SashaCleerri's Weblog

Warung Bodag Maliah

sashacleerri — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:27:31 +0000

Last weekend, I have the chance to go to this “warung” I’ve read on Bali Advertiser. What interest me to go there is it’s situated in the middle of lush rice fields in Ubud as part of Sari Organik Farms and I’ve never seen rice fields in Ubud (I wasn’t aware that Ubud has a very vast rice fields until I came there). On googling and searching for the address I got bits and pieces of where I should go to find this place.
Finally took of with some friends and headed to Ubud on Sunday for a late breakfast and after asking to a beautiful Balinese girl down the road, we finally found it.

To find this place, from Ubud Main Road (Jl. Raya Ubud), head west to Campuhan, just before Campuhan Bridge, there’s a small ascending road on right hand side to Abangan Bungalow. From there park next to the bungalow (if you’re driving) and then continue the journey on foot since the road is not passable by car. It takes about 800 metres to reach the warung from the entrance. If you’re riding a motorbike you can still go through the road and park in the warung or call them and ask them to pick you up. But I prefer to walk just like many of the guests I met along the road because you will never get bored of the sight and panoramic view of the lush rice fields and surroundings.

Farm Entrance	Sari Organik
Pathway	Rice Fields
Rice Fields	Rice Fields

The name of the “warung” is Bodag Maliah which means overflowing basket in Balinese. As the name of the farms it is located in (Sari Organik), all menu served in this place are organic. It’s just as fresh as you can get since the rice, fruits, and vegetables are locally grown and they’re organic. Organic and Raw food lovers will find this place awesome.

The warung itself has cool relaxing atmosphere and cozy, not to mention the surrounding view. Got the chance to talk with Ibu Nila, the owner of the warung and farm who run the place with her husband, she said it’s been 3 years and the word about this place spreads from people to people as the place always has visitors from all around the world.

The Warung	Warung Bodag Maliah
Interior	Menu Book

Me and my friends ordered Warm Feta Cheese Salad, Chicken Salad, and Beet Salad. As for the very fresh drinks, we had Kambucha Tea (tea that comes from fermenting Kombucha mushroom and it’s believed to be beneficial to health; my mom used to make this drink many years ago), Lemon Squash, and Pink Treat (blended sweet potato, beet, pineapple, apple, mint).

Beet Salad	Chicken Salad
Warm Feta Cheese Salad	Kambucha-Lemon Squash-Pink Treat

There are main course available, but since we went there for a late breakfast and was going to eat at another place afterward we only ate appetizers. After done eating, you can continue walking around the farm or walk back to where you came from and quickly come back there any time soon

Sari Organik Farm (Warung Bodag Maliah)
Subak Sok Wayah, Ubud
Bali, Indonesia

Tel: +62 (361) 780 1839 or +62 (361) 972 087
Email: sari-organik@hotmail.com

September and October 2009 in Bali

sashacleerri — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:21:43 +0000

It’s been a long time since I blogged. Few things have changed, work location (from Kuta to Suwung, just before Sanur), bike to work whenever I can, and had my office pc downgraded recently :’(

Anyway, it’s now September and there will be lots of upcoming events here in Bali and it’s gonna be holiday season pretty much until the beginning of next year. There are 2 events has already passed last month, Legian Beach Festival and Sanur Village Festival. Both were a success just like their previous years.

This September, a well-known event to people residing in Bali and Bali’s frequent visitors is Bali’s 7th Kuta Karnival on 19th-27th September. The 6th was previously held on October last year. My favourite part in the event, which is The Food Festival, will be held from 25th-27th September, in the last 3 days of Kuta Karnival. I’ve wrote last year’s food fest part here.

Up next is Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (UWRF), from 7th-11th October 2009 the event will bring writers and readers from all around the world. There will be a lot of talks, discussions, and workshops all around Ubud. You can check out their complete programs on their website.

Still on October, in conjuction with UWRF, the next event is Balinale 2009 International Film Festival. This event will highlights international and national movies. An event not to be missed by movie goers or film lovers. There are also workshops will be held in this events. Check out the details on the website.

