Knowledge gained from travelling

These are new knowledge and insights that I've gained during my Bali trip last week. Yes, this explains my long silence doesn't it?

On the plane:

I've learnt another new thing not to do on the airplane. Aside from the previous experience which tells me not to bring water in tupperware although tupperware guarantees 100% no leakage, never try to put on lipgloss on an airplane. The gloss just spills out as soon as you open it's cover and it never stops. You'll probably end up like me - shiny, oily lips from too much Lipice, not to mention the cold, tingy feeling on the lips that lasted throughout the journey.

Why do air stewardesses on Air Asia ask if there's any water inside the luggage compartment these days, anyway?

And why do they have signs like this on the wings of the airplane? Has anyone ever broken the glass and squeeze themself out of the airplane to walk on the wings while hanging on the hook nearby?

"Do not walk outside this area?"

On food:

My favourites are nasi campur (mixed rice), apokat (avocado) and nasi kuning (yellow rice). Unlike the Malaysian version, the Balinese nasi campur consists of no less than six side dishes. They leave one third of the plate empty for you to mix everything together, not eat one spoonful of rice with one of the dish you choose to eat with in that mouthful. That is why they call it "nasi campur", no? For a no-less than six dishes mixed rice, you pay from 5,000rp (MYR2.00) to 19,000rp (MYR20) depending on the backdrop scenery of the place you eat in.

Their avocado juice is really pure avocado juice, almost without water. It's thick and rich, like milkshake. A must try - I had avocado juice at least once a day or sometimes three times a day. It costs something from 3000rp (MYR1.20) to 9000rp (MYR3.70) again depending on the backdrop scenery and the location. The best one is at the warung near the airport. It comes with chocolate mousse.

By the way, apokat reminds me of the video game, Streetfighter. It sounds like the sentence that the fighters always speak of when throwing the ball of fire over to their enemy - "A...Booooooo.....Kaaaat" or something to that sound.

Nasi kuning is made out of rice and tumeric, something like the ones we have for full month babies' celebration in Malaysia. One of the empty restaurants in Ubud has this nasi kuning but theirs is actually rice cooked with saffron and it's not yellow at all. I wonder if we were duped. Again, the nasi kuning is also served with a whole lot of dishes, like nasi campur.

Bebek means duck and bebek bengil means dirty duck. Although it looks dirty when it arrived, with black hair all over the crispy duck skin, it doesn't taste like duck. It tastes more like the crispy roasted piglets that we have in Chinese restaurants here. And yes, you're supposed to eat it with the skin, hair and all.

Bakwan and siobhak sounds like Chinese Hokkien. Bakwan means meatballs, which is the exact and correct term as it is called in Chinese Hokkien. But siobhak doesn't mean roasted meat. It means all kinds of cooked pig parts (nose, ear, intestines, etc). Avoid ordering 'ayam banteng' no matter how good it sounds. Ayam banteng which means chicken something is only used for prayers and offerings.

Mie bakwan (meatball noodles) and mie soto (another kind of noodles) uses the same kind of soup. The difference is that mie bakwan is served with meatballs and riceballs and mie soto is served with shredded chicken. A bowl of noodles with lots of meatballs cost something like 3000rp (RM1.20) at the local warungs. I used to laugh at the people in Holland for eating plain rice and wanton-mee (noodles) but now I shall keep my mouth shut since they serve noodles and riceballs in Bali.

People and animals:

I still don't understand much of the people and what they do. All I know is that they are real friendly. Sometimes I cannot differentiate if they are just friendly or they have ulterior motives for being friendly (like asking you for 'donations'). There was this guy at the Buddhist monastery who showed us around, to the entend of explaining the architecture in detail and what they mean. He even opened up a locked area to show us around. But somehow, in that locked room, he showed his ulterior motive - he said he was going for a surgery next month and that he needed money for the surgery. All I know is that being a Buddhist monk, you are not supposed to beg in whatever way.

Other than this incident, I guess people there are just nice. Customer service is number one. You would never once not be served when you enter any shops or warungs. The locals at the roadsides greet you when they see you even if you are a complete stranger and being Malaysian, we are so used to smiling back, not knowing what to say to them when this happens or more like being stunned because we never knew this is a culture in an Asian country nearby. Well, all except for that supposingly accessories supplier found by my sister who smoked pot behind his shop in Legian and could not wake up from his dream when I went to his shop.

May the pictures below explain more on the people and animals in Bali. I hope this is not for carrying a corpse?

Courting couples love to spend their time together at the edge of the lakes,
just in case you need to shove your partner down the lake, I suppose

More than 50% of the dogs look like hyenas although I've not heard them laugh.
I am a dog person and they know it. They like following me around.

UMmm.....what I'd call mass-trance procedure where they do similar hand movements together in front of the fire. They do this in a group of no less than 50 people, sometimes 5000 people or the whole kampung (village) while chanting words like 'cicak' (lizzard or gecko) accompanied by other words like dog, shit and cat. If you want to witness this, go for the kechak dance.


I still don't understand why they have scary sculptures like these. Why a black orang minyak (oil man - he used to be a famous man in Taiping who covered himself with black oil all over and came out to scare women by flashing his ummm...black body. Some say he is also a rapist. So women, beware) or the beheaded sculpture that holds the head on it's palm or the head without a body? I must really say though that they are really artistic and their intricate designs on these sculptures are things you'll never find in Malaysia.

Anyone interested to join me on my next trip to Bali?