Secret Garden Village, Luwus/Bedugul, Bali

On Sunday, September 4, 2016, the five of us went to Secret Garden Village. It is a relatively new place to eat, or a kind of touristy place in Bali. There have been quite some postings here and there on Social Media. The most published one is 3D photo of 'coffeeboat'.
Check out here:
Photo on Facebook
Photo on Local News

Well, as we are working in the hospitality industry, and we often have to propose site to visit, we have to get our own experience.

First of all, let me tell you that my blog post is my personal review and it is only based on our first visit on the date stated above.
Ini semua berdasarkan pengalaman kami mengunjungi Secret Garden Village pada hari Minggu, 4 September 2016. 

As I felt asleep in the backseat someway along Dalung to Beringkit, I cannot tell exactly how long was the trip. The location itself is on Google Maps, easy to reach to the place.

First impression when we reached the place, entering the spacious parking lot, I can tell that the place is well-designed, well-built, well-maintained. It surely takes taste and effort to have such venue. I did not take any photos of the front-look :(
Tampak luar tempat ini keren, terlihat rapi dan disainnya spesial. Tempat parkirnya luas. 

The greeter (I recalled there was a greeter) asked us to purchase ticket. Hmm... ticket to a restaurant, that was my first thought. He explained the ticket can be redeemed with food or anything in the gift shop. Good deal. It is like a gift voucher. Or like FDC at a club.

But then, I saw an acrylic stand on the ticketing desk:
Domestic @ Rp 50,000
Foreigner @ Rp 100,000

Hey, this does not look right. I asked why there is a price difference between domestic and foreign visitor. The girl inside ticketing replied because the foreigner will spend more money at this place. Ah, not a right answer, my friend. I don't see the rationale. I told them price discrimination at ticketing booth like this is not right. If we go abroad and get this kind of treatment, I surely will complain. I would understand if the price difference is hidden in agent's contract rate. Or, there will be certain different treatment for the foreigner because they will get a different liaison officer. All the staff there basically were speechless about this policy.

There were several EDC machines at ticketing so we can easily swipe for non-cash payment. Pretty convenient.

Untungnya, di ticketing ada mesin EDC BCA dan Mandiri. Kita bisa gesek langsung jika di dompet tidak ada uang tunai untuk membayar tiket. 

Bought 4 Tix

As it was quite a long trip from home (about 1.5 hour), our first needed stop was the toilet. The toilet was clean and also cutely designed. The place is also using a cleaning service company, I think it was ISS, judging from the cleaners' uniform.

*We also did not take photo at the toilet.

Then, we were asked by a receptionist, do we want to go to Coffee Tour, Beauty Tour or Restaurant? Hmm... I asked about the coffee tour. The staff there told us that we have to wait 5 to 10 minutes before getting ushered to the tour.

Let me tell you something :) My husband and I hates waiting if there is no good reason for it.

So, we told the staff that we want to go to the restaurant because we were hungry.

Then there was a staff who walked us to the restaurant. I asked the lady, did we have to wait for a tour guide? (I saw her hanging headset mic) She smiled and said she was supposed to be our tour guide. Then why we had to wait while she was sitting behind the reception counter? She replied that was their SOP. SOP to inform guests to simply wait 5-10 minutes before starting a tour guide. Why? Do we have to wait for certain number of guests for this tour? Nope... So? Just SOP.

Jadi ada standar dari perusahaan bahwa tamu yang ingin tour (kopi ataupun produk sabun) harus menunggu 5-10 menit. Bukan dengan alasan harus ada persiapan teknis atau menunggu kuota jumlah pengunjung. Hanya karena demikianlah standar operasional yang ditetapkan. 

We checked both, the restaurant and coffee shop, and decided to eat first, then my husband will go for coffee. Both are well designed, well built, and the staff were wearing nice uniform. The barista looked very trendy with the leather strapped black apron. Very barista look :)

The view is beautiful. It was currently developing the Secret Garden chapel and playground, which is scheduled to finish in October/November. We understood why Secret Garden Village applies ticketing, in order to filter people who just come in for 'Social Media' check-ins, sight-seeing and other no-spending group who would make the place overcrowded.

