DENPASAR MOON: 06/01/2007

5 Things Not To Be Missed In Bali

1. Try the traditional Balinese drink called "Soda Gembira", a concoction of soda water, strawberry syrup and condensed milk. Sounds too sweet? Somehow it's effectively thirst quenching! 2. Get a massage and facial at a recommended spa 3. Visit Sukawati Market 4. Eat at "ACC" Nasi Padang restaurant. The branch closest to Ngurah Rai airport is the best. Good food that's so good it's addictive ("ACC" is Islamic-friendly, they do not sell pork or use lard - see bottom of page for article on "Halal foods") 5. Get a tattoo at the famous "Mr. Dolphin's", which has many branches around Kuta & Legian Did you know? The popular Asian "Rendang" dish, if genuine, takes 10 hours to cook so that the flavour is thoroughly immersed in the meat; the gravy should be so dark it's almost black, and thick like a paste. Try it at "ACC" (see above) Also, the Balinese are fascinated by the fact that we actually could drink sugar cane juice! Some consider it strange, while others wonder how we are able to extract the juice from sugar-cane. I have yet to come across a single vendor selling sugar-cane juice in Bali. When I told a friend what he thought if we sold it there, he laughed and said nobody would drink it - at least not the Balinese.

Note To Our Visitors

Hi all, Thanks for all your support. We are encouraged by the response during our first & second flea-market. There will be more to come for the upcoming Fleamarket on 26 May at Orchard and 9 and 10 June again at Tampines - our regular location (see map above).

If there is something from Bali that you want or you have seen or heard about, even if we are not currently marketing it, just send us an email and we'll do the rest for you - we'll make the necessary enquiries and source the item for you at the best available price.

One of the most frequent questions we're asked is if our sandals (slippers) lack grip on slippery surfaces. Well, through feedback received from friends and customers, they find our sandals to have quite good sole-grip.

The decorative beads and sequinns on our sandals are hand-stitched, not just glued. The older-designed sandals were satin-covered and therefore if you have purchased those from somewhere, you'd find your feet slipping out of the sandals easily. Which is why we do not sell those.

We have handbags that will cater to the young, old and fashionable -adorable and colourful island-type designs that will make a handbag retailer ask you where you got those! Some use natural material ( I mean it literally) while others are the more synthetic-types with lovely motifs to make you look vibrant. Enough with the dull earth-colours that seem to be the norm, it's time to get colourful.

Our little cat-calendars and pencils are a favourite with the kids. We have limited stock but still enough for at least our next flea-market. Many have also enquired about our generous-quality attractive friendship-bands. It's hard to find them anywhere else at those prices huh!

Keep visiting this site for updates and more pictures as we develop the enterprise. We are as excited as you are about what's yet to come and if you do not want to miss out on that obscure piece of information or product, then keep returning here.

You won't want to miss us.

Hope to see you there......

