A Taste Of Bali: Ubud Food Festival + A Little Side Trip!

Hi guys!

So I was supposed to delay this post for another week, but I realized that these are my lighter days already! I have to anticipate the busiest weeks when Bloggers United and my blog work both come in together in a week or a month. I guess better to start the travel blogs now!!

If you're following me on social media, you'll know that I just came home from two consecutive trips, at wala ng uwian. It gets tiring now that I am back in Manila, it's so hard to adjust and go hustle mode again. All I want to do was stay in bed, watch Youtube, go to the gym, do the groceries, and other mindless stuff, hehe! I am still wishing for a week of this routine, but then, work starts tomorrow! 😄 Anyway, the first destination for my Summer 2018 travels was in Bali--and this one came in a bit more unexpected than my Taiwan trip.

I have an unfinished business with Bali, but that's a longer story so I might as well not go through it. I also realized that Indonesia is one of the few Southeast Asian countries that I haven't been to. On my Cebu trip a few months ago, I went to cover the launch of AirAsia Red Talks Part 2 in Hotel Bai. Since it's an AirAsia event, I was expecting that they will be raffling off airfares. I did not win any of that that night, so I gave up all hopes and just enjoyed the fact that I was there in Cebu for free!!

They also announced a posting contest, but I was tinatamad to think of a caption much more a photo to post on-the-spot that night. The prize though was a trip to Bali to join the AirAsia Red Talks episode shoot. I was back in our hotel room after the program, around 15 minutes before the deadline (12mn) of the Instagram contest, when I decided that what the heck! I posted a photo of a sunset by the sea next to the 10,000 Roses where Rochelle and I went to before heading back to our hotel for the event. I still remember captioning the photo with "Cebu sunset, hopefully next time it's Bali's..." I got a big surprise that night when a fellow blogger, Shari of Misty Mom, messaged me that my name was announced in the event, and that I was one of the posting contest winners!!!

With Etienne, a social media influencer from Cebu, who also won the Instagram contest! We were together during the whole Bali trip and I must say she's a really cool girl! We both share a love for street style, and she's always game to take my pics or lend her girly earrings for our "girly Bali look"! Hehe!

So that's the reason why I was in Bali last week! I was there with the AirAsia Red Talks Season 2 crew, along with their host Miss Daphne Oseña Paez. Ang saya coz I was able to meet new people from all walks of life, and at the same time, travel to a new place!!

Our main agenda was the Ubud Food Festival. It's a three-day event, but we only went on the 14th (our first full day in Bali).

We were all staying in Element By Westin Bali Ubud, and had two to three vans to transport us to the shooting locations. When our van arrived at the food festival, Etienne and I were allowed to just go around! Wow! I felt like we were kids tailing with our parents on their work, and were free to roam around! Hehehe. "Anak eto baon, mag ikot ka muna dyan habang nag wowork si mama!" Hahaha!

They gave us a budget to just eat, try the Ubud delicacies, and take our usual Instagram pictures! Hahaha, the life!?? Thank you AirAsia!!

This is one of the many ice cream that we tried that day! I had the charcoal and berry gelato on charcoal cone. So good and perfect for the hot day!

Etienne and I also decided to just chill somewhere, which was my excuse to get my usual iced coffee fix. We saw this booth with a dining area, so I ordered a cup which comes with free slice of cake! Wow!

Here's another favorite (although feel ko lahat naman ata naging favorite ko that day, hehehe). Etienne was looking for the grilled corn we saw earlier. I just had my root canal that week, so I decided to buy something else which is the sweet mangoes on sticky rice with rice crispies on the side. The whole thing was drenched with cold milk, yum yum!

I cannot count how many ice cream and ice pops we had on that trip, hehehe!

A dimsum booth that has vegetarian dumplings so di ko na pinalagpas! :p

Side Trips...

Quirky street signs:

Pretty cafes:

Colorful shops:

Bintang beer!

An Art Gallery....

After spending time at the Ubud Food Festival, Etienne and I decided to go out and explore the area by foot. There were motorbikes and taxis waiting just outside the venue, but we decided not to spend muna kahit na the drivers were discouraging us na 30 minutes ang walk, haha! It was so hot, but my feet were itching to go around so we went for it!

We saw several houses converted into art galleries during our "walk". Here's one of them, with a really interesting exteriors (yup, those are bronze nips! 😅).

We freely went around inside, most of the artworks are eccentric paintings on wood or canvass.

Bali Temple...

We felt accomplished when we finally passed by our first Bali temple! Haha! Those two arch that serve as the entrance to the compound are "very Bali", hehe! According the the signage by the entrance, the name of the temple is Pura Dalem Desa Pakraman Ubud.

Rules to follow before entering include no flash, no revealing clothes during ceremonies, and no women on her period are allowed to enter!! To double check with our outfit, there's a tourist information booth right next to the temple where we inquired. Entrance is free.

It's not a popular temple, but look at those the details! They are so intricate, we even saw men still working on more carved stones at the side of the temple...

Without disrespecting or trespassing any forbidden area in the compound, we also took a few photos while inside. I also Googled the name of the temple, and one blog post was saying that it could be the Great Temple of Death (but the article was unsure).

After a while, we received a message from Steph of AirAsia so went back to the food fest but this time via cab (haha!). The rest of the day was spent trying out more Ubud food before the whole crew wrapped up the day's shoot! We all went to another local resto for dinner, and when we settled on our long tables I concluded on our first night that this trip was meant to end my diet! Haha!

Not everyone's looking but here's my first group photo from this trip!

Watch my Bali Instagram Stories:

Special thanks to AirAsia Filipino for having me in this trip, and to Element by Westin Bali Ubud for our lovely accommodation! Watch the AirAsia Red Talks Season 2 on AirAsia's Facebook page! Can't wait for this episode to come out!!!