Warung Ibu Oka - Babi Guling

“ Babi Guling of Ibu Oka is something that you shouldn’t miss when you visit Ubud.” You can easily get this tip while you search on foods at Bali. Because of that, our 1st lunch at Ubud definitely to check it out.

After asked around, we had been told that Warung Ibu Oka is just opposite Ubud palace. When we reached that warung, we noticed that it was closed. Looking at the empty warung, I was so disappointed, “Ow.. There gone my Babi guling at Ubud!!”

God must be pity my stomach a lot… I saw a few man carrying board with “Babi Guling ada di rumah”.. Quickly I asked the man, he told us that today they will operate at their house because it’s Bali New Year that day!!! So lucky me, thanks god!

The friendly guy then lead us the way, there were full of people there!! Their seating is just anywhere you can find at low tables under the roof. A man carry the whole big babi to the kitchen... making my mouth watering..



We ordered Babi Guling Special which costs Rp25,000. The Babi guling set comes with a slice of crispy skin, some meat, some fried inner parts and some Balinese chili-vegetable.



The skin actually disappointed me, as it’s too hard, not crispy enough. However, the chili-vege is really nice.. it’s spicy enough and nice to eat together with the meat and rice. Anyhow, this stills the must-try food if you visited Bali.It was a experience to sit together with bus loads of tourists that came from different country, chewing down on Babi Guling.

Saren Indah Hotel - A hidden paradise in Ubud

Our 3rd and 4th night accommodation at Bali was Saren Indah Hotel, which located at Ubud. I booked this hotel because the good reviews from trip advisor, and intend to experience village life at Bali. The way to Saren Indah hotel was so dark and isolated, which make me feel unsure of my choice.

After a few minutes drive from Ubud town, we arrived at Saren Indah hotel. We were welcomed warmly by their front desk. The friendly receptionist served us welcome drinks and so as the beautiful flower, which really swept away all my worries and refresh us from the tired day.

Welcome drinks and flowers

Table at Reception corner

Rooms in this hotel are as bungalow type, with 2 floors. The room we booked was superior garden room, located at first floor with views of garden and rice fields’ background, which cost us USD41 per night included breakfast. The room is tidy and spacious. It looks romantic also with the mosquito net.

The bed with mosquito net

Washing area

Clean and spacious bathroom

All rooms are featuring by balcony too. There’s a lotus pond in front of our rooms. After taken bath, we gather at the balcony for tea, admiring the great night view of this hotel.

Night view of our bangalow

The next morning we woke up early to take photo around this hotel. The garden view, lotus pond, padi field and swimming pool all is the nice spot for photo shooting.

Poolside Restaurant

Decorative flowers at stairs
Padi field behind our room

Another bonus points of this hotel is the friendly service and the strategic location. It located just 100m of Ubud’s monkey forest sanctuary in the far northern corner of Nyuh Kuning Village. The hotel provides hourly shuttle service to the ubud town, which really convenient us.

This is really a nice and special hotel! With the traditional Balinese design, the surrounding traditional village, rice fields and rainforest, it’s really an ideal place to admire the uniqueness and peaceful of Bali.

"Surprise" Birthday Celebration at Terazo, Bali

The dinner of Day 3 was the surprise birthday celebration for my husband. I had planned that before come to Bali. I do research on web for restaurant with nice food and nice ambience nearby Ubud.

After a few search I found this website: http://www.baligoodfood.com/. It got 5 restaurants under this group. After browse through I chose Terazo Restaurant, which I found it with nice ambience and good review from Trip Advisor too. Without second thought, I email them to make reservation, and make a special request to have Tiramisu + candle as my hubby birthday cake.

When we reached the restaurant, I felt quite satisfied because the restaurant is really nice decorated, just exactly the same as I saw from their website. They arranged us to have the upstairs seats because I request to have more privacy. The waitress is friendly as well, and had a great patient to guide us through food ordering.

While waiting for the food to be served, we took a few photos around the restaurant.




After a while, the food served. This is part of the foods we ordered, which I have forgotten their name and price:


After we finished our food, I hinted the waitress it’s time to serve dessert. Without long wait, all the waiter and waitress started to sing birthday song from downstairs while serving Tiramisu. They sing also the Indonesian birthday song.



My husband felt really surprise and kept laughing. He happily accepts our blessing and blow off the candle. He thanks me for arranged a surprise celebration for him and made it a memorable birthday for him.

By the time we leave, I show my husband a note on the whiteboard next to the washroom. He didn’t realized it while he went washroom with me, neither my sis-in-law.