Jadi tiket sebesar Rp 50ribu tersebut, menurut kami, adalah cara tempat ini menyaring pengunjung yang memang benar-benar datang untuk berbelanja/makan di Secret Garden Village. Kami yakin tempat ini memakan investasi besar. Jadi memang harus ada praktik dagang 'jual mahal' untuk mencegah banyak yang datang 'gratisan' dan membuat tempat cantik ini terlalu ramai. 

Inside the Restaurant

The restaurant offered buffet food and a la carte. Buffet was @ Rp 99,000 ++. Food on the menu is fairly priced to my opinion. The most expensive one is their best food, which was Bebek Timbungan. I recalled it was over Rp 200,000++.

My husband had the buffet. It was Asian food. The taste is very acceptable, high above Bedugul standard. Seriously. I ordered Sate Ayam for kid #2 and kid #3. I ordered Lumpia Semarang. Kid #1 ordered Nasi Bali. I also asked for Dragon Fruit + Orange juice. All food came and we all digged in. All were yummy.

Another Selfie in the Restaurant

Saya sengaja memesan Lumpia Semarang. Tau kenapa? Karena Secret Garden Village ini dimiliki oleh pengusaha Indonesia asal Semarang. Naah.... Rasanya? Enak, sih :)







After paying the bill, which half of it paid using the entrance ticket, kid #2 and kid #3 wanted to see how to make soap. That was their expectation from the beauty product factory tour. Husband and kid #1 went to coffee shop to get cappuccino.

The three of us went to reception area and asked how long we had to wait to get the tour to the beauty product factory. Well, we did not have to wait, as there were a couple who had been waiting :)

We were greeted by Vita, a friendly staff who looked like she was just memorising all her script. But she was friendly. We had to wear headset so the tour guide's speech can be heard by each and every persons, and Vita does not need to shout.

We went inside Herborist, and the first room displayed several posters of natural ingredients of Herborist product. Yes, apparently, Secret Garden Village is owned by a producer of spa product.

Then afterward, we had to put our belongings inside locker because going inside the factory, photo takings are not allowed. We had to put on white-lab jacket, hair cap, shoes cover, and face mask. Everyone, except kid #3 because she's too small :) In this room, we were offered photo opp with 3D backdrop. It costs Rp 25,000. Well, we took the offer and had fun with the photo taking.

From that point forward, it was kind of boring. No real soap making was shown. We only walked at a corridor, and all the workers were behind glass-window. I was disappointed with that tour. I would not recommend that tour to anyone, except you want to go to that 3D backdrop room and to the gift shop. Before the gift shop, we went to a theatre. Hey, I thought here we will watch the movie of their much bigger factory in Java. But apparently it was just a TV ad of their product.

Edu-tour ini mengecewakan, karena tidak ada pembuatan sabun atau lainnya yang terlihat. Kita hanya berjalan di koridor, melihat para pekerja di balik kaca jendela. Kecuali mau berfoto dengan backdrop 3D (dan bayar Rp 25ribu) dan mau masuk ke gift shop, edutour ini buang-buang waktu. Saya pun tidak tau apakah ini cocok disebut Museum, seperti yang tertulis di temboknya. Sebelum masuk ke gift shop, kami diajak masuk ke Theatre hanya untuk menonton iklan sebuah produk mereka. 

At the gift shop, kids had fun because the soaps were displayed in such attractive ways. I made a short clip and posted on our YouTube channel. Please subscribe to our channel :)

I bought the avocado body scrub (tested it yesterday. Did not like it) and kiddos bought body wash (which was okay, but the smell is far below Body Shop products). No, we didn't buy any of the fancy looking soap because we never like using soap bars. Mommy did not want to waste money :)

We reunited again with Dad and kid #1 at the coffee shop. There were several well-kept Luwak in a large cage. They were producing their own Luwak Coffee. Coffee was good, but not better than Anomali. There was a live acoustic band. I did not know where they were from. They sounded okay. My husband said there was a guest who was crazily angry yelling at these musicians because it did not match the ambience. After hearing the musicians live next to us, I can say I agree with that crazy guest. Better to play some playback music for ambience.

The famous 3D photo spot at Secret Garden Village

View of the Black Eye Coffee & Roastery

Between the Coffee Shop and Restaurat

It was time to continue our Sunday journey. We wanted to go to Kintamani then to Bali Pulina at Tegalalang. Just when we were about to get on the road, the village security guy handed over a parking fee slip to us. We had to pay Rp 5,000. Hmm..

