Bali (Day 1): Kuta & Seminyak

Finally getting to writing about my 2017 travel diary for Bali! Woohooo~~ Can you believe my Bali tan hasn't cured yet after so many months??

When I arrived in Bali, it was already late since there was a delay in my flight. I went to check into Flamingo Hostel, a hostel located not too far from the main street yet quiet and super relaxing!

I would DEFINITELY recommend the hostel because the location is just super convenient and you can get around Kuta's main road_Japan Pantai Kuta, several Art Markets, Matahari Department Store, plenty of restaurants and even Kuta Beach within walking distance! There's just so much to explore! Exactly why it's my favourite hangout, shopping and relaxing spot! In fact, I love this place so much I spent a lot of my days just being here!

By the way, this hostel also prepares breakfast and even van tour service, just so you know :)

Legian, Seminyak

On official Day One, I spent only half a day in Kuta before taking a rather expensive taxi ride to check into my next stay at Legian. My first impression was I didn't like how the main shopping and food streets were further from the hostel which means I have to walk a good 15-20 minutes before coming across the shopping street although there are attraction nearby like 3D World. Of course, I spent the entire day walking, just checking out almost every shops I came across (the best part of exploring by foot!) and even found a pretty printed maxi skirt. You cannot forget to get some Bali-esques vibes clothes or accessories while you're at Bali, nah ah.

The Legian Sunset Residence, where I reside for the night

When I'm tired and hungry from my walk, I decided to have my lunch at Ocha Warung, a boutique cafe with amazing ambient. Because tourism is a huge thing in Bali, there are lots of furnitures shops/factories/interior design companies catering for the local demands from restaurants and even hotels/hostels/Airbnb as I learnt that evening while walking along Sunset Road. Ocha Warung is one of the many restaurants with grand (at least for a tourist's POV) interiors.

Opted for the Indonesian-Western fusion nasi campur a.k.a. mixed rice and it was so-o-o good! I chose Mango salad, Indonesian chicken satay (grilled meat on stick) and lodeh.

I continued walking along Sunset Road before finding myself back to my hostel (made a huge round!). Decided I was tired I decided to take a nap and before I know it, it was 8PM! So much for wanting to check out the sunset at Legian Beach, gahhh! I head out again, this time exploring Arjuna Street while waiting for my friends whose flight got delayed. Why is this happening a lot for flights to Bali?? (I'm saying a lot because most of my friends who has been to Bali tell me so!)

Anyways, Arjuna Street is a great place to hangout for a drink, there are several small bars and cafes (though nothing like in Kuta) and several boutiques if you're looking to shop at night. My Exilim doesn't perform best at night so I don't have many clear photos...

I didn't do much, not wanting my friends to wait too long for me after their 3 hours journey. When they did arrived, we had our dinner at Apartment Red, a two-storey warung just less than 5 minutes away from our hostel. One friend opted for IndoMee, having heard so much of it and have never tried them while another opted for fried rice.

Myself, I chose fried chicken with dried chilli sauce which initially I thought was interesting (because I love spicy food) but proves overly spicy and dry for my liking. Thankfully, I ordered iced drink to cool myself (or rather, my tongue) down LOL

Mitasu Japanese Restaurant, Kuala Lumpur

Happy Weekend!! Can you believe it's March already?! Just a little while ago, it was just Chinese New Year!

Anyways, my friends and I had post-CNY lunch just yesterday which got postponed many times because it is so tough to make plans with so many people. Finally, only four can make it. Already quit and achievement I'd say. This time, we hung out at Mitasu Japanese Restaurant, located at Standard Chartered building along Jalan Sultan Ismail and accessible via Connections Pavillion.

Tips: If you are planning to dine here for their buffet, don't forget to make reservations especially on the weekend! I eyeballed their reservation list and it was quite a long one! Thankfully for my gal pal Sharon who made us a reservation instead of going ahead with my "just walk inlah" suggestion lol

Check out their glorious bowl of fresh oysters and prawns. You can have as many of oysters, yo! My friends had three bowls WTF.

 

For starters we had tuna sashimi, salmon sashimi, half-grilled salmon, chukka idako and jellyfish. All of which we didn't have any photos because we were busy digging into the food *smacks face*

I did managed to snap my favourite pumpkin tempura when we ordered our second servings of this. Would have definitely ordered more but we wanted to try the other variety of dishes! We also ordered hotate (scallops) and takoyaki (photo on the left, from top left) then deep fried hotate, teppanyaki squids and edamame which came in a generous serving (top to bottom, right side)!

Next were the chawanmushis and grilled saba (mackerel).

Followed by butter fish and grilled lamb.Yea, the food just kept coming!

We ordered our greens upon recommendations of one of the staff and buddy _ smoked duck salad topped with roes, pickled Japanese cucumber, scallop salad and okras tempura.

I had to stop after all these. My friends went ahead with half-grilled salmon and rotate nigiri sushi and cheese baked mussels.

For desserts, we (or rather I) had tons of konnyaku jellies together with black sesame and chocolate ice creams. These are two of their top flavors for ice cream so when Ben opted for vanilla, protests ensued hahahahaha. He got his vanilla ice cream anyhow.

*Burp*

While all the food are tempting, make sure not to not bite off more than you can chew! Mitasu charges for every 100g of food wastage, so be warned! Optionally, instead of going to the buffet, you want to consider ala carte options.

Ending this post with an #OOTD shot