In addition to Ubud’s going to be more and already vibrant town, it’s in the news that Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt will be shooting Eat, Pray, and Love all around Bali and mostly in Ubud in October as well.

Those events are gonna be awesome events and start planning your holiday now!!

[TAG] I am awesome

sashacleerri — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:27:11 +0000

I was tagged by Eru more than a month ago in his post where I am supposed to tell the whole world about 7 awesome side of me *I didn’t ask for it, trust me!*

The rules are:

Write down 7 awesome side of you
Tag other people to share their awesomeness

As I am trying to be as objective as I can to write this post so I’ve asked friends to tell me more about it.

YS-laughbag and coffee addict: U are a genuine nice hearted guy
YS-laughbag and coffee addict: Basically u already nice inside
YS-laughbag and coffee addict: U r good with secrets
YS-laughbag and coffee addict: Mature and wise
YS-laughbag and coffee addict: Patient

That’s 5 already from a friend on a chat, not that hard eh? and next…

BunnieFaerie: Humoris, jago masak, man most wanted
BunnieFaerie: 3 cukup kan
Me: cukup2 aja kok )
BunnieFaerie: Wkwkkwwk
Me: man most wanted?!
BunnieFaerie: Dah 3 itu
Me: yakin ga lebay tu? )
BunnieFaerie: Ga koq
BunnieFaerie: Dah masukin
BunnieFaerie: Kan pendapat g kan
Me: oke2
BunnieFaerie: Gmn seh
Me: iya2 sabar bu
BunnieFaerie: Pendapat lo apa pendapat g neh
BunnieFaerie: =))
Me: pendapat lo sih :”>

Hmm, why do I get the feeling I am a criminal all of a sudden from the chat. I really can’t cook anything without recipe really, so it’s a bit too much from my opinion but I do enjoy baking things That’s another 3 which makes it 8.

In addition to what people say about me, I do notice that I am sharp with words and for some it may be a little offensive although what I speak of is the truth. But hey, that is me, I am not trying to hide anything and stab people in the back later on. What I speak, I speak of the truth and truth does hurt sometimes so please just bear with me friends if I do say something that offended you. Because you are a friend, I dare to speak the truth even if it’s hurt

One job done, others to be tagged are:

That’s all, do it right and get it done people. Tell the world how awesome you are!

Death

sashacleerri — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:03:41 +0000

Death is what separate us between this world and the world after life (heaven, hell, nirvana, you name it).
It will usually leave us with mixed emotions from glad to sadness.
I’ve also lost someone I loved years ago and will always be hard to face another lost, no matter how many times we’ve lost someone we loved.

Everything in this world have its life cycle.
Death is our last life cycle as human in this world and what lies afterward, not a single person in the world know what awaits.

Should death frightens us? It’s a question to be answer by each individual’s faith & beliefs.
This quote from I Corinthians 15:55-57 should answer how do I see death:

55.”Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?” 56.The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57.But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

As for facing the death of our loved ones, hope the following will give strength to anyone who just lost their loved ones.

Be strong for yourself and your family for the departed has moved on to a better place than this world.
For the departed has lived his/her part in this world including facing the deaths of families, friends, relatives before him/her and it is now our turn to face the passing of our loved one from this world to another and also to keep moving on with our life until death came upon us.
Let cry be our last expression of love for the departed.
In the end let us smile, for the departed is now smiling upon us from wherever he/she now may be.
As we move on, let the departed keep on smiling by the way we live our life to the fullest ’til the day we are united once more for eternity.

~C.A~

I wrote this post dedicated to my friends, family, relatives who have lost, are losing, and probably going to lose someone dear to them.
My deepest condolences and God be with you all.

May Day

sashacleerri — Fri, 01 May 2009 08:21:50 +0000

This post has nothing to do with May Day actually.

