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June 27, 2008 12:29 pm
June 19
Seminyak, Bali. When you get invited to a wedding in Bali, you don’t think twice about it—you go. That’s exactly what I did when my friends David Jacob and Amanda Griffin asked me to join them for a weekend on this magical island. I stayed in Seminyak, by the beach. This area has great shops and really good restaurants. I had a tasty nasi goreng for lunch at Made’s Warung, then hit some of the fabric stores. Fortunately, the words for expensive and inexpensive are the same in Indonesian as they are in Filipino, and I came home with a quite a number of ikat scarves and batik sarongs. Sunset at Ku De Ta is a must. This is Bali’s answer to Café del Mar in Ibiza. Cute Euro and Asian crowd; groovy, chill sounds by a DJ; and potent cocktails equals a really good party.
June 20
Ubud, Bali. I hired a driver for the day to head over to Ubud to check out the rice terrace. On the way, I took photos of village women preparing for a ceremony and men in their sarongs. All that mix of pattern and color is so inspiring. Had lunch at the famous hole-in-the-wall Ibu Oka restaurant (Anthony Bourdain swears by their babi guling suckling pig dish). Had a Balinese massage at the Four Seasons and stayed for a sunset snack. This hotel has the best bar ever. It has 30-foot ceilings and overlooks a river and mountains—and seating is arranged so everybody has a view. Breathtaking! I caught a Kecak and fire dance performance held inside a torchlit Balinese temple. It was so dramatic and hypnotic. This is one thing you don’t want to miss while in Bali.
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