church, Iri said “cute” + Roberto “Wow” + me “guys, there is a coffin, I think we need to get out”. It’s all make sense now on the type of car parked outside of it. We were so cancelled, Zibi next time informed us so we didn’t crashed someone’s funeral!

    Off to go to the famous Sopot bridge where Zibi kept sliding as if he was on the ice rink, we went quite far like almost reached the end until our stomach called us, we need to act up. He found a very good restaurant.

    Roberto ordered Zupa la Zupa, can’t remember which type, it was the one with bread, very delicious. Then main courses came, the waiter want to take the Zupa, NO! We are still eating it. I like my food, just not the potatoes. In the end I was very happy we still have the bread from the Zupa.

    They went back to Gdansk while we went to Gydnia. You can fell the Communisim in this city is still pretty strong, it didn’t take us long time, let’s cut it, went back to gathered with them again haha.

    Zibi bought Roberto an Amber pendant from Sopot and Roberto bought a necklace to which he doesn’t need the pendant. Iri said “give it to Marlyn, she will take any free item” yessss! Now I have your supposedly pendant 😉

    Zibi managed to book the very fancy + always full restaurant, even my drink came in a Glass cage with smokes. Irina’s friend introduced a very cool bar, it took us some efforts to find it but it was worthy!

    We met on our last day in Poland for Pierogi dinner. Me & Iri went the previous day for soury taste, so happy we could try their sweet taste too. Closing the night with Glühwein right next to it #Literally, I shouldn’t have placed back all my accessories haha.

    This evening, I found out Zibi’s ability to sleep through the entire flight without using the bathroom so he never know how does a toilet on airplane looks like. Irina dragged Roberto to listen to “She’s on the money” Yaaiisss!! We need rich friends! 😀

    Believe in the magic of survival skill, from “we were not gonna make it, our toes gonna have frosbite, to we did made it! “

    I hope to see you again, read: come to EU please XOXO

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    Accessories Are Sold Separately

    One Castle Irina wanted to go: Malbork Castle ~ approximately one hour away from Gdansk. Bought the ticket however…. there was no chance to understand the where and what type of train, it was all written in Polish. Google mentioned one train right in front of us ~ red colour, looks way too fancy for the price we paid. We were 100% sure our ticket couldn’t take this. Let’s wait for the next one… waiting… waiting…. it finally arrived, you could directly see it was more budget ~ blue color, showed our ticket to the conductor, he said “next one”. The next one arrived ~ another blue. Well…. how long will we wait then? let’s just hop in.

    Read our confused face, a guy asked if he can help, yes please! if you can tell us if this train go to Malbork, got double confirmation from him and a mother who also wanted to go there with her son. Since we didn’t buy seat reservation, we always moved to the next empty seat. It was only two long stops from Gdansk, we have moved three times until the conductor checked our ticket. We weren’t supposed to take this one, great! Yet, our stop is on the way, they couldn’t really kicked us out. Once arrived at the station, hmmmm where to go? I said “let’s follow the mother & son, I saw they were going that way” turns out she was also searching for us and Irina became our Shepherd.

    She bought audio book. Wow, more accessories on me #Facepalm.

    I’m very glad she booked it, without it we would certainly be lost, there was no clear sign on where to go next. I started to enjoying it, it takes 4-5 hours to complete the whole castle. In the middle of the story, it said we need a break #Thoughtful.

    Walked around outside the castle, nothing to do there, decided to get closer to Madonna and Child statue. Tried to replicate it haha.

    While walking back to train station, we passed the very interesting Malbork sign, ought to have a photo of it. How? We thought to do copy paste as do not want to ask passerby ~ why simplified while we can complicated it 😉 Put one of my accessories into the use.

    Boah… the struggle of taking it

    #Worth a thousand words 😀

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    Mr. Gnome

    My favourite Bitccchhhhhh texted me for one purpose: sychronising our holiday… we do still have some days left! Neither Germany nor Amsterdam are not cold enough, let us hit Poland hey! 😀

    She was already there a week earlier with her friend, I jumped into the Wagon afterwards. Played my Uno Reverse card this time a.k.a table has turned, meaning I didn’t plan any, nada, niente, null. Not bother to know where we’ll stay, what kind of activity we’ll do, what to eat etc.

