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!