Ubud Food - Bebek Bengil (a.k.a Dirty Duck Dinner)

Ubud is famous for ducks, and Dirty Duck is a must try when you're there. It's located south of Ubud central, and it's probably the most expensive meal we had while we were there. It's basically slowly smoked duck. But it's so famous that the location of the restaurant looks like a typical tourist trap. We probably spend around SGD 40 to SGD60 there? Can't quite remember, but to me, it was way too expensive for my taste.

As per recommended by the internet, get a private hut, and go during the evening to watch the sunset. When we went there in May 2013, we didn't care where we sat. The whole restaurant look like a private villa with it's own garden, pond, and padi field view.

But basically this is what you will be there for, the dirty duck set which we ordered came with a whole duck, vegetable, satay, two drinks, crackers, and white rice. We ordered additional drinks (rice wine) which probably pushes the price up. To be honest, the satay there was really really nice! That was the only reason I went back for the second time 2 years later. But frankly, I think this place only deserve one visit, cause there are way more cheap and delicious food all over Ubud. By the way, note that the Ubud Food blog series only blog on local Bali food. We didn't try any "foreign" food as there wasn't any point traveling to a foreign country only to eat food you are familiar with is it? If you do that, shame on you!

Ubud Food - Ibu Oka Babi Guling (Roast Pork Rice)

 The very first meal we had in this wonderful place was the Ibu Oka Babi Guling which is smack in the center of town. It's almost just opposite from the central market/palace/temple. You can't really miss it. As kiasu travelers, the internet warned that we should be there by 1030am to watch the coming of the pigs. And so even though after a heavy breakfast from our homestay, we made sure we were there by 1030am. Below is a photo of the location for your reference.

 I thought it would be interesting to do a process photo on the making of the babi guling. You can see freshly slaughtered pigs being transported to be cooked. In fact, you can hear the killing of pigs in the early morning or evening as well if you know what it sounds like. The pig are then roast and arrive being hand carried on a motorcycle as per the second photo. It is then delivered to the shop. So if you just hang around the road where the shop is, you will see continuous parade of roast pig arriving.

Tour bus also arrive continuously, and you can see tourist and locals digging into the roast pork rice. If I remember correctly, it's rather affordable, maybe around SGD2.80 per standard set? This photo below shows a complete balance meal, with vegetable and roast pork on it. Somehow the meal was too herb intensive for me, but I don't mind eating once in a while.

Ubud Name Card

Sometimes I use this blog as a storage space for my memories. Instead of keeping the physical name cards, I'll take a photo and transform the information to softcopy and upload it here for sharing, as well as for referring to in future. So let me tell you a little about each of these cards here.

From top left, Kue is a bakery/cafe show at the north east side of Ubud. Its a nice place to just chill in the afternoon. The serve wonderful vegetarian felafel there. The serving is so big you will have no space for the wonderful desserts they serve!

Below that is Warung Babi Guling, central north of Ubud. I don't really like it as it's kinda herb-ish for me, but its good to try.

To the right is Warung Lada, I love the black sauce chicken there, and it's a great place for lunch or dinner. Sit at the 2nd floor and you have a nice view of the streets below. I love staring out of the window from this warung.

Rai Pasti is also another place I keep going back to for it's Bebek Goreng (fried duck). It's on Monkey Forest street, and the restaurant is facing a small padi field. Great place for dinner and watching the sunset. Love the sambel that comes with the Bebek Goreng. I think they raise the price the last time I went (May 2013). But it's still affordable and offers great food!

Nasi Ayam Kedewatan is somewhere west of Ubud I think, not to sure as our host Dewa took us there via car. Nice atmosphere for breakfast, and not too expensive.

While I was there alone, I had my first pedicure at Verona Spa, a little alley at Monkey Forrest. I couldn't find it again when I went back in May 2013. It's only like SGD7 for a pedicure. It was the first time I had my feet filed off all its dead skin. Kinda embarrassing, but a wonderful feeling. Somehow my pedicure always last like a month, so it was definitely worth it for me. The bright red color lasted a long time as I couldn't bare to wash it off after.

