Thursday, July 15, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Crispy Duck Bebek Bengil Restaurant in Bali
Crispy Duck Bebek Bengil Dirty Duck Restaurant
In Ubud Bali, there are usually two must-do food that the locals (or tourist management?) wants the tourists and visitors to try – Ibu Oka babi guling and Bebek Bengil Crispy Duck.
First travel tip and warning: DO NOT go to Ibu Oka babi guling. It costs 2 arms, no seats, very hot, bad staff service, portions is tiny, and you have to whisked off within minutes of seating. 30 000 Rupiah per plate. Half plate actually. And it doesn’t even smell fresh. I am shocked why dozens of tourists are still lead here by some Pied Piper song. I asked the local manager of a guesthouse what is the actual price. And he says usually it should be 10 000 to 15 000 Rupiah and portions are a lot more. And yes, I travelled by bike around and other parts of Bali and those are the actual price. Why the lamentation? Cos it shouldn’t be and surely some competitors could open a warung around that area soon.
Now back to the Dirty Duck Restaurant. It is called Dirty Duck in English. This is a proper full service restaurant so expect to pay high. 65 000 Rupiah for the signature dish – Bebek bengil. Crispy duck serving like over 500 customers a night. Besides this, there are other options like Ayam Betutu, and other chicken dishes. My brother must eat here every time. The duck is indeed very crispy. Look at the photo. That red chilli is very delicious. It’s not spicy to the tongue or throat or stomach (e.g. Indian food usually burns the stomach). But will make your head itch!Tree are everywhere in Bali. Making it cool. Even on a hot sunny day, riding a motorbike gives you complete freedom and fun. When you pass a huge old tree or some garden, the cool breeze is worth more than the aircon in the hotel room.
This photo features my brother on the roadside after a check-point. Usually we stop every 30 mins or 1 hour or whenever it is required to check the maps for ambiguous signs and mis-direction. Yes! Happens in almost every traffic corner, crossroads, and junctions. Road signs will mis-direct you and will stall your journey. The last trip back, I re-mapped several of our usual journeys from Legian to the north-bound connecting village called Kerobokan. Will write more tips on how to save time and beat the signboards.The staple rice and thus rice field could be found everywhere. Here is one shot of a very beautiful strip of rice terrace just along a simple country road. The feeling is immense when you come across this view, especially if you have been living in a Western world, or big city life with dozens of cars. Speaking of cars, of which Bali isn’t lacking in the town/city area, but out on the roads to villages and the hills, the roads are narrow and thus cars are few. Pollution too is less. And with the abundance of trees along the road, it is cool.Motorbiking up Mount Batur and Kintamani in Bali
As I mentioned in my previous post, the air-cooled technology will falter when there is no “air” to pass through the system. This situation doesn’t arise as per normal usage – since mainly a rider would be riding non-stop. Clocking an average of 30 km/h to 60 km/h. We head upwards and North West towards Kintamani from Mount Batur. It was overcast and cloudy, and essentially was raining in some parts of the mountain.
Therefore we had to make the decision to continue the journey to go over the mountain pass. About 10 kms on the road, we were stuck. Because there was a huge religious Balinese procession with several buses carrying devotees. Some of the buses had stopped and most of the devotees are already walking on foot up the mountain area. We were riding and going slowly. Then suddenly one passer-by noticed smoke coming out of my brother’s engine!
So we had to rest the bike. But due to the incoming rain, we continued by pushing upwards. Half way, it rained for 30 minutes. We made a pit stop. IN fact we made several pit stops, because the rain keep coming and going. The terrain was 100% winding. The long and winding road plus the rain makes it very dangerous to keep going.
The temperature was hovering around 20 Celsius, with the rain breaking on your body and the acceleration of the motorbike forward, plus the wind, it was a very cold ride over this mountain pass. My hands were shivering. My clothes were wet. Most of bags too. But the experience was priceless! Wildhogs!