Week 5 - Singapore & Nusa Lembongan

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Day 29, November 10th, we had an early morning start for a cooking class at Bumbu Bali. The class started with a visit to the local produce market and then to the Jimbaran fish market. It was really great to learn about all the different ingregients and understand what foods you find in a typical Balinese market. Then we headed back to the cooking compound to learn to cook 26 different traditional Balinese dishes. It was a fun interactive class led but the energetic Swiss ower, Heinz. He has lived in Bali for over 20 years and is married to a local woman. After Heinz walked us through his favorite dishes and the key components of balinese cooking we indulged in an amazing lunch. We surfed Uluwatu at sunset to get some exercise after a day of eating. The waves were small but we saw the most amazing red sunset. We had dinner with Greg, a friend from Santa Cruz, at Swell Café.

Day 30, November 11th, we were headed to Singapore for a night since it was the last day for our visa. Our flight left at 4:30pm to arrive in time to meet friends for dinner. Johnny surfed Uluwatu and I did yoga in the morning. Then we went to the Moka internet café to do a few things for the wedding, pay bills, and take care of other responsibilities. We left for the airport to get us there an hour before the flight. Unfortunately the traffic can be heavy in Southern Bali. We arrived at the airport 45 minutes before the flight. We were not able to print our flight itinerary so we had to go to customer service where they confirmed us and walked us through security. We arrived at the ticket counter about 35 minutes before flight and the Garuda Air agents told us the Jet Star desk had just closed and the agents were gone. We spent the next two hours with customer service finding out we had missed our flight and trying to book a new one for the next day. We finally sorted it out and headed back to Uluwatu for the night.

Day 31, November 12th, we went to Sandat Mas for breakfast. John was still determined to get eggs cooked over easy. Unfortunately, it has been a lost cause no matter how he tries s to explain it in Indonesian. We went to the Airport very early and finally made it to Singapore. We arrived just before sunset so we were able to see a bit of the city. Singapore is a very unique place with manicured gardens everywhere “like a giant country club”. The living space and businesses are housed in tall buildings in order to maintain as much green space as possible. The population is just over 6 million but it does not feel crowded and the people are very friendly. Also it is a very clean place since there are major fines for littering. We stayed at the Santa Grand – which was less than grand yet expensive compared to where we had been staying in Bali. We did have a great time exploring the city. We met our friends in Singapore’s Little Indian neighborhood for dinner where we had tasty Indian food at Banana Leaf. You choose your dishes from a counter and the food is served family style. There were five of us and we each ordered a couple things but they just kept bringing out more dishes. You eat from large banana leaves that they just keep piling with rice. After dinner we went out to an outdoor promenade where there are tons of restaurants and bars. It had kind of a Miami vibe with open-air places on the water with night clubs mixed in. We checked out a couple bars and enjoyed some $20US drinks. Alcohol is highly taxed in Singapore, and the interesting thing is top shelf liquor is about the same price as well and Champagne is almost the same price as beer. So prices are comparable to a nice SF or New York bar. We moved on to another part of town and went to a bar that was built in an old abbey. We caught the end of a local live band covering Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. It was an entertaining end to the night.

Day 32, November 13th, we woke up in Singapore. We met our friends for yummy Dim Sum. Then we went to the Reservoir to trek to the tree top bridge. The bridge ended up being too far out of the way for the time we had before our flight so we scratched that and went to Singapore Botanical Gardens instead. It is said to be one of the best botanical Gardens in the world (so I guess we should see it). We only really had time to see the expansive orchid gardens. The orchids were so beautiful. There were so many species it was really impressive. We headed to the airport very early right from the gardens. The Singapore airport is a trip. It was decorated for Christmas and they even had a show with some girls dressed as holiday elves. I of course had to see what this free show was about so I dragged John along. It was a female quartet singing some made up holiday songs in front of oversized decorations (very cute). It was the only Western Holiday exposure we had seen during our trip so it was kind of fun. We also stocked up on some duty free vodka for wedding week (at $22/bottle it was much cheaper than the $75 at the Bali market. We headed back to the Gobleg Inn when we arrived back in Bali.

Day 33, November 14th; we surfed Uluwatu in the morning. The swell had come in so the waves had really picked up. There were some big sets coming through and people were getting boards snapped. Luckily, John and I didn’t break our boards. After our surf we checked for photos. There are many surf photographers set up in the Uluwatu warungs. The snap tons of photos all day long so there is a good chance they will capture your waves. One of the photographers had gotten some great photos of the amazing red sunset from a few nights before and he said I could choose a free photo he would enlarge. That night we surfed during another beautiful sunset. That night we had a great dinner at Bumbu Bali , where we did the cooking class a few days prior. We enjoyed yummy crab and seafood curry.