Bottom is Jati Home card, the place I stayed at both time. Cost for a double room was 250,000 (SGD27.25) per night, and single room was 200,000 (SGD21.80) per night, breakfast included at a lovely homestay overlooking a padi field. Somehow the serenity wasn't there any more when we went back in May 2013 as where we once hear the sound of toad and birds in the middle of the night, we now hear jazz music and pop songs from nearby night places. Sad really.

Lastly is Fukutaro Japanese Restaurant. I know what you're thinking, Japanese food in Bali? And 2ndly, is it safe? Well I had extra cash on my first trip there, and since I was early in the airport, I decided to give myself a treat and went in here. They had the mince tuna rice I love so much, so I ordered one. And just to be safe from food poisoning, I ordered a coke to kill any germs from the raw fish. I think the lady serving me asked if I would like anything else, and I ordered the karaage (friend chicken). It was like the best tune minced meat rice and karaage I ever ate outside of Japan! It was that good for me! Would highly recommend this place if you have time to kill in the airport.

Yes, it has been more than 2 years since my first trip to Ubud, but I'm still slowly blogging about it. Planning a trip, and blogging about it after the trip is my way of stretching the trip to last longer than it actually is.

Padi Fields of Ubud

Terrace style padi field was what I had in mind when I visualized what it would be like in Ubud. It wasn't exactly as I expected, but still pretty impressive. One of the nicest walk we had was through the padi fields! Entrance is at Jalan Kajeng north west of Ubud, and just follow the path to the wow factor! Here are some scenes of the padi fields.

 My favourite photos are of the duck and their minders. You see lots and lots of ducks in Ubud.

 There are some narrow path way as well, so do be careful. You can also cycle along the padi field, but you would probably have to carry your bikes when you hit trails like these.

 There are bungalows along the path, and you can actually rent these to stay in. There were also artist huts selling their wares, and an organic farm with a small cafe in the middle of the padi field. All in all, it was a very relaxing walk, something that I think I'll never get tired of doing :)

Ubud Culture

Most of the people in Ubud are Hindus, and spiritualism runs high here. Day in day out, offerings(puja) and prayers take place. It's a rather graceful gesture to watch the offering being made, mostly by the women dressed in their traditional clothing. Offerings are found on every road side everywhere you go.

Night time religions procession was also quite common. Here one we saw while we were waiting for our cultural show to start.

Another one while we drove past a village towards Jimbaran. A village religious police in the black and white sarong directing the traffic as worshiper walked past us.

The closest I encounter the local festival was when I was on my own and wondered into the market area one day as Dewa had told me not to go home early as there was renovation going on at the Homestay. The market was packed that day! I even saw performances and people queuing up outside the temple waiting to provide their offerings. It's amazing how much more things one can encounter when one is alone :P I wrote a short journal while I was on my own, and I think I'll share some here later on. Looking back, the journals were rather hilarious....

Ref:
Hinduism in Indonesia

Puja

Ubud

What did we do while we were in Ubud? Lucky for us, we stayed pretty central of Ubud. So what we do pick a direction to go everyday, and just walk there. With reference to the map here, all I want you to remember is north, south, east, west, cause I'll be using that as reference point to where everything is.

 

 To the north was towards the town area and market. Here are some sights of central Ubud.

 

To the west, towards Bintang Supermarket, a nice scenic walk of around 30 minutes. On there way you will walk pass the town area, Blanco Museum, and further west the Neka Art Museum which I will elaborate on in later posting.

To the east, Delta Supermarket. I actually when there while I was on my own, and saw the magnificent structure on the right here. Amazing.

 

To the south, the massage places. I actually went to Jaens Spa twice while I was there.  Balinese Relaxation Message(1H 30M,  Rp 180.000, SGD  24.40) was totally heavenly. I repeated the treatment and also had a scrub (Relaxation Body Scrub + Mask ( 2H 15M, Rp 300.000, SGD40.70) the second time I was there. The flower petal bath with candle light was pretty amazing too. The only thing I didn't like that much was it was rather dark in the massage room. Other than that, it was very very relaxing. They picked us up both time, and even send me home when I was there alone.

