green ginger noodle house...the quaintest little cafe you ever did see...

Tuesday 26th october 2010

ok, so at number 46 jalan pantai brawa, a new little cafe has opened. it's called Green Ginger Noodle House, and it is the most adorable little cafe to hit the Bali shores. as you can see from the photos, it is steeped in charm with a beautiful interior and delightful trinkets scattered throughout the cafe. a rack of vintage clothing for sale just adds to the overall charm of the place and you feel like you have walked into someone's home rather than a roadside cafe. the menu is succint offering a variety of asian dishes including laksa, papaya salad and miso ramen noodles. i tried the papaya salad (a favourite of mine from my days of living in Lao) and it was delicious - tasty and full of that particular flavour that comes along with a papaya salad that leaves a tingle in your mouth as your tastebuds are tantalised by the combination of flavour and spice. an orange juice to wash it down made sure that a return visit to this new addition to the Bali cafe scene is a must...

Green Ginger Noodle House,

46 Jalan Pantai Brawa,

Canggu - Bali

photos taken from Green Ginger facebook page

roots, rock, reggae...Gili T-style

Thursday 14th October 2010

if you're in Gili T, don't forget to drop into Sama-Sama Reggae bar to catch some live reggae tunes being played by the local band. a great way to unwind after a hard day at the beach...the singer who is originally from Lombok, sings in a mixture of Bahasa Indonesia, English and Sasak (the local dialect) and is downright rockin'! there are bungalows out the back of this restaurant where you can also stay...pretty convenient after a night of dancing away to reggae music...

just look to the rainbow, you will see...

Wednesday 13th October 2010

taken from the beach at Gili T, where it was a sun-shiny day looking towards Lombok where it was obviously pouring with rain...and lo and behold a perfect rainbow with every beautiful colour of it shining through in all its' glory. i haven't seen a perfectly coloured rainbow ever! and it's shooting straight into the ocean...wonder if there was a pot of gold down there?

Gili T sunset...

Sunday 3rd October 2010

truthfully, it didn't blow me away half as much as some of the bali sunsets. there's something about the sun setting over rice paddies and i'm a sucker for colourful sunset skies...i need red, purples, oranges...

transportation...Gili T-style!

Saturday 2nd October 2010

the famous Gili Trawangan cidomo...view from inside and out. NOT for the faint-hearted or weak-backed!

another day in a different paradise...Gili Trawangan...

Friday 1st October 2010

ok, so one would imagine that living in Bali, one would not need a holiday away from their holiday...well, think again! sometimes it does get a bit hectic here, especially during tourist high season, where the roads fill up with traffic and one feels like locking themselves away in their homes until the tourists have all gone back to wherever it was they came from...hence Gili Trawangan, one of three small islands off Lombok, the other two being Gili Air and Gili Meno. They are a short plane ride from Bali and a complete paradise in that there are no cars and motorbikes allowed on the island. this means transportation is down to bicycle, feet or something called a cidomo which is a horse drawn carriage.

it's pretty idyllic, with crystal blue waters and and white sandy beaches. life is very very slow and night times are one big party after another, with the location changing every night from one bar to the next. however, on the downside (if you can possibly imagine one!) food and drink is very expensive. with being such a small island everything has to be imported from the mainland, hence in some places there is a 21% tax charge! and most of it doesn't really taste that fantastic.

however, if you need to get away from it all and get a feel for what Bali might have been like 20 years ago, this is the spot. it's peaceful, you can find quiet beaches, swim in turquoise blue water and completely unwind. i'm thinking next time a trip to Gili Meno and Gili Air is in order as they are even less populated than Gili Trawangan.

if it's good enough for anthony bourdain then it's good enough for me...

Sunday 28th March 2010

no trip to Bali would seem to be complete without a trip to the now-famous Bu Oka's Warung in Ubud. made famous by that most adventurous of food gurus - anthony bourdain, the warung sells only babi guling or in english, suckling pig. the dish comes with an interesting array of bits and bobs of the pig and some vegetables. the meat was succulent and soft and super tasty, the crackling was crispy...no, that's not the word...it crackled in your mouth...i don't really know any other way to describe it! the soup was full of flavour and the meat in it soft and just seemed to kind of dissolve in the mouth. for Rp. 40,000 you get the whole set of soup, rice and meat and if you haven't tried it then a stop off here is something to put on your list. it gets very busy around lunch time, so i'd recommend going a little later if you want to avoid the crowds. there are two locations now - one in the centre of Ubud and one just outside in the village of Mas. i went to the one in Mas and it was a little quieter with a lovely seating area upstairs, with floor seating.

lions and tigers and elephants...oh my!

Saturday 27th March 2010

ok so if you really want to have a good time at the Bali Safari and Marine Park, don't bring 125 children from the school you work at for a field trip! apart from that, this is a lovely surprise attraction located in Gianyar about an hour away from Kuta. the Park is well maintained, the staff are considerate, welcoming and happy to help. the place is run with an air of professionalism that shows they are enjoying what they are doing. the safari itself, was very well structured and we had an excellent guide, called Nila, who did a wonderful job of entertaining my unruly bunch of students! the grounds of the safari are beautiful and there has been a lot of attention to detail with rickety bridges to cross and swamps to drive through...such fun! the animals have space and freedom to roam around and the Park itself is a member of a conservation group, so standards must be maintained. there is lots to explore and even a Safari Lodge to stay in where you can wake up to animals grazing outside your window. if you want a change from the usual rigmarole of bali sights - beaches, temples, markets, then this place is well worth a visit. i didn't get a chance to see the white tigers (my absolute favourite) so a return visit is a must.

this is where the real 'wild things' are...

Sunday 21st March 2010

the night before Nyepi, Bali's day of silence, which took place on Tuesday 16th March...the real 'wild things' came out to play. called ogoh-ogoh, they are huge statues created in every village across Bali and paraded through the streets to scare away the evil spirits. a fearsome sight indeed!

just another beautiful sunset in paradise...

Friday 5th February 2010

i must have...hmmm, let's see...way too many sunset pictures at this point...but the crazy thing is that i just can't stop myself because when you are riding along on your motorbike and you glance ever so quickly to the side and see a sky like this...how can you NOT stop and grab your camera and take a picture. that sky...reflected in those rice fields...it's beauty on a whole other level, really. it's been awhile since i posted...had to move house and get through all that involves and well now, i'm settled in to the new crib and back out looking for trouble on my bike with camera in hand. so here's to 2010...my first posting for this year and hopefully many more to come...