    First stop was Wroclaw. I arrived in the evening around dinner time, Irina asked if I want to eat Polish food? Perhaps later, I wanna have Ramen now! Who searched for the restaurant? her #Obviously 😉

    While she was waiting in line, she pointed:

    • I was there in the Galeria-Hof, there are animals, you can have a look and touch it.
    • Why would I touch an animal at this hour?
    • No, were only a statue
    • Ahhhhh! Ok Ok

    Saw it, backed at her still on the line waiting. The place doesn’t have good ventilation so we were stinky right after, the Ramen itself was good though! We hang our clothes for two nights in the balcony to reduce the smell. Next day, we did walking tour, ready to learn some Polish history.

    Something very funny about this place is the number of Gnome scatter on doorways, alley, windows, street corners etc. What was started as a peaceful protest became an invasion 😉 so much so till the number reached more than 1.100. Forget about the churches or castle, we were on Gnome hunting!

    The first Gnome ever to honor the movement is Papa Krasnal. So many distractions during our Papa Krasnal hunt; must buy new gloves ~ obviously can’t pay with card, had to go to ATM; being tempted by Popcorn smell; wait! we have another factor need to be considered here: The Weather, once it got dark, we couldn’t see Papa Krasnal or any other Krasnal anymore. Set our priorities straight and Papa was found!

    How wonderful it was to be on the Christmas market freely without feeling like a sardine #Köln experience. Speaking about Germany, why do we have a Bavarian Lion? #Confused.

    Wearing a red beanie was the correct choice, it made me visible or genauer gesagt made me Marlyn Krasnal #Part of Krasnale Tribe.

    Mr. Gnome, you are such a creativity, thank you for the entertaining 🙂

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    Discoveries

    I discovered many new things during my stays with Irina 😀 from snacks to stores to experiences, let’s get to the bottom of it!

    She brought me to Xenos, oh how I love that place, can get Asian snacks! Hope it will be spicy, it’s not #What have I thought pffff. She is the queen of snacks, the good one are keep beckoning her to buy it. Not only Amsterdam is heaven for Asian snacks #Power of Colonization! but also for sweets, we accidentally passed by a new Cinnamon rolls shop #Lecker lecker

    Visited Thrift stores where I finally can buy pants for my size: two of it + two tops. Funny how I need to go to the tallest populations in order to get what fits me #Ironic. It is really an appropriate good stores, not smelly or disgusting, they really do take care of it. You can find everywhere here from tableware to clothes to piano haha. I kept questioning myself “how can I carry these to Germany?” 😉

    Wow look at that, the opening bridge for ships, I saw it twice. Word from Irina “Look at this building Marlyn, you are standing in front of history from 1689” Gotcha, snap snap.

    She known I won’t leave Amsterdam until I ate in Indonesian restaurant. Well, to get rid of me haha she make sure it happened. She found a new one called Toko Bersama where we got to meet Novrie. Look at our portion, it is massive and it’s very delicious too! We got free Krupuk + water + located near Irina’s + we had to take it home (read: got food for next day). Without a doubt, this will be our new favourite place.

    Not to forget going to Warung Made, the place where I always went, to see Zara again 🙂 on that day, we got a bonus aka two new friends: Poppy and Tari! Our conversation started from the very normal wishy washy talk such as “where are you from etc” to sharing a personal toilet experience?! What?! Irina has a lot of it! she even explained the difference between the USA, EU and Asian one whoaaa hygiene engineering to the max!

    I always like to go to Amsterdam, it is a fun city to visit, especially with all of these new discoveries, the game changes to another excitement level. Irina even says there are thrift store where I can bring my stuff then they will exchange it with “Points” to be able to use in their store; blew my mind. Say goodbye to my handbag signature, I’m coming with my luggage from now on 😉

    Smart takes:

    • Oh I took a FlixBus to Amsterdam remember? Guess what? two policemen came inside shouting “Passport control” yes it was written that I need to bring Passport, lucky me I actually listened. This was my first time I got ever checked; well….. to be honest, I usually took trains. He even asked questions like the Airport Customs: is it your first time in Ams, how long will you stay, where is your accommodation, are you on holiday or business. Bottom line, bring your passport everywhere even when you only crossing the border.
    • Activate your “Data Roaming” just as long as you’re inside EU or else you couldn’t use your German phone number. Thank you to the young lady in the Sloterdijk Station for your help!

