What The Frou got up to during CNY...

To be fair, I didn’t disappear for the whole of CNY.

I was actually filially squatting in JB for two entire days and even went for ‘gong xi gong xi’ visits with the Frou Clan. Surprisingly no one asked me whether I have a boyfriend or when I am getting married this year. The most provocative question asked of me is when I am going to ‘gua pai’ (in Chinese: ‘hang up my sign’) which I understand to mean when I am going to open my own law firm. That was a really archaic question but I guess for folks born in the 40s, the whole point of becoming a lawyer is to own a law firm, right? (“Study so hard for what?”) Still, it does show that even aunties these days are appreciative of the importance of career over marriage. Anyway, in reply, I calmly took a sip of Shandy and said ‘Soon! On the way already!’, which trust me, this is the only answer you should give your relatives for any questions they ask.

Come second day of CNY, The Man and I are already on a plane with a pair of flip flops and a total of 2 tee-shirts across the ocean to Bali. (We had to take 2 planes actually, because we stopped over at Jakarta for S$6 foot massages and mee basoh.) The minute we arrived, we headed straight for our villa, Aston Bhavana (along Jalan Pangkung Sari) where we parked our asses firmly on the deck chair in front of our private pool.

The view from our deck chair.

We didn’t stay in the same villa for the whole trip. My all time favourite, Uma Sapna Villa (along Jalan Drupadi), was fully booked for the first few days I arrived but I managed to get a villa towards the end of the trip. What's more, they were kind enough to give me a free upgrade to their one bedroom villa (with private pool as well) for half the price of Aston. (To be fair, Uma Sapna's villas were half the size of Aston's.)

Our Uma Sapna villa

We spent a lot of time doing absolutely nothing in our villas. I conclude there is nothing more blissful in this world than having your own pool and lying on a deck chair in the sun, staring into space all day. Zzz….BUT we did manage to get off our deck chairs for very important reasons such as feeding. The villas provide breakfast (they ring our bell at 8am every morning bearing raw materials so that they can cook us breakfast from our villa’s kitchen!) but we have to settle our other meals elsewhere.

For lunch, we usually search for the local cheap eats. We were staying in Seminyak and we found a warung babi guling called Pak Medan (along Jalan Sunset) just down the road from our villa. Babi Guling is a local dish consisting of rice top with different parts of a pig cooked in various ways. It is DA BOMB. Half the time, I have no idea which part of the pig I am eating but it’s the sort of food you just gobble up without care and feel extremely satisfied after. We also ate at the quintessential nasi campur at the famous Warung Made II (along Jalan Raya). The Balinese nasi campur consist of rice top with any darn thing makcik decides to cook that day so it can be beef, vege, curry chicken, the kitchen sink etc. We also found a local restaurant called Cabe Rawit (along Jalan Kunti) where they do a decent gado gado, an Indonesian dish consisting of assorted vegetable dressed in peanut curry sauce.

For dinner, we dressed up a little more (by that, I mean we at least run a comb through our hair but still in flip flops) to try out the more atas places. We took Luxe guide’s recommendation and went to a restaurant called Gado Gado which is right by the sea. Luxe wrote that it will be “dining under the stars but will hubby eyes twinkle too?” We have NO idea what that means. I reckon it means it is super romantic but the Man thinks it means it will be so expensive that his eyes will glazed over at the bill. Well, one of us is right, and it wasn’t me. The view from our table (beachfront) is somewhat beautiful but the restaurant is located right next to a club which was blasting doosh doosh dooosh music right at us. Also the décor is very old skool and mismatched (A shrine on one end, Indonesian wood tables, Chinese lanterns??) The food (“modern European cuisine”) is pricey, which is fine if it is nice, but it was not. My lobster bisque taste manufactured and they went a little too crazy salting my duck. So altogether, not a great dining experience. We went for drinks at Ku De Ta afterwards to redeem the rest of the night. I make it a point to go KDT everytime I am in Bali because you can’t really go wrong there. Great crowd, fantastic sea-view, big lounges for you to spread out on and interesting cocktails.

During my last trip to Bali, I tried a really good French restaurant called Kafe Warisan which I was eager to go back to. Unfortunately, I was told that the owners have close it down because the lease of the old premises ran out. They have instead set up a new and much bigger establishment called “Metis”, also in the middle of a padi field, but a little further up the road along Jalan Petitenget. So I told our driver to bring us to this new place and he drove us this quaint and very ‘happy’ restaurant. The atmosphere is really vibrant – people chatting happily, bright artsy décor and really friendly service staff. Best yet, the owner, a Slovenian lady (we later read in a magazine that she is an artist and did the décor of the place herself) introduced herself (and her French husband who is the chef) and went through the menu with us. We took her recommendations on food, and had the best meal. I had the black tea young poultry which the chef prepared just for the CNY season, and it has such a familiar homely taste to it – like something my mum would whip up at home (And the chef is French!) The Man tried their barramundi fish which he said was the best he tasted – very fresh and juicy. We top off our meal with a special house creation ~ black pepper ice-cream, which we felt would have given any ice-creamery in Singapore a run for their money. At the end of our wonderful meal, the lady owner asked us how we found her restaurant and we were explaining how we wanted to try the successor of Kafe Warisan and she said, “Oh yes, their new restaurant Metis is right opposite from us. You can’t miss it.”

