Sheemz's Mioozing's: Out eating in Bali

Friday, November 25, 2011

Out eating in Bali

Foodstall by Sanur beach. Pretty familiar huh..

The fact that I haven't blogged on food for a week does not mean I have been on a diet frenzy. Hardly. I was away in Bali for a conference and a spot of sight-seeing -- well perhaps more on the sight-seeing than the conference. And just to put this in before I forget the whole experience, Bali, I thought, was almost like going back in time in Malaysia. Perhaps only 200 years back..

Rice fields on the side of the hills. I can't believe I took this
picture. I can't remember which hill I stood on when I took it.

For one thing, the people all look like Malays: similar build, similar complexion, similar features. The language uses much of the same (formal) words, it just had a different twang to it. Can we walk to the conference place on foot? I had asked the B&B manager. Bisa, tapi nanti keringat. Was the reply. And for someone who is totally lost in Kelantan, I felt quite proud of myself for comprehending. The food was also the same. At the hotels they would serve continental breakfasts (mostly eggs and toast), but for lunch and dinner, if it wasn't hotel food, we'd go off find some nasi padang somewhere, which always tasted just like everyday home food, to me at least.

Kecak dance. This guy was just kicking fire everywhere.
To my detriment

Go to Bali with an open mind, because the people look like you, dress like your grandparents, but have a different faith system. There are temples scattered everywhere, you get tired of avoiding them. They have this Pencalang system in place which is pretty cool (a law system above the police, where even stealing will get you killed and no one would be able to do anything about it). Their religious holidays all start with Hari Raya. Their rice fields are pretty, and the second place we stayed at was right in the middle of it (Ubud).

The dance shows were pretty cool too-- if you're into ancient culture. The Kecak (fire) dance was the most intriguing, and the one that we watched was performed on a mountainous site, on top of a really steep cliff falling into the ocean, with a backdrop of the wide open sea. At sunset. To get there, you would have to walk past the midst of some really crazy monkeys who'd grab at anything that was sticking out even remotely from your person. Quite a wild experience.

Children at local school, singing national anthem

In retrospect, I am beginning to understand why the Aussies, the Dutch, the Americans, the Japanese and whatever race is out there we bumped into all over the place--kept going back every single year. Regardless of the fact that the island is absolutely ancient and wi-fi was so ridiculously slow it was almost non-existent. It is also superbly hot out, and air-conditioned areas are so rare, I almost forced Syed to smoke when there was a breeze just so that I could find an excuse to stop and cool down. The nicest time of day is early morning --the sun rises at 5:30 am, and sets at 6:30 pm. At 12 pm, you would get oven-baked if you get out and thus the main reason of failure of the attempted bike excursion to the paddy fields.

I would recommend you to visit, simply for the experience of visiting a culture that would have been ours had Parameswara not open up his mind and became a muslim. If you do go---cause Air-Asia has these really cheap airfares to Bali from time to time, --leave the kids with the bibik back home because I don't really see anything there that is kiddie-enjoyable, except perhaps the little bird park, which costs $24 USD (~RM80) per person to get in.