Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. It's a world famous exotic tropical vacation destination! Bali is mainly formed of volcanic rock and lies between Java to the west and Lombok to the east.
Like most of Java, Bali came under the rule of the
Hindu-Buddhist Majapahit empire when the latter defeated the Balinese king in 1343. Majapahit was one of the last major empires of the South East Asia region, ruling from 1293-1500, with its base in Java. Majapahit's decline coincided with the rise of the Sultanate of Malacca in the mid-15th century, and effectively controlled the Malacca Straits, causing former vassals of the Majapahit's to switch allegiance.
When the Majapahit empire's power began to weaken in the archipelago, Prince Kertabhumi (who ruled as King Brawijaya V of Majapahit (1468-1478) granted Arab and South Indian merchant trading rights on the north coast of Java. This resulted in the strengthening its economy and influence, but weakened Hindu-Buddhism's position as the main religion. Gradually Hindu-Buddhism got converted to Islam. It was also claimed that the
Chinese Admiral Zheng He (1371-1433) and his lieutenants, being Muslims, also played a key role in spreading Islam into the Straits of Malacca territories. <Click here for Zheng He aka Hajji Mahmud Shams>.Most of the above trades bypassed Bali because it does not possess any major trading ports, nor does it have any significant spice trade. Hence, it remained isolated culturally from many of these changes. It was reported that many Javanese nobles, artisans and peasants took refuge in Bali to escape these cultural changes. So the Balinese continued to have a Buddhist-Hindu culture that was largely isolated and undisturbed for 300 years after the fall of the Majapahit. It's probably for this reason that Bali is still very much a Buddhist-Hindu society in a country that is predominantly Islamic. (Preceding sections paraphrase from
Quora & Wilkepedia, courtesy of Google).
Potato Head beach club, Seminyak
Seems like a "must' thing to do in Bali.....catch the sunset from Potato Head beach club. So we did. The beach club was just next to our hotel and we walked on the beach for about 5 min to get there.
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| The famous sunset scene of Bali from Potato Head beach club. |
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| As the sun was setting... |
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| Capturing the sunset is a much coveted photo opportunity |
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| The cocktail Volkano Agung by our Kiwi friends across the table. |
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| The bar |
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| Our drinks, a Bali beer and gin & tonic |
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| Ceiling of the bar |
Sardine restaurant, Jalan Petitenget, Seminyak
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| "Sardine" name on the main entrance |
We were greeted and seated by a young and pretty Australian accented lady. She later pointed out to us the owners a Frenchman and his wife from Slovenia. The wife was friendly (dressed branded from head to toe) came round the tables to say hello..
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| Our welcome to the restaurant |
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| Balinese BARONG decoration guarding the main entrance |
The
Barong is a "lion-like creature and character in the mythology of Bali. He is the king of the spirits, leader of the hosts of good, enemy of Ranga the demon queen and mother of all spirit guarders in the mythological traditions of Bali." (courtesy of Wilkepedia Google).
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| The kitchen |
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| Bar counter. At back is the sardines batik wall. |
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| Sunflowers field. The restaurant told us they have also planted padi. |
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| Glorious sunflower! |
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| Outside sofa lounge next to sunflower fields |
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| Roof architectural designs has large ventilation holes at each end. |
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| Sardines wall batik |
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| Arak Madu - Arak is alcholic, honey, fresh lime, nutmeg |
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| Orange juice |
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| The dining "shed" is build of, and held up by bamboo framework. |
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| Prawn and blue crab dumpling |
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| Manis clams steamed in coconut milk lemongras and kaffr lime |
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| House cured salmon on grilled flatbread, lemon aioli, arugula salad |
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| Salad Nicoise, red wine vinaigrette |
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| Grilled sardines with red ginger rice, baby pok choy, ponzu |
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| Grilled Hamachi, Yuzu-Java black pepper beurre & Mizuna |
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| Asian prawn sandwich on ciabatta, wasabi, coleslaw, baby greens, soy-ginger dressing |
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| Chocolate mousse |
We really enjoyed the food and atmosphere (quite warm after 1pm) at Sardines. The food is not fine, but with big and hearty tastes. We will definitely come again next time we are in Bali.
Cuca restaurant, Jimbaran
This is a tapas-style fusion restaurant serving only fresh local produce. Jimbaran is the opposite direction from Seminyak when coming from the airport.
