Ala Carte Japanese Buffet @ Irodori Japanese Restaurant, Singapore

Sometimes good food is just around the corner. I kid you not.

My stay in Riverview Hotel Singapore was a pleasant experience. Yet, within the hotel, there's a very good Japanese restaurant. Its called Irodori Japanese Restaurant. Since my clients recommended me the place, we decided to have my dinner there.

There's a lot of Japanese buffet restaurant but ala carte japanese buffet was the first time for me. Ala carte japanese buffet means they only cook when you order. The food will taste better definitely. When we reached the restaurant, we were greeted by the friendly waitresses there. We waited no more and started to order our dinner.



Fresh sashimi was pretty good. The fish were very fresh indeed. We ordered quite a few plates for the night.



Ebi Tempura or Tempura Prawn. Lovely.



The complimentary Grilled Prawns. This was pretty good. Too bad its complimentary, if not we would order more.



Most Japanese restaurants in Malaysia are halal. Having pork shogayaki was something a little bit different to me. This was decent.



Trust me, this was not my order.

The buffet only cost $33++ per person for dinner. It's really worth it. I'm talking about the quality of the foodi and the variety of foods we can ordered. There's more than 100 types of dishes to order. The service was good as well. What else to ask for?

Recommendable!

Address:

Famous Lor Mee @ Tiong Bahru Market, Singapore (March '09)

This was an unexpected interesting find. I was at Singapore for a short working trip in March. I was staying at Riverview Hotel and they didn't provide my breakfast for my hotel rates, so I had to go out to search for breakfast.

After asking around and walked for 20 min, I reached at this place called Tiong Bahru Market. I was told that they have a food court.



Looking for good food is always easy. Look for the stall that the most people queue up should be fine.

After looking around, I saw this stall with a huge long queue so then I checked it out. Apparently, it was a Lor Mee Stall. There were lots of newspaper write ups posted on the stall. I read a few of it and then I started to queue up. In minutes, I got myself the famous Lor Mee.



Excitedly and I took my spoon and tasted the paste. It was rather starchy but the taste was good. There's no lack of flavours. Interesting enough, they put garlic in the Lor Mee. With that, I mixed it all together. The noodle blends very well with the thick paste. There were also no lack of ingredients. It comes with various dumplings, meat and egg. From a mere $3.00, this Lor Mee was a steal. I could never imagine I could get such pricing in Kuala Lumpur (KL).

Well, after filling up my tummy, I felt lucky because I had a good lor mee.

Its very much recommended!

Address:
Tiong Bahru Food Court (look for the queue)
Tiong Bahru Market

My Full Nyepi Celebration Experience @ BALI (March '09)

Nyepi is a Balinese "Day of Silence" that falls on Bali's Lunar New Year (March 26, 2009). It is a day of silence, fasting, and meditation. The day following Nyepi is also celebrated as New year Gudi Padva in Maharashtra and Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in India

Observed from 6 a.m. until 6 a.m. the next morning, Nyepi is a day reserved for self-reflection and as such, anything that might interfere with that purpose is restricted. The main restrictions are: no lighting fires (and lights must be kept low); no working; no entertainment or pleasure; no traveling; and for some, no talking or eating at all. The effect of these prohibitions is that Bali’s usually bustling streets and roads are empty, there is little or no noise from TVs and radios, and few signs of activity are seen even inside homes. The only people to be seen outdoors are the Pecalang, traditional security men who patrol the streets to ensure the prohibitions are being followed. - Wikipedia.com

Trust me, Nyepi caught me unaware. The whole trip was pre-planned by a friend a year ago. No one in the group were aware of Nyepi. Okay, this was how it started.

We flew to Bali on 23rd of March via Air Asia.



On the plane itself, I started to read the Air Asia's Inflight Magazine and saw a small article about Nyepi. So then, I took a picture of it, not really knowing the whole meaning of it until we reached Bali.