Verdict?

We will NOT return to Secret Village Garden on our own will. We may go there to take our family from Jakarta, or when we were super hungry on the road up north.
We will NOT take our foreigner friends and moreover our client, not until Secret Garden Village stop the price discrimination.

A Testimony from our Visit to Bangli's Elementary School

*the write-up is in Indonesian, as a report to the Kelas Inspirasi, a non-government movement to inspire young kids of elementary students in Indonesia to have and build great dreams for their future*

Inspirasi untuk Terinspirasi

Sebuah Testimoni dari Kelas Inspirasi Bali di Bangli, 11 Juni 2013

Memberikan sebuah inspirasi kepada orang lain? Pikiran ini terdengar seperti sebuah tugas besar, dan memberikan pertanyaan ke dalam diri kami seperti ‘apakah sudah pantas kami berbagi tentang apa yang kami kerjakan?’, ‘mungkinkah orang lain bisa tertarik dengan apa yang kami kerjakan?’.

Undangan untuk mendaftar kegiatan sukarela “Kelas Inspirasi Bali” mendorong kami untuk membaca visi dan misi kegiatan ini.  Dari website-nya, kami membaca bahwa Kelas Inspirasi adalah ekses dari Indonesia Mengajar, sebuah gerakan nasional bagi para sarjana yang baru lulus untuk mengabdi sebagai tenaga pendidik di daerah terpencil di Indonesia, yang khusus ditujukan bagi para profesional. Para individu profesional ini harus bercerita di depan kelas di sekolah dasar yang menjadi bagian kegiatan ini, dengan tema utama menceritakan tentang pekerjaan yang digelutinya. Harapan besarnya adalah ‘kisah’ pekerjaan yang dilakukan para profesional ini bisa menjadi inspirasi bagi anak-anak SD agar berani bermimpi mempunyai cita-cita yang setinggi langit. Latar belakang dan tujuan kegiatan ini akhirnya membuat saya dan suami mendaftar untuk bisa bergabung di Kelas Inspirasi Bali, yang pada tanggal 11 Juni 2013, memilih sekolah dasar di Bangli sebagai tempat Kelas Inspirasi Bali.

Pada akhirnya, saya dan suami bergabung bersama sebagai satu tim pengajar relawan Kelas Inspirasi Bali. Kami menjadi tim dengan dasar pemikiran bahwa saya dan suami bekerja di perusahaan yang sama, sebuah bisnis yang kami bangun bersama dari nol. Kami membawa pesan yang sama bahwa profesi yang bisa digeluti anak-anak ini di masa mendatang mempunyai batasan di angkasa. Kami ingin membuka wawasan anak-anak bahwa ilmu pasti tidak selalu menjadi pegangan pasti kesuksesan manusia dalam hidupnya. Kami membawa bukti bahwa hobi dan kecintaan akan seni, yang ditekuni dengan serius dan tekun, akan menjadi bekal hidup di kemudian hari.

Mudahkah mengajar di hadapan anak-anak sekolah dasar? Kami berdua mempunyai latar belakang sebagai penyiar Radio dan pembawa acara atau MC di panggung. Namun tantangannya sangat berbeda bila hadirin kami adalah anak-anak di bawah umur. Kami mempunyai tiga orang anak, masing-masing berumur 13, 6 dan 1. Berbicara dengan ketiga anak ini memerlukan seni retorika yang berbeda-beda, tentunya. Berbicara dengan anak-anak kecil yang belum bisa membaca, tentu akan lebih mudah jika menggunakan bahasa gambar. Itulah yang dilakukan oleh suami saya, yang memang berlatar belakang disain komunikasi visual.  Gambar-gambar yang menarik kami tampilkan agar dinamika kelas dapat kami munculkan sesuai dengan karakter siswa di setiap kelas. Kami tidak berbicara mengenai definisi sukses kepada anak-anak ini, namun kami membawakan gambar-gambar foto pencapaian perusahaan kami, bergerak di bidang penyelenggaraan acara, yang menangani berbagai acara internasional , bahkan dibuka oleh Presiden Republik Indonesia.