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| Cuca street sign. |
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| Beautiful water and garden landscape on the walk into the restuarant |
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| The walkway into the restaurant |
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| Sprawling grounds of the restaurant |
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| Restauranteur Kevin Cherkas in kitchen giving morning instructions to his crew. |
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| Cotton candy - with compliment's of the chef |
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| Mushroom fritters - deep fried ricotta cheese and pickled mushrooms. |
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| The assistant chef Terry Chee, a Malaysian. Terry mentioned that Kevin and him had worked at Shangri-La Singapore. |
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| Grilled octopus, cauliflower, coriander sitting on asian gazpacho |
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| Soft-shelled crab, rice crackers, sliced pineapples and paisley |
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| Squid ink risotto - popped rice (risotto) sitting on squid ink |
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| Meat (beef) potato - presented like "shepherd's pie"with all the fillings underneath |
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| Sliced on the beef potato |
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| Sparkling water |
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| Soft-boiled onsen egg with pork neck and belly at bottom |
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| The dining hall with curtains that can be drawn for private dining. |
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| The waitress who served us.. |
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| This is the dessert called Barley Breakfast. Mango puree, with coconut cream, and passion fruit. |
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| After we dig out the dessert onto our plates. |
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| The menu at the road entrance. |
Ku De Ta, Seminyak
Ku De Ta is one of the more popular restaurant and bar for the younger generation of visitors to Bali. It's described as a "great sunset venue". Its touted as a great venue to sip cocktails while watching the sunset in Bali. We also went to watch the sunset at Potato Head the day before but I guess the ambience at Ku De Ta is decidedly better.
At one time, it boast of having a restaurant of the same name on the top of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
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| Ku De Ta beach deejay |
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| The glow of the sunset from the balcony upstairs where our restaurant located. |
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| The ground floor next to the beach |
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| View from upper floor restaurant |
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| Ground floor restaurant with fresh sea air. |
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| Ku De Ta stone in front of restaurant at drive in. |
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| The car drop off in front of Ku De Ta. Bird cages lanterns illuminates the drive through. |
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| K.D.T Mojito |
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| Apple Mojito (non-alcoholic) |
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| Gin tonic |
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| Pot roasted clams - shaved calamari, chorizo, gremolata, white wine |
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| Jamon - shoulder pork 30g. |
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| Rhone CDP 2010 |
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| Grilled black angus steak - baby carrot, soubise, blackened onion, hazel nuts |
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| Suckling pig "urutan" - young peanuts, baby carambota, pickled jicama |
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| Crispy pork and prawn egg net - green mango, bean sprout, palm sugar |
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| Old fashioned coconut cake - lemon flan, fresh coconut ice cream, brown sugar |
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| Vanilla creme brulee - warm mini muffins |
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| Black tea |
Sarong restaurant, Seminyak
We were at Sarong on the first night in Bali. We walked to Sarong which was about 10-15 min away from Potato Head. Merah Putih is just across the road from it.
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| The name of Sarong in front of it. |
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| The main gate and entrance into the restaurant and bar. |
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| The inside courtyard of Sarong |
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| Reception checking our reservations |
Sarong is quite popular. because we had tried to move our dinner booking by 30 min but was unsuccessful. They had several turns on their tables per night.
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| Kitchen behind glass |
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| Our table was outside the main building. |
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| Serving the wine |
It's nice outdoor seating. The restaurant has mosquito repelling incense burning to keep mozzies at bay. They have also large stand fans to keep us cool in the August evening!
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| Mango salad with Indonesian fried duck |
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| Close-up of the fried duck. |
The fried duck is a Bali specialty. The duck was probably braised first before being deep fried.
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| Butter chicken. |
The chicken tastes like Tandoori chicken. Perhaps due to the same spices used, and the curry tastes like Indian curry that we love.
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| Fried snapper with green curry. |
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| Fried asian green vegetables. |
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| Fried pork belly with cucumber roll. |
The fried pork belly and fried snapper with green curry are our favorites. The butter chicken presented with Tandoori chicken is interesting and something which we need to get used to.
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| Not much choice of wines. Any shiraz from good label? |
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| Ginger ale |
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| Bebek madura - sesame seed fried ball, fried banana and fried yam with savory floss. |
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| Paper bag our ta-pau dinner |
Merah Putih restaurant, Seminyak
Merah Putih restaurant is about 10-15 min by taxi from our hotel. It has a well stocked bar, and also a very pretty glass wine cellar showcasing the wines they had to offer.
