General Greatness in Ahmed Bali

Postcard perfect Kath.

One thing we have discovered on this trip is that if you find a place you like, don't go somewhere else just because you said you would, and especially don't go somewhere else because whatever book you have says it is a can't miss. The people make the difference and the views turn into one another after a while. This very thing happened to us in Ahmed Bali. We showed up for a couple of days and stayed over a week. The people we were staying with were kind, the lifestyle relaxed and the diving terrific. We could rent a scooter and travel out into the fishing villages and up the mountains and come back in the evening to a great little Warung where we could drink cold bintang, eat fresh fish and play cribbage by candle light.

One day I went fishing at five in the morning and saw the sunrise over Lombok. I also fished out of the boat below that has outriggers along with a longtail motor.

Another day we took a scotter and ate curried rice in the rice fields and climbed Lempunyang and were nearly attacked by rabid monkees.

This dude is vicious. Don't let him fool you.

Another day we did nothing and on another day I ate gado gado and fish satay that I thought would kill me.

Suckling Pig - Ubud Bali

Kath and I rented a scooter and were driving North to escape the heat and exceptional busyness of Ubud when I heard suckling pig yelled in my ear at speed. I yelled back, "WHAT?" Pig she said and I stopped the scooter (though she is a vegetarian she knows of and sometimes encourages my love of all things pork). She told me that she saw a whole pig getting served on the side of the road in a rice paddy. I said I love you Jonesy and lets go there for lunch

After completing our sojourn to the mountains and the cool, not the cold, we returned to the spot of said suckling sighting and sure enough, there was a pig, half gone, surrounded by men of all shapes and sizes making grunt like noises and signaling for this or that with their pig grease fingers. Behind the pig was a man with a handlebar mustache that reached his tits, teeth tobaccoed the color of a good buttery beef au jus and a middle aged sun stained woman, her hair piled on top of her head and pig juices and grease covering her to her elbows. Little pieces of meat were stuck below her fingernails and i think I caught sight of a piece of loin near her ear, but whose to tell?

I pointed, I pointed again, they gave a hearty laugh and opened my ginger ale that was home brewed and put into an old corona bottle. The plate came and it was piled high.
* Pig on a plate. Notice the various types of pig from skin, to sausage to chicarron to loin to intestine, to shredded pork salad with ginger sambal
*happy as a pig in shit, literally, as I think I am eating an intestine stuffed with some other part of the pig
* pig with accoutrements. left to right it it is pig juices with meat, pig juices with pig fat, hot sambakl with pig juices and ginger sambal with pig juices, near my foot on the bottom is leftover pig juices and on the top is pig with pig juices * pig face, pig trotters, pig ears, pig innards, and pig delicious

The meal cost less than three dollars and I would have had another but for the need to not always act the glutton, especially when in the presence of others. Suckling pig in Ubud, I miss you.

Hormok on Koh Samui

*Market at the dock

On the Island of Koh Samui there is a food market near where the ferry drops off that is suprisingly one of the best food markets I have been to. I am biased however, seeing that the best food stall treat I had in Thailand, I had here.

* best snacks ever

The dock market was discovered by accident one day. Kath and I were buying tickets to go to Laos, a trip we ended up not taking. Across the street the market was beginning to take shape and I wandered over after we were done buying our train tickets and Kath was checking her email. There was the usual assortment of hanging ducks and sliced prok, noodles in broth and things on a stick. Before deciding what to really eat I sat down and had a pearl tea and a couple of satay fish sticks. I ended up going with some sort of crab and fish wrapped in banana leaves and it was spectacular. The crab meat and fish was suspended in a solid scrambled egg that was full of garlic and lemony basil, with a heavy anise taste to eat it. There were also shredded small chiles to give it some kick and the taste of shrimp paste to give the hormok a nice a mellow bottom. They were so good I got three. They were cooked over a charcoal grill and not a single drip of egg escaped to the grill. How they made them so tight I don't know, but there was also a film crew going around the market and they couldn't get enough of our lady either

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* Crab Hormok

Also, when Kath and I come home and have a dog, blame on these two dogs on a scooter in Koh Samui. This lady also gave amazing massages. Can you believe this dog that is a german sheppard weiner dog mix? AWESOME.