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    Tres B!tchketters

    Amid my stress level, I knew I had to visit my biatch Irina, und zwar inmediatamente. When would it be? being #OnBudget you gotta calculate everything hey, before Easter that’ll be it, didn’t take long to got her confirmation, Fixbus here I come. One ripple sets off another to my other biatch Tereza, so great she’s also available to meet me! My serotonin levels got boosted by planning to meet my friends again, a great amount of endorphins release when I actually hug them.

    When I arrived, she was surprised as I carried a proper carry-on luggage, yes this is what happend when you also do WFH therefore I couldn’t only come with my signature handbag haha.

    Some requirements I briefed her, won’t leave Amsterdam until I ate in Takumi + Indonesian Restaurant, practically I still have to leave hey haha. She warned me that the Takumi is not that great, how come? she just came back from Japan #That’s why, everything is way better there! Even though they really do try their best to copy the taste, ain’t the same, Japan is whole another level. Their Menu is really different from what they have here in Dortmund or Düsseldorf, she encouraged me to choose a completely new flavor, was I disappointed? Nope! Plus point is they have Calpis! Bring back to my time with Eri in Shanghai or in Japan itself, I tried Calpis Cassis, both are good #Yum!

    Prior to joining Tereza & her friends, Irina brought me to a veryyyy nice Australian Cafe called Five Ways, she mentioned all Cafe made by Australians are good, their cookies are to die for! #Figuratively. Irina still can’t take the Japan out of her, look at her Hello Kitty Leather jacket, so Japan! It fits her perfectly!

    We gathered with our Terezaaaa ~ lady in pinkkk in Burger King, not so many restaurants options in the center that didn’t ripped your wallet hey 🙂 Then I wanted to go to Uniqlo so much as I don’t have it in Dortmund, do we have time? Yes because Tereza friends were only sitting haha I bought 2 pairs of clothing on Discount! yeayyy! #MoneyWins! Then we gathered with her friends, where to bring a tourist when you’re new in Amsterdam, obviously flower market.

    We separated on the corner, we will meet again on Irina’s stand up comedy show 🙂 in Spanish #My first Stand up Comedy ever. Tereza got the jokes, while me…. no entiendo nada however I understand body language + facial expressions.

    Who would have known that that evening could be my last time meeting Tereza as she will embarks on a new journey to New Zealand 🙂

    Tereza, I know you are very looking forward for this move, strangely my heart feels a little heavy, I can only guarantee Irina’s felt 10 thousand times heavier. Rest assured we too are happy for you, it’s a double edge sword. Funny enough, you are geographically closer to my hometown! It makes me believe; somehow, somewhere, our paths will cross again.

    I felt really recharged after spending time with my favorite bitches during the turbulent moments in my life. Irina kept reminding me that this is exactly the moment where my patience isn’t just an idea but something I actually have to live through. Even though it’s tough sometimes, I’m so grateful to have friends who help me laugh, breathe and keep going a little bit stronger.

    To both of you: no matter where life takes us, to new jobs, new homes, or even new hemispheres, our bond will always stay. Here’s to friendship that distance can’t erase, bitches!

    Love you loads <3

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    We Need to Calm Down

    Last day before Iri continued her trip to Kuala Lumpur, we really need to calm down 🙂

    Oyke took us to a Luwak Coffee hmmm not really a plantation, same same but different, mir fehlt das Wort. The name of the place is Uma Pakel Bali ~ Agro Tourism. They don’t have many Luwaks because it’s not where it all stays, they process the poop into coffee, let’s put it that way.

    Anyway what do we do here is we saw one sleeping Luwak, yes it’s a nocturnal animal. His dried poops ~ FYI not smelly ~ how they extract coffee from the poops which is not a lot, moreover he is not pooping every day. The rarity caused Luwak coffee is the world’s most expensive coffee.

    We got a set of trial Coffee & Tea for free, Irina ordered one cup of Trial Luwak coffee for 65K. Uma Pakel itself is really Zen-ing, durch die Nase einatmen durch den Mund ausatmen, ooooommmmm.

    The very Ubud’s vibe is Rice Terrace view, of course with swings photos spot who act like a franchise you can find it almost everywhere.

