Cripes!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Whiskered
I've only just discovered that I've grown myself a whiskered bonsai. How funny looking is this?
Yep! Indeed it is that same bonsai I raved about a month ago or so. Strange that it's growing sideways on both ends, and each is about the same length too! I reckon it's probably time to trim it. Only, am kinda clueless on how to trim or prune a bonsai correctly. Knowing me, I may jolly well end up killing it...!
Cripes!
Cripes!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Bali Grand Finale
We do what we do best on our last night in Seminyak:
You have no idea how happy we were when we found out that they also have a Sederhana lurkign around somewhere nearer to the airport. So, we joyfully went out of our way and away from the main town area of Seminyak to find a Nasi Padang place to royally stuff our faces.
These were food to die for and a great way to end our trip!
Bali Day 14 onwards: Seminyak
I love Seminyak!
It was such a welcome break after 2 weeks of full-on itinerary in having to do something and be somewhere to get to some place. It was such an absolute bliss to have no planned activities whatsoever and just go with the flow; whatever and whenever we feel like it. Not to mention that we went a little decadent in booking ourselves into a rather luxurious pool villa and hence, I am ever so glad that we decided to do Seminyak last. The villa aside, Seminyak itself is really one of the better places in Bali to chill out.
Of course it rained like the first 2 days we were there, rendering us helpless and the private pool villa we had useless. So when the sun started shining on the last 2 days, we were happy like pigs in shit!
The only weird thing though, we were greeted with some form of towelled-origami found on the bed or on the laundry line right next to the bed on every single night after our dinner outside their premises. The first night we got was a pair of swans which was oh-so-romantic nice and the next 2 nights were these:
I have no idea what they were supposed to represent, but they did look disturbing. They kinda looked like suckling pig on a grill or something. We had only one on the second night and they upped the ante to 2 on the 3rd night. It was not only weird, it was macabre! Who would want to see suckling pig being hung next to the bed?
The last day in Seminyak was pretty much spent lounging around and watching Channel NewsAsia to catch up on news in Bangkok from our little pool. We were almost sad to leave the glistening waters and pure hedonism behind!
It was such a welcome break after 2 weeks of full-on itinerary in having to do something and be somewhere to get to some place. It was such an absolute bliss to have no planned activities whatsoever and just go with the flow; whatever and whenever we feel like it. Not to mention that we went a little decadent in booking ourselves into a rather luxurious pool villa and hence, I am ever so glad that we decided to do Seminyak last. The villa aside, Seminyak itself is really one of the better places in Bali to chill out.
Of course it rained like the first 2 days we were there, rendering us helpless and the private pool villa we had useless. So when the sun started shining on the last 2 days, we were happy like pigs in shit!
The only weird thing though, we were greeted with some form of towelled-origami found on the bed or on the laundry line right next to the bed on every single night after our dinner outside their premises. The first night we got was a pair of swans which was oh-so-romantic nice and the next 2 nights were these:
I have no idea what they were supposed to represent, but they did look disturbing. They kinda looked like suckling pig on a grill or something. We had only one on the second night and they upped the ante to 2 on the 3rd night. It was not only weird, it was macabre! Who would want to see suckling pig being hung next to the bed?
The last day in Seminyak was pretty much spent lounging around and watching Channel NewsAsia to catch up on news in Bangkok from our little pool. We were almost sad to leave the glistening waters and pure hedonism behind!
Bali Day 10-13: Lovina|Candidasa
Lovina is essentially about 3 hour drive from Ubud and in truth, we did not know what to expect. The scenery enroute Lovina however, was pretty amazing with signts of mountain ranges, rice field terraces, lakes, mountain slopes and temples.
The main town of Lovina itself was pretty sleepy and quiet, with nothing much to do around. It also didn't help that it continued to piss rain for the entire 2 days and nights we were there! Hence, we were pretty much cooped up in our hotel room while in Lovina before moving on to Candidasa. Needless to say, not that many photos were taken while we were in Lovina.
