Hello everyone, we hope you’re in the holiday spirit! We’re writing this on the plane from Bali to Hong Kong, where it’s mid-morning on Friday the 21st and late on Thursday the 20th at home. We wrapped up our Bali adventure with a cooking class in Ubud (in the central portion of the country where we spent the first three days) followed by three days in Seminyak to the south, and most importantly, on the beach. Our time in Bali was extraordinary, and as Melissa (or Miss Lissa per some of the locals) wrote in the last post, the people were delightful and a combination of friendly, helpful and curious. We’ll look back on our time with all of the people, the raw beauty of the country and also the great cultural experiences with great memories and a lot of appreciation.
The cooking class from Paon Bali Cooking was delicious. We prepared a traditional Balinese meal with travelers from the Netherlands and Australia, and a lot of help from Puspa and her chefs/teachers. Puspa and her husband Wayan invite groups into their home for these lessons and meals, where they host up to 20 curious guests at a time. As an aside, in Bali a home is essentially a compound of buildings and temples and the entrances are often on narrow streets that are packed with homes side by side. From the outside the home screams urban density, but once inside the home opens up to a veranda offering spectacular views over one of Bali’s lush river valleys and jungles.
There’s no mistake “Honey” that this is Puspa’s show, from her commanding presence to the large picture of her that hangs above the cooking area! Our day started with a trip to the local Ubud street market, a mixture of colorful fruit and vegetables, abundant spices, local clothing (e.g., sarongs), tourist trap clothing (e.g., Bintang Beer tank tops) and distinct smells from the nearby refuse pile. After seeing where the ingredients of our upcoming meal were procured (not the refuse pile) we visited another rice terrace to hear from a local farmer. We are now experts on how to grow rice after the first three days of the trip! From here our driver took us to Paon.
Wayan welcomed the group and gave a speech about the significance of the three levels of buildings in the home, the highest being the temple, the second highest the sleeping quarters and living space of the eldest generation and the lowest for the younger generation(s). Their two little dogs also came out and said hi, the Balinese love dogs so we felt right at home the entire time we were on the island with all the pups around though we miss Griff.
From there we went to the kitchen and spent the next few hours cooking and eating. We made more than ten dishes fresh from scratch including a garlic, onion, mushroom, lemongrass soup to start, followed by two different salads (green beans and bean sprouts, and Gado Gado), chicken (or tofu and tempeh) satay, yellow curry, crispy chili tempeh, tuna (or tofu) rolls wrapped in banana leaf and banana custard topped with coconut shavings.
The base ingredient for many of these dishes was a yellow paste that we ground in a “Bali blender” (manual labor required). The yellow paste was a combination of hot chilis, red chilis, shallots, garlic, ginger, turmeric, candle nuts, coriander, lime juice, peppercorns and a few other ingredients. Two tablespoons of sweet soy sauce, one tablespoon of salty soy sauce, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of ground peppercorns were staples in most dishes as well.
This class was a phenomenal way to wrap up Ubud and from there we headed to our hotel on the shores of Seminyak. Seminyak is one of the beach towns south of the capital of Denpasar and is a mix of local buildings mixed with luxury hotels and beachside bars and restaurants. The Double Six Hotel greeted us with the warmest check-in process we’ve ever had, including some sort of green cocktail with vodka that was served with dry ice special effects.
Our time in Seminyak was less adventurous and more relaxing with time spent hanging out and reading at the pool and on the beach. At the beach we took turns riding the waves without getting beaten up too badly in the powerful surf. We also managed to have a couple of massages at our hotel and very much enjoyed the customize your breakfast however you want, all you can eat approach. They had more delicious pastries that were almost as good as those at our hotel in Ubud, this Balinese excellence in pastries continued to be a pleasant surprise and a favorite of mine.
We also took the ~30 minute walk along the beach in the central square of Seminyak for dinner one night at Ginger Moon where I ordered the four spiciest things on the menu and managed to barely make it out alive. Melissa took the less spicy route and enjoyed her dinner as well. We also walked into Seminyak to peruse the street shops and buy a few local items to commemorate our trip one day and walked into town another day for an hour and a half of heated flow yoga.
Seminyak sunsets are a real thing and one of the reasons we chose Seminyak for our beach stay (over Kuta, Nusa Dua and the handful of highly-rated other beach towns). The beaches draw large crowds at sunset each night, and plenty of selfie-takers, as the sun descends into the sea in a fiery orange ball and leaves a magnificent trail of pink, purple, orange, red and yellow skies. We had the pleasure of taking in three sunsets from the beach and the 6th floor restaurant at the Double-Six that also doubles as a club for the party people (not us, we go to bed at 10…). We couldn’t have asked for a more picture perfect setting!
We’re off to Hong Kong now and will check back in on our way back to Minnesota for Christmas Eve!