Barely Bali

Why barely, I confess this by no mean can be a comprehensive report about Bali, furthermore it is written from a tourist perspective who only visited this place twice. However, if you manage to avoid any pitfall from this reading then you know who to thank for.

To many Bali is sold as a romantic, arts and crafts destination, but in general I felt more like a walking ATM in the eyes of the local. For accountant wannabe, I can give you all the figures and you do the accounting.

Started right from the airport, while purchased taxi coupon at counter, when you thought that was part of the service -- two guys dress in similar uniform will try initiate conversation and lead you to a taxi by carting your luggage less than 80 meters away, upon reaching the taxi, their true color shown - daringly request for RP100,000 tips, while our taxi fare to Kuta was merely RP55,000 (later found out if you pre-book with known transporter it can cost less than RP 20,000). After that experience, you will start feeling uneasy whenever you are confronted by over-friendly stranger, more likely or not they are expecting something from you. What a start.

Tip: it pays to do your homework before arriving Bali. eg. a call to those number from leaflet, rental car with driver go at the price of Rp500,000/day (10 hours), whereas for known contact the charges can be only Rp350,000 full day (10 hours).

Between a Rock and a Hard place?

Kuta Square main street

Kuta is undisputed busiest town on the island so naturally attract a lot of traffic, Legian and Kuta square are the most popular hang out spots for tourist be it entertainment or shopping, no coincident that Hard Rock cafe is also within this vicinity, looking around you can't help but notice most caucasian on the road are dressing pretty 'environmental friendly', Australian make up majority of the visitors.

Tip: There is a popular supermarket called Matahari at Kuta Square, if you missed buying souvenir at any other tourist spots, this supermarket can be a good place to fill the void especially if you lack the bargaining skill plus harassment free. About 150 meters from this supermarket, you will discover their biggest shopping mall -- Discovery.

Beach View behind Discovery Shopping mall

back view of Discovery Shopping Mall, Kuta

Next stop, Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) Cultural Park where you can witness the tallest statue in Indonesia. According to our driver, in local term, Garuda = mystical Bird, Wisnu = the god of water and kencana = vehicle. Entrance fee: Rp50,000 per pax.

Garuda

fountain after GWK entrance

Lord Wisnu

Not too far from GWK there is a beach side called Dreamland - was told that this area is part of Tommy Suharto's development project, at the main entrance sit a fairy big statue that surely attract your eyeballs and a heartwarming signboard indicate no fee to be paid, but 9km further down the road you are fooled, there will be self-appointed guard collected Rp15,000 per vehicle, this is a rip off for the fact that you have to park at muddy place and to walk through totally uneven rocky slope testing your balancing skill (make you wonder if you are on moon) just to reach a beach side which is unjustifiable. Indeed a dreamland for fee collector.

naughty

Uluwatu, this is a place where you find temple build on steep cliff, beware of the aggressive monkeys which will try to snatch away your glasses, hats, sandal, earring or hanging stuff.

Entrance fee Rp3,000 per person + Rp50,000 for an unofficial guide who will approach you offering their service i.e. to help you shoo away monkeys with a stick and brief explanation about this place. Not really necessary, unless donation is your hobby.

If there is only one place you can choose to visit in Bali, this must be the place -- Tanah Lot, located about 1 hour drive (43KM) from Kuta, along the way take note of those hillside trek rice fields which efficiently utilize hill slope for cultivation, quite a unique scene. Crown jewel of Tanah Lot is the temple that stand on top of a rock in the ocean, and there are many stalls readily assist you to part with your money. Entrance Fee: Rp10,000 per pax + Rp 5,000 per vehicle

Much talk about Seafood barbecue dinner at Jimbaran bay, can cost you Rp875,000 for two with basket of seafood include lobster, fish, mussel, prawn and squid. Mainly cooked in BBQ style either spicy or cheese. Their table setting is on the beach facing the sea, oversee airport at your right, basically you are only paying for the ambience. Skip this if you are on tight budget, to food hunter worth his salt this meal is forgettable.

Other places of interest:
i) If you are into art then you should head to Ubud art galleries(showcasing handicrafts, wood carving, painting, cultural dance and etc).

ii) All over the island there are a lot of temples(over 20000), in the interest of time suggest to visit not more than three.
iii) Kintamani to view volcano and lake Batur, plan your trip accordingly this can be quite a long drive (2 hours one way)

Other Activities to try in Bali:
Tried the much shout about Bali SPA at hotel about Rp150,000 for an hour, imho it's too mild to my liking.
Local Bali food - Nasi Babi Guling @ Rp40,000 per plate, non halal of course.

Babi Guling Set

Lastly, remember not to spend all your cash, reserve Rp150,000 per person for the airport departure tax before they let you exit.
My parting word for Bali, though it is no fault of you but for this place to stand a chance to embrace more return visitors, rent seeking mentality among tourist related people need to be curtailed if not eliminated. May be it's just me, it's no fun visiting place that you can't lower your guard. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Sunset at dreamland

No MSG, No taste?

No way. No such thing. Not really. That are the answers. 

For restaurant that want to serve quick and tasty food their simple solution always lie in MSG, in fact it's a rarity for restaurant not using MSG nowadays, with luck I found two restaurants in the vicinity of Subang Jaya claim that their food are MSG free. No it doesn't mean you are getting MSG for free but they are confident enough to not rely on that chemical call MSG, so good culinary skill that draw the taste out of fresh food need to come in place. I notice that common trait in this type of cooking is the serving might take a little bit longer to be ready, because they skip the shortcut of using MSG, so will they be more expensive then?

