March 7

March 7

Monday

Ahh, second last day here in Bali Indonesia.
We had a solid rain again last night, but our room was great and the airco kept it cool and dry.
I had a great rest, even better than the last place we stayed in. I think bed quality has a lot to do with my sleep pattern.

Writing the last blog

I am here in the dining area, looking for an Internet connection only to find out that the Internet modem is not turned on until 7 am. First I ever heard of modems getting shut off at night....anyway,  7 is fine too, I just wanted to send off my next set of blogs.

As it turned out, the manager had forgotten to turn the Internet on, all together  so I waited for nothing. I did send my stuff off but I do not know if it sent, or not. Tomorrow, I will send march 6 and 7 again, just in case.

We started with an American breakfast of bacon and eggs, that was nice for a change. I asked for the bacon to be crispy, so they threw it into the deep fryer and crispy, it was.... Remind me to shut up already next time, okay?

We took our bikes and drove north, along the coast, but so far in that we never even saw the sea, until well into the second hour of driving. The road was busy as he'll and the drivers were dangerous, on more than 1 occasion, either Menno or I were forced off the road by trucks.
We pulled of the road and decided to head back, but to look for a smaller road, one that would perhaps run parallel to the sea.
We drove into some kampong areas, and it was then when we really were enjoying the ride. It was as if time was turned back 50 years and we entered a Balinese version of the twilight zone…

Black deserted beach

As we got deeper into the kampongs and sawas we saw a very old lady , sitting naked in a stream, cooling and bathing herself and she threw us a wave, as if to say....”I am enjoying life to the fullest”... she was such a peaceful and beautiful sight.
We drove on to the beach, of black volcanic sand, it was the kind of beach that one would equate with Bali of many moons ago. In the distance we spotted some fishermen throwing their nets into the boiling surf, but we were too far away to be able to tell whether they had any success.
Because we had the bikes, we were able to weave in and out of sawas and beaches that were never discovered by the suffers and other tourists, it was just great. At the end of one of the sawa roads, we spotted a shack on the beach, where we drank a Bintang beer and shot the breeze with some local folk, who got a kick out of seeing some Blandas (Dutch). They talked a mile a minute and neither of us, knew for sure what the other was saying, I do not speak Balinese, and they did not speak behasa.  Amazing how it really doesn't matter and equally amazing how communication comes in so many more forms than just language.

Rempeyek

In the little shack I found some rempeyek, the way I know it. Full of peanuts, crisp, thick and with the flavor of ketumbar and djintan and clearly the cook used coconut milk to thin the batter....I was thrilled.
Before getting back to the hotel we stopped to get Tine some jasmine tea  this time, as Menno re-read his honey-do-list..... And I got my magosteens, for a snack, later with Menno.

When we got back to the hotel, we found that there was no electricity and that meant no water either. The lady at the front desk, did offer to come and  bring us a bucket of water, so we could flush the toilet.....geee thanks a lot, lady!!
The electricity would not be turned back on until 5, because down the road they were working on a “proyek” that caused them to disconnect the electricity to this part of town.
This meant, no air, no water, no internet, not much of nothing....

Roast corn vendor

So we headed to back to the beach, because yesterday we spotted a couple of vendors, who sold tahu, spring rolls (lumpia) and covered these in cabeh rawit and peanut sauce. Both Menno and I had a powerful hankering for this dish.
We found the lady, sitting in the sand, with her tahu and peanut sauce tray in front of her and we each had a portion.
She first formed a cone shaped piece of paper, that she stapled to hold the cone shape in place. In the old days, it would have been a banana leaf pinned with a lidih, a thin skewer made from the palm leafs.

Tahu Goreng vendor

Then in each of the cones, she cut with a scissors, some fried tahu and some fried spring rolls, then she cut with the same scissors, 3 birds beak chills (Rawit), the very hot ones, and then covered all this in a lovely peanut sauce and kecap manis….. She offers us each a lidi to eat the tahu with.....I thought I had died and gone to heaven...

I can honestly say, that off all the things we ate and tasted, this simple dish was my favorite, so much so, that I opted for a second portion. (40 cents)

My hero....she is everything I remember...

it was as good as the first....you see,  you need not go to a fine restaurant to find food that has been well prepared, all you need is someone who cares about their cooking skill and is proud to feed it to the guest. We were so satisfied and happy with this discovery, that we celebrated with a cold, fresh  lemon aid at one of the fish restaurants, on the beach. We decided to have a nice ikan kakap (red snapper) later that evening.

Fried red snapper

We returned to the hotel, for a swim, we were dusty and hot from the drive and the beach, so we soaked in the pool for an hour. We each mandied and got ready to head out to the fish restaurant on the beach.

We arrived at the restaurant, amidst thunder and lightning and we knew that before long, it would rain, hard!!
We ordered the fish that I picked out, with some kentang goreng, (FF's....)

We chose the fish to be "goreng", fried and the skin crispened with some sambal.
Just then the skies opened up and it came down by buckets, good thing we had anticipated this and were seated on the middle of the restaurant, under only a minor  leaky roof....
A bit of rain panic ensued ad people started snuffling about, trying to stay dry. We had 3 elderly ex-pats join us, who were interesting to talk to. The ladies were all well into their 70's and own houses in Spain.
Soon our dinner arrived and it was delightful, the fish was crisp tender and tasted of the sea, where it swam, just hours before, they brought us 2 dishes of sambal, 1 red and 1 green, the green is called sambal mentah, it means fresh sambal, made of chillis, garlic, oil, lemon juice and salt. It is delicious... The red one was a type of sambal ulek, also delicious.
As good and fresh as this fish was, the tahu was the culinary high light of the day, actually....the entire trip!!

She is Indonesia...

We drove back thru the rain and got soaked to the bone, quite nice actually, and very refreshing.
Tomorrow we will spend most of the day mampier, which means Jalan-jalan, which means  walking around and not doing much of anything.

I hope that I can connect to the net tomorrow,  to send you this second to last blog from Indonesia......