Candidasa meantime, in my opinion is a better place to be in rather than Lovina. It is still rather quiet, underrated, yet offers a variety of cafes, bars and restaurants to chill out. The hotel we stayed in, Pondok Bambu offered one of the best an amazing breakfast we ever had in our entire stay in both Jogja and Bali combined! The place was so quiet that we were the only occupants at our lodge!
What amazed me is how people from the different countries seemed to congregate. While we were surrounded by a bunch of Dutch at Lovina, Candidasa seemed to have an appeal to the Germans!
The landscape on the way to Lovina and stopping by a water temple
The main town of Lovina itself was pretty sleepy and quiet, with nothing much to do around. It also didn't help that it continued to piss rain for the entire 2 days and nights we were there! Hence, we were pretty much cooped up in our hotel room while in Lovina before moving on to Candidasa. Needless to say, not that many photos were taken while we were in Lovina.
Candidasa meantime, in my opinion is a better place to be in rather than Lovina. It is still rather quiet, underrated, yet offers a variety of cafes, bars and restaurants to chill out. The hotel we stayed in, Pondok Bambu offered one of the best an amazing breakfast we ever had in our entire stay in both Jogja and Bali combined! The place was so quiet that we were the only occupants at our lodge!
What amazed me is how people from the different countries seemed to congregate. While we were surrounded by a bunch of Dutch at Lovina, Candidasa seemed to have an appeal to the Germans!
The landscape on the way to Lovina and stopping by a water temple
Lunch at Candidasa with Silver Bullet concentrating to panggang his satay as I savour on one of the better pisang gorengs.
@ Candidasa: Chilling out amidst the grey, grey sky at our lodge
Bali Day 6-9: Ubud
Full of tourists, no doubt, Ubud is a rather idyllic place mainly focuses on culture and arts. The sheer number of shops that are full of paintings or stone carvings are simply too many to count! The roads around Ubud are generally small and narrow, but never lacking of the odd shops you can find along the way for miles and miles on end.
It is also a place to watch the world go by or go exploring to the padi fields, the mountains and also a little bit of nature. We had stayed somewhere along Jalan Monkey Forest, surrounded by all the different types of shops. Prices are generally also a little bit more expensive here, and food as we found out, tend to cater mostly to the taste of foreigners which can be a little bland and less spicy. It rained pretty much the whole time we were there, so our mobility around Ubud was pretty much limited.
For some reason though, there seemed to be a lot of French tourists in and around Ubud as compared to other areas. Strange that!
The landscape out of the main town of Ubud is simply breathtaking. A real sight for sore-eyes.
@ Kintamani having lunch amidst a lush landscape of padi fields and volcanic mountain
It is also a place to watch the world go by or go exploring to the padi fields, the mountains and also a little bit of nature. We had stayed somewhere along Jalan Monkey Forest, surrounded by all the different types of shops. Prices are generally also a little bit more expensive here, and food as we found out, tend to cater mostly to the taste of foreigners which can be a little bland and less spicy. It rained pretty much the whole time we were there, so our mobility around Ubud was pretty much limited.
For some reason though, there seemed to be a lot of French tourists in and around Ubud as compared to other areas. Strange that!
The landscape out of the main town of Ubud is simply breathtaking. A real sight for sore-eyes.
@ Kintamani having lunch amidst a lush landscape of padi fields and volcanic mountain
The Barong dance that was available as a tourist attraction somewhere in Ubud
@ Ubud's Bird Park: Bird of Paradise, a Hornbill and a very affectionate Senegal parrot which offered its head for a scratch!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Jogjakarta: Random (Rip-Offs)
We decided to watch the Ramayana plays on one of the nights, and tourist being tourist, we naturally cannot escape the potential rip-offs that usually comes with such cultural shows. It's not so much of the show itself, rather the establishment basically forced us to have an "authentic Indonesian" buffet dinner which was packaged together with the impending show.