Jerlin Co-Director

Bali - A Natural Paradise

Mystical, alluring, charming, gorgeous, sexy, friendly, warm, and fascinating - that's how Bali is in not so many words! There's never enough time to explore Bali, not even a month. It would be hard to find a people as sincere, genuine, and friendly as the Balinese. They say people make a place, regardless what the place is like, and I totally agree. Bali is indeed larger than Singapore, measuring 5620 sq km or 140km by 80km. It's climate is between warm and hot, but not humid like Singapore, and has more predictable rain-patterns. The outline of Bali is quite similar to the Lion City, except that regulations disallow the development of buildings more than a few storeys high, which makes the Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur among the tallest structure you can find. My wife Yasmeen and I frequent Bali every quarter annually, and each time we visit there is always something new to discover. Then we brought along two dear friends of ours, Jerlin and her husband Willie, and they fell in love with the place immediately. Doing away with her fork and spoon, Jerlin surprised us by sinking her hands Balinese-style into her plate of 'Padang' dishes, and she savoured the hot chilli that came with the food at 'ACC' - the best padang food restaurant around and best value for money too. In fact, almost everyone who came with us or who were introduced to Bali by us fell in love with the place. A relative told me while we waited to board the flight at Ngurah Rai Airport on the way back to Singapore that he had been to several destinations, but this was the first time he did not miss Singapore. Just what is it about Bali that pulls people around the world to this island, and then leave them coming back for more year after year?Ask Walter Spies, Miguel Covarrubias, Rudolf Bonnet, Rober and Loiuise Koke, just a fraction of famous people - artists, and authors who made Bali their second home since the turn of the 19th century. And countless celebrities and contemporary artists have refused to part with Bali since then. The amount of literature making this relatively small island their subject is astounding - try "Our Hotel in Bali" by Loise G.Koke, "A Little Bit One O'clock" by William Ingram, "Bali Moon" by Odyle Knight, "Island of Bali" by Miguel Covarrubias, "A Paradize Created" by Adrian Vickers, or "The Rape of Sukreni" by Anak Agung Pandji Tisna (translated by George Quinn). Then there is the famous horror movie based on a true story, "Mystics of Bali" that struck a chord with European and American audiences, but that is now a collector's item if ever found or marketed again. Or just get the Lonely-Planet guide to Bali, it's the best there is written by people, like us, who almost live there. I once asked an American tourist why he frequented Bali, and his response was "Bali is the california of Southeast-asia!" It took us at least 10 trips before we "discovered" Bali. Together with my partner Jerlin, and our respective spouses who provide invaluable insight, advice and work, we decided that we wanted to bring Bali, and it's astounding creativity, to you. Through it's creations. By carefully selecting the latest and the best, we strive to bring you, little by little, the unique products found only in Bali. We do not do this with profit as a priority. We want to convey to you a part of what we really love and enjoy. We are not entrepreuners who are just importers of mass-produced goods from Bali or elsewhere seeking to give you an artificial taste of the beautiful island without knowing Bali yourselves. You will not find items of other origin being retailed, that's just how serious we are. The creations, fashion trends, and designs in Bali change quickly. And we keep up with that change, because that change is an expression of Balinese culture, potential, and immense creativity. We are new, our products are new and the latest, and of the best quality we can find. And this is just the beginning. Our plans go way deeper than this. Including a future structural-development in Bali. That's just a glimpse of what we have in mind. We do not use suppliers or business contacts; instead, we have good friends in Bali who lead us to the best there is. Our resources are great, our sources even greater. To those of you who have been everywhere on this planet but Bali, then you have not been anywhere. Sad to say, a few who visit Bali still do not grasp its intrinsic beauty. You got to go deeper in your soul than that to see what paradise is. That's how mystical Bali is. 'Only when you open your heart shall you see the heavens', someone said. It could not ring more true with Bali. It's not surprising when you consider that archaeological finds that go way back as far as 3000 years have been discovered on what is sometimes known as "The Island of the Gods". But to those of you not there yet, do not despair. At least for now, we bring Bali to you..... James Ronan Co-Director

Bali - A Poem

'MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH BALI - IN MEMORIAM' by Susan Maree Women bound in colourful brocade, placed sacred offerings on temples and ground, In my 'mind's eye' I 'hear' the Gamelan playing amongst the distant festive sounds, But what captured the essence of this once peaceful small isle, Was the simple beauty of the people with their 'hello's and 'smiles', With frangipani, hibiscus, exotic fruits and palms, The markets, villages, and Balinese traditions oozed alluring charm, And whilst shopping was cheap, if you'd learned to barter right! A smile comes to my lips when I remember the phrase 'I give you good price!', So as I witnessed Bali life further through carvings and lively dance, A history rich in antiquity unfolded through stories and trance, For the spirit of Bali is inspired by a great love of life and Art, As within it is passion and vision, for it comes straight from the heart, Yes, I was once drawn to the magic of this neighbourly exotic heaven, But now sadly there's only the deadly smell of September eleven, For now within her island's once magical womb, Lie the scars and remnants of a terrorist's tomb, However I believe in my heart, I will return to 'my love affair' one day, When mankind has perhaps evolved, and peace is deemed the 'only way'.

Myths About Bali

As is the case with the most famous and the celebrated, comes the myths and lies that are spread around by a minority of envious, unlearned, and ignorant people. "They eat dogs there!", some would say. "Look at their deities, the island borders on the occult", say the others. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. In case you did not know, to the Balinese, a dog - apart from being recognized as a man's best friend - is to an extent a sacred being. And if there is any existence of a food-outlet offering dog-meat as a delicacy, it would be a rare exception no more than those isolated cases of obscure restaurants found in developed countries that reportedly serve chicken feet to tiger's testicles as a gourmet dish to that selected few. It does not mean the mainstream citizens endorse the brutal slaying of domesticated or wild animals, let alone for human consumption. For the rest that allege Balinese culture dwell on the occult, not only do you sadly fail in your knowledge of history, but I would tell you - without indulging you in a philosophical debate that would in a short period prove to undermine your self-worth - that there are few places left on this planet where you could find the right mix of religion and economic progress through industry as you would in Bali. They are an example. That's why people from all over love the island and its people. Plenty migrate there too. It's the most lucrative part of Indonesia. Her people demonstrate how the proper practise of religion - despite the absence of the type of mordern technology that makes us what we are - can enhance and ensure progress towards an economically viable and successful society even among a simple people on a tropical island. Thus those that slander the land and her offsprings with such rumours deserve a tale I am about to relate that was told to me by a very wise person: A missionary had visited a tribe in the jungles of Central Asia, and during a discussion among the tribal members that excluded the missionary, a plane flew in the sky above the tribal village. It was their first sighting of a flying machine, so they could not comprehend what was taking place before their eyes. They began crying out that what they were witnessing were the Gods visiting them in such a strange form, and the loud sound emanating from the plane's droning engine was the angry voice of God! Even though the missionary offered to explain to the tribe what was in fact happening was not supernatural, they ignored him. That evening, the tribe killed one of it's own members to appease the "Gods". Then they ate the carcass. See the analogy? Those who spread such myths resemble the tribe. My advice to such people would be: "Get a Life".