Fried BaiGou @ RM6.50

Come out from cocoon, the first place to introduce is a chinese restaurant located at USJ1 USJ Sentral(opposite Giant) with a long name - 'It's Piping Hot Little Hokkien Kitchen'. As the name suggested this restaurant is specialize in hokkien dishes, one of their popular dish is curry Pan Mee, some rarely found hokkien type of noodles - Fried potato starch & Fried BaiGou are also in the menu. The taste is reasonably good and you can walk out this place without big hole in the pocket and guilt free.

For those who is looking for something more western or fusion (though here also serve local delights). Here at Zinglicious(Opposite Subang Jaya Toyota service center and next to Shell station) you can get your value-for-money in term of gastronomy experience and healthy food conscience wise, you can't tell it's no MSG. Of course the chatty Chef is also very proud of his VIP drinks featured below, brought to you all the way from USA.

Healthy and tasty, with food like that who want to die early :D? Hints: Try it fast before the chef fly out of country. But bring enough cash ....... because their credit card machine can be sentimental or non existence :)

Hong Kong at peace

The myth that Hong Kong is all bustling and no greenery is now debunked as I will show you needles in a haystack that offer tranquility despite seemingly ever busy city life on this pearl of orient. For once you can slow down, not feeling the rush and not attracting those kind of stares hinting that you are out of place.

Start with a Hi from Big Buddha at LanTau island, also known as Tian Tan Buddha. Gimme 5.

 

Treat yourself with a bowl of 'Tao Fu Fah' when you are on your way down. Soft and slippery smooth but not too sweet (sugar not subsidized by their government mah) .

Shopping aside. This Chi Lin Nunnery which located at Diamond Hill, Kowloon is a good find. Your camera will love it. What is more impressive are the wood frame buildings were build without using a single iron nail following the style of Tang Dynasty. 

Human can't survive without eating, obviously HongKie also like to eat because their population never shrunk :). In fact HK have no lack of specialty in term of food especially Cantonese cuisine, one of them is this roast pigeon below .. looks like chicken but it's a bird .. the debate may continue that chicken is also bird, but what I care about is how they taste. Another popular seafood dish is Mantis shrimp or  'pissing  shrimp' in cantonese, normally have a choice of two flavors in cooking - salt and pepper or deep fried with minced garlic(soaked overnight in black bean sauce) and chilli.

Bonus track: Shanzen's Little Sheep steamboat restaurant with their mantra - 'the joy of sharing', but I think 'spice up your life' or 'the taste of losing tongue' is more adequate, as for most steamboat in China you can't get away with their ma la red-hot chilli peppers soup, supposedly keep rheumatism aches at bay, but my advise is to eat this last otherwise once your tongue is numb you lost your taste buds then there is not much different of you chewing table cloth :D.

my cup of tea

Cleaning my drawer, inadvertently discovered there are quite a varieties of teas that I have consumed over the years - Earl Grey Tea, Darjeeling Tea, English Breakfast Tea, Prince of Wales Tea, Lady Grey Tea, Sabah Tea, Green Tea, Jasmine Tea, WinTea, Maple Tea, Chinese Tea, Cameron Tea, Red Tea and what not ... in typical movie scene, a light bulb brightened just above my head -- Why not show them in writing before all being flushed down toilet bowl and back to mother nature, ok just do it then, a quick one ... soak tea bag in hot water, stir the drink to help the tea dissolve out of tea bag, ocassional sipping the beverage while talking, reading, working or day dreaming, that is the simple pleasure tea lover draw from drinking tea, while momentally killing thirst and escape reality with the cuppa, priceless ... gotta stop here before the tea effect turn me into a philosopher ..... all being said, I want nobody nobody but you, my favorite is still Japanese Green Tea, follow by Thai tea (cha-yen) a drink made from red-tea which is sweetened with sugar or condensed milk and lastly our very own AhBeng -- Teh-o-Beng.  How about you? What's your choice, coffee, tea or me? :D

曾经沧海难为水，除却巫山不是云。

经历过渤海的广阔无边，不会再被别的水吸引了，经历过巫山的云雨缠绵，也不会被别的云雨迷惑。

Klang on a plate

When talk about food in Klang first thing that come to mind is Bak Kut Teh. However I'm not going to follow the norm here, for a quick start I would like to introduce you to one uncommon meal -- Teow Cheow Fried Porridge -- make available at Taman Berkeley, Klang.
By the way, for those non-Malaysian who still think that Bak Kut Teh originated from Singapore, be sober, here a chance to redeem your naiveness by remembering this capital of BKT -- Klang and repeat 10x in your dream. Fact is other places who steal BKT originality from Klang are mere copycats. But it's also ourselve to blame not doing a good job in marketing.



What the heck is fried porridge you may politely ask. For once it's porridge not for sick people, but whether you are going to fall sick after eating or missing this, is another story.
Below is how fried porridge looks like in continuous shots taking at 1.2 second/shot before 'dissipated' (like real :D), sinfully tasty, pending elaborate lab report, among the ingredients found with our naked eyes were tiny hard beancurd cubes(aka Tao kua), lard and cuttlefish strips.



Side dishes to go with, normally the waitress will try to introduce fried bee hoon with crab or ibacus (lai niu har in cantonese, heh kor in hokkien), more likely to boast their year end bonus than anything else, good to have but unnecessary. Also feature here is their homemade fried meat-balls, but to my dissapointment not accompany with any homemade sauce, so do no justice to this dish.



However, you should try their stir fry potato leaves (no picture available, because it's gone faster than shutter speed) that comes with sweet after taste, no guilt and no risk of diabetic or cholestrol. As if you are concern :).

Bonus recommendation:

A stone away from the fried porridge (depend how big your stone is), there is one rather famous fatty pan mee, hand shredded type, no try you won't die, only regret :D .. but make sure you are not busy because waiting time can easily more than 30 minutes.








Carpe Diem ...