Hello everyone! It’s been a while! My apologies for the long leave of absence! It has been a whirlwind 2 months – travelling and work and preparing for new challenges in life 🙂 More details later in the year!

Recently a whole bunch of friends trooped down to Bali, Indonesia! One of my (and R’s) favourite places in the world! Despite a no. of hiccups we encountered (flaky pple) and the crazy traffic (when did Bali become so crowded?) – explains the sigh of ‘Hai…’ of this blog post’s title – it was still a great time spent with friends! 🙂

Here are some highlights from the trip:

Day 1 – Lunch

On D’s way back from surfing, he stopped by a Nasi Padang stall to get 8 hungry people lunch – Nasi Padang put simply is like Mixed Rice, a combination of rice with an array of dishes (be it meat or vegetables) to choose from. You select from a window of prepared dishes and each item gets piled on top of your rice, gravy and all.

Mmmm… Yummy lunch! Our lunch was a selection of Tempeh (fried soya beans), fried chicken, beef rendang, veggies and fish! And this is what a typical Nasi Padang stall would look like:

Day 1 – Drinks @ La Lucciola

The last time R and I came, we dropped by La Lucciola (it means firefly in italian) for lunch and it was BEAUTIFUL! But this time we came here for Drinks and Snacks @ Sunset.

Here’s what it looked like way back in ’08 when we came for lunch – this is a place I highly recommend not SO much for the food but more for the whole package of food + ambience (it’s right by the beach) and price wise, not too steep either! La Lucciola’s food is a fusion of Italian with Balinese nuances, flavours and ingredients and is pretty decent 🙂

These lychee and apple granitas were life savers for a hot summery day! (Secret: it’s also the pic I use for the blog header *teehee*)

Do you know that I’m a real sucker for risotto? Had risotto for almost every meal in Italy [Click here to read the Risotto post!] and once I see it on any menu it’s like bees to honey 🙂

And yeap, La Lucciola has some nocturnal residents who rent the roof during the day 🙂 Cute!

Day 2 – Brunch and Treat

I’d decided the day before that Day 2 would be about pampering and signed myself up for a massage at AWAYSpa at W Retreat and Spa Seminyak and before my appointment I decided to have a lil sip of a healthy Dragonfruit, Berries and Yakult Smoothie at the W Lounge overlooking the W Pool (known as WET) and e beach.

And a after-massage stroll around the hotel…

You cant quite decide if it’s furniture or if its art, but I’m concluding it’s both. The W Egg Chair welcomes you as you enter the lobby and the soft cushy eggs invite you to jump in, but on 2nd thought – it’s not going to be easy getting out eh? It sits prettily in the middle of the lobby and for a moment you think to yourself  “Am I allowed to jump in?” and then you go for it and since nobody stops you, you continue to roll around until you realise other people are staring, but “Who Cares?” I’m in the egg pit and you’re not! haha!

Check out the crazy cool chandelierthingamajig and the really cool communal yet not communal dining table 🙂 Gorgeous!

And we were off to Brunch at Corner Store (some travel guides say this is a tourist trap, which it probably is, but it was good hearty wholesome brunchy food and we really liked it!)

The coffee junkies really liked the coffee here and were suitably impressed by it! Cant go wrong w coffee at Corner Store guys!

Sounded good on the menu but I’d recommend not ordering it – cos it was really watered down! It was a good drink idea tho!

Having paninis make me want to get a panini press at home! But well the reason why it’s a Bagel is cos they ran out of panini bread. Yums! There were other things we’d ordered like the scrambled eggs with mushrooms (which were a real talking point – cos they were really tasty!) Go for it guys!

Days In Between

The very long story of not being able to get a whole roast pig (a.k.a Babi Guling) and the long drive from Seminyak to Ubud for ribs produced only 1 picture of the meals we had in between – Naughty Nuri’s at Ubud for awesome-goodness-gracious-that-is-some-excellent-barbecue-sauce-you’ve-got-there Pork Ribs. We were all so hungry from the ride that we’d forgotten to take a pic but here’s what the place looks like

Just a good ol’ shack serving good ol’ ribs yo.

Last Day – Breakfast

Pancakes at Flapjack’s (you will realise that it’s also spelled Flapjaks officially and i have no idea why) – a recommendation by A got me craving for it for days on end. And so FINALLY we arrived!

I thought the pancakes could have been fluffier but it was still good overall and crepes wise you have to go for their sausage crepe with cream sauce – which i unfortunately do not have a picture of – but with all its creamy and garlicky goodness being soaked up by the crepes *mmm*. Flapjacks has scrambled eggs and waffles too!

And with that we were off to get our bags and headed to the airport!

Till next time, Bali!