Cooking Class and a relaxing afternoon and a dinner in a "quiet restaurant for quiet people"

My plan this morning was to fulfill a bucket list desire of running in Bali...  Rachel my friend had asked me if I would have any room in my suitcase for a few books and bits and pieces before I flew out and I said "sure!"  10kg of children's literature later I was pleased with the 30kg Malaysian air allowance!  My plan was to jog across to her house which is only 3 KM away, but with only 4 hours sleep due to jet lag and general rubbishness about going to bed at a sensible time, I ended up sleeping in and left them on the balcony for her to collect later as by 9am we needed to be at our cooking class at Bumi Bali!

I work Anna up and we rushed (a little) to get ready with a similar breakfast to yesterday - again a very garlicky omelette, Bali Coffee and fresh fruit.  We got to Bumi Bali and were greeted by our teacher and in a class with a German family of 4 with teenage children and a Dutch couple - everyone was down to earth and relaxed and we had a really nice time together.

Our first exercise on the course was a trip to the Ubud market to look at the ingredients that we would need for our cooking.  We looked at a whole range of unusual vegetables, fruits and spices in colourful and fragrant (i.e. a mixture of very "strong" smells) across the market.  We discovered that the fruit we bought yesterday with snakelike skin was indeed called "snake fruit" by many!  

After our tour of approx 45 minutes where we encountered bitter melon, different types of galangal, ginger, vanilla pods and durian fruit we walked back to the restaurant to start our class.  If I'm totally honest I'm a little disappointed that we didn't *actually* buy the ingredients we were using from the market itself, but at least they were all ready for us when we returned to the restaurant.

The first thing that we were to learn was how to make Bumbu Bali a spice base for multiple dishes.  This involved a large number of ingredients being blended and friend in coconut oil including:  fresh ginger, shallots, cloves, red chills, greater galangal, lesser galangal, fresh turmeric, coriander seeds, candlenuts, black pepper corns, white pepper corns, nutmeg, garlic, cumin, sesame seed and shrimp paste.  You blend all this together and fry - it smells amazing!

The Bumbu Bali was then mixed with some blanched vegetables to make Sayur Urab and also some fried rice for our starters - blanched veg was coordinated by Anna who had to put the carrots and long beans in first, followed by all the other cabbage and "softer" beg.

After we'd munched through our first course the Bumbu Bali was used again to season chicken legs for our Opor Ayam - chicken curry with coconut.  We also used the Bumbu Bali to make satay with minced pork and we wrapped it first around a usual satay stick and then around a stick of lemon grass which made the flavour so much fragrant - although would cost far too much to be practical in the UK.  Also it is more difficult than you would think to wrap the satay around the stick - pinching the mixture and anti-clockwise turning is the trick it would appear!  The curry bubbled away for a while and when it was finished we got to eat it with some more rice and the sauce was lovely - we slightly winced at how much coconut oil had gone it, but then again "it's natural! so that's all fine right??

Our last dish was dessert - Pisang Goreng - or fried bananas!  Fairly simple - slice bananas into slices lengthways at an angle and then mix up flour, sugar and egg and dip the bananas in and then deep fry!  We had ours with syrup served on top!

After our feasting session we were pretty full so we wondered down to the internet cafe to print out our plane tickets to Lombok - felt old school to be in an internet cafe!  Anna needed decent coffee so we went along to one of my favourite places in Bali to eat and drink - Juice Ja - Anna had a cappuchino and I had a Bali coffee.

The plan was then to come back to the hotel, I was going to sleep (but blogged instead) and Anna went tourist shopping.

After she got back we went for a wonder and walked up to the tjampuham bridge which is still stunning and I bought some Almond body spray which doesn't actually smell like almond, but reminds me of a perfume I loved from when I was 15!

Getting a little thirsty we stopped into a fun looking place called Gedong Sisi which was really nicely decorated, pretty busy and had happy hour cocktails!  We had a quick drink whilst making plans to see Rachel and her husband Made for dinner and then wandered down to Tutmak for another drink (I had a Bintang and Anna sampled Balinese Rose wine) and then Rachel arrived.  We met up with Made in the car and drove a short distance to Miro's Garden Restaurant which I'd not been to since we went after Rachel and Made got married which is the first reason that I came to Bali.  

It's a medium priced restaurant where after a starter, two 500ml beers and a beautiful main of Nasi Campur it feels a bit expensive at circa 175,00 rupiah plus tax i.e. less than £9!  The food and restaurant is beautifully presented with flowers everywhere and beautiful paintings and furniture with water features throughout.  The restaurant is fairly quiet and a little bit off the Ubud beaten track, but there were still a fair few people eating there.  We had some lovely food - loved how my Nasi Campur was presented with each individual element either in a banana leaf or palm leaf dish.  

