But, because Bali is such an impressive mix of fierce culture and peace and quiet—ALL its houses and buildings adorned with intricate carvings of and boasting altars for gods and such, and everyone seemingly amiable and yet devout—we soon accepted the fact that we probably would not be disappointed with our next stop. Okay no, we didn’t, but, indeed, we were understatingly pleasantly surprised.

Everything

everywhere

this way

and this way

and this.

While man-made, figures such as this were one with Nature.

Picker-upper (and stash of yummies in carseat pocket) for after a contemplative walk (and going up towers).

Just outside the temple at the Alas Kedaton (Monkey Forest) in Tabanan

with its mellow monkeys

and fencing forest.

Tanah Lot, a temple built on a rock carved by the sea. May be accessed only during low tide. Believed to be guarded by poisonous sea snakes.

And highly picturesque.

Except that C refused to take my picture after I mountaineered to here, in my dress, with the tide threatening every second to carry me off to sea. Thanks a lot, des(s)erter.

After the dizzying climb I needed to get it back (Equilibrium)...

We've been researching Bali a fair bit for a fair while and really, one is spoilt for choices. Bali is as thrifty as you can manage and as spendthrifty as you would allow.

Weather-wise, Bali in August is just about perfect. Wallet-wise, the deluge of Ozzies eager to escape the winter cold means that hotels charge peak rates. Ah, what can you do? Happily, a bonus pay packet (and an embarrassing number of emails) meant The edge and "Book Now". Joy!

The edge is located in the southernmost part of Bali, cosseted in the heights of the Bukit Peninsula, resting splendidly on its very fringes. The property is built atop a cliff some eighty meters above ground, and offers sweeping views of the Indian Ocean and the stark relief of the south's chalk cliffs.

We were met by the GM, Melida, who was quite the engaging lady and sent on our way in some style. A quick buggy ride... And in seconds we were delivered to our pocket of paradise. Bestest of the bests: We were the only guests!

Keys to unlock the doors of heaven...

Not that all we ever did was eat (it was); or lounge around (that, too). I wrote two haikus over the South China Sea, and another on the edge of the world (deliberately forgetting I might bump into a bit of Australia). I even made a little drawing with my bit of skillfulness with the pen (zero bit, that is).

Au revoir, Manila! I said, and meant it, and brought some Coke with me, in my belly:

Pay up, Coca-Cola.

But, first, to Fatherland.

Which just keeps getting better?with its ultra-modern, curvy buildings, and whyever on earth a rectangle when you can have one in the shape of a lotus flower?

Marina Bay Sands, or, Pretty Things

New Majestic is the first hotel I ever booked myself because it inspired. Each of its 30 rooms is unique and designed or artworked by local artists.

And because C and I are positive arguably to a fault, we got an upgrade, of course. Clicky?

We vowed to make this stopover the very opposite of our first trip and thus had an official itinerary, as follows:

NMH being on Bukit Pasoh Road, Chinatown was map-in-hand walkable.

No, not her hands. Jeez.

We could have eaten at the first restaurant we came upon, right at the tip of what we supposed was officially the Chinatown boundary, everything on the pictures looked so excellent. Or the next one, or the next one, streets and streets and alleys and stall after stall of noodles and fried rice and all sorts of dimsum however does one choose??? And so, it had to be, "Where there's aircon", and we entered the first we saw fitting the bill.

Have I ever made a more delicious decision in my life? I believe not.

Coke, pay up, I said.

Golden Cereal Prawns are the stuff of legend. A thousand fist-sized savory sweetnesses on a plate with the spaces all around and in between interspersed with golden buttery cereal and mystery green leaves which turned out to be curry leaves oh my God who invented this??? Have you been reading my mind??? Could you also make me unintelligibly happy in the areas of Love and/or Money? On second thoughts, THIS is Love, and it cost us Money. Hm. You win this round.

At any rate, I therefore had to make:

Golden Cereal Scallops. Lacks curry leaves.

We managed to walk along Temple Street too, we were so determined to make Fatherland proud.

Not that it's that far off from Chinatown.

At last...

I knew Bali was big but I did not know that it was big to the litany of Amed, Candidasa, Canggu, Denpasar, Gianyar, Gilimanuk, Jimbaran, Karangasem, Kerobokan, Kintamani, Kuta, Legian, Lovina, Negara, Nusa Dua, Nusa Lembongan, Padangbai, Pecatu, Pemuteran, Sanur, Seminyak, Singaraja, Tabanan, Tanjung Benoa, Tanah Lot, Tuban, Ubud, Uluwatu, Umalas, Ungasan big. (Gasps. Now there's a mouthful.)

Initially, it was Ubud for the arts, Jimbaran for the seafood fiesta, and Nusa Dua for the seascape escape. Easy peasy.

Before long, it was Umalas for the ricefield vistas, Uluwatu for its towering chalk cliffs, and Sanur for its sunrise views. Not so lemon squeezy...

I changed my mind again and decided on a Gianyar forest retreat, Candidasa for its underwater wonders, and Lovina for cavorting with the dolphins. But...

As happenstance would make happen, as luck would have it, as good fortune would bestow, we ended up dividing our time between Canggu, Seminyak, and Pecatu. That is how you do bliss.