Authentic Indonesian buffet it was not. Basically, food there was terrible. But having paid for it, we just had to grit our teeth and could only look forward to the show. Meantime, while having dinner, the cultural establishment had kindly provided some authentic Indonesian music called Gamelan to entertain us throughout the entire dinner service. Now, I'm not sure if you know what the music really is, but being exposed to it for hours on end can be rather nerve-wrecking for the ears.
Performed by a bunch of veterans as showcased above, I had to let out a loud guffaw when Silver Bullet suddenly commented:
I have no idea where that came from, but it was funny as hell, especially if you had noticedhow old these veterans really are. One can see the number of teeth were visible when they smile with their mouths open. I still laugh to bits whenever I think about it!
Sometime earlier in the day, we also got ripped-off at some park by some crazy lady who said she knows things because (quote unquote) she meditates all the time, she talks to goddesses and she is goddess. She basically just sprang up on us when all we wanted to do was asked for directions. She immediately left the people she was talking to initially, held my hand and then took us around in a circle (literally!). She then had the nerve to asked for a fee to be paid to her for her 10 minutes of yakking and showing us nonsensical stuff that was made up of her own imagination. She had this crazy look with her dyed-red hair, pretty crossed-eyed and, if you were to ask me, she doesn't seem right in the head...
After being royally ripped-off and walking several meters away and out of her sight, Silver Bullet spontaneously mimicked her actions which resulted with me bursting out into hysterical laughter, accompanied by tears no less! It was so gut-wrenchingly funny that I made him repeated his act once again for me to take a picture of the silly face while we tried so hard to swallow the rip-off "authentic" Indonesia buffet that was served before the show:
I just realised my husband has never looked so glorious before this! :p
Authentic Indonesian buffet it was not. Basically, food there was terrible. But having paid for it, we just had to grit our teeth and could only look forward to the show. Meantime, while having dinner, the cultural establishment had kindly provided some authentic Indonesian music called Gamelan to entertain us throughout the entire dinner service. Now, I'm not sure if you know what the music really is, but being exposed to it for hours on end can be rather nerve-wrecking for the ears.
Performed by a bunch of veterans as showcased above, I had to let out a loud guffaw when Silver Bullet suddenly commented:
" I bet you we would be able to get a full set of teeth from all of the men combined!"
I have no idea where that came from, but it was funny as hell, especially if you had noticedhow old these veterans really are. One can see the number of teeth were visible when they smile with their mouths open. I still laugh to bits whenever I think about it!
Sometime earlier in the day, we also got ripped-off at some park by some crazy lady who said she knows things because (quote unquote) she meditates all the time, she talks to goddesses and she is goddess. She basically just sprang up on us when all we wanted to do was asked for directions. She immediately left the people she was talking to initially, held my hand and then took us around in a circle (literally!). She then had the nerve to asked for a fee to be paid to her for her 10 minutes of yakking and showing us nonsensical stuff that was made up of her own imagination. She had this crazy look with her dyed-red hair, pretty crossed-eyed and, if you were to ask me, she doesn't seem right in the head...
After being royally ripped-off and walking several meters away and out of her sight, Silver Bullet spontaneously mimicked her actions which resulted with me bursting out into hysterical laughter, accompanied by tears no less! It was so gut-wrenchingly funny that I made him repeated his act once again for me to take a picture of the silly face while we tried so hard to swallow the rip-off "authentic" Indonesia buffet that was served before the show:
I just realised my husband has never looked so glorious before this! :p
Jogjakarta: Food & Food
Food experts we are not; neither do we care for expensive, fine dining...but for sure we do know that good, tasty food will always be a big part of our lives no matter where we are in the world!
