"Toko Oen" the Old Fashioned Resto

This was my favorite place when I was a boy. I was born in Semarang and my parents quit often brought me to this legacy restaurant. It was the fanciest Ice Cream and Steak Restaurant besides the one in Dibya Puri Hotel in Semarang (I don’t know whether this hotel still exists). I brought my Family to this place last June during our children School holiday.

The location it self is in Jl. Pemuda at the opposite of "Sri Ratu" Department Store. It is a well known Department Store in Semarang, so don't worry about getting lost there, every Semarang people know where it is.

It is an old fashioned restaurant; serving old fashioned dish mostly “Holland” style like "Huzarensla", "Wiener Schnitzel" and their specialty is “Ox tongue steak”, besides the dish this restaurant is popular with their old fashioned Ice Cream like “Tutty Frutty”, “Napolitan” and many others.

In the one of the corner they also have old fashioned style pastries like “Nastar”, “Kastengel”, “Schuimpjes “, “Speculaas” and many more. I even can’t remember their name.

The interesting part is because they put their first Cash Register machine in display as a decoration in there. And it keeps my Kid very curious of it.

The restaurant it self was not too crowded during our visit, it also has a VIP room separated from the main hall. When it comes to taste, hmmm …… seems that nothing special there. I think because our appetite has changed with lot of new fancy comers coming in. But It is a historical place ……. It worth to visit.

Bali, see yaa next time ............

After long ride from Padang Bay, we have dinner (once again) in Jimbaran, and finally we know that There are three different places for Jimbaran Sea Food, the first one is the one which we had dinner in the first day, that the most expensive one. Second, is where the famous Manega Café is resides, and the last one is the one who my Jakarta office guys quiet often to have dinner on it. This is the real cheap one. We eat a Grouper Fish, Crabs and 1/3kg of Tiger Prawns with all accessories is about 300 thousands rupiahs, it is quiet cheap and you can eat up till loaded.

From Jimbaran, we go straight to Airport. Our Flight is 23:00, so that's plenty of time to wait in the airport,

oh well ...... But it is worth price anyway, We can wait in the caffee. Good by Bali ….. see yaa next time!

Bali #10, The Blue Lagoon & Tj. Jepun

After spending about an hour in Goa Lawah we continue to our final destination, Tanjung Jepun. According to information we got we should go to Padang Bay to find some tourist information center. So as been told, we found one of them, but they offer us very high price……….. Just forget it.

Lesson #1; do not make a deal on the first run. So we decided to look around asking some locals about where the Blue Lagoon is, and finally we found that place.

So before you enter Padang Bay Complex, there’s a junction and you have to turn right to follow that smaller road, about 500m you will find another junction, take the left one to the Blue Lagoon.

It’s not a wide beach, just about 200m wide. The name it self is actually the name of small footstall or ‘warung’. It is the only ‘warung’ that facing that beach. But then suddenly become a very well-known name …… just a lucky guy I supposed!

The Beach it self is …………. Fascinating! White sands, blue and clear water. Unfortunately we came in the wrong time. According to local people there, we should arrive on this place by morning, around 8 O’clock in the morning. So we would not have any strong wave like the one we have. But at least we found this place, and next time we will have better preparations.

Next Destination, we have to lease a ‘Jukung’ to go to Tanjung Jepun, it is about 10 minutes ride from there, but because the strong wave there, we have to take a ride from Padang Bay.

It is a very nice place to have snorkeling, the location is about 100m offshore from the beach, and you will find a wide coral reef about 6-10m down below. So here we are, after the long ride we should have this experience whether you like it or not. So, I am the first that going into the water, swim a while but ……….. I can’t go far away from the boat since the wave is quiet strong. But it is okay, and the most enjoyable view is once you put your head into the water and see what’s in down there. IT is a fascinating view, like you watch a very big Aquarium with …… and Hugh numbers of fish.

After a few minutes to get along with the water, Nathan went in. He is quiet enjoy with it, and do not want to end up. But then, I have to grab him all the time he went into the water since it is quiet deep water even tough he can swim well, but still it is open water not a swimming pool.

Next turn is my Wife, I ask her should go into the water, She wears a life jacket to keep her afloat and we spend few minutes before we decided to end it. We have to end it since the waves is getting bigger.

It’s not an easy ride to went home, we were facing waves about 1.5m high quiet often, and it was scared experience for some of us ……… but it is a unforgettable experience either.

Bali #9, Hotel Check Out to Goa Lawah

This is our last day in Bali, before we flyback to Jakarta. After morning breakfast in Hotel we checked out from Novotel Benoa (the last two days we spent in Novotel Benoa) and rush to Tanjung Jepun.