Acara kami pagi tersebut diawali dengan berbicara di hadapan anak-anak kelas 1 SD, yang tidak semuanya bisa membaca dan berbahasa Indonesia dengan baik.  Ditanya apakah tahu artinya ‘cita-cita’, anak-anak tersebut tidak menjawab.  Saya yang bisa berbahasa Bali, dibantu guru kelas, kemudian menerjemahkannya ke dalam Bahasa Bali yang artinya “mau jadi apa kalau sudah besar nanti?”.  Jawaban mereka? Dengan wajah lugu dan suara antusias, mereka berseru ‘polisi’, ‘tentara’, ‘dokter’, ‘guru’, ‘pelukis’, ‘pemain sepak bola’, ‘penari’, hampir secara bersamaan.

Di kelas-kelas berikutnya, di luar profesi favorit (polisi-guru-dokter), muncul cita-cita anak-anak SDN 3 Pengotan sebagai pengusaha sapi, pengusaha bengkel, penggembala domba, pengusaha kue, koki, bahkan pegawai restoran.  Unik! Cara mereka menjawab dan menjelaskan cita-citanya membuat kami selalu berusaha menahan senyum akibat kepolosan kata-kata yang mengalir dari anak-anak Pengotan ini.

Ketika kami tanyakan kepada mereka apakah tujuannya mempunyai cita-cita, kebanyakan anak-anak memang tidak bisa menjawabnya. Di luar dugaan kami, ada 1 atau 2 anak di kelas-kelas yang lebih besar (kelas 5 dan kelas 6), bisa menjawab ‘agar ada tujuan hidup’, bahkan ‘agar tidak jadi pengangguran’. Mungkin jawaban itu didapat dari kelas para relawan sebelumnya yang sudah masuk sebelum kami, tetapi itu artinya mereka mengerti pentingnya memiliki cita-cita.

Kami mengingatkan anak-anak tersebut bahwa setiap cita-cita adalah mulia, namun mereka harus rajin sekolah, bersikap jujur, dan tidak pernah takut untuk berharap.  Kami mengingatkan agar mereka tidak boleh lupa membuat PR, karena itu adalah bagian dari tanggung-jawab sebagai murid.

Di beberapa kelas, suami saya memutarkan video hasil karya anak kami yang duduk di kelas 1 SMP. Sebuah video sederhana yang dibuatnya sebagai tugas mata pelajaran Teknologi Informasi, dimana dia merekam dengan kamera video dan mengeditnya secara sederhana. Tujuan suami saya memutarkan video tersebut, tanpa menyebut itu adalah hasil karya anaknya sendiri, adalah untuk memotivasi anak-anak SD tersebut bahwa belajar informasi dan teknologi tidak sesulit bayangan mereka, dan menjadi pembuat film bisa menjadi pilihan profesi bagi mereka yang menyukai seni.  Bali dan terutama Indonesia, tentu akan sangat memerlukan pekerja seni profesional yang bisa membuat film dokumenter indah tentang keragaman dan kekayaan budaya kita untuk bisa dipresentasikan kepada dunia internasional.

Hal yang berkesan saat memutarkan video tersebut, yang pada bagian akhirnya dimasukkan instrumentalia lagu “Tanah Airku” oleh pembuat video, adalah saat beberapa anak ikut bernyanyi dan pada akhirnya mengundang seluruh kelas bernyanyi lagu nasional tersebut secara bersama-sama tanpa ada yang memberi komando. Indah dan nasionalis. Sebuah akhir Kelas Inspirasi Bali yang sangat manis dan berkesan.

Tentu, kami sangat senang karena di luar perkiraan kami, anak-anak SDN 3 Pengotan sangat antusias dan responsif menanggapi kelas yang kami berikan.  Mulai dari kelas 1 sampai dengan kelas 6, mereka serius menyimak setiap perkataan kami dan menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang kami ajukan. Memang, selayaknya anak-anak, adanya penghargaan berbentuk hadiah, membuat mereka terdorong untuk maju ke depan kelas menunjukkan kebisaan mereka dalam bernyanyi, menari ataupun sekedar berbicara memperkenalkan diri. Tapi, kami rasa, anak-anak di seluruh dunia, dari status sosial ekonomi manapun, akan responsif bila diberikan penghargaan. Jangankan anak-anak, kitapun demikian, kan?

