What are we doing here?

One of the reasons I started this blog is to share with you, the experience of downsizing, packing up and moving to Asia. Bighead and I are drawn to Asia for many reasons; climate, food, diving, cost of living to name a few. We are fortunate that we have a business back home that Bighead has been managing remotely.

The next few months of travel through South East Asia are a test to see how well this works (and confirm that it's possible). We're also using the time to explore the possibility of what it will be like to live in the tropics. Sometime during this journey, we hope to make a choice as to where, or if, we'll set up camp in Asia permanently.

One of the biggest issues we're experiencing is the internet. When I say we, I really mean Bighead because I'm not actually doing much at the moment except swanning around! Bighead tells people we're on a working holiday. He's working and I'm on holiday. Too true. Finding a wireless internet connection that is fast enough has been difficult here in Bali, that and the growing colony of ants living in Bighead's keyboard, are cause for concern.

There's certainly something special about this place that we're both drawn to, but I guess I've always had Thailand in the back of my mind as the place we'll most likely end up. Because of this, I've found it difficult to be in Bali without it feeling more like 'the holiday' before Thailand. It's difficult to start building a new life in a place that, in the back of your mind, doesn't feel like it's going to be the ultimate destination.

So. After much diliberation, we've decided to stop mucking about and head straight to Thailand to found out once and for all. We leave tonight.

Who knows, we may be back.

A samesame day in paradise

7am wake up.
Breaky at hotel (no cake thanks, that's weird), mmm... Indocafe 3 in 1 with an extra hit of Nescafe and a dash of strange milk, yum.

Read.
Swim.

Shower.
Decide to go to Denpasar.
Lunch, discover a hidden gem! Vegetarian Depot, the best vegetarian food I've eaten in my whole life, Satay Kim, some kind of wonderful mushroom creation, chargrilled with peanut sauce served with meaty looking mushroom broth.

Get lost in the maze of one-ways trying to get back home.
Intrigued by Balinese culture, bombbarred by sights, smells and sounds of daily life.
Pull over to ask directions every 5 mins, greeted everytime by very helpful, smiling people.
Swim.
Read on sun lounger.
Blog.
Salon, balinese massage, one hour full body.
Mooch about.
Dinner (already planned out well in advance), tonight, an old faithful, Warung Pregina for Nasi Campur.
More mooching about.
Watch NZ$1.20 DVD.
Bed.

Monument to the Struggle of the People of Bali

We came across this awesome structure by accident on one of our many scooter missions about town. Also known as, Bajra Sandhi Monument.
It's actually really hard to miss because it's so large. It's shear size and symmetry make it one of the coolest buildings I've seen. Bighead quite fancied himself living there!

On the inside there's a tacky series of dioramas depicting the history of Bali.

You can walk up the spiral staircase in the centre for a pretty cool view of Denpasar and if you really want to, you can buy some food to feed the large goldfish that live in the indoor pond or surrounding moat.

I just can't help myself

Everytime a new meal appears in front of me, I just can't fight the urge to share it with you. Bighead sits very patiently while I photograph just about every meal he eats :-)

The following images speak for themselves, besides I'm running out of ways to express how scrumptious the food is. Mmm... smokey.
And the usual daily dose of tropical fruits.

Seaside Shrine

Frog in the Bog

OMG! Don't even ask how it was I came to meet this naughty little fella. Really.

Mental note to self, always keep the toilet lid down.

The real deal babi guling

We decided we'd better try some babi guling elsewhere, as we've seen signs all over the show advertising warung that sell it. I was keen to find out if the babi guling served at Ibu Oka's had been altered for westerners in any way. We stopped at Warung Renon in Denpasar to find out, and this is what we were served.
De fuckin'licious!

Very similar to Ibu Oka's and just as tasty, if not more! There were a few more odd things on the plate and a lot less meat. In fact, you can't see any meat in the photograph at all, but there are a couple of fatty pieces hiding underneath all the other goodness.

I'm not entirely sure what everything on the plate was, but I'm fairly sure we ate some organs (Dad, you'd love it!). The dish was served with a delicious little meatball broth and was quite possibly the best one we've had in Bali. Don't worry Mum, usually after a lunch like this we have a plate of fruit for dinner!

