I've always hated hospitals and doctors for that matter. But mostly since I've hated the injections I got as a kid! But also for the crowds and the solemn feeling that swept the entire area.

I've done my best to stay away from hospitals and have been pretty successful at that until now. I guess I pretty much am a great client for a health insurance company.

You get to a hospital and they make you wait for hours to see a doctor! Are they trying to get you worse? They're supposed to make you feel better. And doctors on top of that think they've been godsent to protect you and we are at their mercy. They walk out and take their own cool time to get back on duty!

These doctors assistants! They think they're even more important than the doctors themselves. They think no end of themselves! They talk rudely, refuse to tell you how long u need to wait, there's no transparency in how the scheduling works.

I'm at Makati Medical Center now waiting outside room 323 for a Doctor Emmanuel R Kasilag. I hope he's worth the wait as it's already been 2 hours and his assistants seem to be the worst Filipinos I've met!

Now I wonder whether it's easier to live with my sickness.

Initially, I was wondering what we were going to do in yet another volcano! We've seen quite a number already. But this experience in Banding was a whole lot different - we actually got really close to the crater. And the view was fantastic!

We went unto a point by car and then took the "okeks" ( bikes that ferry people around in the back seat). We got to beat a lot of the traffic by doing this.

The view was totally fantastic and mid blowing. We also felt really close to the crater which was steaming. We had seen most of the other volcanoes from a distance but we got really close to this one.

As Danny and Diar ( our local friends from the hotel now) told us, legend has it that the Sun God fell in love with his mother without knowing that she was his mother. His mother told him that if he were able to build a ship/boat in a day she would accept his love. She thought he wouldn't be able to do that. However, he completed the task successfully. The lady still refused him and in his anger, the Sun God kicked the ship and it overturned to form the Tankuban Perahu ( means overturned boat in Bahass). The mountains surrounding the krater actually look like an overturned boat. Check out the pictures.

After this, we went over to the hot springs. Since the area was really crowded, we didn't go to the public springs but instead to a privately owned resort which had it's own hot springs. We expected to see some spring and what we saw was a fabulous pool filled with hot spring water.

The dip in the hot spring pool was super relaxing! I felt so weak while I was inside and didn't even want to move an inch. Very refreshing and relaxing.

Remember to take your own towels to these places as they didn't have any on rent.

We had our dinner at the same spa/hotel and then got back to the city. I also got a bottle of Bintang here. That's the local Indonesian beer and it's pretty good.

It was actually nice to see Bandung's roads empty while we were getting back. Danny pointed it out to me that this was how Bandung normally was.

On the way back, I even got to visit a mosque. This is the first mosque I'm entering in my life ( yep, I haven't entered any in India). Was a nice experience.

With this, our grand Indonesia trip comes close to it's end. I will summarize our itinerary in a separate post to help travelers planning a 15 day trip to Indonesia.

We're now at Bandung which is a small hill station in West Java Indonesia. Since it's New Years day there were absolutely no hotels with rooms available. We called close to 50 of them on our bus journey from the Jakarta airport to Bandung.

We finally found that there was a room available at a hotel called Hotel Provence which was closer to being a 2 star kinda hotel. And the only room that they had was a family room which coated around (USD 75). Since we didn't have any other option for the night, we took the room this making it the most expensive of our rooms in Indonesia. However, the room was huge and very cozy. The hotel itself was set a little away from the city and had a very cozy atmosphere. Check out the pics of our family room.

We however got to find a smaller room in the same hotel today. A delux room costing 350,000 IDR ( around 35USD). The people in the hotel are very friendly and it's a family running the entire place.

We tried booking a car in the vicinity and most of the travel services were already booked. The hotel owner's brother however offered to take us around for about 250,000 IDR ( USD 25) if we would put in some fuel.

We food that our wheels for the day was an old Merc! How awesome is that! He he.

He took us to the famous "Jeans Street" which loving up to it's name is filled with stores selling branded clothes at discounted rates. These are mostly factor outlets. I managed to pick up a pair of Armani Jeans for around 250,000 IDR ( USD 25 approx). I also got a nice bow and arrows set to hang on the walls! There were so many guys selling air guns too here. One of them let me take a shot at a plastic bottle hanging high up. I managed to hit it. Yay! These guns cost around 50 USD.

The interesting thing in this street is that all the shops have huge lifelike statues of Rambo, spiderman, batman and the likes. Also, the prices here are already discounted and mostly are fixed price stores. Shopping here is a pleasure as compared to Bali or thee places where one needs to haggle.