(Uh-huh. That’s right, we have alibaba-ed our way to the WRONG restaurant!!!)

I sheepishly asked her what is the name of her restaurant (there were no signage whatsoever – not even on our napkins!) and she said it’s called Sardine. When we confess that our driver has dropped us off at the wrong place, we all had a big laugh together. Oh well, that was one good mistake. We would have never found this fantastic place otherwise!

Sardine

We did end up eating at Metis the following night (we changed driver). It is 6 times bigger than Kafe Warisan , and for French fare, the food portion is huge – but more importantly, the food is still really good (their house specialty is foie gras – very tasty!) but the price has gone up significantly compared to Warisan. Ambience-wise, it is a very chic and modern place (think water features everywhere) and they have their own art gallery and souvenir shops. Unfortunately, it felt like eating in any big commercial establishment and didn’t have the homely feel like Sardine. I would go back to the latter anytime!


Metis brochure, yes it is right in the middle of a padi field.

You are quite right if you think I just ate my way through the week. I had never eaten so much in my life! So for a spot of exercise, The Man and I decided to enroll ourselves for a massage course at Jari Menari. Massage course means we GIVE massage, not receive. That’s exercise, no?

The course is only held on Tuesdays and it includes an hour of yoga, 3 hour massage course, lunch and a 90 minutes massage thereafter. Our class consist of 6 people, including us, under the charge of 3 male trainers.

The yoga session was just basic stretching so that we can prepare our body to be nimble for the hard work later. After yoga, our trainer orally taught us the basics of Jari Menari’s massage ritual and massage techniques. Jari Menari crafted their own technique out of a combination of Swedish, Japanese, Javanese, Thai practices etc. so it was really interesting to learn. Furthermore, they are real professionals – and taught us massage etiquette such as how to wipe down our client, how to not ‘arouse’ them when it comes to sensitive areas, how to wake them up gently and to always be on the lookout of your client’s body language so that you can change your pace or strength level. You’ll be surprised how many masseurs out there who do not know these basic massage manners! (How many times have you wince and cry out in pain during a massage, but the China auntie who speaka no Ingris continues to pummel you nonetheless??)

We had our practical lesson next when we took turns practicing what we learnt on our partner under our trainer’s watch. At this point, I should explain that I am the sort of person who will spend her entire salary on getting a massage – and after this course, I realize why I pay I am paying so much. Massaging others is really hard work! All the kneading, rolling, tapping, karate chopping… Our trainers made us do the routine repeatedly until our fingers are sore and we got everything drummed in our head.

After lunch, I was really looking forward to the complimentary 90 minutes massage, though I never expected it to be the BEST 90 minutes of my life! At this point, let me explain that Jari Menari (means dancing fingers in Malay) is a boutique massage parlour with only male masseurs (I discovered why later). For once, I concur with Luxe Guide, that it is THE only massage place you should go to in Bali. In fact for me, it was the best massage experience I have ever had in my life, period~ despite the male masseurs. I have always had a thing against male masseurs. There is nothing more nerve wrecking than letting a male stranger rub his grubby hands all over your oiled and naked body (seriously, not even if he looks like Brad Pitt) ~ how to relax?? But Jari Menari’s staff was so professional that 5 seconds into the massage, I completely forgot that the hands dancing on my naked body belongs to a man. It was just so different from any other massages I have tried before. He worked through the entire length of body at random so I never quite know what is to come next. It was so good that I went back for a second massage session a few days later (the reservation is crazy so we need to book in advance) and this time, I tried their house special which is a technique incorporating ‘movement’. What this means is, at some point during that 90 minutes, I was swished around by my masseur until 3 quarters of my body is off the massage table and my (yes, naked) legs were wrapped around his waist. Still, I was a picture of bliss and relaxation. It was like someone doing yoga on me, without me moving a limb on my own. So why only male masseurs? For the strength to throw you around like that, I guess.

Anyway it was a great recharge trip. And I am spending way too long typing this blog reminiscing about the trip when I should be doing work. Also, alamak, I started off this entry trying to talk about my trip but it ended up looking like a Seminyak guide. Anyway, I’m not always good authority when it comes to good food and places but if you folks find the places I visited interesting, give it a try next time you find yourself down in Bali!