Thank you!: June 2008

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Bali - 29th June 2008

PY and TS went for the Bali Tri early in the morning. Eugene, Chee Han & Linda went to a really fancy and expensive golf course. The rest of us went to Ubud in a 2nd kijang.

Lunch at Cafe Wayan's still good. :-) Then armed with bags of shopping and 11 packets of Ibu Oka babi guling, we headed back to the villa.

Pre-dinner Tanah Lot was super crowded. Way too many people... Loads of tour buses from all over Indonesia, even saw one 'M' license plate from Jakarta. Our driver told us that the buses take the boat over from the main land.

Trusty Jimbaran dinner was loved by all, well worth getting lost (again...) MUST remember that we are going to Jimbaran Tengah for the seafood, nowhere else.

Bali - 28th June 2008

It was a very early moring, woke up at 5am. Fata and I went to the Jimbaran fish market and got us 2.5kg of large prawns for 300,ooorp, 3 fishes (including a parrot fish and 2 red snappers) for 105,000rp, sotong for 14,000rp, some salted eggs and vegetables.

Scenic breakfast at Ku De Ta along the Seminyak beach. Food was standard breakfast fare, the juices were yummy.

A walk along the Seminyak shopping streets were fun and very hot. We headed straight for the villa's pool when the heat was too much to bear. Fata and the villa kitchen staff started on making super fresh & yummy fish and chips. The double battered prawns were thick and juicy.

Villa manager, Gedek helped make dinner reservations at the Seminyak Warun made. Very crowded... lots and lots and lots of tourists, we just added to the number...

Cute little girls, say 5 to 6 years old, performances traditional Balinese dances. They were lots better than some of the adult dancers we've seen.

The Living Room was the watering hole of the night. {After last night's so-so time at the Hu'u Bar... we'd asked for a third mattress (for 11 people) and they just nodded and nothing...}

Was up for almost 19 hours, hahaha... :-)

Friday, June 27, 2008

Villa Sankara, Canggu, Bali - 27th July 2008

We have spent 24 glorious hours at this beautiful young (heard that it's only 2 to 3 months old) Villa Sankara, Pentai Berawa, Canggu, Bali.

4 + 1 more than comfortable bedrooms with 5 bathrooms, we are really enjoying this trip.

The view from my bed this morning reminded me of The Chedi, Phuket from 6 years ago, but the beach is much nearer this time.

The pool is a little chilly for the this tropical girl as the sun just misses it, as the eternity end of the pool faces south-southwest.

Had gone to Matahari, Kuta this morning while the 3 golfers went golfing, and 2 ladies slept in. The cab ride from Canggu, to Kuta (Matahari & Bali Bakery), to Jalan Bypass Ngurah Rai (to get lunch from Natrabu) and back to the villa was almost 300,000rp. I spent over 3 million rp all before breakfast! Feeding a dozen people is not cheap.

We are on vacation after all...

The afternoon was spent in and around the pool, as everyone was massaged. We'd ordered the masseurs from Manori Spa (recommended by our Bali Zen friend) and they were well received.

Dinner was Fata's beer butt chicken and pork chops, with the villa chef's pasta and mee bakso. TS & WG (staying at Villa Lombong) brought macaroons and yummy cheese and puff pastry cakes.

Looking forward to the next 4 days, albeit slowly. Don't want the time to pass too quickly. :-)

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Simone Legno will be here!!!

... but I will be in Bali ...

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Thin Hill

Tin Hill (no, I didn't mispell the title) along Bukit Timah road was reviewed by the local paper last week. Friends who lived nearby wanted to try it out 'cos of the review was faced with a fully packed restaurant.

We tried it out today. The ambience was pleasant, albeit on the tight side. Menus & water were not readily available.

I heard that the 2 salads they had earlier (we arrived late) were quite nice, the mushroom one and the other with shrimp and mango.

While we waited for more friends to arrive, the server had recommended some wings and wedges, which we'd said yes to.

20 minutes later, friends arrived, no wings nor wedges. We asked, another 20 minutes, only the wings arrived. This was an order suggested by the server...

Before our mains arrived, an unexpected friend joined us, after asking for an extra chair, we were told that the establishment only had 40 chairs and if the restaurant isn't informed that there'll be extra people, they may not have any chairs. (what the???) all this was happening infront of a single customer seated at 1 double table.

By this time, I was really hoping the food was what impressed the food critic...

I had the angel hair alio olio capellini with shrimp, the plate was gone in under 5 minutes. It tasted fine, not spectacular, but the portion was sad for S$18.50. Even with the BB (blackboard, the BB was still dated 19 July = 2 days old...) special, angel hair pasta with shrimp in a tomato based sauce, also arrived in disappointing portions.

The S$27 bouillabaisse had only snapper, where is/are the other type of fish? I was glad when another customer seated at the table behind had fedback to the restaurant lady that the seafood stew was not successful... Then there was the roasted chicken which wasn't even worth finishing...

Time for the bill... we were presented with the bill, it was an amount on the bill. The credit card goes, and it comes back with a bill almost double the first amount. Yes, they did mis-calculate the earlier amount, but to just present the corrected bill without stating that a mistake was made on the first bill, and hope that no-one noticed is plain wrong. Check all your bills before signing anything!

We have tried it and I'm happy that the newspaper's food critic had a better time than we had at Tin Hill. Thank you, but never again...