There was also a Levis factory outlet here with a poster of Kangana Ranaut ( Indian actress/model). One of the stores also had an old vintage Morris Minor standing inside. And an old scooter. These guys are very creative with their store decorations. Nothing fancy, but they have these huge models outside or nice stuff inside.

We're now on our way to the hot springs here in Bandung. It's at a place called Cheeatar here. We may drop by to see another volcano too here ( I know what you're thinking! Another one? He he. Indonesia is filled with volcanoes). This one is called Tankuban Perahu.

Will update further by end of day.

To all the folks out there reading my updates - here's wishing you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Have arrived in Bandung and we're staying at Le Provence. We booked the room over the phone. Will update with pics once I get there!

Day 3 in Bali was reserves for visiting the must-see sites in Bali. We were still yet to see the Holy Spring temple ( Tirta Empul) and the Cliff temple ( In Uluwatu).

As we spoke to the driver, he told us that the places we wanted to visit were at opposite ends of the island and that would hence have a long travel time. He renegotiated the price to 350000 ( around 35 USD).

The holy spring temple was nice and resembled one of our Indian temples with holy water. The difference here was that you are allowed to dive into the water. And it was super clean! Other than the spring, the temple once again resembled the other temples.

On the other hand, the Cliff Temple was fabulous. As in mind- blowing. The temple is at the edge of a cliff with a view dripping down into the ocean at about 100 feet. Really amazing. Watch te pics. Really awesome.

They also had a Fire and Dance show showing a few scenes from the Ramayana. This was much better than the Barong dance that we saw earlier. Costs around USD 7 per person of I remember right. A little overpriced I thought. However, the temple is a MUST SEE destination. Don't miss it for anything. Be careful of the monkeys though. So many of them arous and they're out to grab your stuff. So secure everything.

We got caught in a lot of traffic heading to the temple and back. Each journey took us close to 2 hours. We were so tired by the time we got back!

The shops around the temples sell some amazing souvenirs. Bargain heavily to get a good deal.

We leave tomorrow for Jakarta to get to Bandung. I really don't have any regrets for leaving Bali. I think it is highly over rated and filled with too many tourists. However, it's worth traveling to Bali during the off peak season to immerse in the culture filled with Hinduism and Buddhism. And for people traveling to Bali for the beaches, I would advise you to think again. You may as well make a trip to the Philippines for that - Boracay or Palawan. For starters, most Filipinos speak English and they're also a polite bunch.

Right as I start punching in this information, you must know that Ubud is an absolutely MUST VISIT city in Bali. Not only because the movie Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts was shot here but for the fact that there's something about this town/city that makes you feel warm and comfortable. Ubud was voted the number 1 city in Asia and the number 5 city in the world by readers of the travelers magazine.

We visited the temple here which was nice. However as I mentioned earlier, each temple was beginning to increasingly look like the other now!

We then took some time to walk into the Ubud market which instantly transports you into a novel with cobblestone roads and prim and proper stores. The whole area felt like you were out in some European tiny village street with small cafes and book stores.

We wanted to go back there again but we never did get the time to manage it. Put aside a minimum of 2 hours for
Ubud and I would recommend half a day to walk around the place.

Definitely worth your time. If you're really not interested in hitting the parties and clubs at Kuta and Legian, you may consider staying in Ubud.

Here are some of the things I find very annoying in Bali. Some are unique to Bali while many of them are common to Indonesia.

1. You need to bargain for everything - trust me when I say that anything and everything can be bargained for ( hotel rooms included). If a person asks you for 100,000 IDR ( around 10 USD) for a product, remember that you can buy it for even 15,000 to 20,000 IDR ( around 2 USD).

2. Taxis never use their meters. They ask for absurd prices. Try to find bluebird cabs and you may be lucky to find a nice cabbie!

3. The traffic is horrendous. And all the time. If you enter Legian street or Kuta it would probably take you an hour to get out! There are just too many cars and bikes on the road. To add to these woes, you have all these Australian and American tourists who rent bikes and create mayhem on the roads!
( I am currently in the middle of a traffic jam too! )

4. There really ain't that great a beach! Or maybe I feel that way Coz I'm so used to the white sand blue water beaches of the Philippines.

5. The craziness of Legian street. Crazy parties are fun but then you need to feel safe. That feeling doesn't come at the crazy party places in Legian. Drugs are sold freely and people don't stop bothering you either to sell something to you or offer their various services. We chose to stay away from this area except when we wanted to shop.