Indonesian food is definitely a welcome break from the usual boring Thai food we have in Bangkok and we so love the Nasi Padangs over there. There can never be enough Nasi Padangs for foodie like us, and our Driver-cum-Guide was actually quite surprised that we requested to have our meals at Nasi Padang place; and so, kindly obliged our requests several times and took us to "Sederhana" - a local Nasi Padang franchise which is oh-so-yummy!
Coupled with some delicious-to-die-for Es Alpokat (Advocado Juice...super YUM!) and Soursop Juice, with Goreng Pisang as dessert, it can be said that it has been a long while since I get a sense of satisfaction from such cheap, good food which is so simple yet humbly satisfying. It is just the type of satisfaction I usually get from Mom's cooking or Indian food but one I could never experience from Thai food. I almost had to grimace thinking of the food that's available to me when I'm back in Bangkok.
@ Sederhana with the a plethora of dishes, Es Alpokat and Goreng Pisang (at a different place) as dessert
Indonesian food is definitely a welcome break from the usual boring Thai food we have in Bangkok and we so love the Nasi Padangs over there. There can never be enough Nasi Padangs for foodie like us, and our Driver-cum-Guide was actually quite surprised that we requested to have our meals at Nasi Padang place; and so, kindly obliged our requests several times and took us to "Sederhana" - a local Nasi Padang franchise which is oh-so-yummy!
Coupled with some delicious-to-die-for Es Alpokat (Advocado Juice...super YUM!) and Soursop Juice, with Goreng Pisang as dessert, it can be said that it has been a long while since I get a sense of satisfaction from such cheap, good food which is so simple yet humbly satisfying. It is just the type of satisfaction I usually get from Mom's cooking or Indian food but one I could never experience from Thai food. I almost had to grimace thinking of the food that's available to me when I'm back in Bangkok.
@ Sederhana with the a plethora of dishes, Es Alpokat and Goreng Pisang (at a different place) as dessert
Here's Budi, one of the guide who took us to a "Hole in the wall" restaurant in the middle of nowhere where we had probably one of the best tasting Bakmies which literally cost nothing!
I guess it will be a while before I could get such satisfaction from food again...I miss Nasi Padangs and Es Alpokats already!
Jogjakarta Day 1-5: Out & About
Having been to Jojga several times over (now 4x to be exact, with 2 trips with my parents when I was younger given my dad is a bit footloose), many of the sights are, unfortunately, nothing new to me. Spending 5 days in Jogja was also a tad too long, in my opinion and most sightseeing in and around Jogjakarta can be done within 3 and half days.
We did the mandatory touristy thing like going to the Prambanan(currently recovering from the 2006 earthquake with some restoration works), Borubudur, Mount Merapi and several other sights... for the life of me, I'm struggling to remember the what, where and when! I remember Mount Merapi being lusciously green and has one of the most beautiful landscape around. This time round though, the land was barren and was pretty much left in devastation from the 2008's eruption. Hence, there was really nothing much to see here.
We did the mandatory touristy thing like going to the Prambanan(currently recovering from the 2006 earthquake with some restoration works), Borubudur, Mount Merapi and several other sights... for the life of me, I'm struggling to remember the what, where and when! I remember Mount Merapi being lusciously green and has one of the most beautiful landscape around. This time round though, the land was barren and was pretty much left in devastation from the 2008's eruption. Hence, there was really nothing much to see here.
I still love Prambanan, though. The entire temple is surrounded by a rich history of Hinduism surrounding Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu. For some reason, I find the entire story intensely sexy and I have always been intrigued by it for as long as I remember.
@ Prambanan
(of course, there will always be some belligerent visitors who just refuse to read signs!)
We also took a long scenic drive to Dieng Plateau and with a lot of time on our hands, even drove up all the way to Solo (3 hours away from Jogja) to visit a Candi Sukuh (Erotic Temple) located high on top of a mountain. The view going to both Dieng Plateau and Solo was breathtaking, but it was pretty much spoilt by the fact that it would not stop raining! It was, however, worth the journey, although in my opinion, just once is quite enough.
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