Continuing Bali – Spare Ribs to Seabass

The rides along the narrow Balinese roads are as treacherous as they are beautiful. Many skirt through water-logged fields where rice and corn grow in abundance. Crafty and agile cars and motorbikes dart through lanes with abandon while the weary traveler tries to catch a few winks in the desperate heat, to no avail. After a quick tour of the beloved Monkey Forest, we stopped by a well-known warung, or typical Indonesian eatery, famous for their pork spare ribs. You can immediately smell the smoking coals and the sweet smells of the barbeque glaze, both of which emanate from a curbside grill manned by a fast-acting cook. We’re seated in the sweltering patio, just behind the grill, but the tastes of our meal more than compensate for any uncomfortable environs.



The pork spare ribs come in that wonderful sweet glaze, rife with Indonesian undertones of molasses and soy. The meat is both tender and juicy to the bite, with the dark flesh brought to a savory ideal with a gentle squeeze of lime juice. Javier impulsively orders the lamp chops, also grilled over coals and covered in the brown barbeque sauce. The meat is perfectly medium rare and bursts and flavorful juices. It’s worth the high cost for those three chops, as nawing on the bones gives one a particular pleasure despite the thick tropical afternoon.



We head back to the bustling city part of Bali, where our swank hotel, All Seasons Legian, awaits. The lobby is open-air, with white painted columns and bright colored accents in modern-hues. It’s inviting and comfortable, with a restaurant on the left and the lobby to the right. Looking into the courtyard is a long pool with infinity edges that spill out into smooth rocks (where the water is drained). Wooden lounge beds and umbrellas stuff the empty spaces while a bevy of rooms line the pool where mini-patios serve as entrance for the rooms. Besides the shoddy and arduously slow wi-fi internet in the lobby, the only other drawback might be the lack of elevator in the hotel. We have to hike up three flights of stairs every time to access our rooms, but I guess any form of exercise to work off the extra caloric intake is welcome. The rooms are simple with swell, comfortable sheets on the twin beds. An HDTV that only manages to display news networks from various countries keeps Javier and I occupied with blogging instead of the tube. I later find out I would’ve enjoyed the ESPN and Travel Channels displayed in other rooms. A curious default of our room that I never inquired.



Oh, a shower never feels so good as when a hot, muggy traveler finally coats him or herself with alternating warm and cold water. We head out a few hours later for a relatively uneventful meal at this tourist trap where grilled seafood and deep-fried whole seabass were the only notable items. More interesting to me was the walk through the busy streets of Legian, where racing motorbikes (those blasted things are everywhere) flow through various souvenir stands hawking odd-colored helmets, fake Armani watches, and the occasional racy T-shirt. It's during this time that I get a completely different face of the island, a tourist magnet that draws people from dozens of countries, from Europe to Australia, and from China to the U.S. On one cool evening, we stopped by the Ground Zero for the the 2002 terrorist attack on Bali, where 202 people died and 240 were injured. It was sobering, to say the least.



The next day we planned to go white water rafting through the hills of Bali, perhaps one of the best ways to see the island.