A True Story

During the second terrorist bombing of Bali in two years following the first, a restaurant in the heart of Kuta was targeted and destroyed. On the exact day that occured, Yasmeen and I were supposed to have our dinner at that very restaurant, with Jerlin and Wee Lee. However, and perhaps a blessing in disguise, Jerlin had much earlier, prior to our scheduled Bali trip, been involved in a traffic accident from which she suffered mild and superficial injuries, but which were sufficient to compel the cancellation of our proposed trip to Bali together. Instead, Yasmeen and I went to Kuala Lumpur. And strangely, on that fateful day that the bomb went off in the restaurant, I received information pertaining to the attack from another friend called Selcuk, who called me from England. Selcuk and his girlfriend Christie, like Jerlin and Wee Lee, had accompanied us to Bali previously too. So while he watched Sky News in Windsor, he learned of the bombing and called me, thinking I had indeed gone to Bali as planned. Needless to say, I was stunned at the news. So was Yasmeen. We realized that had it not been for Jerlin's cancellation, we would have been - like the many who were killed in both the first and second bombing - innocent victims of an attack by a group of people who had lost their bearings in life. In that restaurant that was destroyed, an employee we had befriended during our previous trips died. Together with my partner Jerlin, and Wee Lee and Yasmeen, we dedicate this growing site to all those who perished for no reason in the first and second Bali bombings, other than to satisfy the ego of a few maniacs who could not cope with life's challenges and thereby got left behind - antisocial misfits who used the name of God to compensate their lack of fulfillment in life.

"Halal" or Kosher foods

Indonesia represents the largest Muslim nation in the world. It is a Muslim country even though a great majority of the Balinese are Hindus. There are naturally fears among Muslims about access to "Halal" foods in Bali. One must comprehend that because Indonesia is largely Islamic, there does not exist an official procedure nor the necessity for one that certifies food outlets "Halal" or otherwise as is the case in Singapore. It would be like asking a British citizen to carry a passport or Driver's License that says he speaks English. Therefore for Muslims concerned with the access to "Halal" foods In Bali, do not fret, the absence of a "Halal" certificate in a food outlet like a "Padang" restaurant does not mean the outlet is not "Halal" or sells pork-dishes and use lard. Some restaurants offer their own guarantee with a signage announcing a "Halal" cuisine to customers to allay their fears of being served Non-halal recipes or ingredients - and this should be taken as a good and trustworthy promise; I am sure any breach of such would have been discovered long before and would have led to public outcry. There is, apart from padang restaurants, at least one seafood restaurant along Legian across the road from the new Paddy's pub and "Apache" that serves Halal food. Note that Halal does NOT = a certificate, otherwise most Muslims in Indonesia would be starving now. You can always ask the friendly waiters if you need to be sure. Note however that while there are now a variety of breweries offering "Halal" or non-alcoholic beer, always pay attention to the label on the bottle. Depending on each country's legalities, what may constitute as non-alcoholic in one country may be alcoholic in another. In some jurisdictions any beverage with lesser than 1% or 2% alcohol may be legally categorized as non-alcoholic, while for a beverage or beer to be considered "Halal" it should actually have 0% alcohol. An interesting point to know here pertains to the Hindus. Those that I know in Bali who are Hindus do take beef as compared to other Hindus elsewhere. So if you are inviting your "bemo" driver to have lunch with you and the Mrs., do not by all means deprive him of the delicious "Rendang" you are scoffing in his presence! The Hindus in Bali consider "Hanoman" a deity, so for them monkeys are revered as sacred.

Bali Dreaming

Bali dreaming, Bali high, Bali dreaming, I tell no lie. Bali dreaming, Bali high, Bali dreaming, I'll tell you why. To watch a Kuta sunset And feel a cooling breeze, There's magic here in Bali For your spirit to be released. There's monkeys in the forest, Kintamani standing tall. There's happy smiling faces In Bali - love it all! Nasi Goreng at the warung Or lobsters by the sea, Then day turns into nighttime Legong dancing, come and see! From Sanur to Lovina, You'll always be surprised. Sea temple in the twilight You won't believe your eyes! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Glossary Kintamani: An imposing volcano on Bali. Kuta: The main surf beach and entertainment area on Bali. Legong: The traditional dancing of Bali. Lovina: A very remote village on the north of the island. Nasi Goreng: The staple fried rice dish in Indonesia. Sanur: A sleepy alternative village to Kuta. Warung: Can be a traditional Indonesian fixed restaurant, or it can be a portable hand-pushed cart. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Dave Fisher Seminyak, Kuta, Bali, Indonesia.

Friday, June 1, 2007

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