Lunch with a Lonely Mountain view in Bali? - Wouldn't Mind at All

 

Looking at another holiday destination in Bali that is not a beach? Kintamani might be one option I would like to recommend. It is located at north-eastern of Bali and you will need a car to reach here.

 

Kintamany is a village around Mount Batur area, and has been since filled with many tourists to view Mount Batur region. The weather here could be quite cooling sometimes, hence you might need a light sweater to cover your body. It is best to go here during daylight, particularly on 10:00-15:00 as it will offer the best view of the place. So normally many tourists, including us will go here for short while to get a nice lunch, mainly because of the amazing unique view that it has to offer. We didn't really do some pre-research first for which kind of restaurant we want to have a lunch at, as I thought also it was not really necessary. We were just looking at which restaurants has the most visitors, and as far as the instinct goes, we chose that restaurant. Though right now I am quite forget what was the name of  the restaurant we were visited at that time, but no worries as there were a lot of restaurants along the road offering similar kind of view and dining concept like the one we were visited.

 

On the restaurant, don't forget to choose the balcony area for the best view, especially when the sky is so bright and less windy. The restaurant we went offers a lunch buffet with not cheap but reasonable price (around 10USD). And by the way, without reducing the excitement, I would say that the food taste here was just normal. I would not say it was not nice, but just fit to fill your hunger. Still because of the nice view we would not really mind on the food. 

 

So, here are some of the lunch views that we had on the restaurant balcony area.

 

Lunch View Facing the Lonely Mount Batur

The Table Set



Restaurant's Balcony Area

 

Mount Batur and Batur Lake View

Cheers!

Belgium Garden during Autumn 2015

Just sharing some photos of the garden in Belgium that I captured from my last trip during autumn 2015, near to the beginning of winter. Could not resist but to take pictures of it. By the way, the actual gardens are much more beautiful than the pictures. :) 

Enjoy!

 

Highlight of all the garden, located in front of Royal Palace of Brussels, taken during a fine afternoon

Garden located around Arcades du Cinquantenaire (Belgium's Arch de Triomphe) in Brussels 

Garden located behind my aunt's house in Kontich Village, Antwerp, taken during a foggy morning



Reaching the Peak of Bali - Pura Ulun Danu Bratan

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan - from the moment we are about to reach this very special place, I have already had a good feeling about this place. The word 'beautiful' might not be enough to describe this very one place. I like everything about this place, the old historical calligraphic, the architecture, the trees, the garden, and especially the lake. It was name with 'Danu Bratan' which means Bratan Lake, since this special 'Pura' is located at the Bratan lake, Bedugul, Bali. This is one of a very sacred place in Bali. They are often doing a very sacred ritual to praise the God at this place. That is why, for all tourists visiting this place is reminded to be respectful of the place and wear something more conservative.  A lot of them who are doing this sacred ritual will normally wear a special white traditional clothes of Bali, with additional colourful ribbon on the waist for the female.

 

 

 

The view was breath-taking, 'Pura' at the lake with the mountain on the background of the lake, I was getting a special feeling when I entered this place. I would not mind to revisit this place again sometime. And I hope you would be too!

 

Cheers!

 

High Tea Session at Arteastique Cafe - Cafe Hopping

This weekend, I am having a special high tea session with my ex-colleague. One of a pleasure of living in Singapore is having a huge selection of different cafes to hop to! So I think, why not looking to some unique cafe to have a high tea session.

After browsing through some list of cafes, I finally discover this unique gem at Orchard Road area, located at one of the shopping mall which I had never entered before. Funny tho', after so many times passing by the building, only this time eventually do I enter it. By the way, the shopping mall name is Mandarin Gallery. 

Judging from the cafe's website (http://www.arteastiq.com/) the place looks pretty great, so I decide to try this cafe for the meet up.

This cafe has quite a range selection of different tea. They also have some range of food menu, although not as much as their tea. If you notice the promotion board in front of the cafe, we are actually decided to try that menu, the 'Afternoon Treat Special'. It is meant for 2 people and includes a free selection of tea for each person, with price of 48 SGD instead of 52 SGD by normal price. 

The 'Afternoon Treat Special' consists of crispy wrap with meat (able to select the meat choice preference), smoked salmon, smoked turkey ham, crab meat salad served with volvant, spicy jumbo top shell with chilled mango salad, and cake (choice selection between apple cake or orange cake). For the tea selection, both of us decides to take lychee tea, both hot and cold. 

I especially like the crispy wrap (we choose to have the wrap with smoked chicken breast), the crab meat salad food, the spicy jumbo top shell, and the cake (apple cake selection). Smoke salmon taste pretty great too, though I am not a fan of raw salmon meat, I can still say this salmon taste quite good. As for the smoked turkey ham, I think it tastes pretty usual. 

Both of me and my friend really likes our lychee tea. I choose the hot tea and she chooses the cold tea. The sweetness and the aroma of the lychee blends a splendid taste for the tea. Highly recommended to try for those fruit tea lover out there! The tea comes with cookies for each. For my friend, she got lemon butter cookies, and I got lemon chocolate cookies. The cookies tasted great as well, excellent combination for the tea. Perfect indulgence for a happy afternoon!