Just while I'm on the topic of food (again), this has got to be the best fish satay I've had in Bali. It was in Permuteran in northern Bali and I've been meaning to include it somewhere on my blog. Even Bighead had some!

You see that crispy fried piece of fish at the top, I ate that whole thing, fins and all! It was sublime. Crispy goodness like you wouldn't believe! The satay had this green chilli sambar smothered all over the fish, out of this world.

Man I love good food.

Good eats

We've been milling about in Sanur for a bit now. It's great to be staying still for a while. As every traveller knows, moving about all the time can be hard work.

Sanur is cool, there's enough here to keep us happy. The beach isn't the best but we have a nice place with a pool. Bighead and I have started doing laps in everyday. Gotta try and work off all that deep fried goodness somehow. We're not getting any younger!

We spend quite a lot of our time buzzing about on the scoot, looking for places to eat. Our favourite so far in Sanur is Warung Pregina. It has tidy, hand crafted furnishings with lots of dark wood and soft cushions. The red leather menus are beautifully presented, the staff are friendly and attentive, and the food is prepared and presented with love.

Nasi Campur (hold the nasi) - 22,000Rp/NZ$3.50
A delicious collection of meats, vegetables, sambar's and tasty treats like the grated and spiced coconut you can see at the bottom of the plate.

Balinese Grilled Chicken - 25,000Rp/NZ$4.00
Perfectly grilled chicken leg. It was smokey, creamy and perfectly spiced.

Addicted to manicures

Oh my gosh, this morning I went for my very first professional manicure (I know, I know, I'm sorry girls, I'm a bit slow off the block). It was so nice and my fingers feel so girly right now it's not funny. Who would have thought? I think this may be the start of something grand...



I've never seen my hands looking so swish... not sure how this will fit with being a potter, but there must be a way around it.

There's a chance I may become a salon junkie here guys, what next do you think? a pedicure? daily massage? body scrub? Who wants in?

Cure for homesickness

I took Bighead to the movies today. We went to see Wall-E, the choice was somewhat limited, but the film turned out to be quite well done and a bit of a laugh. A robot rom com! Nice. Anyway, guess how much the tickets cost?! NZ$1.55! or NZ$3.50 with popcorn and a drink. Stoked! The screen was sweet and the seats were really comfy.

We discovered a massive western-style mall attached to the cinema. It was kinda cool to walk around in a semi familiar environment.

Check out the parking lot.
Many motorbike.

We stopped by the night market on our way home to grab a bite to eat and discovered this little gem. A road side stall selling Martabak (deep fried roti) and Terang Bulan (hotcake type thing).

The dude making these was such a sweetheart, so smiley. You could tell he cared about the food he was making and seemed to be really popular with the locals. The sort of person you'd want to sit down and enjoy a cuppa with. His wife and daughter were with him too.

We ordered one chicken, egg and cheese martabek (NZ$1.50) and one chocolate and peanut terang bulan (NZ$1.20). They were both soooo tasty and so naughty I simply can't find enough superlatives to give it justice. Man the balinese sure know how to deep fry shit!










Chicken martabak and chocolate and peanut terang bulan. You have no idea just how good these are, especially the sweet one. Oh. My. God... yum.

We've been told we must try his banana and cheese terang bulan next time!

Recycling (I Hope!)

First bout of homesickness

I've tried eating chocolate, western meals and even a $5 icecream but sometimes you just can't help feeling a little out of sorts. Being away from home is not just about a continuous stream of exciting new adventures (although I certainly can't complain about the lack there of!).

A phone call home helped alot (thanks :-) xx), along with the knowledge that my runaway cat is safe and sound.

"We are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known".

Monkeys!

Go the upgrade!

We crossed seas to a little island off the southeast coast of Bali, Nusa Lembongan. The fast boat gets you there in 30mins which is all good (the swells can be a tad nail biting!).

The main beach on Lembongan has to have one of the more stunning vistas in Bali, especially when Mount Agung can be seen in the distance.