Thanks to Terazo to make this surprise a real surprise!!

Home Decoration – Bearly flower vase

Materials needed:

A big transparent glass vase – From Ikea – RM59

Assorted artificial Daisy – From Ikea – RM4.90 x 7 = RM34.30

Bears – Contributed by Shelyn’s admirer

Love shaped artificial flower – Contributed by my husband, he used it to proposed to me!!!

Assorted color stone - From Ikea, price forgotten

And here is the finished “Bearly flower vase”

Shoe's Design Enhancement!!

People who know me will know that I’m a shoes’ lover. Sometime I will just buy shoes for no reason, and keep it in rack then never wear it for years.

Last week while I shopping at Sg Wang, I suddenly recall one of my high heel that I bought from Nine West last year. I keep thinking of the shoes, and suddenly I got an idea to enhance its look.

The shoes’ design is very simple, and, too simple. I then went into a fashion accessories shop, and start looking at those I could use for my DIY project. Lastly and luckily, I found one pair of brooch, which is simple, nice and cheap!! One for RM3.90, total is only RM7.80.

Immediately I took out the shoes when I reached home, and started my project.
This is how the shoes look like before my enhancement.

After I put on the brooch, it looks more elegant now.

Thinking to wear this shoe to match my white color dinner dress, I should add some white color on it too…. I look around in my room, and I got the lace which I bought to decorate my room during my wedding day in year 2007.

OK, so I use it to tie a ribbon on the side of the shoes. It looks nice also.

So, this is the result of my DIY project!!

Day 3 - Goa Gajah, Kintamani and Ubud Palace

We checked out from the Puri Dibia hotel on the 3rd day, heading towards to Ubud. Our 1st stop is the Batik Village.

We are served by a lady, good in tying batik,turning it to nice dress. She designed different style for each of us. This is the way they promote their goods. We are allowed to have a group photo after that.

Even though, the batik really looks nice on me (many says so), but it costs too much. USD100 for one piece!!! So, forget it..

Again it’s lunch time. We requested Jone to bring us for the famous Balinese crispy duck. Instead of Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck Restaurant), the most popular Crispy duck restaurant at Bali, Jone led us to Panorama Hotel and Restaurant for the crispy duck.

Panorama Hotel and Restaurant is located in the heart of Ubud, the restaurant is surrounded by garden, lotus ponds and pool. Our seats were just in between the pool, lotus pond and padi field, the nice scene bring us good appetite for lunch.


We ordered 2 sets of crispy duck set and some other local rice set.

I still think our roasted duck taste nicer than the crispy duck. I wonder why it’s called crispy duck as it is not crispy at all. Scratch head…

However, the other food is quite nice, especially this yellow rice.

After lunch, we stopped by Goa Gajah for a visit before headed to Kintamani.

We need to wear sarong here too. And this time, there were several colors for choice. I chose yellow color to match my green color dress. Nice?

"Goa Gajah (the Elephant Cave), is located in a steep valley just outside of Ubud near the town of Bedulu. Built at least 700 years ago, the cave was rediscovered in the 1920s and fully excavated 30 years later ."

The famous cave entrance is elaborately carved. The carving looks like an elephant if you look at the face's hair; the elephant's trunk is hanging over its ear to the right. Inside the cave is a statue of the Hindu character Ganesh (Ganesa) - half elephant, half boy - from which the temple gets its name. People can pray for getting baby at here.

We headed to Kintamani for Lake Batur and Mountain View after Goa Gajah. It took around 1 hour drive from Ubud. We took a nap in the car, but woke up seeing the rainy and hazy sky. Bad luck!! It’s rained, and we could not see the nice lake and mountain view.. so sad…
We should see this ..

But we saw this…

It’s ok, things never perfect. So means that I can visit Bali again for this active Volcano!!!

Not being defeat by this disappointment, we go for the next stop, Ubud palace.
"Puri Saren Ubud (Ubud Palace) is an Ubud Kingdom Palace with beautiful Balinese traditional houses as a residence of Ubud King." It is set in the center of Ubud, just opposite the Ubud Market. You may read through the link for the history of this palace:

http://www.ubudpalace.com/



As we visited during Bali New Year season, we werelucky enough to see their traditional Barong Dance.


I can’t wait to have a look on the Ubud Market; someone told me there were a lot of things for shopping. However, it’s about dinner time, my father in law can’t wait for dinner either. So, I just dropped by the Ubud market for short while, to do some basic “analysis” on it before I come again the next day.
Yes!! I'll be back!!!