For Part 2 of our Raw Food Bali Adventures we headed North East for a week to a place nestled between Tulamben and Ahmed.
Knowing that I would be leaving raw food heaven aka Ubud I stocked up on raw, I think I cleaned out Clear Cafe’s raw food corner completely. Sorry guys. But hey a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.
The north east part of the world in Bali is much quieter and you get a better feel for the real Bali. Everything is a lot cheaper too! This part of Bali is also excellent for diving with a lot of dive resorts based in Ahmed.
Batu Belah (Broken Stones)
Our cute little resort was called Batu Belah and it has the most insane views of the ocean from every room. You get to lie in bed and watch the sunrise and the sunset over the ocean. And all for $80 a night! Batu Belah is a family run resort who were so lovely and accommodating and the staff were fantastic, always laughing and happy to help. They soon knew about my obsession for Black Rice Pudding with Roasted Coconut and made it all from scratch for us on our last night. Any request for a fresh coconut and one of the guys would quickly scramble up a tree and cut one down.
The restaurant menu was basic but all of it was made from scratch and the green vege curry was super delicious.
The staff found it very amusing to see me coming to breakfast with my container of freshly made almond milk and raw granola, and for me to sit down and only ask for a bowl and a spoon. They were very curious and loved sampling some of the raw treats I’d brought along.
Every afternoon the staff would make complimentary snacks to serve to the guests such as deep fried pineapple or green coconut crepes with shredded coconut and palm sugar syrup (Dadar Unti), which were delicious! The green colour of the crepes come from the Pandan leaf. Its interesting to note that the Balinese do not always use refined wheat flour, rice flour, or corn flour get used a lot instead.
Because this area is quite close to the volcano – Agung – everything is super mineral rich and all the beaches are pitch black sand. All the rock formations by the water are clearly solidified lava and its quite amazing to imagine all that was once searing red hot boiling lava.
There is a little beach beside Batu Belah you can launch yourself off for snorkelling and just metres from the beach there were loads of fish doing their thing, I was blown away by the amount of fish and the size of the fish around the reef, I even saw a trigger fish or two which would have been at least a metre in length. Visibility was incredible, it felt like I could see at least 30 metres, maybe it wasn’t but that was how crystal clear the water was. The beaches are clean. No pollution or litter like you would see in the southern beaches of Bali.
There is something to be said about the magic of the ocean, I had the best, deepest sleep ever at Batu Belah. Those negative ions were in full force! I highly recommend this place if you want to escape the hustle and bustle of the tourist traps of Bali and get some rest and relaxation. I really could have stayed forever, if only, there was a raw food cafe nearby 
//www.eastbaliresort.com/index.htm
Tulamben
Worth checking out is Tulamben for their markets, although the language barrier can prove to be a little difficult, I think we paid 7000 (70 cents) rupiah for a handful of ginger and turmeric, when it should have been 7000 rupiah for a kilo! I think the market lady was very happy with her sale to the tourist that day!
There is also the USS Liberty ship wreck that is easy to see just from snorkelling in Tulamben, well worth checking out, its also fun snorkelling through the bubbles coming up from the divers down below.
//www.divetulamben.com/diving_tulamben.html
Bali Asli
There is a restaurant well worth making a point of visiting, as I would call this restaurant a destination restaurant. Bali Asli is nestled in the Gelumpang Village and has a cooking school attached to it, which was fully booked out when I tried to book in. The interior design of the restaurant is very stylish and of course quirky! Venture to the toilet and you find yourself in an outdoor tropical oasis with the most amazing view ever to sit and take in while you… er… sit…
The service and food were exceptional and the beautiful details such as the wooden hand carved menu presented to you in a hand carved box along with their hand tapped silver dishes for the Sambal are what makes a nice experience turn into an exceptional experience. And they cater for vegetarians. Will definitely visit again, and next time book the cooking school before leaving Australia!
And the view, amazing vista of rice paddies and craggy mountains. Just simply gorgeous.
Colonic Stop
Part 3 or our Raw Food Adventures had us making a flying visit for 2 nights to a meditation retreat called Nirata in Sideman then to Gili Island for 4 nights and then back to Ubud.
Before that though I had to do a flying visit to Ubud for a colonic after having a little flirt with Bali Belly. Big thanks to Kim Karina at Alchemy, the best colon hydrotherapist in town.
Nirata
Nirata was in a beautiful spot near Sidemen surrounded by farm land and the gorgeous Unda River. Seriously the view looked like it had been painted.
Nirata’s owner Nigel holds one hour meditation twice daily, although I call myself open minded I was maybe not quite ready for the body convulsions and shaking of moving one’s energy and just got the giggles. Maybe that is a sign of moving energy anyway?!
Don’t expect resort style attention, its cheap and is really a place to drop out, go deep into a transformational experience and find yourself. Oh and be prepared for the shower to stop working. A lot.
//www.awareness-bali.com/index.html
Gili T
However the boat waits for no-one and in true Bali style it was a mad hair-raising mini van Formula 1 race to Padang Bai harbour after there was a mix up with organising transport from Nirata. I think I prayed to God constantly that we would make it alive and with all my Cocobiotic intact!
Padang Bai harbour is crazy and a bit chaotic with everyone selling their wares and many ferry transport services operating out of cafés with not much signage. Always a fun experience finding your ferry transport after a Formula 1 race.