Ametis Villa in Canggu was selected almost solely on the strength of these two statements on their website:

1. Canggu is a place that most surfers will know about, apart from that, it is quite (sic), very local and offers lovely views of rice fields as opposed to cement in Seminyak.

2. Ametis is located in the sleepy coastal village of Canggu. It is now the preferred destination for savvy travellers seeking an alternative to the urban sprawl of neighbouring Seminyak. The serenity of Canggu is a refreshing change to the hustle and bustle of Seminyak with its crowded streets and limited parking.

Well, I am an odd girl and found it good for a laugh.

Since the commonly-held view of Seminyak is a locale with some of the best lodgings, restos, and beaches in Bali; I came to the conclusion (convoluted, to be sure) that any place that feels itself worthy to be derisive of Seminyak must offer something special.

Canggu does! Although, I should confess... the word "surfers" sealed the deal.

The hard-core tourists in us had originally penciled in a trip to the Tanah Lot Temple, Alas Kedaton, and the Mengwi Royal Palace on our day of arrival. But we were well and truly knackered by our Singapore exploits (Tut tut, self. It is a sad day when you say "exploits" the same time you recall "museums", "cereal prawns", "endless walking"; god, what a marmishly middle-age thing to say.) and found indoors too great a force to resist...

How to even entertain the outside world when...

...finally there was something to be happy about at NAIA Terminal 3, and it was the Japanese restaurant on the second floor (mind, there is another one on the 3rd, Cowan Asian Express, okay so that's not purely Japanese, but I ordered gyudon there last February, and it wasn't. For an airport price, to boot).

Coke advertisement No.1

The makunouchi bento was worth all of my P230, with its sesame seedy and fish flakey rice rolls, tossed thin noodley things, crabsticks and mangoes with sweet vinegary dressing, flavorful gyoza, and some really good chicken on top of a salad, plus miso soup on the side. So what is the name of the place, you ask? Ah, a very good question, that. Yes.

* Strictly speaking, should be "Province".

While not strictly true, since I once salted (eeeek) a cuppa as I sleepwalked through the kitchen for my caffeine fix, Cebu Pacific’s “brewed coffee”, was-- on preponderance of evidence, in satisfaction of that considered substantial, beyond all reasonable doubt, verily, verily, past any quantum of proof by which coffee goodness is gauged-- the sorriest coffee I have ever had to pay for.

Premium, my foot! Yeah, yeah. And I'm the Queen of Bathsheba!

Miko declared that she was done with hers after three unsuccessful attempts to convince herself, it was indeed coffee, and not wash water; but I had about P40 worth of mine before I gave it up for... well... the sorriest coffee I have ever had to pay for. But I wasn't the one who couldn't resist telling the flight attendant how terrible it was.

Pink guava juice at check-in was just the thing to counter that disastrous drink!

Fresh fruit and flowers are love.

It’s not as if we were tired, but we couldn’t drag ourselves out of the room, and spent a good three hours engaged in our favorite pastime, Aimless Talk, e.g. discussing, among other monumentally meaningful things, whether there were indeed tomato plums (we know there are plum tomatoes).

The certainty with which you make a statement is frequently half the battle, much like law school recitations.

Cynch: Plums that taste like tomatoes cannot be anything other than tomato plums.

Not so in this instance.

Cynch to Self: They are red plums, you plum!

Incidentally, Annsley is convinced that boys are such red plums. (They are a bunch of grapes as well, but that is another story from another trip for another day.) They promise so much and deliver so little. Of course she didn’t say that. I did. But the beauty of blogging is that you can put words in other people’s mouths. Unless Annsley, of course, and by right, exercises her superduper mod powers, very prior restraint-ly, in which case this portion will be expunged or otherwise annotated.

But badass Li Na was majestic, imperial; fierce, fearless, wide-eyed (as wide as it is possible for slit-eyes); hitting deep, deliberate shots as if she were wearing her sunshades and a wide-brimmed hat and had a whole afternoon to hit them, and the insanest missiled-rolled super-angled forehands. All while being honest-charming-funny in her interviews.

And yet.

Things just never go my way, do they?

After a nerveless one and a half sets in the 2011 Australian Open Final in Melbourne (and despite an early break, which seems only par for the course for her, looking back at her previous matches), Li Na was defeated 6-3, 3-6, 3-6 by Kim, champ that she is, who hung tough, kept at it, split-retrieved seemingly ungettable shots (that does not make her a counterpuncher now, Vijay Amritraj, does it? The best players play very good defense. Vera is not a counterpuncher because she plays great defense. It makes her a smart player who never gives up. Are you forgetting the way she tries to control the point each time, the way she looks to attack, and has the acey first serves, the rather sound second serves, the cutting-and-accurate groundstrokes, and the pretty volleys to do it (and plays doubles, to boot)? That is, unless she runs into Kim at a final in New York,1 or a semi in Australia.2 But hey she beat her 3 of the last 5 times they met!!3), and forced the latter into spray-painting the court with the yellow balls, and who, with her this-is-mine mindset now needs to pay a few dollars extra luggage fee at the airport to bring home her 4th Grand Slam silverware.

In any case.

It looks like a good start to the year. And as Li Na said, when going into a match—finals or no—you just go play.


1 2010.
2 This year.
3 Including the 2010 Wimbledon quarters and the WTA Tour Championships. And what about Novak??

Next time, we'll all be together :)

-C&M