market

A Sunday stroll around Bangsar Village

I woke up early this Sunday morning and opened the curtains just to find out it was raining so my plan to head over for Breakfast at Bangsar Village seamed like a bad option. So I quickly came up with a plan B, to hope for the rain to stop and find my way over to the Village for a nice lunch instead.

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I visited the Bangsar Village a few weeks ago with a friend for dinner and was told it is a great place to hang out during the day as it has a wide selection of cafe’s, Restaurants and shops.

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As soon as the rain stopped i booked a grab taxi, took my camera and I was lucky that the traffic was not to heavy, so it did not take me to long to get there.

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The area has a wide selection of restaurants serving everything from Local food, Japanese, Thai, Chinese and Western cuisine.

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I checked out the lunch menu at the Ril’s Bangsar restaurant and ended up ordering a fantastic tasting Beef. The place have a nice atmosphere, great service and amazing tasting food, so well worth a visit.

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The Pasar Malam Bangsar market is located just next to the village mosque.

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You will find a mix of stalls with option to buy fruit and vegetables, taste the local cooked food or shop for cloths and other items. For sure an interesting place for a stroll and people watching.

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I spent some time at the market, before I found my way over to the shopping center.

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As everywhere else in Kuala Lumpur you have to watch out for the motorbikes and cars as they are driving everywhere.

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At the shopping you will find a wide selection of shops to choose from including the high class brands. So for the once loving shopping it would be easy to spend some hours checking out the stores. As I had spent a few hours walking around outside the shopping centers I decided that the only shopping I would to this Sunday, other than buying a some fruit at the market, would be to buy a few items at the grocery store to take back to my hotel. So exploring the shopping centers will have to be for next time.

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Bangsar Village is located within one of Kuala Lumpur’s most affluent neighbourhoods and is Easily accessible via the Bangsar LRT station, Rapid KL’s Kelana Jaya Line has a stopover along Jalan Bangsar. Jalan Telawi – Bangsar Village I & II’s address – is a five-minute cab ride away. Alternatively, you can hop on the Rapid KL bus U87 (which also goes past Mid Valley Megamall) to get to Bangsar Baru and then walk to the retail emporium.


The Culture heart of Bali

We had chosen Bali as destination for this ester holiday, but chose to go beyond the big cities and the beaches and in to the charming area of Ubud. Also known as the culture heart of Bali. Ubud is surrounded by beauty, all from the Jungle, the rice fields, the smiling faces of the local people & temples. And you find some nice spots for chilling out when the sun gets to strong, with some great restaurants, bars and cafes.

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Our choice of hotel was a new built resort close to the city center so easy walking distance to most attractions with Money forest being one of them.

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Surrounded by nature we felt the tranquility as soon as we stept inside the resort. Our room was overlooking the Jungle with some rice paddies down below.

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We spent a day strolling the streets, visiting some of the market places, stopped for lunch and some refreshing drinks and a visit to the Monkey forest.

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We took a shortcut down to Monkey forest from the hotel and it’s a lot of new development in progress in the area. It’s an area with rice paddies mingled in between the different hotels and restaurants along the way.

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We did not spend too much time at the Monkey forest as none of us like the monkeys to much. We are both a bit scared of them jumping on us. It has happened to me a few times and I can’t say I like the feeling very much. But I do like to capture them with my camera.

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One advice I got when walking in the Nature reserve in Singapore is to never make eye contact with the monkeys.

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After a stroll around the forest we wanted to try out the Locavore restaurant for lunch but it only had a set testing menu available so we headed over to “Loca Vore to go”. They serve modern cuisine with local products and the food is very tasty.

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As the weather in Bali was quite hot at the time some chilling out at the pool just before sunset was just the perfect spot to be. Nothing better than a dip in the pool with a drink looking at the sunset.

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As the hotel was newly opened they only served beer, but on a hot day it was not a bad substitute for wine and coctails that would have been our preferred drinks.

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Our evenings was spent trying out different restaurants and one of them being the Blanco par mandif. The restaurant was difficult to find and it has an interesting touch to it with a different dining experience. It serves Indonesian cuisine with very creative presentation and very tasty.

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We also got it paired with the drinks and we tried a lot of interesting combinations.

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We also tried out Pica for dinner and again another great choice of restaurant. The food tasted amazing. It’s serves South American cuisine.

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We signed up for a bike ride one of the days and started our bike tour at the top of Mt Batur,  From there it was mostly downhill back in to town.

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Our guide explained us to keep the gear in 2 and 7, like non off us had ever been on a bike before. He kept repeating this to us a few times to make sure everyone understood, also pointing out that if facing a uphill we should change gear. At the time we faced a steep uphill slope it was just to jump off the bike and push it as the gear was stuck for most of us. It had probably not been changed that often.

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The ride down the mountain went through local villages and rice fields with some information from the guide along the way.

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We got picked up for our bike ride after breakfast and on the way to our starting point we has a stop at a coffee plantation where they informed us about the process of the luwak coffee and some tasting was offered as well.

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Another stop along the way was in the village of Tegallalang.

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A great place to stop for an amazing view of the beautiful rice terrace that the village is known for.

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Well back in Ubud we headed over to the 3 monkeys cafe for some refreshment

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and a stroll around the city center visiting some temples along the way.

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A group of school kids was passing by enjoying the time in the city before heading back to the different villages they come from.

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On our search for the Blanco par mandif restaurant we found a nice wine bar to hang out for a few drinks before dinner. DIVINE is bridges wine and cocktail bar with view overlooking the river.

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We did not have time to try out the Bridges restaurant so will put it on the bucket list for our next visit to Ubud.

Our flight was with Garuda Indonesia direct from Singapore

We stayed at Goya Boutique Resort

Recommended places to eat and drink: Blanco par Mandif, Cafe Lotus, Cafe Wayan & Bakery, 3 Monkeys cafe, Pica, Loca Vore to go, DIVINE wine and cocktail bar.

 

 

 

A stroll around the Jagalchi Fish Market

I was strolling the streets early on a Sunday morning on my way to Jagalchi fish market. It was December and the street was still very quiet and only a few stalls was open at this time. Others were getting ready to open and preparing for the day.

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Some cleaning in front of the store and some laying out the fish ready to be sold. The closer i got to the fish market the more busy it was. I passed the stalls and headed in to the indoor wet fish market.

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I walked inside the building but as it was still quiet i decided to head over to the outdoor wet market that is located just next to the indoor market.

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Fish was unloaded from small and large fishing boats and the outdoor market got busy.

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Passing this i was thinking why not try out the waffles like thing looking like fish? Well i decided to miss it this time and headed in the direction of the harbor as i could see lots of fishing boats had anchored up and was unloading fish to be sold at the marked and transported off to other places in the country to be sold.

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The harbor was busy and people was shouting at all corners to make sure the fish got to the right trucks or sold off to the local marked.

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All was very well organized and boxes got stored in different location or transported direct on the trucks for transportation.

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The Jagalchi fish market is the largest fish market in Korea and you will find fresh fish that can be purchased for a good price. With the location beside Nampo port the fish can be delivered quickly and kept fresh.

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The market is famous as many elderly woman run the fish stands and have done so since the men were off fighting in the Korean War. Meals are served to locals and tourist alike in the small restaurants they have set up behind the stalls were they are selling the fish.

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A lot of restaurants come here to buy fish from wholesalers.

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At the time I left the market it was getting really busy.

If you visit Busan make sure you visit the Jagalchi market. Try out some of the food stalls or just stroll around. Either way it is worth the visit.