Gili is always a favourite stop of mine. Beautiful white sandy beaches and the laid back island life, with no mopeds or cars on the island. Just horse and cart, pure and simple. However be prepared for lots of people going to Gili in August as its Ramadan time and plenty of Europeans and Aussies also holidaying.
We stayed at Kokomo as we were really impressed with the restaurant and accommodation last year, however this year not so much. The music being played at 
breakfast time was about as ambient as listening to power tools and lawn mowers going off on a Sunday morning.
The food was nowhere near as good as last year and the floor staff struggled with English and even asking for something simple as an extra tomato was proving difficult.
Actually finding good food on the island was a struggle full stop.
Pearl Beach Lounge
Until we discovered Pearl Beach Lounge Restaurant. Part owned and run by a German chef called Heinz Alberti, who also happened to be an architect (which explains the amazing bamboo structure that houses the bar and restaurant) and a Naturopath in his past life, we hit gold.
The food was amazing, service quick and friendly and nothing was a problem. If you want a s
pecial vegetarian dish made up it was Heinz’s pleasure to do that for you.
Highly recommend Pearl if you are heading to Gili. We’ll be back there for sure. Heinz maybe you could do a raw food cafe next on Gili?!
Hiring bikes and doing a ride around the island is a fun way to watch the sun go down. There are heaps of bars and restaurants to stop off at on your way round, and if you stay long enough you can really kick off your evening with dance music and a magic mushroom shake.
start at the tip or point of north of where you are and just drift down. Highlight was seeing a massive hawksbill turtle just doing his thing, floating past just off the shore in about 4 metres of water!On the Home Straight and Casa Luna Cooking School
All good things must come to an end and I was very sad to be leaving Gili. I just love being by the ocean! But I was looking forward to getting back to Ubud for a few days to eat some delicious raw food and I was really looking forward to a half day cooking lesson at Casa Luna Cooking School run by Janet De Neefe.
She is legendary and has a great book out called Saffron
Rice amongst others. She and her family also own Indus Restaurant, Casa Luna and Honeymoon Guesthouse in Ubud.
Having married her Balinese man she set about recording and writing all the Balinese recipes down she could get her hands on as in Balinese culture all the recipes are passed down from generation to generation and not much is ever written down. Janet is responsible for opening the world up to all the wonderful flavours and ingredients that make up Balinese cooking.
It was a pleasure learning from Udé one of Janets chefs, so much tradition and all local, pure ingredients used. You won’t find bottles of jars or sauces here. Everything is made from scratch, and all the spices and aromatics are pounded on big traditional volcanic mortar and pestle.
We learnt how to make Hibiscus tea, chicken curry, coconut and anchovy samba – super amazingly yummy and wok fried eggplant, my favourite, tofu fritters and coconut bean salad. A lot of the spices and herbs were local and I had never heard of before and these were the secret to making 
Balinese cooking unique.
I absolutely loved the roasted coconut and I couldn’t wait to get home and replicate this dish in the kitchen. And do raw versions of everything!
What was great was the cooking lesson included a market tour of the famous central Ubud markets, we learnt so much! And going with your tour guide you get local(isn) market prices. To buy a bunch of about 15 vanilla pods cost $3.50.
Did you know a lot of the Saffron sold in the markets is not actually saffron? Buyer beware – you are buying imitation saffron, which is why it is so cheap! When you add this saffron to your cooking it will not impart the saffron aroma or flavour you expect. It just looks the part!
I loved the hand crafted knife stall, the guy selling them was so knowledgable and all the knives were beautifully made from men in the local village, from paring knives to chefs knives, all in gorgeous hand tooled leather cases. Although I didn’t buy as I had run out of cash by that stage I will be back to visit him, as well as get my hands on a traditional wooden coconut grater.
Yoga heaven
A few more days left to squeeze in some Yoga at Yoga Barn and had one of the best classes ever thanks Denise! So much fun energy in the room and really has raised the bar for Sydney yoga.
Yoga Barn also has a great cafe and they do awesome vegan buffets and lots of other yummy macrobiotic and raw dishes. Also get your fix of massage, reiki or pretty much just about anything!
Shopping…zzzzzz
I am not a fan of shopping. Call me crazy, yes because I’m female I should love shopping right? Wrong!
I have a tolerance of about an hour before I just want to high tail it out of there. But my boyfriend reluctantly dragged me round the shops squeezing in as many as possible on our last day.
And there are tons of shops to get round to in Ubud! Jl Hanoman and Jl Monkey Forest Road are bursting at the seams with shops. Try and find the quirky shops (yes quirky!) as these will often have local designers working for them and some of the stuff they are doing is really cool.
Wrap Up
This was supposed to be a working holiday and would I do a working holiday there again? Probably not, unless we had access to some fast internet. Telecommunications is a bit hit and miss in Bali still and it was a little stressful when it took the entire day just trying to get an email out.
We found out on the last day if you are staying in a villa for a long term stay you can pay extra to get fast internet hooked up to your pad. Note taken.I will be back though, and next time – less work, more leisure!
Oh and there’s the shopping! :-/ Really there is so much to see and do in Ubud every visit I feel just scratches the surface just a little bit more.
Right I am heading to the kitchen to try and create some raw versions of some of my favourite Balinese dishes!
Namaste
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