Once in Bali, our taxi driver told us about Nyepi and we saw the parade on the streets. Then, I started to be more curious and asked more about it. The moment he mentioned a "full day of silence", we were worried because we had to shorten our schedule by one day. Well, to reassure ourselves, I asked the receptionist at the hotel lobby. She told us the same story. For that, we had to sacrifice a day on this trip. Yet, we told ourselves this could be a blessing in disguise. A memorable experience that we might not forget.

The celebration lasted days. On the 24th, again we saw parades on the streets. Its everywhere in Bali.Seriously, I really respect how the Balinese celebrated their new year. There were so many people really involved in the celebration. Religion decorations were everywhere throughout the island. Bali was really in New Year mood.



Since 26th will be a day of silence, so there will be no one in public, shops will be closed and lights must be not visible to outside at all. It's basically like "Earth Hour" but for full day period with no people in public. We can were only able to dine in hotel only. Windows will be taped to prevent lights to be seen outside.

So then, me and Rachel decided to do some groceries shopping for Nyepi. As expected ,most of the people were in the supermarket for groceries shopping as well. Long queues were everywhere.

By night time, we were ready for the Nyepi parade at Kuta.



Me and my DSLR with the parade behind me. The place was packed!



We stayed on for an hour and we called it a quit.



Slowly, we walked back to our hotel. We awaits Nyepi on the next day.



We stocked ourselves quite a bit of food. Enough to last for a few days....



When there's food, of course there will be liquor. Since we were not serious drinker, this was enough for the whole day.



The streets were really empty. I took a peek outside and took a few pictures. There were nobody on the streets. In the afternoon, everyone in the hotel enjoyed the swimming pool. By night time, everyone back in the room enjoyed the cable TV. Only one light was recommended to switch on. It was a very quiet night indeed.

On the next day, everything was back to normal.

I must give full appraisal for how the Balinese respected the Nyepi celebration. To have such respect, it requires unity from all the Balinese. This is something that many other places or countries yet to achieve.

Nyepi was really unexpected but yet a memorable experience. It's a lifetime experience!

Rats @ Hong Kong Food & Tea Restaurant, Berjaya Times Square

Seriously I don't really want to meet Ratatouille in person.

I had 2 encounters last week in 2 different restaurants but I managed to get the pictures of the 2nd restaurant.

I was having a tea break with Rachel last Friday night and Rachel screamed "Rat! Rat! Rat!"

Guess what?

No one from the restaurant bothered to apologize and attempt to remove it. So they left the rats (2 of them) parading in their restaurant and lurking around.

Since they had so much pride of it. I started to take my camera to snap a few pictures of it.



The rat is on the plasma TV. The waitress could only see but never touch.



Can you spot Ratatouille?



Another one down there....



She's shopping?



Mr. Ratatouille himself.

On Sunday, I had food poisoning due to unknown reason. Rachel didn't has it though.

How could this be happening? Some might ask. Don't ask me, ask them.

Welcome to Hong Kong Food and Tea Restaurant, Berjaya Times Square.

Febri's Hotel & Spa Bali Review (March '09)

Inspired by a Balinese royal palace, the hotel offers 68 contemporary rooms and is ideally situated in the shopping and entertainment area of Tuban. The Febris Hotel and Spa is centrally located on the main Kartika Plaza Street on South Kuta Beach and is close to such major shopping and entertainment attractions as the Discovery Mall, Kuta Art Market, Kuta Centre Shopping & Entertainment complex, and Kuta Square. Other surrounding family facilities that are available include Waterbom Park, Reverse-Bungee Jumping, Bowling, and a variety of ethnic restaurants. The onsite, open-air, restaurant is on the street front, and serves Indonesian, Italian, and Chinese cuisine. - Agoda.com

Yeah, that was the review I read before I booked and stayed at Febri's. The place itself was in the heart of the area of Tuban (Kuta). Walking distance to shops and restaurants. 5 min walk to Kuta Beach which is just at the opposite of the road.

When the taxi driver dropped us at the lobby, we were relieved and happy. Relieved to see the hotel was exactly the same as the pictures on the internet and happy because it's just walking distance to the shopping malls, shops and restaurants.

