2006 April | Sojourn

Apr

Bali, Indonesia: Ubud – Motorcycles

Well, here we are in Ubud, happily examining the Motorcycles (semi-automatic bikes for me and Jeffery, fully automatic scooters for the ladies). Carly seems to have taken this picture while the three of us are scowling at something, I’m not entirely sure what it might be.

Pretty sure this is a picture of the “bike” that Carly got, it was a a heavy beast. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to bring the little guy along.

Jeffery looks even dumber with a yellow helmet on his head than he does in real life. Er… Sorry Jeffery.

Here we have a nice little shot of the Bali countryside around Ubud. It was quite gorgeous pretty much everywhere we managed to get to. We’re not really sure exactly where it is that we got to. We figured we’d ride “away” from the town for about 1/2 the amount of the time we had the bikes, and on our way back, we’d find a local, look confused, shrug our shoulders, say “Ubud?”, and they would point in a direction. Worked out pretty well, we made it back in time.

A lady was selling petrol out of these little glass bottles at the roadside, not an uncommon site. We topped up a bit, and carried on.

I must say I was pretty stoked to get Carly riding around town on a bike. Maybe we’ll rent ‘em again the next time we head to Thailand or something. It was a lot of fun.

Apr

Bali, Indonesia: Ubud – Cooking at Casa Luna

One of the more famous restaurants in Ubud is Casa Luna. They have one of the worst web sites I’ve ever seen, but their food is something out of this world. We headed their for dinner a few hours after our arrival in Ubud, where I have to confess, I ordered a Main Entree for dinner. That wouldn’t have been such a big deal, except that I ordered a second one about 20 minutes after I finished the first. I had no idea how else I was going to be able to try everything. They served up super cocktails, and delicious fresh-baked bread, and an Avocado-Coffee milkshake that was absolutely killer.

They offer a cooking course as well, which we signed up for for the next morning. The picture below is a Hibiscus flower and a glass of iced Hibiscus tea, which was served up at our cooking course the next morning buy the pitcher, and tasted fabulous.

Below we have a few photos of a ton of fresh ingredients we used in our preparation of Nasi Goreng, Chicken Satay and Peanut Sauce (from scratch!).

I don’t recall if this photo was taken before or after we did the cooking / eating. By the looks of how happy we are, I would guess it could have been after. Note that this is probably the first and last time you will ever see Jeffery in an apron.

This was the huge pile of nasi goreng that we made, along with a big yummy bowl of peanut sauce and a pile of chicken satay. And man was it awesome.

We must confess that we returned to Casa Luna a few more times to eat. They serve up an unreal Sunday Brunch where we scored some Corn Meal Pancakes with Blueberries and Palm Sugar Syrup that Carly says is the best breakfast she’s ever had. I don’t think I’d disagree.

Apr

Bali, Indonesia: Ubud – General Stuff

These are some “general” shots of Ubud, that don’t really fit into any category in particular. This first one is a picture I took just outside the rooms we were staying in. Yes, that is a nice pool there, about 20 feet away from the front door of our room. These rooms cost a fortune, btw – like 130,000 Rupiah per night (about $16/CDN )

This was a fairly typical shot of a street in Ubud.

These are, um, chickens.

This is Aileen and Carly, happily enjoying a cocktail at Casa Luna.

Robin and Carly and Aileen.

Robin and Carly and Aileen (again).

This is a shot of the alley (more like a narrow street) that we walked through to get to the place we were staying.

All in all, I have to say that Ubud is a totally awesome little place. I could definitely see myself heading back there to enjoy more of the culture, the people and the cuisine.

Apr

Bali, Indonesia: Tirta Gangga – The Water Palace

The Water Palace of Tirta Gangga was one of three of the palaces enjoyed by the royal family of Bali when Bali was a monarchy. It was originally built in 1948 but has since been rebuilt after the 1963 eruption of Gunung Agung and political events.

Dan with his buddies

The love birds

Trying out Tirta Gangga’s own rice wine before hitting the road for Ubud

Apr

Bali, Indonesia: Tirta Gangga – Hiking

Welcome to picturesque Tirta Gangga (Water of the Ganges). Ganges is a river in Northern India known as sacred to Hindus. Tirta Gangga is a small village surrounded by high ridges and home to sublime rice paddies and the Water Palace.