Thought I just write something since I haven’t update the post for months and right now I don’t have much to do. (let’s keep the latter secret okay )

Have been quite busy doing my work lately but the interesting part was a holiday to Singapore on long weekend from 9-12 April with some friends from the office.
It was free tickets for round trip (Air Asia just opened the route from Bali to Singapore so there was a free seat promo), we only paid for the taxes so there were lots of colleagues going there as well.

Met my school and college friends who now worked and lived there. But the most interesting part would be eating and walking around the city (and nation)!
By impulse, tried 3 different egg tarts from 3 different booth (One in Bugis, one in Chinatown, and the last one in Vivo City) on my way around probably just to compare the taste with my home made egg tarts. It was all good though =P~

The other objective I had was to visit McDonalds there, why you asked?

Simply to eat the apple pie since McDonalds in Indonesia don’t sell apple pies

I also tried the famous Bathura on Komala Vilas restaurant located on Serangoon Rd on Little India which was recommended by a friend who had stopped by to eat there before we came to Singapore.

As for the spots to visit, there’s a lot of them but the popular ones would be Sentosa Island.
The must see there is the Song of The Sea, the show is a combination of drama, laser play using water screen, pyrotechnics. It’s a must see and the show is always packed with visitors.
There are other interesting attractions on the island as well that you can try from segway, luge and sky ride, tiger sky tower, 4d magix, merlion walk, and eco ride which is segway ride.

I also had the chance to stop by at Clarke Quay, not for clubbing or eating but just for a stroll.
It was already 1 a.m so I had to take a taxi to get there.
The view at night were great there with the lights on the river side and the bridge changing colors every minute. Great place to sit around and spending time whether it’s on the bridge or on the river side.
Anyway, I saw a drunk girl puking on sideways luckily she had her friends around *I never did saw someone in real life puking from getting drunk* =P

Finally got back to the hostel at 3:30 am and I must be awake at 6:30 am to catch the 9:55 am flight.
As expected, I finally slept on the flight back to Bali

As for the conclusion for this post, it’s good to have a holiday for once from your daily life once you feel it started to get boring, especially with the low-fare airlines around.
Watch out for the promos from those airlines and start picking up your destinations for a getaway

For now, I’ll be planning on something for next getaway while facing the work ahead of me….

desk tag

sashacleerri — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:14:18 +0000

Just realized that I was tagged by sentinel in his post about desk tag. Basically what the tagged person has to do is tell something about what his or hers desk at the office like.
Well, there’s nothing fancy on my desk (it’s called cubicle here and soon if you know the exact meaning of it, you’ll know why you will most likely be sleepy anywhere near it)…really messy even though I just got a new PC. Quad Core, 4 Ghz of RAM, Vista, Dual monitor 19 inch (although I only use one ).
Neat one ain’t it. Once the project is done and let just see who gets this power house!

desktop left

desktop right

For me to be able to work, not much actually:

a pc powerful enough to do my work (along with the softwares) and a working internet connection
my cell phones & wallet

That’s pretty much it for me to be REALLY able to work properly

On the left is where all the “junk” are piled.
Those plastic bags are not junk, that’s one way of saving the earth by re-using the plastic bags
That’s my old cell phone an old Nokia 2100, fell numerous times but still working fine although the casing is literally broken into pieces (my other cell is being used to take the pics and have taken lots of pics for other posts in the blog). I’m using Next to it there’s my daily morning hot chocolate milk with a teaspoon of coffee with some Oreo to be twisted-licked-dunked!
And there’s a can of Coke there the one I stashed from happy hour to be drunk on holidays

Nothing interesting on my desk though…except sometimes I hide my snack somewhere right under the place where I put my hat *if I happen to have any*

I’ll tag:

Akbar
Cahyo

That’s all for now I suppose…not much to tell about my desk, isn’t there?