We were greeted by the nice lady at the front lobby. From there, we were guided to our rooms, walking pass the massive lovely swimming pool they have.



Each room has a nice little entrance. We just can't wait to see the room.



The room was big. There was a nice King size bed and a nice little sofa at window side. The bathroom was lovely as well. No cracks or stains or what so ever. The moment we went to the room, we were happily playing with TV remote which had cable TV with dozens of channels. The room was very clean.



The swimming pool was nice. They have quite a number of benches for sunbathing as well. We did really enjoy the pool very much.

Overall, Febri's is a good hotel to stay in. Price was reasonable as well, we managed to book it at USD 46 nett per night inclusive of breakfast. Service was very good and the room was very clean. Their spa was pretty good as well as we had hot stone massages there.

The only thing bad about this place is it's 5 min walk to the beach. Otherwise it would be a lovely hotel resort.

Recommendable!

*Address will come later...

Sunset @ Tanah Lot, BALI (March '09)

We missed the sunset at Jimbaran because we had our sunset "session" at Tanah Lot. It will take around 10-15 min walk from the main entrance to Tanah Lot. There were lots of small stalls along the pathway to the beach side. Prices are always negotiable.

Tanah Lot means "Land in the Middle of the sea" in Balinese language. Located in Tabanan, about 20 km from Denpasar, the temple sits on a large offshore rock which has been shaped continuously over the years by the ocean tide.
Tanah Lot is claimed to be the work of the 15th century priest Nirartha. During his travels along the south coast he saw the rock-island's beautiful setting and rested there. Some fishermen saw him, and bought him gifts. Nirartha then spent the night on the little island. Later he spoke to the fishermen and told them to build a shrine on the rock for he felt it to be a holy place to worship the Balinese sea gods.[citation needed]
The Tanah Lot temple was built and has been a part of Balinese mythology for centuries. The temple is one of seven sea temples around the Balinese coast. Each of the sea temples were established within eyesight of the next to form a chain along the south-western coast.
At the base of the rocky island, poisonous sea snakes are believed to guard the temple from evil spirits and intruders. As well as one giant snake which also protects the temple, which was created from Nirartha’s scarf when he established the island.-Wikipedia

Since it was almost sunset, we paced ourselves to the beachside. When we reached there, we saw something quite amazing.



Behold, Tanah Lot....



Everyone crossing over to have a better look at Tanah Lot.



A tourist receiving blessing from the priest.

Amazingly, there were spring water glushing from the top. We need to wash our face with the holy water and then received blessings from the priest. The priest will placed a few grains of rice to the forehead.



Indeed, the sunset here was amazing. Thank god, I managed to take this nicely with Canon 20D. :)





Me and Rachel in front of the Tanah Lot.

This place is another must go place in Bali. Breathtaking sunset view!

Grilled Seafood @ Dewata Cafe, Jimbaran, BALI (March '09)

Jimbaran is a must place to go in Bali. Ask anyone that have been to Bali. Let me say it again Jimbaran is a must place to go in Bali.

Jimbaran lies on the 'neck' of the southern peninsula in Bali and is widely known for the fresh seafood kiosks that are scattered along the beach. Diners select the live seafood that they wish to eat, and it is immediately prepared, generally grilled over a fire of coconut husks rather than charcoal.- Wikipedia

Going to Jimbaran for sunset beach side dinner was our plan. It has one of the most romantic sunset view in Bali. Just imagine, me and Rachel sitting on the beach side, listening to live band overlooking the sunset and drinking the coconuts and having the amazing seafood. It's a moment in a lifetime.

BUT it DIDN'T happen!

Due to unforeseen planning error, we missed the sunset. We spent too much time at Ubud area so we didn't make it in time. Sigh.

We reached Jimbaran late. Yet, we still excited about the amazing seafood restaurants there. Our guide brought us to Dewata Cafe. It was one of the restaurants that streched along the beach.

Upon reaching, I wasted no time to look at their menu and their pricing. From there, I started something that I often do best, negotiating.

