Bali Guling! Part 4

Heyyo peeps!

Sorry for the delayed post this week :> I've just gotten back from another trip to Bintan with my girlfriends as a farewell trip to some of them who are going off for college in the US so I really wanted to be in the moment and detach myself from any distractions. Anyways, I am back and here goes the last part of my Bali travel diary! enjoy x

For the rest of the trip, we were basically cafe-hopping around Seminyak. And holy macaroni, there were so many great ones! We made a long list of places we wanted to visit but we had to narrow down accordingly. (Sorry, scales, you were long forgotten lols) So here goes a cafe-goer's honest review of the food/ambiance of the places I feel are worth your visit!

• Motel Mexicola (8.5/10)

We had their churros, nachos and a beef taco with cocktails during afternoon tea. Nachos and tacos were definitely on the 'okay' side but their cocktails were really value-for-money. For ~S$13, you get a delicious blend of piña colada with local twists as well as grammable little decorations on your glass. I could not remember the food prices, but they all cost pretty on par with other cafes' menus. However, despite the food's mediocrity, the drinks made it up for us, and the v i e w s and decors of the place were mind-blowingly beautiful. It was like we have transported to a 90s Mexican diner with such a lively vibe. A must-go for first-timers, I'd say. So take pictures and order away, chicas!

ps go at night for better views and vibes <3

• Nalu Bowls (6.5/10)

Honestly, this was a miss despite the hype. We went there with big hopes and we expected the acai bowls to be much nicer but,,, they were pretty bland truthfully. (to the point where we did not take pics... because we were giggling in front of the people who made it at the acai bar counter and my friend could not finish hers lmao) Also, almost all of the bowls had bananas blended in it so for a non-banana eater like me, it was a mini nightmare so take notes peeps!

• Kynd Community (9.0/10)

I will definitely come back here for the foods and vibes!! Kynd Community is truly soooooo goood! Their bircher was incredibly fresh with a good amount of acidity from the citruses and their dragon fruit blend gave much more than just textural aesthetic to the acai blend.  Avocadoes were rich and had a nice bite to it. They also served coconut milk on top of soy/almond milk as your dairy substitutes so they have gotten your bases covered! Coffee was really not bad and their portion size was tummy-filling. Ah I really loved the food and the vibes and I hope you can try it for yourself! 

the hot chocolate had a pretty artificial taste to it though :(

• Milk and Madu (8.3/10)

This one's in Canggu and again I did not take a picture because we had such a good convo with our old teacher from high school, but still a recommended food joint in Canggu. Try their chicken salad and poké bowl for your protein fix of the day! Pretty basic, but when basics is done right it is still something worth mentioning. 

• Pork Star (8.0/10)

I had no picture of the place here but the nasi campur was really good! And it was only ~$5/6 with heaps of pork cuts! Very generous portion and this was more of a local favorite so do check it out if you are getting sick of (very good) Western food :)

• Ayam Goreng Tulang Lunak (7.5/10)

This was a local food joint that Putu recommended us when we were staaaaarving after surfing. Ayam Goreng Tulang Lunak is basically fried chicken with tender bones that you can eat without having to separate the meats from the bones. Again, we did not manage to get any pictures because we were just too hungry to function hehehehe. But now thinking again, for about ~$55 in total for an okay amount of food, it was not really great. Your basic stir-fried veggies with decently-seasoned fried chicken and steamed rice. May not be everyone's cup of tea, but decent enough for a filling meal. 

Annnnnnd, that's it! My not-so-comprehensive but honest list of food items we had in Bali besides the ones we had in beach clubs (which was still pretty good I must say). And I genuinely hope that you can use this travel diary to your advantage :) I remembered searching frantically for food reviews and I definitely appreciated any kind of inputs I could have, so I hope the same goes to you. 

In conclusion, Bali's cafe food was more robust than what Singapore had to offer; with more varieties than just your perfectly poached eggs on top of smoked salmon drizzled with Hollandaise sauce, we needed more money and more tummy space to review them all. I hope you enjoy this whole travel diary and most importantly, have fun and connect with your friends whenever you are on trips! x

Love always,

Maretta Simon

10 reasons why you should visit Nepal

A country full of stark juxtapositions... embodied by both the people and the silent survivors of the deadly 2015 earthquake. That is probably the best way to describe how Nepal is as a country as of now, as seen through my lens in my one-week-trip to Nepal.

 a random villager's house at Pokhara

sunrise slowly creeping out from a seemingly nearby mountain from the Australian Base Camp

another beautiful moment before the sun rises!