Trying out something new

sashacleerri — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:06:52 +0000

Sometimes I get really bored if I don’t have anything to do, especially at home. So this christmas and new year holidays, I took most of my spare time at home trying out some recipes I found on the internet…

My first one (and my really realy first time cooking or making something on my own) was Naan Bread, an Indian thin bread. Got this recipe from AllRecipes.com.
It looks simple with the following ingredients and directions (also available on the site):

Ingredients:
7 g active dry yeast
235 ml warm water
50 g white sugar
45 ml milk
1 egg, beaten
10 g salt
615 g bread flour
6 g minced garlic (optional)
55 g butter, melted

Directions

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.
Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat.
At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.

I did something wrong with the yeast (Hey, I’m newbie!), I used instant yeast which doesn’t need to be dissolved in warm water but should be mixed with warm water into the mixture. It caused my dough not to rise properly, so to “fix” this I made it thinner than usual and layered. In the end it was giving pretty much the same result as the real naan.

naan dough

naan done

A few days after that, tried to make a no bake cookies, which I thought easy by looking at the recipe and didn’t involve any baking. Got this recipe, again, from AllRecipes.com.

Ingredients:
350 g white sugar
120 ml milk
115 g butter
20 g unsweetened cocoa powder
130 g crunchy peanut butter
245 g quick-cooking oats
5 ml vanilla extract

Directions

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa. Bring to a boil, and cook for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in peanut butter, oats, and vanilla. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened.

See, the recipe looks really simple…but mine was turned out too sweet and couldn’t get hardened properly.

no bake cookies

Probably because lack of quick-cooking oats. In the end, my cookies had to be put it in the fridge to keep it hardened.

As for the third one, I tried to bake a Traditional Gingerbread Cake. I got this recipe from v-recipes.blogspot.com.

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature + more for pan
1-1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon – kayu manis bubuk
3/4 tsp ground ginger – jahe bubuk
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg – pala bubuk
1/4 tsp ground cloves – cengkeh bubuk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Powder sugar for dusting.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. Butter a 9 by 5 by 3 inch loaf pan, set aside. Into a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mexer fitted w/ the paddle attachment, cream butter and both sugars on medium speed until light & fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture until just incorporated.
Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center come out clean., 50-55 minutes.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust generously with powder sugar.

This cake uses lots of spices, might want to change it with other “flavour” if you don’t like it. Try to use unsalted butter, I used Blue Band margarine (which is salted one) and the cake turned out a little bit salty. Not much of a problem about this one except that my first attempt was using a pan with less height which caused the batter to overflowed all over the oven when baking. The measurements were using US (pan, tablespoon, etc) which need conversion to metrics (grams, ml, etc) because I’m not used to US measurements.
Quite content with my second attempt though
Just need to dust it all over the cake with powder sugar.

fresh ginger bread from the oven

As for my last one, tried this before went back to work in Bali, is my favourite food, Egg Tarts!!
Got this recipe from AllRecipes.com again.

Ingredients:
For the Crust
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
1 dash vanilla extract
for the filling
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups water
9 eggs, beaten
1 dash vanilla extract
1 cup canned evaporated milk

Directions

In a medium bowl, mix together the confectioners’ sugar and flour. Mix in butter with a fork until it is in small crumbs. Stir in the egg and vanilla until the mixture forms a dough. The texture should be slightly moist. Add more butter if it is too dry, or more flour, if the dough seems greasy. Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, and press the balls into tart molds so that it covers the bottom, and goes up higher than the sides. Use 2 fingers to shape the edge into an A shape.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Combine the white sugar and water in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Cook until the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Strain the eggs through a sieve, and whisk into the sugar mixture. Stir in the evaporated milk and vanilla. Strain the filling through a sieve, and fill the tart shells.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown, and the filling is puffed up a little bit.

Yatta!

egg tart

The egg tart recipe was a bit sweet according to the site, so I used less sugar than the one written on the recipe.

Not bad for a beginner huh? I think I’ve found another hobbies in my spare time on holidays. Who knows when I’m through with software I can open my own bakery :LOL:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009

sashacleerri — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:57:29 +0000

December was my longest holiday this year. Out of 20 working days (public holidays not included), I only worked like less than 8 days. I took my leave from 9-19 Dec. Back to Bali just to work for another 3 days (22-24 Dec) and got back to Jakarta again on 24th afternoon. Collective leave for Christmas and New Year from 26 until 2nd January was too good to be spent in Bali as Bali was totally crowded with tourists from Christmas until New Year.

