Having just arrived back from Bali I was hoping to share with you some amazing food experiences… With our own fabulous cooks at hand we ate [and ate, and ate... and ATE] thanks to the lovely Wasi but we kind of just relaxed and it was hard to even get out the camera… but despite all of the amazing food the stand out was these incredible mint drinks…we managed to find out the ingredients…SO simple – just mint, lime [aka bali lemon], sugar and ice… all blended for a very long time.
You know you are on holidays when it is the sound of a blender that signals you should move from your chair to the dining table. We were easily trained and settled quietly into this routine – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes, just to add variety, Wasi made us this version… which was watermelon, ice, a touch of yogurt and pineapple.. delicious and usually offered at breakfast with the mint version served for lunch and dinner. You cannot underestimate how good these drinks were….I am hoping to perfect the mint recipe to offer it on the Cooks Larder menu in summer… stayed tuned!
So were did we stay? With our lovely lovely friends from Bellamumma and Maxco we bunkered down at Puri Angsa, an AMAZING villa in Canggu, 5 mins from Echo Beach or about 12 kms from Seminyak. Far away from the Bali crowds, no braids, no cheap watches or fake Gucci! Everything you need for a luxury get away. A slightly different holiday experience from our camping trip earlier in the year as you can imagine … We found out that an exhausted banker from New York stayed once at Puri Angsa for 14 weeks… these worn out Cooks Larder folks and friends managed 8 days… quite nicely… plus another night in the heart of growing boutique shopping spot Seminyak.
Of course every holiday has a travel horror story and whilst we thought ours was going to be the 4 hour wait to move less than 25 metres in the queue to get through immigration at 3am Denpasar aiport [3 cheers for the kids who coped beautifully] or perhaps the few hours wasted to see if Kuta is still revolting [yes] but this was nothing compared to having our family being escorted from a full [and silent] plane at in Sydney by Quarantine because our poor 11 year old was so sick… appologies to all on our flight who we disturbed all night long with gut wrenching sounds…The upside? We were whisked though Sydney customs with our poor boy in a wheelchair. Phew. Everyone is well now so enough about that. Here are some examples of when, despite the heat, the eating and hanging around I did manage to pick up the camera!
The Dining Room
Prime pool side reading spot
The main house
Another gate into the gardens built over a waterway
Main gate out... if you actually decide you need to go anywhere
Water tower in the garden
Our bathroom window
The Herb Garden
Some more Bali highlights we managed to see when we did gather ourselves to leave our beautiful villa….
The local petrol station - you want small or large?
Beautiful old cow bells hanging from door way... brought a dozen of these home, confused customs with that one!
Rice fields...
Recycled billboards for rice field huts
more rice fields
Beautiful bali....
...tacky Bali!
Riding through the jungle on lovely gentle giant Eppa...
One of the best things we did apart from swimming with dolphins and slowly moving through the jungle on the backs of elephants was was take a bike ride down the mountain through local farms. It was sort of like a school excursion but so wonderful to see the real bali – no braids, cheap watches or tourists. I felt like we had travelled much further than Bali…We saw cocoa, cinnamon, galangal, cloves and coffee growing, drying, roasting. Of course we saw plenty of rice growing in all stages but also drying on the roadside – plus loads of other vegetables and herbs. We rode through a pre-hindu village where we met a lovely lady who invited us into her tiny tiny home where her family has lived for 3 hundred years. A real eye opener for the kids…
Entrance to 1 of only 6 remaining original villages - about an hour above Ubud
"My family has lived here for 300 hundred years"
a 300 year old stove
... in a 300 year old kitchen
Just one room but a lot of history...
" this is where the children sleep. Most families only have 2 children now... we used to have 6"
The Bamboo shingle roof is designed to collect water as there is no plumbing.
The outside area where food is prepared and the family relaxed
Cocoa drying on the roadside
Old man
Old lady with lovely silver hair....
Boy with melon after hindu protection ceremony
Taking rice home
Water tower with carved wooden birds - brought some of these home too!
Enjoy some lovely images here of Puri Angsa….
Lovely photos Sam ! Im so glad you had a great time,you all deserved it.
Visiting Puri Angsa has been on my wishlist for the past 2 yrs ……….maybe one day….when the boys are less rambuctious ( lovely word & so descriptive of my lot !)
xx
I miss that blender sound!!!!! XXXX
Brrrrrr whhhiizzzzzz [ does that help ]?
Thanks Sam
We’ve never been to Bali but now I want to go
Jan