As many of you know, it is a country still rebuilding and recovering from the disastrous earthquake in 2015, yet there are so much more than mere shambles and messy infrastructure of Kathmandu that I saw and lived. I was initially shook by the state of disorderliness Kathmandu was in when I first step foot on the crowded pavements and unregulated traffic on the streets, but as I leave Nepal, I could not cease to smile at the beautiful bright skies, the warmth of the locals and the hopeful eyes of the little children I talked to during the school visits. To give you a context of what I did*, my schoolmates and I basically helped build a wall for a local government school pretty high up in the mountains, discuss current issues and talk about comparisons of culture mainly between Singapore and Nepal to students younger than or of the same age as us, as well as trek one of the mountains to the Australian Base Camp (I guess it was called the Annapurna mountain range?). 

It was a fulfilling trip as never have I ever see myself to be so deeply impacted by the small things a short trip can give me, given my skeptical nature on short-lived projects where my commitment is not a priority. This trip has allowed me to truly see the qualities of oneself from within, as there was imminent language barrier with some of the students, yet their sincerity and eagerness to learn about my culture and promote their beloved Nepali culture was invigorating, to say the very least. Yes, I only spent a day with the students, but that experience left so many unanswered questions in my head: when was the last time I actually feel that eager to learn about something I can search on the internet? Have I forgotten the joy of truly disconnecting from distractions and just focus on building relationships with new people? Have I lost touch of the extent subtleties of unexpected poignant moments can impact my perspective because I have been too comfortable in what I have been doing this whole year?

It was a mass of contradictions--my mind was puzzled after the overwhelmingly positive outcome of that short visit. I felt so liberated just talking to new people there. It was a humbling experience to realise how little I know of this world and how small my empirical reality of my own bubble actually is. Thus, I learned to learn, all over again. I came with the mindset of sharing experiences and exposing the Nepali students to international cultures by befriending them as they may not have appropriate platforms where they can have international friends, but in the end I felt that it was more educational for me instead of for them. If I have to choose one word to describe the whole experience, it has to be Introspection.

Introspection is something I lack doing, as the surprising experiences should not strike me as hard, especially since I used to live in a developing country with similar circumstances and beautiful sceneries. Therefore, I am thankful to have the chance to visit Nepal, where I can relive those memories of childhood and reconnect with long-lost friends I never get to befriend across the globe away as our differences in backgrounds really did not matter. I was quick to complain about things I have, quick to judge my own abilities, and even quick to analyse social situations, yet I 'forgot' that I am fundamentally flawed in connecting with my own self for the very assumptions that I have grown and moved forward from my past self. I guess that is because I focus too much on self-improvement that I do not see the bigger, more important picture of coming to terms with my past and piecing the mosaics of my past experiences first in order to build an improved front. Hence, by introspecting on my recent visit, it helped me sieve through the social problems underlying the society back at home, retrieving those desires to do something bigger in order to also impact others just like how the Nepali students impacted me. Thus after reflecting on this wonderful journey, the real question: what can you do to alleviate their slow growth and or impact their lives as much as they have impacted mine still remain. But this trip has certainly reconnected me to my “supposedly” humbler side who still look at the world as how it really is, instead of through a rose-tinted screen where i take things at face value while making excuses such as “yeah ill think of what happened today when i am less busy”.

As you can tell, i have drifted quite a lot from my intended title, but Nepal truly is a country you guys should include to your bucket list simply for the indescribable experience you will get, especially if you are not used to the landscape of a developing nation. It should not be “10 reasons why you should visit Nepal”, but “the reason why you should visit Nepal: people, scenic landscapes, ah just because Nepal.”

*I also did other stuff but probs I'll share with you some other time in a different post or... I may just keep it to myself

ps there are more pics of my friends and I on my Instagram if you want to check them out! Also I do not have any pictures with the children because their child protection policies are pretty strict in Nepal for fears of human trafficking.  :)