Bali is hot and beautiful. Sitting by the pool, staring at the beach outside with nothing on my mind except what to eat next is a welcome change. All we did for the first 3 days were sleep, wake up, eat, hang by the pool, and repeat. The kids really enjoyed it and if it was up to them, they would be in the pool all day even if they came out as wrinkly elephants.
Of course for me (the busy body) relaxing can only last so long so we decided to check out the main drag Kuta where all the shops, restaurants and bar were. Most of Bali only have 2 lanes, 1 for going each way with no parking lanes. Add in lots of taxis and scooters and you've got busy streets of meandering traffic everywhere. The sidewalk is about 3' tight where there happens to be one so us with kids and scooters didn't get too far in the small market type shops. Throw in 30+ degrees of high humidity heat and it basically means we're walking around in the mall instead.
The food so far was mediocre with the limited local food menu of Nasi Goreng, Mie Goreng, You Goreng, and Everybody Goreng. It didn't take many meals to get bored of that. The local fresh fruit juices are yummy but not as sweet as the last time we were here. I don't know if its because of the season. I have to say that Thailand is much better in terms of local etnic food and fruits.
On the 5th day, we decided to venture out a bit and chose to goto the biggest Elephant Sanctuary and Safari Park where they have a heard of 30 Sumatrian elephants. A lot of these were saved and brought here. There's a good museum and you're able to feed, pet, and even ride on the elephants. We had lunch at the park restaurant and its probably been the best food we've had so far. The price was more than what was in town but definitely worth it. The sercvice through the park was excellent. The moment we went in the park, we were escorted by our private tour guide who brought us around the different areas. As we were eating, I saw the owner, an Australian named Nigel Mason, who was walking around the park probably doing quality control. It was evident that he cared for the elephants and for his park. And it definitely shows in the food, the service, and the cleanliness of the park. We chose not to ride on the elephants because the kids were scared but we did watch the elephant show where they had elephants walk on a balance beam and play with soccer and basketball. They didn't have an elephant paint though and I was looking forward to that.
After the park, we got back on our private chartered tour bus and drove back into town. It sounds lux but the tour bus is basically a 7 passenger mini-van that we hired for $60 all day. Good deal really considering the park was 2 hours away and we had the vehicle and driver for 10 hours. On our way back, we decided to stop by Seminyak, another Beach district, north of the main one in Kuta. Janey wanted to look for some jewelleries and we found that there were a lot of neat little shops. The streets weren't that much more stroller-friendly than Kuta so we cut it short, but its on our come-back list.
We wanted to checkout this restaurant we saw on a trouist magazine called Chinoiserie. Its a chinese restaurant and the words "Spicy Singaporean Crab" caught Janey's attention. The space was beautiful with a bar/lounge like ambience. They had a few sections including a front room which was enclosed and air-conned, an outside dining area which was covered, an open internal courtyard area, and a raised open dining area that had views of rice patties behind. The furniture were all patio seating and it really added to the outdoor feel. We were treated to live jazz while we were there and our little girls really enjoyed it. The food was excellent and the service was beyond our expectation. The server recommended their signature drink Mango Bok Choy and the curious health freak in me couldn't turn it down. He explained it was basically Mango and raw Bok Choy blended together and the taste was nothing like what I expected. It was not as sweet as I had thought a Mango mix would be and not as bland as Bok Choy should be. It actually tasted more like Guava juice with a heightened freshness. We actually were suspecting if they didn't substitute the mango for Guava instead. We ordered Char Kuey Tu, Baby Bok Choy, and of course the Singaporean Spicy Crab. Everything was very good even the Man Tau (chinese bread) that came with it. It was deepfried so the outside is golden brown but the inside was still soft and moist. It was very similar to the Shanghai deep fried buns. It was so good that we ordered a side order and used it to dip the spicy sauce from the crab.
We gave them many compliments and asked for their business card. Instead the chef Allan Wong came out and gave us his personal business card. He speaks Cantonese and is a Malaysian Chinese. We found out that the restaurant has been open for a year and he was brought over from Malaysia about 9 months ago.
That pretty much concludes a long, but fun day out and about. We are not back at lounging poolside for our last day here. Tomorrow, we're catching an early morning flight to Vietnam.
Stay tuned for that update.
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