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| Stone stairs leading up to reception |
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| Passing through the bar on the walk to restaurant |
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| View of restaurant from the bar |
The restaurant is very nicely designed and presented. Air-conditioned under a canopy, with tall matured palm trees providing "shade" to the diners. Lots of use of natural stones and wood.
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| Steps leading back up to the bar |
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| Merah Putih's well stocked wine cellar on the right |
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| The other end of the restaurant. Servers have to carry their plates down the stairs - looks grand. |
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| When in Bali, drink Balinese beers |
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| Beehoon soto soup. Starters with chef's compliments |
The complimentary starter beehoon soto soup was very "comfort" and enjoyable to savour. This was my favorite dish for the meal.
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| Babi panggang - roast pork and pork cheeks rendang |
Pork is one of most common Balinese food staples. This one was done in a very crispy matter, and the softness of the pork makes us think its pork cheek.
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| Bebek Goreng Ubud - Crispy duck leg, green chilli, with coconut rice |
This feels like a upmarket nasi padang dish, except that the main ingredient is the crispy fried duck leg with condiments. Yummy!
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| Jangjang Jawa - King crab pepes, soft shell, salted egg, leek, coriander |
As usual, the soft-shell crab remains one of our favorites. Crunchy and savory. Wrapped with leaves, there was rice servings with crab leg meats teasing us, as if the soft-shelled crabs were not enough to tantalize us already..
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| Tiger prawns hiding underneath the greens. |
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| Gado gado |
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| Fried potato fritters, sambal balado |
The savory crispy potatoes is one of my favorites too.
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| Nasi Ayam Betutu - Balinese organic chicken, soy and peanuts |
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| The crowds filled up quickly as our lunch progressed. |
Our favorites - we like
Sardines restaurant very much. In fact its our favorite. Next, we like
Merah Putih, followed by
Cuca.
Sarong restaurant we like for its earthy Asian food.
We realized that there is a lot more sugar in Balinese food than what we are used to back home.
Balinese food is famous for its pork & duck dishes, and seafoods, these tend to be the better dishes in the restaurants we patronized.
For sunset ambience which Bali is famous for, we think
Ku De Ta is best.
Potato Head is next best for us.
Our accomodation at Hotel Alila Seminyik
Alila has few more resorts in Bali -- Alila Ubud, Alila Manggis and Alila Villas Uluwatu. Alila Seminyak is on Jalan Petitenget -- this explains why 4 out of the 5 restaurants we chose were from Jalan Petitenget vicinity.
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| View of main lobby. On the right are the reception desks |
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| View of temple from outside the back of our room. On the left is the upper pool and the right is the ground level pool that was flooded by the seawater in July this year. |
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| Hindu temple on the resort's premises - anyone can enter to pray.. |
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| One of the two upper level infinity pool. |
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| Our room is at back top left corner. |
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| Main lobby |
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| The car drop off in front of lobby |
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| Hotel lobby entrance |
The Alila Seminyak is a beautiful 2-year old hotel resort, and we love the place and the people there. The breakfast restaurant is below our room (and one of the upper floor pools) and has nice feeling of eating next the beac with the constant crashing sounds of waves on the beach. It has 3 infinity pools. Two on the first floor (one just outside the back facing of our room), and the third pool is on the ground floor. Staff told us that during the
abnormally high-tides in July this year, this pool was overwhelmed more than once with seawater!
Inside the resort, it is an oasis of tranquility and peace, but once we step onto Jalan Petitenget (main street outside the resort), its a mad hot and humid world of motor-cycles, taxis, cars and people jostling......
In town nearer Kuta, where we visited the famous Geneva furniture and handicraft shop, it was impossible to hail a taxi....
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| The town traffic is scary -- motor cycles ride on the pedestrian walkways as well! |
The occasional motor-cycles running on the walkaways is quite dangerous for pedestrians, as we never know when to jump off to the side. So, watch out!!
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| Blue bird taxi in Bali |
For taxis, we were advised to flag down Blue Bird only (see above). These taxis go by meter-readings, with a minimum charge of 30,000 Rupiah (S$3) expected by the driver for short distances.
Visiting Bali is not complete without going to Ubud and the other famous towns. Because the traffic jams are bad, we will stick to restaurants in vicinity where we stay. Eg. Heard good things about Mosiac and Lacavore, both in Ubud. So have to come visit Bali again soon!
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