Pada akhir hari, setelah acara seremonial sederhana di depan ruang guru dimana Kepala SDN 3 Pengotan dan Koordinator Kelas Inspirasi Bali memberikan sambutan penutup dan kami selaku pembawa acara ‘dadakan’ menyilakan anak-anak untuk kembali pulang ke orang tuanya masing-masing, mereka terdiam. Anak-anak itu tidak bergerak, lalu menoleh ke kanan dan ke kiri, sulit untuk melangkahkan kaki meninggalkan kami. Reaksi terakhir ini membuat kami sadar bahwa tugas memberikan inspirasi, walaupun terdengar besar, namun ternyata mudah jika dilakukan dengan tulus dan senang hati. Kelas Inspirasi ini juga membuat kami terinspirasi untuk selalu memberikan inspirasi positif, di mana pun kami berada, melalui apapun yang kami kerjakan. 

*******

A.A.I. Nirmala Trisna & Abdes Prestaka

Business Owner, KITASATUBALI MarketingCommunication

Abdes (foto atas) dan Nirmala (foto bawah), dengan suasana di dalam kelas, serius dan bersemangat!

(Searah jarum jam) Anak-anak yang gembira, para asisten kelas menyiapkan peralatan, dan Pak Guru yang meminta siswa tampil di depan kelas. 

Foto atas: Para siswa SDN 3 Pengotan bersama Karim dan Nurni dari KITASATUBALI. Thanks for your assistance and support, guys!

Foto bawah: Dua siswi serius menyimak Pak Guru. 

Snap Shots During a Trip in Bali

The ladies are washing tools in a - I'd rather say it's a gutter, rather than a stream...

The boys are playing Balinese traditional instruments on the day after Kuningan, just outside our vehicle, when we passed them at a small village in Ubud area.

The street boy is checking his foot. The shot was taken at the traffic light in Tohpati area, Denpasar.

Let's laugh...

Photo was taken by Abdes, June 2009

Road Trip 2009

We just came back from a fun and exciting trip. It is our first family trip by land from Denpasar to Jakarta. It took us four days to reach final destination, my in-laws house in East Jakarta. For comparison, a regular commercial bus takes 24 hours from Denpasar to Jakarta. So, to save our energy, we decided to make stop over.

The ferry

Dive for money

First, we spent two nights in Surabaya. After passing teakwood forest in East Java, passing by the horrific Lapindo mud in Sidoarjo, and got confused at the toll road of Surabaya, we arrived at Mercure Surabaya, located at Jalan Darmo, the main street of Surabaya city. We were so tired. Especially Abdes, who had to drive by himself. The boys were tired too. Getar didn’t complain a bit. He enjoyed every miles we went. Such a great boy! Alarik? Well, what can I say… We amused him with a portable DVD player. The 12 hours trip from Denpasar to Surabaya was dominated by the sounds and moves of Bee Movie, Madagascar 2 and Dora the Explorer. Ha!

For the first dinner in Surabaya, a friend of us, Hendro, took us to Layar, the most famous and delicious seafood restaurant in town. It was really good!!! The crab, shrimp and scallop were cooked Chinese style.. Definitely recommended and would love to come back if we visit Surabaya in the near future.

The next day, after trying to bring our Kijang to Toyota repair shop (at no avail, as the shop had very long waiting list), we went to Tunjungan Plaza. It is the biggest shopping mall in Surabaya. Yes, it is big… compared to malls in Bali. But as we plan to do our shopping spree (it’s hyperbolic, trust me, didn’t have the unlimited budget!) in Jakarta, we didn’t buy a thing at TP. For lunch, we tried Suki, a Chinese style steamboat. Taste? Good….

It is not a visit to Surabaya without a stop at Rawon Setan, translated as Devil Beef Soup, or more like Beef Soup which taste like Devil (weird translations..). There are many Rawon Setan, or at least that’s what people want to say due to its popularity. But the one we went is the original one, the only one in the world… No branch restaurant, no franchise. It is located right in front of J.W. Marriott Surabaya. Thanks to Hani, a busy ophthalmologist who happened to be my high school mate. She and her kids picked us up at the hotel and treated us with Rawon Setan. We were lucky to have seats and I was amazed by the quick service there. Just in time we finished our meal, groups of people started to come and waited behind us, ready to take over our seats. Interesting… No wonder it is called Rawon Setan…as we, Indonesians, have a popular exclamation of surprise. “Setan…, so yummy!”