Lastly, on the street we were staying at, we also did a yoga lesson at Bodyworks Centre which left me in pain for one whole day! A one hour lesson cost Rp50,000, SGD6.70. We had the teacher to ourselves, and it was held at the top floor of the centre in an open air room. Did I mentioned I initially wanted to do yoga at Ubud for like 3 times a week at this place call Yoga Barn? End up I only did one lesson and decided to enjoy the rest of my holiday there instead :P

Ref:
Jaens Spa
Bintang Supermarket
Delta Supermarket.
Blanco Museum
Neka Art Museum
Ubud Bodyworks Centre
Yoga Barn.

Jati Home Stay

Searching for a hostel to stay, I ended up booking a place call Jati Home Stay in the center of Ubud. It had great review, and I booked 2 weeks and arrange for transport to pick us up from the airport upon arrival. Communication broke down and we waited an hour at the airport with no one there to pick us up. Because this was my do-nothing holiday, I wasn't even piss. We took a cab instead, and had an unpleasant ride to Ubud where the cab driver kept telling us we couldn't turn here and there cause it was a one way street and we would have to go one big round. He also kept asking us for tips and extra money. Not the best impression I got on my first day. Luckily I have a map of the place I was staying, and being brought up in Malaysia, I was very good at ignoring the bad side of people.

We made it to Jati eventually. Here are some pictures of what it looked like from outside. We had to walk in a narrow alley to reach it.

But once inside, it opens up to a family courtyard, and eventually downwards to a main building, and a two storey building which was the home stay. The building was facing a padi field, and we got the Room 8 at the ground floor. No aircon, but there was hot water inside. Two beds, and some shelve to put things on. The bath room was rather modern, but the bedroom and outside was rather traditional.I think it cost me around SGD400 for 2 week's stay.

 I was moved to the room upstairs after my husband left, which was a lot newer, and nicely decorated with a balcony. The last two pictures above are of the room upstairs.

 Breakfast was included daily, with coffee and a plate of fruits. It was rather filling actually.

Here are some of the interesting characters I met and befriend while I was there. They become people in my everyday life while I was there. From left to right: Dewa, the owner of the home stay; Putu the guy who walks around with the laundry everyday and mopping the floor; Ayu who make us breakfast and sweeps the floor like 8am in the morning; the bunch of bebek (ducks) that wonders around the front padi field, and half white face Japanese lady portrait that hangs on the wall of our room, which we later found out was drawn by Dewa -____-

Ref:
Jati Home Stay

Ubud Trip 2011

Ever read the book Eat, Pray Love? Hate it. It was such a hype in Oprah's show, but when I read it, I actually skipped quite a bit of it. But the book wasn't the reason I went to Bali for my 2011 trip. Nope. I had two weeks off, and I wanted to go to a place that was quiet, and cheap, where I can do absolutely nothing but stare into the sky all day. And the book introduced me to this place call Ubud.....

And so, that was where I stayed, from 23-October till 5-November, a total of 14 days in Ubud!

Usually I start my trip blogging with an overview of how I plan my trip. But this trip was special. I only bought the ticket, and book my accommodation. And I planned it during their rainy season. I wanted to do nothing. And that was more or less what I did. But don't worry, it wasn't dull one bit! Heck, I even have pictures to share!

The trip was initially planned as a solo trip cause I always wanted to experience traveling alone. I have been traveling on my own since young, to state game trips, commuting between Penang and Singapore while I was studying,  visiting friends solo in Kuala Lumpur, exchange program in Japan, but I've never traveled alone to a place I know no one before, and I was kinda scared, kinda excited about it. But in the end, my husband tagged along, and stayed a week with me. I stayed the remaining last week on my own.

Oh, by the one, for those of you who don't know, Ubud is a village in the island of Bali, Indonesia. I could have said I spend 2 weeks in Bali, but that would be inaccurate, cause the only thing I actually saw about Bali was the airport, and Jimbaran which I was forced to go.

Anyway, here's where I stayed. More in the coming entry.

Ref:
Eat, Pray Love
Ubud
Jimbaran
Bali