Bali: Eat and Play

We would be out the whole day today for our day trip. Since our guide would be coming at 9am to pick us up, we had our breakfast at 8am. We could choose to have either American, International, Continental or Indonesian breakfast. We chose both the American and International breakfast which included fruit salad, fruit juice, cereal, yogurt, toast, eggs (cooked to our preference) with bacon/mushroom/tomato/potatoes and coffee/tea. We were so full that we could hardly walk but what a good start to the day lol.

Us at the villa restaurant

Scrambled egg white with salad. YUM!

Fluffy pancake. Delicious!

The two HMs lazing on the restaurant daybed after a sumptuous breakfast lol

Our guide, Susila, arrived promptly at 9am and off we went for a full day of activities. First stop, rather spontaneous and not in our list of TTD, was the souvenir shop! Haha. We spent close to an hour there and everyone came out of it with shopping bag(s) full of goodies, namely peanuts! NO joke lol. :)
As we continued with the journey to Ubud, we made another spontaneous addition to the itinerary. We wanted to try suckling pig lol. Susila was really good and on the spot, he helped us to replan and rearrange our itinerary schedule. Now we were off to have the first installment of our lunch, suckling pig at Ibu Oka, Ubud. :)
We arrived just as the restaurant opened at 11am. We ordered a special (Rp30,000): rice, vegetables, pork roll, fried meat, sausage with pork skin; a separate (Rp50,000): rice, complete meat with soup; and Roasted Pork skin (RP40,000). The dishes were delicious! A tad spicy for me but still delicious. :)




After our lunch (part 1), we drove on to Mount Batur and Lake Batur, Kintamani. As it was on higher grounds, the temperature was a lot cooler and it felt quite comfortable. The scenery was beautiful.

Mount Batur

Lake Batur (crater lake)




We moved on to visit Batur Temple or Ulun Danu Batur Temple. We wore sarong before we entered the temple grounds. This temple, built in 1926, is the 2nd most important temple in Bali.





For the third time today, we had a spontaneous stop at the coffee plantation and spice garden lol. The plantation person explained to us how the kopi luwak coffee or civet coffee or "cat poop" coffee is processed. The gourmet coffee is made from the ripest coffee berries which has been eaten by and passed undigested through the digestive tract of the civets. This process takes place only in Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and Bali resulting in kopi luwak coffee being the most expensive and rare coffee in the world. Indeed it is expensive! A 60g bottle of kopi luwak coffee (for my mother) costed me S$35! :P


The coffee sampler set - chocolate coffee, ginseng coffee, vanilla coffee, lemon tea, ginger tea, and two different types of black coffee

Photo with our friendly guide, Susila

After the plantation, we rushed to our lunch (part 2) at Bebek Bengil, dirty duck diner as it was close to 2.30pm. On the way, we took a quick look at the rice terraces. It was really a quick look, out of the car, took the photo and back in the car haha. We arrived at Bebek Bengil just before 3pm for our lunch. The restaurant is right next to padi fields and has a really nice, traditional ambiance. The food was sumptuous! We ordered 2 sets of Balinese Smoked Duck (Rp187,000 per set for 2 persons, need to order 24 hours in advance) and a set of Crispy Duck (Rp82,000). We were so full that we couldn't finish the food and had to pack one of the whole smoked duck home as supper lol.
At the rice terraces before our Crispy Duck lunch


Balinese Smoked Duck: whole duck smoked with spices wrapped in Beatle nut leaf, served with Balinese sate (satay), vegetables, steamed rice and 2 fruit punch (each set is for 2 persons)

Crispy Duck: half a duck steamed in Indonesian spices, then deep fried, served with salad, rice and Balinese vegetables

The padi fields surrounding the restaurant


We were off to the last place on our itinerary, Tanah Lot Temple. It was really crowded because a lot of tourists come here to watch the sunset. We took some photos of the temple before we settled at one of the cafes to watch the sun set. The sunset was a really lovely sight. :)

Tanah Lot Temple at low tide




Our shadows lol


The sun setting








We returned to our car very quickly after the sunset before the traffic jam. We managed to get back into Seminyak around 7.30pm. As we were really full, we decided to do some shopping instead of having dinner. We asked our guide to drop us at Supermarket Bintang Seminyak where we bought some stuff and we shopped at the shops along Jalan Raya Seminyak. :) It was 9pm when we returned to our villa and we had a light dinner with our whole smoked duck from lunch lol.
It has been a long and tiring day but really enjoyable. We had lots of good food and good laughs on our day trip. :) Tomorrow is a day of pampering for us.