Breakfast at Café Bali again seemed like a good idea, beings it was a close walk, the food was good and the prices are inexpensive. My morning choices were the eggs diablo (spicy fried eggs with cheese), pain au chocolat and a strawberry, mint and lemon fruit fizz. Why doesn’t the U.S. have beverage choices like that? In the U.S., since I try hard not to drink caffeine these days, my choices are juice (generally with sugar added), certain sodas, water or milk. The juice choices will be limited to orange, pineapple or grapefruit, with the occasional apple juice or grape juice. Bali has mango, papaya, watermelon, strawberry, avocado, wheatgrass, banana, etc., etc. and it’s FRESH! You can hear the blender going, once you’ve ordered it. They sometimes add a bit of sweetener, but not the tooth numbing sugar that’s in American juices! Also, you’ll be hard put to find Diet Coke without caffeine being served in any restaurant in the U.S. That’s one big plus about my travels to Asia – I rarely drink soda when traveling there, as I prefer all of those healthy, refreshing juices, plus concoctions such as the fruit fizzes.
Against my better judgment, I wandered over to the textiles store again post-breakfast. The owner was understandably happy to see me. She was patient with all of my questions and didn’t mind folding and unfolding the textiles to give me a better look. Yes, I bought some more and no, I don’t regret it.
The next stop was another favorite of mine; a store that specializes in Venetian-style mirrors at probably 1/3 of the price most stores in the U.S. would charge, if not less. In the past, I purchased two smaller Venetian mirrors from them, as well as a hand mirror. This time I picked up two hand mirrors; one was of Hello Kitty, believe it or not, and would make a great present for the youngest of N.’s nieces.
Three hours of wandering around in the heat and humidity had me searching for shelter again. It was close enough to lunch time for me to head in the direction of a tiny warung that used to be around the corner from Queen’s Tandoor. Not only was it cheap, but I’d loved the food in there. Alas, it was no more. On that same street, I came upon a new place called, appropriately enough, Shelter. Though the downstairs would have been fine with me, the young man directed me upstairs, assuring me that it had a nice view, was not in direct sunlight and was cooler. Everything he said was true, so I leaned back into my sofa area under the alang-alang roof and ordered fresh coconut juice in the coconut shell straight away. I had a chicken sandwich, too, but there was some strange-looking sauce on the plate; I didn’t even bother to hazard a taste. I wasn’t that hungry. That’s another plus about traveling in hot and humid places; my weight often goes down ’cause I’m either not very hungry and/or I’m sweating everything out of my body simply walking around!
I decided to give Double Six Hotel another try, but headed directly to the restaurant, Seminyak Italian, this time. Yes, they had a nice view, albeit a floor below the rooftop. There was plenty of seating, but not really anyone around at this time in the afternoon. I sat overlooking the ocean and took a gander at their menu. Most of the food was under 200,000IDR with a 4-course prix fixe for 300,000IDR. The arancini (which is hard to find in Cali) and the 3 flavors of cannoli intrigued me. The best part was the wine list. Anyone that’s been to Bali knows that French, Italian and Napa/Sonoma wines are very hard to come by there. When you do find them, they’re exorbitant in price. That leaves you with Australian, South African, Chilean or (horrible) Balinese wine to choose from. Seminyak Italian has an extensive wine list, with only 3 Aussie wines and 4 French wines; all the rest are Italian and reasonably priced, for the most part. I wanted a glass of Pinot Grigio, but they were out of my choice. Just my luck. To make it simple, I ordered a beer instead. After waiting for about 15 minutes and checking to see that no large parties had arrived in the meantime, I gestured to one of the staff. When she came over, I asked what had happened to my beer. Were they out of that, too? She said that the other waitress must have misunderstood me, then profusely apologized. My beer was brought tout suite! At precisely 4:00 p.m., an Italian gentlemen came to my table, addressed me as “Signorina” and informed me that it was now Aperitivo Hour, as he directed me towards the complimentary cichetti at the bar. I got a little plate of Italian meats and cheese, plus some olives to munch on. After further perusal of the menu, I decided that the chance to eat arancini simply couldn’t be passed up. The four arancini were good and, in my opinion, paired nicely with my glass of Sangiovese. Since I had a dinner reservation later, I was sure to regret ordering them, but you only live once!