The next day, after our second night stay at Mercure, we prepared ourselves to continue our trip. This time was to Jogjakarta. Oops, almost forget to tell that breakfast at Mercure was really good. Soto ayam, or chicken soup a la Surabaya, was delicious. All service was wonderful and very friendly. Room rate? Very reasonable. Around Rp450,000 (USD45) per night for standard room. Location? Strategically located.

Leaving Surabaya, we decided to make a stop for lunch at Madiun. This city is famous for its Pecel, a kind of vegetable salad with peanut dressing. We drove around the city, asked local men by the street, to find the best pecel in town. Well, it was Sunday, the most famous one was closed. So we visited the second best one. The pecel for lunch was just as expected. So we left Madiun with full tummy and continued to Jogjakarta.

Long story is shortened, we arrived at Jogjakarta at late afternoon. Malioboro street, the most famous avenue in the city was packed with tourists, local ones. I saw several Caucasian tourists near our hotel. We stayed at Grage Ramayana Hotel, 100 meters from Malioboro street. Abdes found this hotel online while we were in Surabaya and booked straight away as he didn’t want us driving around to find a place to sleep.

This time, we were totally exhausted. Alarik was asleep until dinner time. Abdes had headache, but I had the worst headache ever! I couldn’t open my eyes. I had tears in my eyes due to my headache. I even hardly swallowed any food. Getar? Amazing… he’s totally cool!!

So we decided to call a masseur to our room. Thankfully, the hotel staff was really nice. She was really helpful and emphatic, genuinely, not just because she had to do so. Sorry, I forgot her name. So after a nice massage and a couple of cups of hot ginger, we were recovered.

The morning after, we had gudeg for breakfast. It is a requirement to eat gudeg in its origin city. We were lucky that a really old lady had her food stall right in front of the hotel.

Gudeg Lady in Jogja

Abdes took the boys to Malioboro while I packed our luggage. Alarik was very excited to see trains. In Bali, we have no trains. So, no wonder he got so excited because he only saw trains in Thomas the Tank Engine. They went around Malioboro by becak. Cool experience for the boys. A new vocabulary for Alarik: becak, a front seated passenger pushbike.

Alarik on a becak

Getar at Malioboro Street, Jogja

This route, the trip felt more exciting as we were reaching closer to Jakarta. For lunch break, we stopped by at a gas station in a small city near the border of West Java (forgot the name). We underestimated the food. Ordered Nasi Timbel package, authentic cuisine of West Java, we finished all the food. Delicious!

Interestingly, as we took the south route to Jakarta, we made another stopover at Tasikmalaya, the city in West Java, where Abdes’ grandfather is originally from. Abdes wanted to stop here as he really wanted to eat at Laksmana noodle. Without asking any directions from the locals, he just wandered around, trying to remember the way from our last trip here a year ago and voila…. His wish was fulfilled. We enjoyed the noodle, the fruit juice and martabak (a kind of Indonesian pancake, thick, filled with cheese, chocolate or peanut) for snack on the road.

So, after Tasikmalaya, Abdes had to drive a long way… and when we finally reached the toll road and saw traffic signs with Jakarta directions, we felt that we almost made it. Phew… Abdes was a great driver! We arrived safely at his parent’s house on Monday late evening. Hugs, kisses, laughs, stories were promptly around the house. The car, our beloved 1996Kijang, was ready to be sold in Jakarta! *yes, that was the only reason we made this road trip to Jakarta! The car was Jakarta registered and titled under Abdes’ father’s name. We would be better off if we sell the car in Jakarta. And yes, we were!*

This Week in Denpasar

Big rain last weekend. Floods were happening in several spots in the city, including my residence complex. Yeah, interesting....
The rain was so hard for hours in Saturday night, thus many eyes could not be closed thinking about whether the water will ruin the property. Thank goodness, ours were safe. Washing machine and tumble dryer work normally after enjoying the rain. We missed our big barrel of garbage which was floating to our neighbor. My hubby enjoyed walking through the flood in the mission to capture our garbage bin.
As I talked to several friends today, some suffered more than us due to the flood. Geez, the rain is getting harder approaching the Chinese New Year. Yet, there are no actions from local authorities to fix this problem. Hellow...anyone there?