As I've not seen Rachel for nearly 2 years and we were having fun we had a few animated discussions - in particular explained the seriousness that the foot bath ingredients were explained to us at the massage and luxury spar yesterday and so we were giggling a little.  From out of the corner of the area we were eating a chap wandered over to us to inform us that this was a "quiet restaurant for quiet people to eat" which he felt the need to state at least 4 times!  Of course by this point we now felt terrible, even though we'd done nothing wrong other than giggle a little bit - and this wasn't a staff member, just some guy that felt the need to tell us to be quiet in a slightly odd way.  It reminded me of two previous occasions where I ended up feeling terrible for enjoying the atmosphere of a Ben Folds gig at Manchester Apollo (Hardly a small and intimate venue) and chatted briefly to my friends about the gig and we were all told by a particularly grumpy young woman in a dodgy hat that she had come to "watch Ben Folds and not listen to you!" but displayed not even one iota of passion for the rest of the gig!  And then there was Nepal - after a long day of trekking the guides and sherpas were relaxing by dancing like mad to an iPhone through 2 tiny speakers and we were joining in, it was "gosh" 8.50 pm and an angry looking man - who we guessed might be Eastern European from what we could tell - was staring at us for a few minutes, he then exploded screaming at us and yanking the speakers off the table "Finish, finished, FINISHED!!!  People are trying to sleep!!!  My family are trying to sleep!!!  The lovely natured Evan from our group - an ex professional ballet dancer from Australia said "people want to dance!" and the chap nearly hit him!  Incidentally his "children" were in their late teens early 20s!  So these things make me wonder a bit - I'm often highly irritated by what I perceive to be deliberately antisocial behaviour of other people at restaurants and other places, but I've not once (apart from perhaps shushing some teenagers when I was watching the first Harry Potter film in the cinema) ever passed comment and certainly haven't felt the need to make anyone feel too awkward - so I'm thinking I'm either:

a. too nice

b. too noisy and inconsiderate until it's pointed out

c. or both!

Answers on a postcard!

Bali 3.2 - Walking through rice fields, catching up with friends and Luxury Spa

I didn't end up sleeping until approx 2am, and I'd had an idea that I might go to Yoga  and doing an early morning class, instead I decided to wake up naturally and was awake about 8.30am.  We had breakfast brought to our balcony at The Swan Inn Omelette for me (with lots of Garlic!) and pineapple pancake for Anna with some fresh fruit and coffee - really tasty!

We then went for a little walk around Ubud so that Anna could get her bearings - first all the way down Monkey Forest Road going past the actual Monkey Forest and then onto Hanoman and back around onto Monkey Forest Road an up past the palace.  Rachel had given us some excellent directions to her house - about 3K from The Swan Inn.  My favourite part of the directions was "past the bamboo house and you get to a little garden with a goat - you need to go down the stairs here and cross the stream"  We wandered through some gorgeous rice fields before finding Rachel's house - impressed that we found it first time!

Rachel is in a different house to the last time I came when she was still living with her In-laws and the house is much closer to Ubud for her.  It's the same slightly scary Balinese traditions with hard stone floors and steps which I'm amazed at the agility both Kiran and Maya were able to navigate.  Maya has just the same character now that she's nearly 4, as the last time I saw her when she was 2 - bright, cheeky and mischievous with a devilish sense of humour, but unlike last time when she was shunning speaking any English (whilst understanding every word!) she was babbling away sounding great and with no hint of a Balinese accent.  

Kiran is now 2 and still has a lovely baby face, but is definitely a little boy in behaviour and loved playing with the cars.  He is talking too, but his English has a hint of a Balinese accent - it's really fascinating how they are developing and I'm so jealous of how amazing their linguistic capabilities will be.  Kiran was lovely and when Maya spilled my cup of Bali coffee (just the grounds) he cleared it up with a cloth!

Kiran and Maya liked their clothes that I'd brought with me as presents from both my Mum and me and put them on straight away.  We got to meet Rosie and Robbie rabbit who are tiny and very cute.  

We went down to a nice restaurant with a good play area for the kids that kept Kiran and Maya busy for most of the time that we were eating.   Anna and me both had Tuna with vegetables, but we both think it was actually swordfish!  It was tasty and I had another soup - have had a few this holiday already - developed a taste for sour and hot seafood soups!

We wandered back up the road after poor Maya was separated from a Hello Kitty toy microphone from the restaurant and then walked back through the rice fields to Ubud and went on the hunt for a suitable spa for a massage.  Anna had a picture in her mind of the sort of luxury spa experience she was looking for and so after a few trips, leaflets and examining of treatment rooms we settled on the extremely luxurious Dala Spa.  In Ubud you can get a full hour of massage for approx 70,000 rupiah which is the equivalent of about £3.61.  Dala Spa was a little different of 450,000 for an hour so more like £23.18 - about 6 times as expensive, but in comparison to the last massage I had in the UK of an hour for £50 still extremely affordable for the average British tourist purse.

So you're probably wondering - was Dala Spa 6 times as good/luxurious and I have to say it was the *most* plush spa experience that I've had and I have tried out a couple of different places both for treats to myself and hen weekends etc.

First of all we sat in a wooden classic looking reception area and were served a cool ginger and lemony tea with a cold towel.  We got to choose from 5 different massage oils - I went for a lavender based one.  

We were then shown into the "Marigold" room and then taken straight into the "Ylang Ylang" room which was a bit confusing, but the room was beautiful and the whole place as we walked down the stairs smelt a strange combination of clean, eucalyptus mixed with the general Balinese incense smell that you get all over the place which hits you with a cool air in contrast to the humidity upstairs.