    Then we went to Uma Ceking Rice Terraces. Didn’t pay extra cost for taking pictures with clothes in the swing, happy with the Kostenlose nest ones 🙂 We played quiet some time with the Love sign, tried to put both our feet into our fingers, didn’t work, should’ve left the heart alone #Wink

    This time Irina went down to the sign Uma Ceking while I stayed up there, she was confused like how can I go down in NP where the weather & the steps was worse than this? Well…. I have been wearing Havaianas flip flop all the time, my feet are hurting, I can’t wear shoes either yo it’s too warm hahaha should have bought the Birkenstock #German, bring your national sandals.

    Next place is Ubud Market, you have to bargain, I didn’t really do it. I mean, I did until I got cheaper price than in DE, except I’m not squeeze them, can’t do that to my people. We met Oyke in Barong Cafe where he made us drinks. Most of the food we ate are either Nasi Ayam (chicken rice) or Bebek (Ente).

    Last destination is Tegunungan Waterfall! There is also a beach club called Oma Beach Club not with infinity pool vibe like TT, instead with Waterfall background. You can see from the top how the beach club looks like afterwards decided if you want to go or not. You can also see it from near had you willing to take the stairs down, we didn’t, just saw it from distance is enough haha

    I told Iri what I always do on my last day in Indonesia is to cut my hair! Subsequently we are looking for a saloon! When you are in Ubud there is a restaurant called “Bebek Tepi Sawah” the literal German translation is Ente neben dem Feld haha yes there is a real Sawah. This is the premium Bebek restaurant. Funny thing is the day before while we were on the way from Tirta Gangga to Ubud we also had a Bebek street food style. I called it Bebek Tepi Jalan or “Ente neben der Straße” hahaha European People don’t have anything from Street food please, your belly won’t handle it. #No jokes.

    That was my trip experience with my bitch Irina 😀 not sure if she enjoyed it, she was sweating also becoming a mosquito target the whole time. While I only apply on sunscreen, she put sunscreen + repellent. Well, it’s gotta happen anywhere in South East Asia, not only in Bali, suck it up! haha

    Got to be honest, she didn’t experience Bali’s beginners tourist, neither does she want that, that’s why she went with me 🙂

    Bonus Tippssss:

    • Private Tour with Oyke 950K for 9 hours.
    • Overtime Oyke for 10 hours, it’s basically another day haha due to traffic and destination distances like Karangasem that just way too far from Ubud, so we paid 1Million extra time.
    • Rosella Tee while visited Uma Pakel 110K
    • Entrance Uma Ceking (not with the Swing photos etc) 50K
    • Entrance Tegunungan Waterfall 20K
    • Ubud Market, don’t pay more than 100K for each piece of cloth.

    Who is Oyke btw? he is not a random guy I found on internet like the NP Tours one, he is a boyfriend of my University friend. Balinese, his main job is Bali Shisha Service, in spite of that, he used to open his own tour agency. If you want to talk Oyke, compare price, schedule etc, please contact me and I will give Oyke’s WA. He’s not taking customers from outside other than from references as he is focusing more of his Shisha business.

    This is him!

    Who’s coming next to Bali? #来来来

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    Preparado Preparado

    Right after we back to civilized road of Bali, we stayed in my fav district of all time: Ubud ~ trust me, it has an “asik” vibe #Top

    Our hotel called Menzel Ubud owned by a German: Andreas Menzel who got married to a Balinese hahaha Irina is such a good news info. Nope this is not the reason why we choose it, rather Iri got a discount from Booking & free 30 min massage from Menzel #Sold!

    The second must watch dance in Bali called Barong Dance. Barong (masked figure) represents good guy who fights against bad guy Rangda, spoiler alerts: no one wins. Shows a symbolic of an eternal fight between the good and the bad.

    Once the performance finished, outside this building, there are many sellers like bracelet, Balinese stuff etc. I don’t really want to buy any of it until a very old grandpa approached me saying “please help me, no-one has bought from me so far, you can pay according to what you want” I took small smiley blue bracelet for 5K. Please preparar some small money like 5K – 10K just in case if you want to help them.

    Iri looked at the beautiful building next to the Barong shows, I called it the Froggy! whereas she neglects the frog appearance haha turns out it’s a silver manufacture. I got myself a crown earrings! Always like to have some jewelry from place I visited. They also break the Indonesian Museum of Record for the longest dragon statue made out of silver.