For my first leave from 9-19 Dec, had to go back to Jakarta because of my cousin’s wedding and had to be best man for him. But after the wedding, me and my relatives went for a tour de Java on chartered bus. The route taken was Bekasi – Tasikmalaya – Magelang (Borobudur) – Yogyakarta – Solo (Surakarta) – Mount Bromo – Malang – Surabaya – Tuban – Semarang – Cirebon – Bekasi in just 5 days and the only day we all slept in a hotel was in Surabaya…totally ass-torturing trip O.o
But it was worth the journey…

At Tasikmalaya, we stopped by to have lunch with our relatives there, some shopped for Kelom Geulis (traditional Tasikmalaya’s ladies slippers made of Mahogany) and rest for a while until night time before continuing to Borobudur.
We arrived at Borobudur around 6-7am and have to say it is the best time to visit Borobudur as there wasn’t much visitors around, the air is still fresh, and the fog surrounding the mountains in a far can be seen clearly. Unfortunately, there are still some part of the temple is still in restoration due to major earth quakes some time ago and most of the Budha’s statue’s heads are gone which I suspect being stolen and sold for money. And for breakfast, the food stall nearby provided quite extensive range of Javanese food, from Gudeg, Soto, Gado-Gado, Nasi Liwet, and much more in a very reasonable price.

Borobudur front

clouds over Borobudur

Borobudur park

inside Borobudur

statues with missing heads

At Yogyakarta, we visited the Cart Museum, where the carts was still well-preserved back from the Dutch colonial days. As for lunch, we visited Gadri Resto, to explain it short, it is a classic Javanese restaurant located in Yogyakarta’s Sultan’s relative’s house, which is also a classic Javanese royal house and is still being used by the owner (Prince Joyokusumo). I have to say there’s nothing special about the food but the atmosphere made the food worth to try and it was not too pricey. There was special Javanese dance performance as well for some Japanese tourist that came that day, probably available by request in advance as it wasn’t performed daily but there are video footage regarding the house and the owner available to be seen while waiting for your food being cooked and prepared.

gadri resto java beer

gadri resto meals

In Solo, again we take a rest and bath at a relative’s house. Did not spend much time here as we arrived there in the afternoon and was chasing to get the sun rise at Bromo. As I grew up here many years ago, the must-try food here are Nasi Liwet (boiled rice with coconut milk) and Wedang Ronde (Glutinous stick rice Balls in Ginger water, where the glutinous balls usually have mashed peanut stuffing) and there’s also delicious Lamb Satay here in Solo where we had dinner at before moving on to Bromo (I forget the street name, but it should be around Pasar Nongko area), if you’re looking for sate ayam ponorogo (Ponorogo chicken satay), my recommendation is the one exactly in front of my old house in Jl. Balapan (near Balapan Train Station) it is still sellling until now since I was a baby!! You can tell where my first satay came from
(Reference to the Javanese food mentioned above: JAVANESE & INDONESIAN FOOD

When we arrived at Mount Bromo it was around 5a.m and too bad that it was a cloudy day and it was late for sun rise!! The minibus driver (need to take the minibus to really reach Mount Bromo) said that we should got there around 3a.m if we wanted to see the sunrise. But we were lucky enough it wasn’t raining that morning and the soil was wet enough to keep the sands from flying around. Not much to tell here because the view and scenery speaks for it self.

Done at Bromo and we had lunch on Malang, didn’t spend much time here except for lunch at a soto restaurant while using the toilet and charged our cell phones

The final stop before going back to Bekasi was Surabaya, the capital of East Java, and the only place where we had decent rest & sleep ON BED not ON SEAT! Lots of great food in the city but too bad we only spent one night here. And again relatives are useful, they showed us a great kwetiau (flat rice noodle) house and sweet & egg martabak with various toppings and flavour.

surabaya from above

Our trip back to Bekasi (West Java) from Surabaya was a quick and almost non stop except for lunch, dinner, and bought some snacks along the way.