Tips here. I spoke with them in Malay language. Once they knew we are Malaysians, more discounts. They were reluctant at first to give me more discounts. I just told them that I was told they were the best restaurant in Jimbaran and they were "specifically" recommended by my friends. After listening to that. they straight away gave me more than 20% discount on foods. It was a white lie, but it worked! I left there with an evil smirking and my friends knew I had a great deal.



Tiger (the guy in pink) then started to pick the foods for our dinner while the rest chilled at the beach side listening to live bands.



Looked at the charcoal! Burning hot!!



The grilled squid shrunk! LOL! Yet, it was good.



I loved the grilled prawns. It was fantastic, grilled to perfection. The meat was fresh and tender. Must order the prawns if you are here. Fantastic!



The grilled fish was good as well.



Well, lastly we had the grilled clamps.



The group shot with the live band behind.

In general, the food was pretty good. I loved their grilled seafood. The seafood were pretty fresh and the service was good as well. Price for the whole dinner was around 650,000 RP. It was very reasonable. Yet, please do negotiate the price before you order. Sitting at the beach side was very relaxing and too bad we missed the ultimate sunset.

I would come back again for the food and the sunset.

Address & Map:

Amazing Goa Gajah @ Gianyar, BALI (March '09)

"Goa Gajah" or also known as Elephant Cave in English is located at Gianyar, BALI. Its somewhere near Ubud. Most of the travel agencies include this place for Ubud tour.
However if you want to travel cheap in Bali, my recommendation is to hire a van with driver which cost around 300,000 RP. Normally the driver can speaks fluent English. We usually tipped the driver because they don't really earn much.

Built in the 9th century, it served as a sanctuary.The facade of the cave is a relief of various menacing creatures and demons carved right into the rock at the cave entrance. The primary figure was once thought to be an elephant, hence the nickname Elephant Cave. The site is mentioned in the Javanese poem Desawarnana written in 1365. An extensive bathing place on the site was not excavated until the 1950s. These appear to have been built to ward off evil spirits.This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on October 19, 1995 in the Cultural category. - Wikipedia

We were charged a small entrance fees (sorry, I forgot how much we paid) and we were required to wear a "sarong" (kilt). It's just a formality to respect the religion and the history of the area.



This was the bathing area. It was rumored that the "maharaja" (great king) used to bath here so the water here considered very pure.



Please bear in mind this bathing area is built around 700 years ago. The place was still very much intact.

Since the water here considered very "pure". I took a few sips of the water and washed my face there as well. The water was cooling, clear and refreshing!



This were the rocks formations from the past.



Some of the smaller statues.



The entrance to the cave.



This is how the whole entrance looks like. Amazingly beautiful.

The reason I didn't post the pictures of the inner cave because it would rude to show everything here. It would be nicer to see it by yourself.



This huge tree has been around for centuries. The reason it was wrapped with checker cloth was to protect the tree from curses, magics and evil spirits. It's a religion beliefs.



The Balinese "signature" architecture design. Its everywhere in Bali and here as well.

There were always a few people acting like "guides" inside the compound. They would approached you nicely and talked about the history of the place.

Beware, you have to tip this "guides" as they "cari makan" make a living by such. Normally your actual tour guide will warn you about "them". However, I tipped them always because they told us a great story.

After exiting the place, there will be a small market selling souvenirs, shirts and such. A short shopping spree maybe?



Group Shot!

B Couple Bar N' Grill @ Kuta, BALI (March '09)

Trust me on this, it was not my idea having Chinese food in Kuta, BALI.

We were lurking around Kuta area and browsed through a few restaurants. The majority wanted to eat Chinese foods. I just had to follow.



We decided to dine at B Couple Bar. I had no idea its called B Couple Bar but this non-air conditioned place have a great live band there.



We ordered quite a number of dishes, half roast duck, fried calamari, stir fried bak choy, sze chuan beans and tofu.

The food in general was decent. Service was okay and price was slightly pricey.

Address:
B Couple Bar N' Grill
Jl. Kartika Plaza,
Tel: (0361)761414