A lot of the locals are seaweed farmers (the weed is exported and used for beauty products among other things). It seems like the work never stops and there is a constant stream of baskets being balanced on heads to and from the ocean. Some carry two baskets, balanced precariously on long bamboo poles. Once dried, it's sold for about US$2-3 per kg.

We were lucky to score an upgrade on our room, moving from a standard to a villa. Yee ha! The 100 or so stairs it took to get there didn't deter me, as the view from our room was well worth the effort!


The living area is shared by two identical rooms.

Our room and view from bed.

We took two dives on Saturday, the second was nicer than the first with loads of schooling fish, massive vase shaped hard corals and lots of colourful soft coral. Just like swimming in a over sized tropical fish tank!

Phew...

I must say, I am stoked to be alive after a hair raising rally car drive down the east coast! I'll spare you the details.

In fact, we were both pretty stoked to be in Tulumben which is famous for its wreck dive, The Liberty. However, it wasn't long before we figured out that Tulumben is not the kind of place you'd want to kick off your jandles and pull up a phew, if you know what I mean. In fact, it's far from it! We stayed one night and did one dive.

Here are some of the highlights:

• A plate of fried peanuts served with charred fly and bits of gravel
• The worst meal we've eaten in Bali so far, a half cooked piece of chicken (serves me right for ordering western food), some old tofu (which Bighead let me discover for myself), and a watermelon juice so pumped with sugar it was undrinkable
• Bruised shins due to my far from glamorous shore exit. I did have full scuba gear on and there was a decent swell and the beach was covered in wobbly round stones!

I couldn't help but burst out laughing when moments after lights out (where I had both fingers and toes crossed for a healthy tummy in the morning) two mangy cats began to howl (not meow) at each other just outside our room. You can't win em all I suppose!

I am pleased to announce that I don't appear to have contracted salmonella poisoning and all that said, I just love Asia! Bighead and I have spent quite some time laughing about particular goings on. Of course, I could never convey these with words. You just have to be here!

We're both rather pleased to be back in the south of Bali and are busy pondering where to from here... ahh the freedom!

Out and about in Bali

For the last few days, we’ve been staying in a tiny town in northern Bali called Permuteran. The main reason people come here is to snorkel and dive. I think there’s only about seven resort/spas and three warung! We arrived late in the afternoon and hadn’t managed to get through on the phone to book accommodation, so pickings were slim. Samesame has worked out that if we do this more often, she gets to stay in places like this!


Unfortunately, it was NZ$100 a night (which is a little over our budget!) so we moved on the next day.



This gorgeous homestay, Tirta Sari, is half the price and three times as friendly! It’s located between Reef Seen Dive Centre and the main road. The family that run it are so lovely and the garden is beautiful. They are currently in the process of building more rooms, a warung and a spa.

On Saturday we had our first dive of the season! We went to a site called Close Encounters which is part of the local reef. Bighead loved his first dive with new eyes! It was surprisingly pretty with loads of different fish, and gorgeous hard and soft coral. We even saw a large ball of tuna which was really exciting.

We’ve also had a day trip to Pulau Menjangan, where we took another two dives – turtles, large barracuda, frog fish, an eel, and loads and loads of different species. It’s so peaceful down there, a whole different world. The only sound you can hear is the blub, blub, blub, of your bubbles and the quiet munching of coral.

This part of Bali is stunning. Permuteran has black sand beaches and is surrounded by the rugged mountains of the Taman Nasional Bali Barat (West Bali National Park). Gorgeous.

However, at NZ$70 a dive, we won't be staying long!

Masakan Padang

Another tasty type of food here is masakan padang. The warung serving up this delectable style of food, are easy to spot. Check out the unique way the food is displayed in the front window.

You can select any number of these tasty tid bits. There’s usually lots of different types of meat, veg, tempeh and tofu dishes on offer.

This particular warung seemed to be more expensive than others we've been to. My meal cost about NZ$4.

On my plate you can see a whole fried egg, a corn fritter, dried beef,

beef rendang, and a potato ball. Yes, it is mostly fried, so not the sort of meal you'd eat too much of, but oh so tasty!

My personal favourites are the potato balls (why don’t they make em like this at home?) and the beef rendang.