Window Food, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia

Local Indonesian food is sometimes referred to as window food. A bunch of dishes are prepared and presented in a window. You walk up to the window, point to as many items as you'd like to eat, and it's served on top of a scoop of rice all for 80 cents to a dollar. The local name for this type of food is called Nasi Campur, which translates as mixed rice.

Options are many and plentiful. You can choose from a variety of stir fried veggies, fried crispy foods (calamari, shrimp, dried little fishes), curries, and all sorts of tofu. We've been enjoying Tempe. It's like tofu, but it's firmer and made with whole soy beans.

More Around Bali

Jimmy has been showing us all around, and here are a few more shots of the area.

Dreamland at sunset














The beaches around Nusa















































A seaweed farmer's hard work















Jimmy ordering food at our free wifi cafe















A new Julia Roberts movie (Eat, Pray, Love) being filmed at Padang Padang, they built a fake pier















Indonesian girls never take their helmets off, Pam fits right in

Gourmet Comfort Food, Bali, Indonesia

I thought I'd have to go without homemade pasta while traveling in Southeast Asia. But, here we are in Indonesia, and we're having our fill of delicious homemade pasta in this beautiful restaurant that overlooks the ocean. Bali is home to many expats and has many western food options. You can even find things like Nutella at the Circle K. I'm still missing a good, authentic taco.

Nusa Dua, Bali

Eric and I are back in Bali. We are in Nusa Dua, a peninsula in South Bali. We rented a scooter for just over 2 dollars a day and have rented a room in a house just a five minute scooter ride from the beach. At the beach, you'll find surfers, swimmers, fisherman complete with spear guns and small paddle boats, locals harvesting seaweed from the ocean, and European tourists lounging under the umbrellas of the nearby five star hotels. We bought swim goggles, practice our swim strokes, and see colorful fish swimming right beside us. Occasionally, you'll find the odd tourist wearing her rented helmet on the beach snapping pictures.

Padang Bai, Bali, Indonesia

After spending 3 days and 4 nights in Kuta, we decided to make our way to Padang Bai on the south east side of the island. This is the second time now, for us showing up somewhere and finding a place to stay on the spot. Although we did live in 3 different places in Bangkok, we had the advantage of having our first place booked ahead of time. There's an added thrill to traveling when you aren't sure where you'll end up, and a satisfaction after being resourceful enough to sort it out.

We're staying as close to the beach as we've been to date, but we plan to get closer. It's right across the street now. At $10 a night, the cost of lunch on a normal business day in San Francisco, it's easy to settle down to a different pace of travel. Less rushing from here to there in an effort to see everything before the cost of accomodation breaks your bank and drives you off.

















The girl staying in the room next door told us about a blue lagoon just up and over the hill that was worth seeing, and a black sand beach on the other side of town. The lagoon was fantastic, so we rented gear and did some really nice snorkeling. Sweet local ladies tried to entice us with beach massages, but we passed. Afterward, we took quite a long walk through a heavily wooded farm-like neighborhood to find the black sand beach. We arrived just before sunset.

Seafood in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

October 9, 2009

The food in Kuta has been a great experience. It's not like Thailand in terms of street food. Street food in Indonesia seems a thing to be avoided. So, we eat mostly at restaurants. It costs more than Thai street food, but the food is cheap and really good. There are tons to choose from on our street. They are mostly open air restaurants serving both western and Indonesian food.

Our first full day in Bali, Eric and I ordered a fish kebab and two small garlic crabs for $7.00. The garlic crabs were really good, but it involved a lot of intensive peeling.

We also had a fried snapper, with french fries, and veggies for a whole $3.50. While chowing down on our snapper, a retired British couple sat with us, ordered the snapper, and talked about how much they love eating cheap snapper in Bali. So, we were in good company.

A lot of the restaurants show American movies on a projector screen at night. You wouldn't think that a bunch of tourists would want to all sit around a screen and watch tv. But after surfing and playing in the ocean, a nice cool beer and a movie is perfect. Eric and I watched the Bourne Ultimatam and Dumb and Dumber.

Kuta Beach, Bali, Indonesia

We've been spending our first few days in Indonesia on the island of Bali at Kuta Beach. Accommodatons and food are slightly more expensive than in Bangkok, but still incredible bargains compared to the U.S. So we've been treating ourselves to beautiful seafood caught fresh in Indonesian waters.

Kuta is a very westernized beach town with surf shops, bars, and restaurants reminiscent of Hunington Beach. The locals aggressively hustle to sell their goods and services, which gets a little annoying. And every price is negotiable, usually starting price is more than double the actual price. Scooters drive recklessly up and down streets and tight alleys, narrowly missing pedestrians. You have to be on your toes at all times.


















The beaches are a quarter block from where we stay, with
Waikiki style waves good for beginners. They rent surfboards, bodyboards, and give lessons up and down the beach. Yesterday, we rented a bodyboard and Pam and I had some fun catching waves. Today we rented a surfboard and I gave Pam some lessons. I helped push her into waves and she was able to get up and get some nice long rides. We like to stick around at the beach for the sunsets along with quite a few others. It's an intersting mix of people. Some like to watch quietly with a can of beer, religious groups gather and seem to pray to the sunset, and many locals are fully clothed taking lots of pictures and posing for each other with the ocean and sky, or other foreign tourists as a backdrop. Some would sneakily get us into their shots.