6. You have this continuous feeling that you've been cheated or you may be cheated. Most of the locals and vendors are out to milk tourists for all they are worth. Even after you've finished bargaining you are still left with that feeling that you've paid too much!

7. The rental car guys can really becoming super annoying. You pay them to take you to where you want to go, but in reality they are taking money from you to take you to where they want you to go! You give them a list of places you want to see, they give you a fresh one and sell the idea to you saying its the best thing to do. You realize later that they want to take you to Batik stores, Silver/Gold stores, Spice gardens, Wood carving places etc ( All of whom are giving the driver money for bringing you there). Even the restaurant they took us was crappy and super expensive. By afternoon, you've realized that the drivers just taking you where he wants and you're wasting most of the day doing useless stuff!

Note: Put your foot down in the beginning. Say no to batik, spices and everything they say. Insist on eating where you want. Trust me, you will land up saving a lot of money and time. You can always buy batik or spices from the hundreds of stores in the evenings when you have more time.

8. They don't really allow you into tue actual temples. It's like they've set up tourist areas at all temples! I'm a Hindu and I wasn't allowed in too.

Well this doesn't mean that Bali's a bad place to be in! It's just that the place is so dependent on tourists that they try to suck the last penny out of you. So be on guard all the time.

Well, yet another active volcano in Indonesia, only this time in Bali. When we first saw the itinerary presented to us by the folks at our hotel, we wanted to cancel the volcano from our list. Felt like we've seen and had enough of volcanoes!

However since the driver insisted, we went along. We just prayed that there would be no rain or fog to play spoilsport to ruin our view.

The drive to the volcano was a wonderful experience. So much of greenery to be found in Bali. Also, the architecture as we passes the country side was amazing. So many temples all along the way.

You have a view of the Batur active volcano and a huge lake from the view point that we were taken to. Reminded me of Tagaytay in Philippines a wee bit. Worth the drive and the view.

We also got to see the famous rice terraces on our way back. This driver also took is to a spice garden. Basically, it's like an estate where they give you sample coffee and otter drinks to taste and try to get you to buy coffee. I'm pretty sure the drivers make a commission from them here also. We got to taste the famous (for the poop reasons) Kopi Luwak - the cat poop coffee. Basically there are these wild cats livid in the coffee plantation and they feed on the coffee Cherries. This goes through the digestive system and comes out in the poop. They clean it and make it into coffee. It's now an exotic variety. We bought some too. Was pretty expensive though.

The Batuaan temple is surely something that one can add to their programs. It is one of the more tourist friendly temples and welcomes tourists. Most temples in Bali allow visitors only to come upto particular areas of the temple. Some more than the other but you will see boards that inform you that you aren't allowed into certain areas. So was the case with Batuaan temple but there were more tourists here and it was pretty accessible for the most parts.

The architecture in Bali stuns me and left me thinking of how the temples in Bali were so different from those in india. Im not sure if Buddhism had it's small impact on Hinduism and especially temple architecture. Check out the pics for yourself.

Another point to note is that you can enter the temple with your shoes/slippers. That's a big no-no in India. Entry is free. They give you sarongs in front of the temple which you are required to wear to enter the temple. Once you're done, there's a donation box upfront for you to give what you think you should.

To sum it up - this place sure is worth a visit.

Batu Bulan which is the Barong & Kris dance will probably fall into any tour operator or any travel itinerary that anyone plans for you. All the day tours start with this show. It starts at 9 30 am and is a one hour performance. This is a traditional Balinese dance and the entrance fee costs around USD 8 per person.

Well, I expected a lot from this show and I was terribly disappointed. This dance like most other Hindu dance forms focusses on expression on the dancers eyes and hand movements. The small portion that they showed us circled around the battle between good and evil with references from the Mahabharata. I think the show was no way worth the money spent and it was so boring. I'm guessing that this is because that this is something that is just prepared for tourists and is no where close to the original. The drama was not scened and choreographed well, the handouts they gave the audience wasn't scripted well and it came out very Clearly as a money making endeavor. The saving grace was the fabulous costumes.

And speaking about moneymaking, the entire tourism industry seems to be working in perfect unison. Any of the drivers or tour guides who take you into this Barong dance actually get a commission. And a pretty good one at that. So they really push you into going for this one.

Have posted pics of the same. The costumes were great as I said but there was nothing more to speak about this show. Total waste of money.