Friday would be my last Seminyak sunset at the beach, as it was off to Ubud the following day. Ubud isn’t anywhere near the ocean, and I’ve never actually seen the sunset anywhere there. La Plancha again? Better to give Crystal Palace a try. It’s a smaller place, but with the same brightly colored comfy chairs and umbrellas sprawled on the beach. I leaned back in my chair, enjoying the slight breeze and taking pictures; didn’t even order anything. Time passed too quickly; I needed to get back to my apartment, shower up and change for dinner.
Merah Putih is another newish restaurant in Seminyak; don’t believe it was there two years ago. This gorgeous restaurant also boasts eco sustainability. Rainwater is captured in their translucent roof columns, then channeled into their water-flow system. UV filters purify and recycle the water, which is used for cleaning, watering plants and such, but never for drinking water (the waiter pointed this out to me). To me, the entrance to the restaurant is quite stunning. Service is most definitely en pointe. I ordered three small plates, rather than one big one – Sumatran Beef Shin “Bak Pao,” Udang Bumbu Bali and a side of Nasi Goreng. Prior to that, they served an amuse bouche of soto ayam, which I doused liberally with chili. Very good! Before the small plates came and while I was sipping on my sparkling wine, they even brought me some magazines to read. The two pieces of Bak Pao were rendang steamed buns with cucumber and sambal. They were fantastic. The Udang Bumbi Bali were four large tiger prawns with garlic, chili, jicama and pomelo. I was a little less enthused, as they arrived with their heads on, but were fine taste-wise. The Nasi Goreng was straight up bland, though I added both sambal and sweet soy sauce. Due to my earlier dalliance with the arancini at Seminyak Italian, I couldn’t finish the prawns or the nasi goreng, anyway. While they packed them up, I ordered bottled water, which was served in a silver container. Nice touch! I took my “doggy bag” and strolled into the bar, where a couple of the very friendly bartenders chatted me up as I drank a glass of Pinot Grigio. They informed me that one of their chefs is European, but the other is from Jimbaran. That will make me sure to order the whole fish next time, as I LOVE the fish cooked Jimbaran-style, particularly red snapper. The restaurant called a taxi for me; they even asked if I preferred Bluebird or another company. Always use Bluebird when in Bali, if possible. Those taxis are highly regulated, thus always use their meters. My taxi driver was quite amusing; he’d been to San Francisco before and spoke English relatively well. I asked that he take me to Sloki on Dhyana Pura to meet my Italian friends. As we passed several gay bars on Dhyana Pura, he joked that the men dressed as women there were quite beautiful, but the men dressed as women in the Castro are always ugly and scary! His wife happened to call while he was driving me to my destination. I offered him my food from Merah Putih to take home for dinner, which he happily accepted. I also tipped him well, simply because he was a pleasure!
At Sloki, I met up with two Italian women, G. and A., whom I’d met in Bali 3 or 4 years ago. They’d just happened to arrive in Bali that day and were staying in Seminyak. Neither they or I knew the other(s) would be in Bali. We happened to see each other’s postings on Facebook! Thank Heavens for social media (sometimes)! We each had a drink at Sloki, but the music from the DJ was too loud to have a conversation, so we walked to their villa to continue talking. They’ve traveled extensively in Southeast Asia to purchase stock for their respective businesses, so are always full of helpful information for me. We were mainly talking about how cab drivers the world over try to rip people off. Since they had jet lag and I needed to be up early to leave for Ubud the following morning, I didn’t stay too long. They walked me back to Dhyana Pura to catch a cab. As I got in, A. insisted that the cab driver put his meter on. He complied and we were off. Normally, the fare from Dhyana Pura to the area near my apartment is 12,000 to 15,000, depending on traffic, thus I readied a 20,000 bill to give him. As he pulled up next to Ultimo, I handed him the bill. He looked at it, then pointed to the meter, asserting that what it said was the correct fare. The meter said 117,644!!! I had to laugh, then told him that I most assuredly knew what the correct fare should be as I’ve been to Bali many times and taken that route many times. He kind of shrugged and asked me for 50,000 instead. I declined, handed him the 20,000 and exited the car.
Venetian-style Mirrors
Breakfast from Café Bali
Double Six Hotel
Sunset from Crystal Palace
Dinner at Merah Putih
With One of my Italian Friends