P.S, Arteastique actually has a painting studio just beside its cafe, so for those of you who wants to unleash your hidden artist potential, could practice it here!!

Address: 

Arteastiq Boutique Tea House

Mandarin Gallery, #04-14/15

333A Orchard Road, Singapore 238867

Opens: 

11:00 am-10:00 pm Daily

Boutique Tea House reservation: 6235 8370

Art Jamming reservation and enquires: 6235 8705

Website: http://www.arteastiq.com/

Have a great day everyone!

Enjoying sunset at Kuta Beach

 

~Nothing could go wrong with sun, sand, and beaches..~

 

Officially missing you [read: Bali]..



Photo taken at Kuta Beach, Bali, August 2014.

 

Bali

Hope you enjoy it!!

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!

Painting Workshop @ My Art Space

"Happy are the painters, for they shall not be lonely"
- Winston Churchill

Recently, I decided to attend a painting workshop during weekends, to improve my ability in art painting.

Who knows one day I could make some great painting worth $$$. :)

 

So, let the picture talk itself..
 

My Art Space Studio and Café

 

The Art Studio (P.S. That is not my drawing)



The Art Studio

 

Work in Progress

 

The Café (I like the decoration with the huge sunflower there. It is located on top of the 'pool park', very cool right!)

 

More pictures to come!!

Location:

My Art Space

Istana Park, 31 Orchard Road, Singapore 238888 

Cheers,

{Hotel Review} Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur Hotel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Enjoying High Quality Tea @TWG

 

I am simply a tea lovers. So coming to TWG is a perfect place to enjoy this!!

Here you could see all kinds of tea varieties which you would probably never find anywhere else.

TWG is a perfect choice to have an afternoon get together session with a high class feeling.

 

 

Not only tea varieties, TWG also offers companion food to compliment the tea, varieties from light to heavy food.

I personally loves their scones. A lot of time I came to TWG at any place, I always order scones as my tea companion.

I think scones compliment the good aroma of the tea. How about you?

 

Cheers!

 

Cafe Hopping Day - PoTeaTo

What a lovely day today in Singapore! And what I love to do the most to begin my day with, is to dress nicely, go to new hangout or eating places and just simply having a nice breakfast or brunch. This time, I would like to try finding cafe which I never been to. And I am hopping at a place around Tiong Bahru area, where cafes plus hangout places located according to the information from my sister. Reaching Tiong Bahru MRT, we would need to walk further towards Yong Siak Street. As we walk through, we pass by housing and HDB area in which I thought in my mind, who would open hangout places on the neighborhood area. Yet, we see some people are walking towards the same direction, well, from the appearance, it looks like they are going to the some hangout places. So to the sign that we are going towards the right direction. Reaching at Yong Siak Street, we see few cafes with variety choices. There are quite a few people around, not so much, but I bet this place will be crowded in the afternoon. We screen through to which place we would like to have our brunch at. What I like about the cafes in Singapore is, the edgy design of its interior architecture. Even though the food taste is quite standard, and sometimes I feel quite expensive, but I still like it simply due to the artistic feeling when stepping inside the place. Finally we choose PoTeaTo Cafe, from the look and feel, it seems like the food inside is quite affordable.

Poteato Cafe

Finally I Found 'You'

Yeah, finally I found you, dear beautiful peacock. Ups, sorry for some readers who might expect for something else. :) Anyway, I was going through some of the old pictures taken last time, and I remember that I haven't post this one. This peacock is a normal sightseeing view when you are going Sentosa. Kinda sad, as I was waiting her (or him) to open up its tail, as it will make a beautiful plumage pattern. Hey peacock, next time you better open up your tail.. :)

Pretty Peacock

A Glimpse of Singapore F1 Grand Prix 2013

Swruunng.....Swrung...Swruung.. (Trying to imitate sound from Formula 1 Car Machine) Oh, so noisy and so happening around here, what's going on? That was my reaction when I went to CBD area during last weekend. And then I realized that it was the sound of the cars' machine from Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix. Wohoo..! So excited I was, even though I was not inside the event, I could feel the spirit from far away. Though I could have imagined how uncomfortably noisy it was for the people who stays near the circuit arena. But still this is one of Singapore's big and important event. How can't it be, they have prepared this from a very long time, furthermore they were using public main road in the central city area as their circuit. So it really looked like the Singapore's government had paid a big attention on this. The barricade looked very strong and firm (of course it should, as they were using main road with tall office buildings along the way). Singapore F1 Grand Prix is a night race, hence they have also set very bright lamps, on the barricade along the circuit area. At night when all the lights were up, it was so cool, you could see the circuit route very clear from above.

Ticketing Booth from Gate 5

Dinner at Charlie Brown Café, Singapore

After walking a whole day, what's more interesting than having a dinner at a nice restaurant on a beautiful evening. This time, me and my friend were hunting of this unique cafe with a well-known cartoon character theme concept from Peanuts. Although, I only familiar with one character, Snoopy, a Charlie Brown's pet dog. I wonder how my friend knows all of them. What I thought that eating at this kinda place will be quite pricey, then I saw there is a sign of 'There is NO Service Charge In My Cafe', how cool is that!