Both Anna and me were treated in the same room - I had gone for 90 minute massage selecting "strong" on the pre-treatment questionnaire for my pressure and Anna had gone for 30 minute body scrub and a 60 minute massage.  We changed into the paper knickers (lovely!) and sarongs and were shown the safe to put our belongings - although we didn't feel that it was necessary.  

We first of all had our feet washed in a wooden bowl of water to which the therapists stared intently at us whilst telling us what they were adding to the bowl - lime, ginger and then lemon grass - it felt at one and the same time decadent and a bit wasteful - you could have made a lovely Thai soup with the ingredients!  We had a quick foot scrub and then lay down on the really comfy treatment beds.  My massage was commenced by the therapist sounding a bell/sound bowl (useful I knew that when I heard Anna's I still had a further 60 minutes to enjoy!)

The massage was very good, but I was so tired that I definitely drifted off into some sort of subconsciousness several times so may not have been fully aware of it all - although I did really enjoy it and was incredibly relaxed at the end of it.  I definitely woke myself up at least 3 times snoring (my nose blocked after lying face down for 45 minutes!) so poor Anna had to cope with my snoring as background music mixed in with the "classic" that we had chosen on our questionnaires.

At the end of the treatment they sounded the bell again and we sat up and slowly got dressed again and sat back down in the reception area and had some warm tea and a cinnamon biscuit.  We settled the bill - a bit weird as they produced the card machine with just a prompt for my pin - I declined as I wanted to check the amount that I was paying first!

We sleepily and very calmly wondered back up Monkey Forest Road and stumbled into Dian Restaurant for dinner and sampled some Brem which is a local rice wine and then I had some more seafood soup and some Cap Cay - Chinese style vegetables with chicken served with rice.  We went for a quick drink at XL Shisha Lounge which was busy, noisy and had football on TV screens and live music and wasn't compatible with our very relaxed states and so we went back to the hotel and organised our flights to Lombok and worked out what we needed to do to get to Gili Air - still debating either public ferry or private charter boat! 

A screenshot of my favourite question about travelling to Gili Air!

On the walk back we booked a cooking class for the following morning at 9am at Bumi Bali.

We'd stopped off in a supermarket earlier in the day to pick up a drink and I'd spotted one of my favourite things about Bali - Mangosteens and so for equivalent to about £1.50 I'd bought 5 and put them in a plastic bag to take home - thank goodness for the bag as when I took them out of the bag on my bed about 50 ants came out with them too!  The fruit was fine, but I had to shake my sheets outside to get rid of the unwelcome passengers!  

I also thought I'd be brave and try mung bean juice - interesting flavour and texture!

Bali Adventure Number 3!

A lot of this blog has ended up being about travel and a lot from my last visit to Bali, but it's such an amazing place I can't help wanting to come back again and again and having the lovely Rachel - www.howtoescape.co.uk living here is a big help too.

My journey started with a drive to my parents in Molesey after work down the M1 at about 7.30pm and we arrived approx midnight.  Up for a taxi at 8am to Heathrow and onto Malaysia Air flight to Kuala Lumpur a mere 12 hrs 35 minutes. There were some spare seats, but it seemed reasonable full despite all the bad press they've had recently.  

I'm travelling with my friend Anna and during the 12 hours we managed to keep ourselves entertained more via glasses of red wine and giggles than the in flight entertainment. I managed to watch 2 films - The Other Woman and The a Grand Budapest Hotel and slept very little.  The food and service from the staff was excellent.

We had time to walk from one end of KL Airport before our next Malaysian Air flight to Denpaser in Bali.  I are a sandwich and snoozed a bit. 

Rachel met us at the airport with a driver and it was an hour back to Ubud.  We checked into The Swan Inn - basic, but nice views and cheap at £18 per night.  

Anna had a rest and I went for a wander with Rachel and lunch at Juice Ja where I had the yummy lemongrass fizz, guacamole - amazingly fresh and a chicken curry salad.

I bought my favourite drink here which is supposed to be medicinal...

Rachel headed home and Anna and me headed out for dinner, a stroll and the intention of taking advantage of the many beauty parlours offering very reasonable deals.  

We dined in a lovely place overlooking the rice fields with small lizards creeping onto the walls and the sun setting.  I had my first Bintang and we both had the set menu of iced tea a traditional Balinese dish - I had nasi champur and Anna had Nasi Goreng finished with fresh papaya, melon and pineapple.  I also splurged and had a hot and sour soup - all for a total of £5!  

We went on our next mission - finding somewhere to get our nails done and had a brief side track to a shop full of clothes perfect for tiny Anna!

She bought a lovely 60s style dress and a skirt.

We then settled in at Forrest Spa and I had a pedicure (necessary for my horrible runners feet) and Anna had feet and hands nail polished - here's my before and after - I know I don't have pretty feet!

I feel asleep whilst having this done, but now at 3.30am am wide awake!  We wandered back to the hotel room for some planning and some of the wine we brought with us with improvised wine glasses.

Oh and they still do this....