Surprisingly not too much people know where it is, and finally we got the ‘more precise’ info from the guy from Water Sport Company which we got their banana boat a day before. So, based on my recall to Candidasa that I visited more than ten years ago we start the journey. But now, Bali has new bypass road to go the east region, from Nusa Dua straight trough bypass road to Gianyar <> amlapura. This road is reduced your travel time a lot. The bypass road ended on the Junction just before you enter to Kusamba. You drive along the road and you will find a Large Hinddist Temple Goa lawah which build inside a large cave that become a large Bats nets and as people says there are large snakes settled inside the caves as well.

People believe that the caves, bats and snake are sacred. Especially the snakes … there are two occasion that snake found dead in two different occasion, first before ‘Second Bali Bombing’ and the other one before Aceh Tsunami.

You have to follow certain ritual if you want to enter the Temple, and have to be company with their guide, since this is sacred place. You have to wear ‘sarong’ and not permitted to harass everything inside. Women within their menstruate period are not prohibited.


The Temple it self is one of nine “Pura Sat Khayangan” in Bali, whom follow nine direction of swastika. It is a temple that has to be visit after ‘ngaben’ ceremony before continue to Pura Agung Besakih. But the one that interesting us actually is the Bat Cave it self, not the Temple off course.

Bali #8, Sunset @ Kudeta - Seminyak

Kudeta, is a popular café in Seminyak, why? Since it is a best spot to watch the Sunset. It is a café with minimalists style, besides they have a small pools for children. The rest are café that provides sunset view. I think this is the main affinity of this place, and definitly it is a hard time to find ‘strategic’ spot during sunset time. The rest, since this exotic nature occurrence it often be use for pre-wedding photos as well.

I’m not recommending this place for heavy meal, since the food price is meant for ‘bule’ consumption. But their light meal, coffee and mock tail and are worth enough to try. Their cappuccino is a bit heavy, but tasty, And there is a popular cocktail made lemon, sugar syrup and Bacardi mixed with chopped apple and lot of ………….minced mint leaves, but for somebody who do not want to take alcohol you can replace Bacardi with Apple Juice, very nice …………………………….

We just killing time sitting there, having light chit ... chat, fooling around and waiting the sunset meanwhile our kids are playing around in beach sands before finaly they went into the water.

Bali #7, Benoa Watersports

There is lot of activity in Benoa; the most popular is watersports such as banana boat, Jet sky, Parasailing, Snorkeling, Scuba Diving, Flying Fish and Glass Bottom Boat to Pulau Penyu. And we picked banana boat and Glass bottom boat to pulau penyu, since we have planned to go to another place and do not have sufficient time for another games.



First we picked Glass bottom boat to pulau penyu, since some of the recommendation is to go to pulau penyu before noon time to avoid low tide, otherwise you will have a long walk to the island. Is not really island actually since is located on the delta on the other side Benoa peninsula.

Tip: There is lot of Waterspot company scatter along Benoa Coast, and you may free to pick one of them. Some of them are working as hotels partner and some of them are working alone, but once you go out to the benoa hotel beach most likely you will find at least one of their agents. In average they are professional, and according to Bli Komang Website, it’s been already 4 years run without any accident. So it is quiet safe to play with them.

So, back to Glass Bottom Boat, we got very good boat, very clean and dry. The boat bring us to the first destination ,which is where the Benoa Coral reef belong, there also snorkeling area but today we do not want to go for it. So just have a look on the glass bottom to see the reef and indeed ……….. It is very beautiful. The interesting part is, you dump bread pieces and lot of fish will came over to fight about. It should be more interesting there down below.




After spending few minutes on the fish, we start rolling to next destination, which is pulau penyu. The boat start increasing it speed and passing benoa harbour, before arrive at the final destination.

Several local guides welcomed us aboard, and bring us to the turtle pond. It’s a large pond with lot of big turtle fooling around; they will approach if there’s somebody in. Seems That this buddy has been trained very well ….. Eh??






There also few other beast such as a large Python, a bat, an Eagle and others. The interesting one is the local guide is able to speak in four languages Spanish, Japanese, English and Russian ………… woowww!!!!!

Bali #6, Suluban Beach, Uluwatu

Pantai suluban is very near with Pura Uluwatu, it’s been talked a while among us and I do know that there’s a place for ‘bule-bule’ surfing below pura uluwatu but don’t know how to get there.

The place is very near from Pura Uluwatu itself, but before you enter Pura Uluwatu parking lot, there is a junction that you may have to turn right and follow the road up till the end of the road. You have to park your car and take a walk down below. It’s not a far distance but you have to go down by concrete stairs about 100m further down. I can imagine how it will be when the time we should go back to the cars.

