Beautiful Bali!
Trip Start
Feb 06, 2011
1
25
48
Trip End
Apr 16, 2011
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Bali, Indonesia
Monday, March 7, 2011
There were only eight in our group plus the ships representative and the hotel concierge. First, we went to a local food market in Saharanpur. The market consists of two areas, the outside area and the area inside a building. There were merchants everywhere and a lot of people milling around. The inside area had very narrow aisles with people trying to pass one another. We were shown Balinese fruits, vegetables and spices. We saw people selling fish laying on a box, no ice or refrigeration. Women were walking around with huge baskets of produce, or in one case, baskets of live chickens balanced on their head. Not sure if I could do that – wait, I’m sure I could not do that! We were able to sample a few things, too. One was snake fruit (photo below). It has the consistency of an apple but doesn’t taste like it but it was very good. The concierge made several purchases for our cooking class.
We then drove to the resort. All along the road, you would see stand after stand of people selling bottled drinks and snacks. I’m not sure how they all made much money since they were all selling the same thing. You would also see women selling fresh fish on the side of the road. Again, the fish just lying on a towel on a box. More on the traffic, later. The Alila Manggis Resort is very nice. The chef explained more about the spices used in Balinese cooking. There are two kinds of limes in Bali. One is a small lime only grown in Bali that is used in cooking. You would not want to eat this as it is very strong. The other lime is like the limes that we have. There are also several types of rice – black, red and a couple in the shades of white rice. Black rice is used in desserts and can also be used to make risotto. Red rice is also used in desserts.
We were then taken to our cooking class. It was outdoors but in a covered area with ceiling fans. We each had our own cooking station set up. The first thing that we prepared was “Bumbu Bali” a Balinese spice sauce that is used to flavor many dishes. Bumbu Bali consists of 10-12 ingredients, several kinds of Balinese peppers, several kinds of ginger, Balinese lime, shallots and garlic. We were shown how to grind them into a paste using a huger stone mortarr and pestle. Hard work. Bumbu Bali was used in almost all of the recipes that we made or helped prepare. We made “Sate Ayam” (chicken skewers), “Bumbu Kacang” (peanut sauce for satay), “Cumi Cumi Isi Bumbu Bali” (braised squid filled with chopped prawns), “Kare Tahu Dan Tempe” (Curry of tofu and soybean cake with baby corn and long beans), “Sayur Daun Singkong” (cassava leaf braised in coconut milk) and Indonesian Fried Rice. Everything that we made was our lunch, and a big lunch it was. It all tasted great; a bit spicy similar to but not nearly as spicy as, say, Thai food.
After lunch, the vans were going to head back to the pier for the tender boats. As it was only 2:00 and we weren’t leaving until 8:30, we decided to hire a car and driver from the hotel to take us to the town of Ubud. And, as Wayne said, we got an adventure ride equal to those at Disney World! There were many, many motorcycles as well as trucks, buses and cars jockeying for positions on a two lane highway with no shoulder. As in Australia, they drive on the left side of the road but unlike the former, it appeared that driving in the left lane was just a suggestion not a requirement. The stripe down the center of the road doesn’t really mean anything. They sort of just drive wherever they want. Motorcycles are zipping in and out from the right side and left side. We’re passing motorcycles with just barely enough space to squeeze back in. Crazy!! No way would we consider driving ourselves here – driving on the left would be the easy part!
Ubud is known for its wood carving galleries, art galleries and silver making galleries. We bought two small wood pieces. Wayne wanted buy a huge fat sitting Buda that he said bore a striking resemblance to him but we couldn’t figure out how to get it home. Next we went to a silver gallery. I bought a ring but probably should have taken a little more time to look around for some additional pieces (Wayne disagrees). The driver said that it would take an hour and half to get back to the ship but it only took an hour. He was driving pretty fast. I think he though the ship would leave without us! As it turned out, we didn’t pull anchor until after 10:00 pm. The captain said they were waiting on some guests that were to embark in Bali but I’m not sure if they made it or not. If they didn’t make it, we have two sea days before our next port.
Bali is a beautiful Island with acres and acres of tiered rice fields and thousands of pepper plants on the coast framed against the background of beautiful mountains. So, we had a very enjoyable day in Bali. Although many Balinese are poor, it seems like a happy island, reminding us a little of Tahiti. We both took a lot of photos today so maybe you can get a sense of it, the traffic, the energy and the beauty. We’ve also had several time changes. We are now 14 hours ahead of you.
Two sea days and then we arrive in Borneo, Malaysia where the attraction is Orangutans living in the wild.
Comments
Was the food that you cooked scrumptious??