Priscilla Chan

Rollan’s dad left on Sunday so for his last dinner, we had Masakan padang – basically a type of meal where they bring out about a dozen small little dishes for everyone to share. Your bill is based on the amount of food that you ate and the uneaten portions get put back into the window and spooned out for the next customers. Food safe? I think not. Anyways, this place wasn’t very good so I’m hoping I get to try better padang soon!

We ate about half the dishes here – yup, someone else gets to eat our leftovers

After a quick stop at the airport to drop off Rollan’s dad, we headed to Seminyak for some dessert. We ended up at Trattoria, which is an Italian restaurant. I had their crème brulee and Rollan had cream puffs – nothing too special and it was overpriced for the quality of food. We left feeling unsatisfied so we drove to Hu’u Bar – one of the coolest places I have ever been in. You don’t realize how cool Hu’u Bar is going to be as you drive up because the neighbourhood isn’t the most aesthically pleasing. In fact, it’s quite dingy with garbage everywhere. I got off the bike feeling a little apprehensive and sketched out but that instantly transformed into a feeling of awe as I walked into the entrance. Suddenly, you’re in an intimate bar area and if you keep walking beyond that, you end up in a gorgeous, elegant garden that was lit up with hundreds of candles. Near the entrance to the garden was a pretty decent sized infinity pool that was flanked by two white tents. There were about 25 tables plus a cabana for sitting/drinking/conversing purposes. On one side of the garden was a roofed, open area that had couches and a large bar. Encasing the entire garden was a wall of foliage that made it seem like you just stumbled upon a secret garden in the middle of nowhere. We sat on one of the couches lining the perimeter and just overlooked it all. A perfect place for a wedding, a really cool party, an intimate gathering or simply drinks. Great ambience – Hu’u Bar has jumped to the top of my coolest Baliense experiences!

On Monday, we headed to Sanur to check out this warung that everybody has been raving about. Because this place usually runs out of food by 11:30am, we decided to head out early. It was a good plan until we got stuck in the middle of a protest on the highway! What was supposed to be a 20 min ride turned into 1 hr! Of course by the time we got to this warung, all the food was gone. Our stomachs rumbling, we headed to warung Mak Beng. The speciality at this place was a fried fish patty and fish soup. Both were delicious but spicy as heck! I’m not sure I have many taste buds left after this fish and the Gilimanuk chicken.

Because the beaches at Sanur were wack (dirty, disgusting), we headed back to Dreamland to play in the waves. However, instead of driving straight to the parking lot and walking past the garbage pool to the beach, we parked at Klapa – the compound/pool/restaurant/club overlooking the beach. I decided that I’m not a fan of this place. First of, you have to pay a cover charge to even get into the building. Then, the food sucked and was overpriced. Plus, the building itself looked rundown and old. The only bright spot was that the staff was super friendly – one of them even gave us a private tour of the clubs and karoke bar!

One of the beaches.. where are his pants??

Walking up to Klapa

Cheesy entranceway

The Ice Bar – they keep the temperature @ a comfortable 16 degree C

The saddest beef nachos I have ever had

After playing in the water and getting battered and hammered by 10 foot waves, we dragged our exhausted selves to the Bali Deli for dinner. In essence, this place is a sandwich shop but the setup for their restaurant was money – cabanas with comfy pillows and top notch service. The Balienese really know how to do it right.

Friday was Rosalyn’s last full day in Bali so we tried to get some things crossed off her to-do list (come home tanned and visit the Rock Bar during a sunset). So, we hung out at the beach all afternoon to work on our tans. Too bad playing at the beach all afternoon meant that Rosalyn would get sun stroke in the process – it definitely put a damper on the rest of the day.

For the sunset, we headed to the Rock Bar at Ayana Hotel in Jimbaran (about 20 mins away and a $7 cab ride). This place is literally set up on a huge rock by the cliff-side. I had heard a lot of hype about this place – how it was so unique and beautiful – and I must say that the Rock Bar and Ayana Hotel lived up to its reputation and more! The hotel itself is absolutely gorgeous! Infinity pools everywhere, water fountains, and an amazing view to watch the sunset! Everything was made of the highest quality and felt first class all the way. Unfortunately, the Rock Bar was full so we weren’t actually able to catch the trolley down and have a drink. Despite that, the trip was still well worth it. I’ll definitely come back before I have to go home!

On Saturday, we ended off Rosalyn’s Balinese adventure with a 2 hour massage at our favorite spa and the spiciest chicken (ever!) at Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk. Until the next episode Ros…

Rollan’s dad flew into town Wednesday night so we decided to rent a car for Thursday and make a day out of it. On the agenda were the different places we were going to eat breakfast/lunch and dinner – yes, we planned an entire day around food! The late breakfast/early lunch was a return trip to Ibu Oka in Ubud to eat their delicious babi guling. Honestly, the best pork I think I will ever eat!

To fill in the time between lunch and dinner we headed north to see Gunung Batur – one of the many volancos around Bali. We were lucky that there were barely any clouds in the sky because we got a clear view to its double caldera – truly breathtaking. Too bad the experience was slightly marred by the super obnoxious people trying to sell us junk. Also, here’s a random culture fact about this place… across the lake facing the volcano is a very unique village. Instead of burying or burning their dead, they pile the bodies underneath their ‘spirit’ tree and leave them there. Our driver Made told us that you could still see the bones from people who died decades ago! A little morbid but kinda cool at the same time.

On the way down, we stopped to try some Luwak coffee – apparently the best (and most expensive) coffee in the world. Luwak coffee is made from coffee beans that were digested by weasels then hand-picked out of their feces. Yummm. As appetizing as that sounds, the coffee is actually quite nice. A little strong but palatable.

It wasn’t quite dinner time yet so we headed to Gunungkawi – an incredible temple at the bottom of a hill, surrounded by rice terraces, lush foliage and cliffside carvings! It was like being inside a Tomb Raider movie – one of the coolest temples yet! If you’re going to check out this place, bring a bottle of water with you. The climb up is not pleasant!

Finally, we headed to Naughty Nuri’s for dinner. This place is owned by an Australian couple and is famous for their BBQ’d ribs. The ribs were just as delicious as promised but I would suggest that most people share a plate instead of getting your own – I wasn’t expecting such a large portion and was getting the meat sweats trying to chow through it all!

I know it doesn’t look like much but it is huge!

The next thing we did? Sleep! Eating is exhausting…

The last few days have been pretty quiet – we’ve settled into a pretty good routine. Wake up, head to the internet cafe, eat, bum around, eat, get massages, eat, watch movies and eat. On Friday we did manage to head to Legian for drinks @ Macarroni and dancing at VIP/Paddy’s. We even hit up Bali Rock Bar and a karaoke bar on Sunday – real adventurous I know. Rosalyn leaves on Saturday so there’s a high probability that we’ll be doing some more sightseeing and re-visiting some other places (aka. Babi guling in Ubud). It’s a hard life but someone’sgotta do it…

The half-time show @ Paddy’s… lol

@ Bali Rock

Busting out to “2 Become 1”

This lovely sate + rice combo is courtesy of a stall at the side of a ditch at 2am with rats running around. Yumm