Day 34, November 15th, we slept in and had a laid-back day. I had a hair and make up trial for the wedding at 3pm. Since I was all gussied up we decided to have a big night our. First we went to the Rock Bar at the Ritz for sunset. Then we went to Jimbaran Beach for a seafood dinner. We found a perfect place for our rehearsal dinner. We met with the owner, Kami to talk with him about the rehearsal dinner. He turned out to be a really cool guy. He told us the name Tosick spelled “Tasik” in Hindu but pronounced the same was their reference for where the ocean breaks on the sand or salt of the earth. We were really excited about that.

Day 35, November 16th, we arrived in Nusa Lembongan in the afternoon via a 1 hour boat ride. We checked out the hotel options. We were able to negotiate screaming deal for Villa Aman. We got the two bedrooms with a personal swimming pool for $50 (only after talking with the super cool Aussie woman that owned it). Once we were settled Johnny went to surf at Shipwrecks. I was dying to explore and really wanted to cook in the great kitchen. I jumped on the motorbike and went exploring. I stopped at several small markets and used all my Indonesian and applied the knowledge from the cooking class market tour. It took tons of time and was not as inexpensive as I was hoping (some places charged me tourist price) Finally I arrived back at the villa after sunset. We had a nice swim and made a nice meal. I realized I did not miss cooking and doing dishes as much as I thought I did.

Day 36, November 17th, woke of to amazing view of the Nusa Lembongan Harbor from our bed. We chartered a small private boat for the day with Captain Made. First we went and checked the surf breaks. We decided to surf shipwrecks for a few hours. It was a fun right hand wave and the vibe in the water was really positive. Then we headed to the mangroves to do some free dive snorkeling. We saw a rainbow of different coral and tons of tropical fish including a nemo fish John found in a plastic cup he picked up. I also saw a large eel which was kind of freaky. Then Made drove into the mangrove bay up to a small café at the waters edge. We had a delicious chicken curry lunch at Made’s Café (different Made) and talked with some nice Canadians and a quirky old Aussie (who may have been Made’s boyfriend). After lunch we went snorkeled at the wall at Nusa Penida. It was incredible to see all the colorful coral and tons of unusual fish. The only sad thing was there was a lot of plastic in the water. We kept collecting but barely made a dent. I felt something on my ankle and looked down to find a tiny crab crawling into my fin. I collected it in my hand and tried to place it back on the reef. It would not let go. I continued swimming for another 20 minutes before getting back to the boat. When I surfaced Made noticed the crab was still attached and crawling on my back. Again, I tried to brush it off but it stayed on me as I got back in the boat. Finally it fell on the floor and I put it back in water. Then we convinced Made to drive us around the rest of the island. The current was strong and there was a lot of swell in the water so it was a bit of a wild ride. It was incredibly beautiful. John decided he wanted another surf session so we dropped him at shipwrecks. I decided to relax from our full day with a cocktail at this hip little lounge on the beach called Taman Indiana (for our Indiana peeps). I had a delicious strawberry mint cocktail while watching surfers and the perfect sunset from a lounge bed. Perfect end to a great day.

Day 37, November 18th, woke up in Nusa Lembongan. We had to catch the ferry back Bali at 12noon so we had a little time to explore in the morning. We had just enough time for breakfast and a loop around the tiny island. First we stopped at beautiful Sunset Beach when we had a great breakfast at Scallywags. We wish we would have had dinner at this place since it had great food and was in a perfect location to watch sunset (hence the beach name). Then we headed to Dream beach and on to tiny Chennigan island. You need to cross a narrow wood planked bridge to get the Chennigan so it was kind of sketchy on the motorbike. We made our way around the island and back to the ferry just in time for the launch. That night we had a surprisingly delicious Sushi dinner at this touristy looking place near Nusa Dua. We had a deluxe Sashmi Platter with very fresh fish including lobster. They also made us a yummy soup out of the lobster shell. It was a great little getaway before our wedding guests arrived.

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Photos

Jimbaran Market - Cooking Class Tour
John and I took a cooking class at Bumbu Bali with Heinz. He led us on a tour of the local markets.

Jimbaran Fish Market
Fresh Fish from Jimbaran Bay. We cooked it for our feast.

Singapore - Little India Neighborhood
We met friends for dinner at Banana Leaf