The concrete stairs end up in the small village that more like to ‘surfers village’ where lot of modest café or drink house and surfboard stall scatter around the place, and we have to take the left way to go down, and here we comes …………..we found a very ‘strange’ stairs down to the beach ……. It is a small staircase but quiet deep down below without any stair support like ‘sky stairs’ ………… a bit scary!! This stair leads us to the rock gap that becomes a gateway to the beach, and once you pass that gap you’ll find beautiful scenery ………

Lucky we arrived during low tide so that we may go for coral hunt! There’s lot of niche left that can to be explore which has lot of coral fauna trapped there during the low tide.

Nathan is the one who are very eager to swim on it to see underneath, it is a coincidence since I want to bring him to go for snorkeling for the next day, so that he will have it as a first try here ………. Check out his move on these small lagoons…………….

We spent almost the rest of the day in this beach, before move on.

Bali #5, Bali Zoo Park, Gianyar

Last destination today is Bali Zoo Park, just to accommodate our kid’s request, still in Ubud area, the exact location is in Banjar Seseh Apuan, Sukawati, and Gianyar. It is a small zoo but very well maintained and has quality collections, such as Bengali Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), Black Panther, Sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekeii), African Camel and lot more. There is about 350 species there in 3.5 ha very well maintained area.




The place it self remind me to the combined between Baby Zoo in “Taman Safari Indonesia – Cisarua” and Singapore Night Safari in Bukit Timah Reservoir, but off course in smaller size. You’ll be walking’ through the ‘jungle’ like with scatter animal cages and a medium size aviary.

Aviary is the interesting place you’ll see the true White Peacock, I don’t ever know that there is kind of bird, since the day I met this beautiful bird. But then, it is a reality, and I found some reference of this bird on the net.



This is a private owned zoo and in my opinion this zoo is an asset for the local government, but then they have to compete with “Taman Safari Indonesia” that just open nearby, also in Gianyar area. I personaly doubt that this zoo may survive if they are not forming a alliances with other foreign zoo or make a differential attraction to attract people.

Bali #4, Tegalalang - The Rice Padi Terasering

Next destination is Tegalalang, it is the place for seeing Terasering view. It is a padifield that created on the side of valley so that it has to be build like a staircase. That’s why lot of foreign tourist intend to go there to see. It is a unique sightseeing for them, but for me there is more interesting place to see such padi field in bali around candidasa to amlapura, but We do not have to much time to see them, maybe next time.



One thing that I feel upset is because there to much souvenir stall around the place, and looks very unbalance since the place it self is not to big, so it seems a bit unbalance between numbers of souvenir stalls compared with the size of the sightseeing place.

Bali #3, Bebek Bengil @ Ubud

Bebek bengil is our first destination in Ubud, It has been planned long time ago that if we are able to go to ubud then Bebek bengil is the most visited place, and here we are.
And after we drive for about an hour we arrive at the place. As usual, we have to surrender the car for vale parking since they have no parking lot nearby. So as usual I surrender the key to him, and let the guy take my car to the parking lot.

We have no plan to have heavy lunch, just take a peek on that famous café and have light meal such as cakes and mocktail and off course a cup of coffee.

The place still as is, cozy, quiet and fortunately not to crowded as usual. I feel very lucky this time since we depart to bali a week before ‘lebaran’ Bali is in off-peak seasons not to much ‘bule’ or ‘asians’ or ‘domestic’ either, the crowd will be coming at the first day of lebaran according to the hotel guy …….. Lot of ‘jakartanese’ that just lost their maids ….!

Anyway, we pick a most top end of the café, a large bale-bale sitting on top of their last buildings at the back end of the yard, facing a just corpses padi field with lot of ‘ducks’ fooling around. I wonder, this is the cause they pick ‘Bebek Bengil’ as their name, which mean ‘dirty duck’ since the duck is covered by mud! …. Funny name.

I recommend strawberry breeze to choose, Nathan pick Slow Down breeze that made from mixed Guava, Orange and others with two slice of …….. Banana!

The others choose Coconut Cheese Cake, Original Chocolate something …. I forgot the name, and I choose my Favorite Mocha Tiramisu with a cup of Cappuccino, just perfect! Their Cakes is very delicious ….. But don’t worry, Ubud is the place to spoil your appetite, there’s also several café such as Ary’s Café or Murni Café or Ibu Rai’s Café whom has very famous cakes, off course there are several famous traditional footstall such as Babi Guling Ibu Oka and Nasi Ayam Kedewatan that very worth enough to be ignore.

We spent about an hour before proceed to next destination, Tegal Arang .... the Famous Rice Padi Field, and once again we have to wait for our car to be vale before we can depart to next destination.