Down the Rabbit Hole

I was excited to try out the food in Bali because I've always dreamed of popping in for a gastronomic adventure at Locavore, one of Asia's 50 best restaurants. Lest I be dubbed as a food snob (i.e., only going to the internationally renowned restaurants), I also like to state that I also enjoy eating in restaurants whose food provide a more home-cooked feel. I felt that I could not make a boring food decision in picking a restaurant in Bali because this island is a a melting pot of a lot of Asian cultures. It's my chance to try the southeast Asian version of the Indian-Chinese food fusion (my first taste of this was in West Bengal ) further mixed with lots of influences from other Indonesian culinary traditions and from Balinese gastronomy as well.  So, as soon as Val and I finished working (we're hardwired to bring our laptops on vacation... I wrote parts of a book chapter on gastronomy for my consultancy work while he worked on an economics paper or a presentatio

Bali is quite famous for its coffee. The island grows two species of coffee trees: Coffea canephora  (robusta) and C. arabica  (arabica). Our driver, Jek, brought us to a coffee farm called Hidden Garden Agriculture  nestled in the lush mountains in the central part of the island. I'm not a coffee drinker but I was a sensory evaluator for instant coffee when I was still working as a quality assurance supervisor at the Antonina Industrial Corporation (many years ago). So this visit piqued my professional curiosity. Val's not a coffee drinker either but he was game to taste what the coffee farm had to offer. The tour guide walked us through the different steps for processing coffee. I was familiar with these because I used to spend summer holidays in Padre Garcia, Batangas  when my grandparents' farm used to produce coffee. However, I was amazed at how Kopi Luwak, or coffee beans that has been "processed" (i.e., coffee cherries were eaten and ferme

Our last stop during our tour of Bali, Indonesia was Tanah Lot . In the Balinese language, it means "land in the sea". It is home to the Pura Tanah Lot, where the deity named Dang Hyang Nirartha is worshipped by Hindus in the area, along with the main sea god of the Balinese. Our driver, Jek, wanted to make sure that we arrived in plenty of time before sunset because there were so many things to see before we even saw the temple. For instance, this candi bentar  (split gate) was already a show stopper. It is guarded by two giant statues of characters from Balinese mythology, although I don't know who they are. The candi bentar itself is intricately adorned. Seeing it reminded me of Prof. Zafaralla discussing the various elements of Earthquake Baroque while my Humanities II class stared at the façade of the Paoay Church . I was amazed at the detail of the Balinese statues. For some reason, they reminded me of the temple guards I've seen in Jeongeungsa Temp

This was our second Bali "temple run" stop. It was a gorgeous temple set against one of the most beautiful landscapes I've seen. The mountains surrounding the crater lake Lake Beratan reminded me of the towering mountains of Kualoa Ranch in Oahu. On the lake's shores is Pura Ulan Danu Beratan , a water temple that is also one of Bali's UNESCO Heritage Sites .  And, just like in Pura Taman Ayun , we weren't the only tourists there. The difference was that in Beratan, we saw tourists who weren't covered up enough. Many women were clad in beach attire and some men were actually walking about shirtless! Val and I found this attitude disrespectful because this is an active temple... worshippers were actually just inside the inner sanctum. Tourists could easily cover themselves up in sarongs while they were here. But that's hardly "Instagrammable". Anyway, this temple felt more extensive than Taman Ayun. There were a lot of split gates

Our first stop during our Bali "temple run" was the Pura Taman Ayun , which was built in 1634. It is unique because it has extensive gardens and a moat surrounding the inner temple compound. I learned prior to our trip, that this temple is actually a UNESCO Heritage Site !  On the day we visited, the gate to the inner sanctum was open. Our driver, Jek, explained that our visit coincided with a big religious festival, which was why the temple was very crowded (not counting the tourists who flocked the area). It does look like it because there were many offerings near the feet of Balinese deities everywhere we went.  The gardens reminded me of Intramuros, particularly of Fort Santiago  because they were so green and lush. It was easy to forget that Bali was hot and humid because the gardens and the fountains had a cooling effect. Under the wantilan  (cockfighting pavilion), we saw children all dressed up... the equivalent of Christians wearing their Sunday'

After touring Singapore, Val and I flew (with Leonce's family) to Bali, Indonesia where we took on a more cultural bend (and rural) on our adventure. We planned to visit several temples which are included in the UNESCO Heritage Sites list, to walk along the famous rice terraces of the island, and to eat our way through Balinese gastronomy. But before we could do all that, we had to check out the accommodations that Val arranged for us. A few minutes from the airport and we were already in the coastal town of Sanur and we stayed at Peter and Helly's AirBNB called  Joglo View Villa . It's a cozy resort that I didn't expect to find so close to the hustle and bustle of the airport.  The garden fronting the  joglo  (the old teak wood house) was small but beautiful. And the exteriors of the joglo was very well-maintained. Traditional carvings lined the eaves while wooden carvings served as accents to glass windows. An old bicycle leaning on the wall further ad

When I first visited Sentosa , I learned that Singapore's only fully restored coastal fort is located there. So on my second visit, I made sure that we'd get a taste of Singapore's history via a trip to Fort Siloso. Leonce's family would also enjoy a bit of a less touristy trip, I thought. Val's always into history stuff, because he thoroughly enjoyed the National Museum and Intramuros; so I thought that he'd like a stop here too. What we didn't know, until we got there, was that we had to hike a bit to reach the fort... there's the option of walking on the elevated bridge, of course, but where's the excitement in that? Before we entered the hiking path, we saw signs cautioning us about wild animals. I had seen  wild peahens  when Mommy, Daddy, and I were queued up for a show, so I was expecting to see birds on this hike. Instead, we saw dragonflies and and butterflies. Not a bird in sight; but we knew that they were up in the trees becau