Well, rainy or sunny, it is just the way it should be... For intermezzo, check out this announcement that my hubby found in a men's room of a local resto. Perhaps this way we can reduce the flood :)

Snapshots of the Week

As I have no specific stories of my current life, I'd like to share few shots taken with my SonyEricsson.

This one was taken on our way up to Kintamani:
This is the latest I took on the way to office... snap shot of the week I guess...*check out the two black creatures at the parking lot*

Happy Holiday Season!

"Ho..ho...ho..., " said Santa on the truck.























"Merry Christmas..."

"Selamat tahun baru 1430 Hijriah".

"Happy New Year 2009".

May the new beginning opens prosperous opportunities to us so we can be more meaningful human beings.

Kuliner Kampung

(or Traditional Cuisine)

The true taste of Indonesian food cannot be found anywhere else, except in the local markets. True!!

Few weeks ago, we made our stop at Pasar Senggol Kereneng, in north Denpasar area, for nasi goreng and tahu campur. The taste? Yumm.... *til I forgot to take the photo*
The price? Less than a dollar per portion. Awesome!


















Look for this sign if you happen to stop by at Kereneng. The sign said that this warung (food stall) is only for the hungry people..


















Yeah, sure! Yumm...

Sick & Tired...wanna puke!!!

It has been happening since few months ago, didn't notice the start of time line. Apparently, I got so sick and tired, then it tickled my brain nerve of puking!

Nope, it ain't pregger again!

It has been caused by this:
























These things are everywhere... all over and every corner of town. I started taking photos of them since couple of days ago, so just I can share them to the world beyond.

Apparently, this is not a beauty contest. Or is it??? For sure I don't plan to choose any one of them. Holy cow, they're just displaying their best photos (ya..ya..ya..), and they expect me to believe they can represent me in the parliament??? This kind of thing only benefit the digital printing business (thank goodness, hopefully that's not the least thing these people on the big banners can do!! Do the math, in average, the cost of digi print is Rp 30.000 per meter)

That's all my rant for now, before I become (more) sarcastic.

The Fast among the Furious

Just a traffic report from my view while driving on Teuku Umar Street, Denpasar.

Geez, I can tell that the Ferrari surely didn't fit the traffic view. It's too glittery, too bright, too red, too fast...












































































*apologize to the unknown owner, sure you paid a fortune for the shiny wheels*

LARGEST pizza in town!!!

Following my previous post on Warung Itali's pizza, finally we went there again, ordered the largest pizza...and the yummiest one, too!
























I forgot the exact dimension...perhaps around 60cm :) One slice of this large pizza is approximately the same 3.5 slice of regular pizza. The best part is...this triple-sized pizza is charged double price of the regular one.

Boys in Green

Loooveee... these photos!
Taken by Abdes, fully inspired by our eldest son, Attarilan. My youngest one delightfully followed his brother and posed on the grass.



















Brothers forever....

Yummiest Pizza in Town!!!

Gone around town to search for dinner, we landed up at Warung Italy at Jalan Kunti, Seminyak. Quite close to where we live, actually. We saw that Warung Italy (warung is an Indonesian word, literally mean, little diner) just opened a pizzeria. So, we just gave it a shot, a culinary visit.

The pizza chef (I don't know the best word to describe the person behind the counter who prepares pizza dough and its toppings) demonstrated the dough spinning, threw it in the air, and did everything interesting to make the pizza. The wood fire oven was also there. The most interesting thing is the pizza chef was purely Italian (at least he spoke Italian and looked like one, too). The atmosphere was very Italian, as two people sitting next to our table were Italians, and they chatted loudly.

So, the pizza came. Oops, sorry I forgot to shot the pizza as we were starving and dug the pizza instantly.

Yummmm.... the pizza was SUPERB!!! Thin but chewy dough, great mozarella with chicken and mushroom.

The great thing is IT WAS CHEAP!!! Regular sized pizza was around Rp50-60K. And, if we want to have a family size pizza, that is trippled the regular one, is only tagged double price. Cool...

Hmmm....need to make a trip to Seminyak again very soon... It's the pizza calling!

OK, for your eyes only, here are the photos I've taken after dinner.







































Mamamia...!