    The journey to Karangasem district took at least 2 hours, it could be almost 3 hours. I lost track of time, what do we do there? visit Lempuyang Temple and Tirta Gangga.

    Unbeknownst to me, what is in the Lempuyang Temple? There are only 2 sides. First: The stairs which has doors at the top, to which you can’t enter. Remember, what happen behind closed door #Sounds sinister ~ is not for tourist, it’s a prayer area.

    When we paid for entrance ticket after riding the shuttle bus, they gave me a number which written 410. Hearing what number it was then, knowing ours will not be up in any foreseeable hours, we went up to the stairs.

    Second: this Instragammable Gate! As I said, our number is 410, how long do we wait? More than 2 hours, the lady on the shuttle ticket counter at the bottom told the que could take up to 3 hours. Read: we got give or take half hour schneller. Tried to take pictures in between each number, je mehr we wait desto besser we realized about the “reflection” thingy they put on each phone to make it looks mirroring each other.

    We are literally thinking about which poses we would do, observing other people poses too. The setting was always like this: a group of max 4 people together, then each of the individual from the group, everyone got 4 poses. They tell “next pose, next pose” that’s why Preparada is important, there is simply no time to think, it won’t feel better anyway as whole bunch of people are waiting behind you.

    There were a Russian couple, after they had their couple picture only the girl wants to do her individual pose, we were 100% sure she is a Gymnast, all her poses were perfectly on point! We saw many things during our almost 2,5 hours waiting, a biracial couple ~ white guy & Asian lady ~ who fights, we overheard them quarrelling, the guy said they agreed to not paid or wait for pictures. Well, who knows? just leave dude, don’t be such an Ass blaming her who obviously not Indonesian. Even if she is, I am Indonesian, I have no idea that this temple was just like that nor about the fee. I came for holiday, not for counting every pennies I should prepara to spend for which activities it was budgeted for pffff

    I asked the lady who responsible for calling all the numbers, she said there is no time restrictions they will keep doing the photos until all guests are done. Only you won’t get the sunset behind you, when our turns arrived, we had just past it.

    I had all personal poses in mind, the guy on our turn is nicer than before, he was newer, probably only 5 numbers before me so he gave me more poses opportunity 🙂

    This is the real gate, by the way:

    Then we went out, going down to the other side from the gate, Iri like this side more. There is one monk sitting, we didn’t feel to walk pass through him. Thus we just stayed below.

    Next is Tirta Gangga sadly it’s all dark, we need to play with our flashlights to act as a lighting options. You can step on the stones, saw the fishes, you could also feed them had you arrive during day time.

    Bonus Tipsss & honest review:

    • Private tours with Oyke 950K for 9 hours.
    • Barong dance 150K
    • For Lempuyang Temple itself:
      • Prepare 4 poses ahead your time. There are many guys offering you to do some pictures like on the swing etc. One bule ~ Indonesian word for foreigner ~ did it, he was so satisfied, he said it’s only took 2 minutes with scooter, cost like 100-150K. This guy could be an option while you wait for your turn with the gate.
      • Take the shuttle 45K per person (back & forth), you can’t go 4km up to the temple. Entrance Lempuyang 70K for foreigners; 40 K for local. Bear in mind, it’s all for the pictures on the gate where 2 hours waiting is guaranteed. Bali first timers, better think twice.
      • Like in every temple, dress modestly, take Sarung, can’t enter during your menstruation.
    • If you want to go to Karangasem district, had I know it earlier, I would do the Tirta Gangga first. If you are not a picture person maybe skip this Lempuyang Temple? instead try to can catch sunset in the sunset point. These are literally all the main spots. Or have a better preparar by bring your own “reflection” thingy so you can do DIY on every gate 😀
    • Entrace Tirta Gangga 70K for foreigners; 35K for local.
    • If you stay at Ubud, it’s better to stay in a big road, choose some hotel which located at Jalan Pengosekan. It gives you better walking access. Menzel is a good hotel only it’s located inside small alley, you need to walk pass small rice field.
    • Search for a Barong Dance option in Garuda Wisnu Kencana Park. It is a cultural park with Amphitheater for the dance. You visited one place but able to do many sightseeing, for example statue Wisnu, Garuda and the complete version of Wisnu on the Garuda. https://www.theungasan.com/blog/a-visit-to-garuda-wisnu-kencana-cultural-park/