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Dappled sunlight on the balcony of
our room at Puri Saraswati |
We had a quiet morning packing and trying to dry clothes we'd washed the night before as we were
leaving Puri Saraswati and Ubud the next day. The humidity is so high at the moment that nothing ever feels
completely dry. We plan to head east to the Gili (small) Islands near Lombok for a few days.
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One of the many direction signs on the
long path to Warung Babi Guling |
For lunch, although not too hungry, we decided to try the Babi Guling - a
roast suckling pig dish that is supposed to be a speciality of Ubud.
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| Warung Babi Guling |
The card we
had for Warung Babi Guling said it was 50 metres down the road, which seemed fair
enough walking in the hot sun. But 50 metres later, there was another sign
pointing to a side street, and 50 metres further on the street turned into a
laneway, and about 50 metres further on, behind a family compound, we finally found
ourselves in a huge eating hall, perched on the edge of a small valley.
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The unique hand basins in
Warung Babi Guling |
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The Babi Guking dish itself - various
pieces of pork, crackling, vegetables
and rice |
The place was incredibly busy with locals and tourists eating. The menu was very
short, featuring pork in most dishes, so we went for the standard dish plus
some veges and rice.
The pork was flavoursome although a bit stringy and the
chopped vegetable dish highly fibrous - we were still picking pieces of the
meal out of out teeth some hours later. The green chilli sambal provided with the meal was one of the
hottest we had to date.
 |
| A Latte at Padang Bai |
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| Beach at Padang Bai |
John & Tamar picked us up after
lunch for the drive east to Padang Bai and Candidasa. After about an hour's driving, we
arrived at Padang Bai and played the "get the best price" game for tickets to
the Gilis. The process and the heat was exhausting so eventually, after finally buying our tickets, we headed to a cafe for refreshment and actually had a very nice cafe latte which arrived with the coffee and milk in neatly stratified layers. Then it was off to
Candidsa where we planned to stay for a couple of days before catching a ferry to the
Gilis.
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| Signing in at Buana Bali in Candidasa |
We arrived at Buana Bali, our Air B&B accommodation in Candidasa which was almost on the
beach, and shortly thereafter we were into the water to cool off.
 |
View west from the shoreline at
Buana Bali in Candidsa |
That night we settled on
having dinner at Pondok Bamba, a seashore restaurant that was not too
expensive. I was feeling like something other than Indonesian food and ordered
a beef burger with chips, Frances a Gado-Gado, John & Tamar both had
curries.
The food was pretty good, and the burger surprisingly good, with a nice
sambal on the side. We all agreed that the chips were the best anyone had had
in Bali (hot and crisp outside) and
compared only to those we had at Jimbaran beach a year ago, and nothing like the lukewarm
soggy ones John had in Resto Apung at Kedisan Resort. We formed the hypothesis
that; the closer to the ocean the better the chips - to be tested further for
verification of this theory.