We did stop at Tuban for lunch and to stop by at a Buddhist Temple called “Kwan Sing Bio” not far from the beach where many fisherman’s boats anchored along the shore. The temple was pretty huge and lots of ornaments & statues.

kwan sing bio buddhist temple

dragon statues

lion statues

Main building

wall sculpture (left)

description of wall sculpture (left)

wall sculpture (right) - the eight gods

names of the 8 gods

Three Kingdoms’ character statues (there are also other statues I don’t know who and too lazy to upload them (another 5 statues))

Ma Chao statue

Pang Tong statue

Zhuge Liang statue

One thing worth notice for food lovers is to stop in Cirebon, there’s this food called Nasi Jamblang Hj. Sumarni near the harbour. What makes it special is that the rice is wrapped in Teak leaf and various dishes can be chosen to eat with the rice. The place was not huge but very crowded.

nasi jamblang

There’s also a Buddhist Temple nearby named “Vihara Dewi Welas Asih (klenteng Tay Kak Sie).” Only take few pictures here, the “main” god being worshiped here is Kwan Im, that’s why the name is Vihara Dewi Welas Asih (Temple of the merciful goddess) because she is merciful from what the elders and stories told.

Kwan Im statue on altar

gods on altar

Cirebon was the last stop before going straight back home. It was a great trip although after arrived home for like 2 or 3 days, my ass still pretty much aching due to sitting too long in a bus
Will I do it all over again? Sure…..next time in not so very near future and on a different island hopefully.

A little bit late but better late than never to say : “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009!”

October’s Last Saturday’s Trip

sashacleerri — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 06:07:10 +0000

On Saturday the 25th, I had a friend took me to try this so called fish rice. So, I rented a motorcycle (I don’t have any driving license though, but don’t tell the police about it yeah?) and meet up with him at McDonald’s on Jimbaran. So after driving passed through Extreme Toys and just right next to a gas station on the way heading to Nusa Dua, we stopped at this warung called “Sari Mertha”. There wasn’t anything stand out from this warung, you might just passed it without knowing it was there. So, we had this rice with slices of mini eggplant, steamed fish wrapped in banana leaf, bakwan jagung (indonesian corn fritters), pieces of fish meat, and 2 sticks of fish satay accompanied with fish soup. I’ve to say the soup, rice, and satay in overall was great. Not many people know about this place, most of the visitors are local Balinese.

Fish Rice Set

Fish Rice

After our tummy felt pretty good, knew it by some burping and belching, we headed to Padang-Padang beach. It’s located down the south from Dreamland beach. It’s still pretty secluded and not as commercial as Dreamland (yet). It wasn’t to wavy that day and met 2 surfers who left the beach because the waves weren’t too good. Padang-Padang beach is usually one of the surfer’s beach, just like Dreamland. To reach the beach from the street, we have to walk down the stairways between 2 cliffs because the beach is surrounded by cliffs.

The stairways

Down to the Beach

And the beach just looks great…kinda dark on the first picture below…*cell phone quality pictures *

Padang-Padang Beach

Padang-Padang Beach Cliff

Right when we were done there, we headed to Blue Point. You have to go across this bridge, Padang-Padang is located on the left side of the bridge and Blue Point is further up to the right.

Padang-Padang Bridge

Just went further down the road into a bumpy road where it says “private area” or something like that with someone guarding the way in, where obviously you had to pay entry fee, one thousand rupiah if I remembered it correctly. This beach is popular with surfers, foreign tourists, and also located down the cliff, much higher than Padang-Padang. Lots of warung already exist here and luckily there’s stairs available to go down to the beach.

