Enjoying Sunset and Seafood by the Beach - Jimbaran

Sunset, Seafood and Beach is a must when come to Bali! What's more is that you can enjoy it all together, enjoying the seafood right at the seafront while at the same time watching a sunset, what a perfect combo! This especially one of specialities that made Jimbaran one of the famous place in Bali. There are a lot of restaurants and cafes a long Jimbaran Beach, with specialities of seafood. We chose one of the restaurant that look promising among others, namely Menega Cafe. How did we know that, of course by judging from the number of people that came to the restaurant.

All of the restaurants here have a very similar concept, its table setting on top of the sand with the candlelight facing right to the beach. Very beautiful indeed. The beach and sand was quite clean, the sea wave was moderate, I guess these are the reasons that made Jimbaran a perfect location to set this kind of restaurant concept. 

In total there were only 6 of us, but we order a lot more than we think we could eat. Guess we were too hungry when we order it. To name it, we order 2kgs of grilled shrimp, 2 portions of big grilled fish, 2 portions of sautéed kangkong and 6 portions of rice. Not to forget, we eat this with a Balinese special sauce ("sambal Bali"), mmm, yummy! There were 2 types of sambal Bali that we tried here, 'sambal merah' and 'sambal mattah'. 'Sambal merah' seems to be a mixture of chilli, tomatoes and other Bali special condiment. While 'sambal mattah' seems to be a mixture of raw onions, chilli, salt and some vegetable oil. We order a lot of 'sambal' as it tasted just nice, not too spicy, not too salty or sweet, a perfect combination with the dishes.

The downside of this trip was that we waited quote long for the food to come, almost 1 hour if I was not wrong. Actually this trip to Jimbaran was sort of unplanned, so when we reached here most of the tables were already reserved. Luckily we got 1 for us. I guess the restaurant that we came was actually very famous among the rest. So we learned our lesson, it is better to reserve the table and order the food in advance, so we would not waste our time just waiting for the food. But overall, I still highly recommend this restaurant, aside of the waiting time, all of us were very satisfied with the food quality.

Cheers!



Bali Moments - Photography

"Peace come from within. Do not seek it without." 

~Buddha

"Until you spread your wings, you will have no idea how far you can fly." 
~the unknown

“To get through the hardest journey we must take one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping"
~the unknown

"Happiness is when you share it with people that matters to you" 

~the unknown

"Reach your dream as high as the highest sky for it has no limit once you put yourself into it."

~the unknown

Road Trip at Land of Paradise, Bali

"We can't choose where we come from but we can choose where we go from there." ~unknown

Sunset at Kuta Beach

Who does not love Bali!! If you have never been to, you should!! At least once in your lifetime, then you will understand why I say so. Almost every part of Bali worth to be explored. From East to West, North to South.. You could just go on a road trip for a few days to do this. Well, what I think make Bali much more famous as compared to the other part of Indonesia is that they are really putting effort on the tourism part very well. Well done Pak Governor! Not only that a lot of places worth to be explored here in Bali, but also the locals are still taking care very much on their own cultures which made it very unique. From buildings (Pura), clothes, ceremony, etc, Bali is one whole package!

My mom is from Bali, precisely she was born in Buleleng district at Singaraja city. I used to be here quite often, but it was a long time ago when I was 4 years old which I could not really remember. So, practically this could be considered as my 'first time' stepped on Ball land, 20 years afterwards. My mom said Bali has a lot improvement within the last 20 years, but it was so much crowded than before. However, luckily, heritage culture is still very much the same with before which made it very special.

On top of that, you will see a lot of Caucasian people especially around south area. Almost all tourist are Caucasian people. You can see they ride their own bikes, motorcycles and cars, walking along the road freely. This is a very common view in Bali. Long time ago, my mom said there used to be a lot of nude people on the beaches, however recently it was prohibited by the government.

On my next post I am going to share my road trip for about 4 days 3 night exploring Bali, hopefully it could give some inspiration on your next holiday destination.

During this road trip, we cover quite many places, though not all of it as we only have few days to explore Bali. We went to Pura Taman Ayun, Tanah Lot, Ayodia at Nusa Dua, Pantai Jimbaran (Jimbaran beach), Pura Ulun Danau Bratan, Banjar Tegehe Buddhist Temple, Kintamani, Pantai Kuta (Kuta Beach), Pantai Seminyak (Seminyak Beach), Joger Shop and finally Toll Road (ByPass Road) at Benoa, Nusa Dua. Some other places we had no chance to visit were Pura Besakih (biggest Pura in Bali), Tampak Siring, Pura Uluwatu, Lovina Beach at Singaraja, Dreamland at Kuta, Ubud and many other places worth to explore which made it a reason to come back :). If you have watched the Julia Robert Movie, 'Eat, Pray, Love', there are some scenes they said played in Bali, however somehow I could no find all the beautiful places they said were played in Bali.

I have done many road trip throughout Java island, but I think I like more in Bali. These are my reasons:

- Almost 98% of the roads are properly maintained (much better than roads at Java island).

- Traffics are crowded smoothly, a.k.a even though it is quite crowded sometimes, we encounter almost no jam. (well, we sort of went to Bali after Hari Raya or Muslim Celebration Day, practically there were less tourist during this period)
- Beautiful view along the road as almost each houses or buildings has its own 'Pura' as a worship place.

However, I have some dislikes during our road trip in Bali:

- It has a lot of quite a sharp bend throughout road at mountain area (worse than Java). You could get some 'car sick' if you are not used to the road.

- The roads along mountain area are rather too small to fit 2 cars, especially with a lot of sharp bend, which made it rather not easy to drive along.

See you on my next post!