Blue Point1

Blue Point2

Blue Point3

Blue Point4

Blue Point5

Blue Point6

Blue Point7

There’s this one big cliff where you can go to the top of the cliff (see the Blue Point6 pic on the left most side, there’s a staircase), on the l and the the background cliff at the back and the beach on the front. The stairways are quite scary…

Blue Point

That’s the journey for that day UNTIL afternoon… As I’ve mentioned earlier in one of my post, lots of events took place on October in Bali this year (and the year to come). Last weekend on October was the end of Asian Beach Games and Kuta Karnival. After very exhausting trip until afternoon, it’s time to “fuel up” again…On the last 2 days of Kuta Karnival, there’s Food Festival from noon until evening. Went there with some of my colleagues and met a lot more inside the festival among hundreds or even thousands of other people. Here’s the crowd looks like:

Food Fest Crowd

One of the busiest booth, ESC. One of their unique menu was Jack Daniels Baby Back Ribs.

ESC booth

ESC Suckling Pig

One of the show in the Food Fest was Barongsai & Liong, which is a traditional Chinese dragon dance & performance.

Barongsai

Liong

As for me, I had Chicken Biryani (Indian Style Fried Rice), which was unique in taste, from Queen’s Tandoor and Jumbo Hotdog from Bali Bakery. As for the drink, I had Blue Punch cocktail by Bali Moon.

Queens Tandoor

Bali Bakery Booth

Jumbo Hotdog

Blue Punch Cocktail

Some of the prices were a little bit more expensive than the average price when you eat directly in the participant’s restaurant or cafe but the atmosphere were great and full of excitement and there was a stage full of performance. I was a little bit tipsy though because the Blue Punch cocktail appearently was pretty strong, it should be 2/3 full and I drank it by myself meanwhile my friend bought one and shared with other 2. No wonder I was feeling a little tipsy. Never been drunk before though, and luckily I was not that drunk eventhough I had to ask my friend to drive the motorcycle back home…

International Blog About Boobs Week

sashacleerri — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:09:47 +0000

Not sure who created this, not sure if it’s true or not, don’t know if THAT week has passed or not, not even sure who started this thing, but please feel free to track ‘em down from the blog who tagged me. That’s the little pinguin’s blog named Sentinel.

What’s this boobs thing all about? If I’m not mistaken, I need to tell a tale about anything that’s related to boobs. Well, I’m always curious about why those thing aroused most men in the world (myself included). For those of you who don’t know what that thing is, it’s called “Glandula Mamae” in latin, and the description is as follows as I quote them from wikipedia:

The breast is the upper ventral region of an animal’s torso, particularly that of mammals, including human beings. The breasts of a female primate’s body contain the mammary glands, which secrete milk used to feed infant.

Other than speaking about the sexual related issue about boobs, I prefer to talk about its milk. We all have heard about how breast milk can be more nutritious than formula milk. You can google it if you want as I am not going to copy-paste them in here but I’ll tell the tale from what I’ve read.

One of the important substances contain in milk is colostrum, which secreted in few first days after a woman gave birth to a baby (or two, or three, or whatever number of babies she delivers). It protects the baby from various infections by giving antibodies to the newly born babies. Another benefits are it contains just the right formula for the baby’s delicate digestive system, has the right nutrients for baby to quickly gain weight, has more variety in nutrition than formulated milk, and the list goes on…

From my opinion, if you’re a mother or a father, you should endorse breast feeding the baby as much as possible because from year 0 to year 5 because that is the optimal time for babies to absorb and learn everything he/she can and obviously need a lot of nutrients to support the optimal growth, development, and learning during that time.

I’m not against formula milk, but it’s best to keep breast milk as the main source of milk. if you need to use formula milk, make sure it’s complementary to breast milk, not substituting it.

To all newly borns, especially to Marsha Katarina Darmawan (JoJo’s & Frendy’s daughter), welcome to the world. Hope your life will be as fulfilling as possible. And for the parents, they’re all the greatest blessings from up above so love, nurture, guide, and protect them with all your might.

Well, that’s it…I’ve talked about boobs (or what’s in it) haven’t I? :LOL:

It’s my turn to tag then (evil-grin), I’ll tag:

Reference about breast milk for those who are reluctant to google: