The Yak #50

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EDITIONS COLLABORATION

www.biasagroup.com

www.theyakmag.com

Volume fifty march/april/may 2016

The Yak Magazine Sophie Digby, Agustina Ardie, Nigel Simmonds Creative Director Stuart Sullivan Sales & Marketing Peta Johnston, Amik Suhartin Production Manager Evi Sri Rezeki Graphic Designers Irawan Zuhri, Ida Bagus Adi Accounting Julia Rulianti Distribution Made Marjana, Putu Widi Susanto, Gede Swastika, Kadek Eri Publisher PT Luxury In Print Licence AHU/47558/AH/01/01/2011 Advertising Enquiries Tel: (+62 361) 766 539, 085100431804, 085100431805, 085100431796

on the YAK#50 cover: icestorm by twisted lamb and julia comita www.twistedlamb.com

e: info@theyakmag.com, sales@theyakmag.com The Yak Magazine, Kompleks Perkantoran Simpang Siur Square, Jl. Setia Budi, Kuta, Bali 80361, Indonesia

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Š PT Luxury In Print

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The Yak Magazine Bali.

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contents 22

Nifty Fifty

26

Fridge Magnets

30

Charity First

32 36 40

Yakety yak

dates with destiny

one world

15 minutes

In Love With Sade

sounds around

Fifth Element

new in the hood

Out There Round Here

64 14

50

Peerless Gear

54

Dirk Malamadre

56

All Betz Off

58

Ronald Akili

60

Mauricio Alpizar

62

out of the box

people

people

people

people

people

Flameboy Fio

116

64

Twisted Lamb

76

Half A Ton

82

Riders On The Storm

passions

yak #50

FASHION

100

Mr Peppers

104

Oil The Works

110

114

co-working

spas

weddings

Get Hitched

32

Skin By Cocoon Medical Spa

Fashion By Little Joe Woman by Gail Elliott "After just one facial my skin feels rejuvenated, hydrated and fresh. It’s the perfect treatment if I have a special event or simply if my skin is in need of a boost to make it glow.“ - Gail Elliott

Skin Rejuvenation: · PRP · Lasers · Dermapen · Mesotherapy · Diamond Microdermabrasion · Oxygen Jet Peel · Gold Carat Facials · Fillers · Botox Lifting and Firming: · HIFU (Ultherapy) · RF Microneedling · Velashape Fat Loss · Colon Hydrotherapy · Vitamin IV · Salt Room

Co Founder & Creative Director, Gail Elliott of Little Joe Woman wears the Rock Your Baby blazer in black caviar.

LITTLE JOE WOMAN Store: Jl. Petitenget 198, Seminyak 0361 4735 964 Shop online at: www.LittleJoeWoman.com

COCOON MEDICAL SPA LEGIAN Jl. Sunset Road, Legian 0811 388 2240 COCOON MEDICAL SPA UBUD Jl. 8 Monkey Forest Road, Ubud 0811 388 2241 info@cocoonmedicalspa.com www.cocoonmedicalspa.com

www.jasmineelizabeth.com Jalan Raya Kuta, Gang Cempaka 1, Kuta, Bali

Jenja offers a majestic night out, from delicious cocktails to dancing until dawn.

jl. nakula barat 18, seminyak - bali

info@jenjabali.com

0811-3988-088

www.jenjabali.com

www.facebook.com/jenjabali

www.instagram.com/jenjabali

contents P92: Omnibus: work until you die (you’re fired - ed).

114

Alila Seminyak

116

Shanghai Baby

120

Montigo Bay

124

Republik45

126

oral pleasures

oral pleasures

oral pleasures

oral pleasures

oral pleasures

Tiger Palm

140 18

130

MoVida

132

Big Six: Roasts

134

Studio 54

138

Four Seasons

140

oral pleasures

oral pleasures

yak awards

144

Client Clobber

152

What’s What

154

Horror Scope

fashion freestyle

ad directory

astro yak

venting in a villa

golf

Bali National Golf Resort

120

76

104

W W W . R E L I G I O N C L O T H I N G . C O M

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PEPPERS SEMINYAK BALI Jl. Pura Telaga Waja, Petitenget, Seminyak - Bali 80361 Phone +62 361 730 333 e. info@peppersseminyak.com • www.peppersseminyak.com

yakback So here at The Yak we have reached the Big L (the Latin numeral for 50, in case you were wondering); the half a century of issues spanning a dozen years. A lot has happened over this last 12 years … but to take you back to the beginning.

The idea of The Yak was born from a creative dream between two good mates enjoying a massage and ¬– of course – a cocktail. ‘Why The Yak?’ was the question that most people asked, ‘for SeminYAK, of course’ – ¬ we had thought it obvious. So you see we’ve been here since the start of that ‘hood’ they call The Yak. Yes, we were the very first Yakkers!

So over the years who have we met and what have we done? Oh so many, oh so much! For starters Mick, Bowie and Steve McQueen ¬– all since past; thankfully those still here include Jeremy Irons, Kelly Slater and our very good selves. We’ve travelled to Cuba, Japan and Noosa. We’ve eaten Italian, Chinese and French. We’ve had Swedish, Thai and Balinese massages. We’ve dressed in Ropp, Biasa and Gan. We’ve listened to Goldie, Snoop and Gilles Petersen. We’ve tippled at Akademi, Ku De Ta and Vin+. We’ve strutted our bootie at Double 6, Jenja and Woo Bar. But enough about yesteryear and let’s see what we bring you now we are #50! Starting with our Dates with Destiny we move you through One World and the gift of giving until Sade picks up a Yakker on a plane. Our widely popular New In The Hood revs up our engines for an Out of the Box experience before we get down and dirty with Dirk from Malamadre. Cleaning up our act, we meet Belinda Betz from Kilo and the co-founder of all things Potato Head, Ronald Akili.

Glamourizing ourselves, next up is fashion and celebrity from Mauricio Alpizar and Bali’s top red carpet photographer Fio … Mary from Twisted Lamb shows us her no-fear attitude with her anything-goes-design-style to riding in the grueling Mongolian Derby to ice bike racing.

Next we take you back a few years and tell you how and why we started (The Yak) … yes, we’ll say it again, it did all start with a cocktail!

Getting into this decade, this issue, denim hits the dunes in Riders On The Storm followed by the four letter word called “W.O.R.K.” in our thought-provoking Omnibus.

Next up is this trend for co-working spaces and we chat to those that choose Peppers Sentosa as their office cum playground…Time to beautify and whilst some may opt for getting hitched, we’ll indulge in one of our favourite pastimes, eating. Food glorious food – whether it’s beach-side at Alila Seminyak or getting Shanghai’d at Shanghai Baby, Tiigo or Movida, Petitenget’s newest foodie locales.

Hitting those last few furlongs we update you with the beautifully renovated Four Seasons before we take you golfing at Bali National in Nusa Dua …

Fashion Freestyle holds up the rear beautifully as we let you read about yourselves and your loved ones in AstroYak. In closing. As you know each and every issue we bring you the best of the best of what’s hot in this wonderful playground we call home. However without the creatives and support crew, both in and out of the office, still here or long since gone, these 50 issues would never have been possible. Without our clients’ belief and support, it would never have been plausible. And without you, our appreciative readers, there would have been very little point.

So thanking you all and onesome!

May The Yak be with you.

22

Dear Yak, I had an email from a lady before Christmas who saw our ad for Christmas Full Moon Yoga at Sayan. She wanted to book it for herself and her parents. She saw the ad in The Yak while dining somewhere in Canggu. I know we all are going digital and personally I believe print is now the ‘bonus’ in general for media distribution, while online is king, but for visitors in Bali it seems there is still the time, and certain type of pleasure of having that time, to sit and read magazines in cafes and salons.

Marian Carroll Director of Public Relations Four Seasons Resorts Bali

Golf Invitational. This time I’m in. Where can I sign up and can I bring friends?

With thanks Bunjamin - Jakarta Simply go online to register at www. theyakmag.com/golf. April 29 is Practice Day, April 30 is the tournament. Stay and play at The Bali National Golf Resort!

Yakkers, Loving the ease of play with your new online Yak. Sleek, sexy and shareable, like most of my wardrobe. Stay everfashionable.

Deidre - Singapore

We couldn’t agree more Marian.

Dear Yak, I recently moved to Bali after graduating college with a BFA in Advertising. I stumbled across the mag and fell in love. How do I get involved, maybe just to help you make coffee?

Dear Yak, May the force be with you :) looking forward to the next great read.

Regards, Natalie Graham - Bali

Hope to speak soon, Alex

And in your hands it is.

Dear Yak, I hear you are putting on another Yak

Hello Alex. The HR Dept. will be in touch soon. Please bring your own mug.

In The Lap Of: Valentino Rossi There were some happy campers and some unhappy campers at the recent visit of Valentino Rossi to Bali. Yep, we’re talking the infamous Rossi versus Lorenzo race, and opposing teams thereof.

It’s not for us at The Yak to take sides, but we did love the fact that Rossi popped by for an autograph and a sunset tipple at one of our cliffside faves – El Kabron, so we decided to get a Yak to him by way of nothing other than GoJek … rather fitting, we thought.

calendar

fridge fodder for post-it peeps. by stephanie mee.

Bali Spirit Festival World music, wellness and what has been described as an ‘international tribe of conscious travellers’ will come together in Ubud from March 29th to April 3rd for yet another edition of the world-famous Bali Spirit Festival. Now in its 9th year, the festival celebrates yoga in all its forms with workshops taking place daily from 8am to 5pm; bodywork like Reiki, Balinese traditional healing and chakra balancing at designated healing huts; and vibrant music and dance sessions on a nightly basis. Kids are also well catered to with a Kids Zone offering engaging activities like arts and crafts, storytelling and more. Tickets range from full day, weekend or single day passes, and you can also purchase music-only tickets for the nightly concerts. www.balispiritfestival.com Kentucky Derby Just like it has every consecutive year since 1875, Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky will host the Kentucky Derby, AKA ‘The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports’ on the first Saturday of May. Here jockeys will push their thoroughbreds to the limit in the hopes of winning a sweet $1.24 million prize and the chance to go on and potentially snag the

IF YOU’RE IN ITALY… April 10 to April 13 — Vinitaly (Veneto): For 50 years now, Vinitaly has been promoting the excellence of Italian wines and fine Italian products, mainly at their annual event that has grown over the years from a small gathering of winemakers into a highly respected International Wine and Spirits Exhibition that draws in more than 5,000 exhibitors and over 150,000 visitors from around the globe. The four-day event features workshops and conferences about winemaking techniques and the ever-changing market, wine tastings hosted by top wineries and sommeliers, food and wine pairings by prestigious restaurants, and the largest International Wine Competition in the world.

April 12 to April 17 — Milan Design Week: In a country that brought us the Vespa, Campari bottle, and Alessi kitchenware, to name just a few iconic designs, it should come as no surprise that design is something to be seriously celebrated. The Milan Design Week takes place every spring in Milan, a city that is no stranger to design of all genres. Throughout the week visitors can check out the latest cutting edge furnishings and lifestyle products in the roomy halls of Salone del Mobile at the Rho Fiera, enjoy free entrance to the all of city’s museums, and stroll through the streets to come across impromptu installations, art performances and pop-up showrooms.

IF YOU’RE IN HONG KONG… March 24 to March 27 — Asia Contemporary Art Show: Held twice a year in the spring and the fall, the Asia Contemporary Art Show brings together some of the world’s leading art galleries and artists from five different 26

coveted but elusive Triple Crown by also winning the following Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes races. Join the crowds of common folk in the infield and watch the whole thing fly by from a distance, or get all gussied up and join the jet set in the ‘Millionaire’s Row’ for front-and-centre seats, more than a few mint juleps and a bowl or two of burgoo. www.kentuckyderby.com Cinco de Mayo Contrary to what many people assume, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day, but rather a celebration to commemorate the crushing of the French Army at the battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. In fact, many people don’t know that Napoleon III sent his army to invade Mexico in 1861 in an attempt to create a Second Mexican Empire under French protection. The 6,000-strong French army stormed Veracruz and made their way towards Mexico City, but were met with fierce resistance in and around Puebla. Despite the fact that there were only about 2,000 Mexican men fighting at Puebla, they managed to defeat the French and halt the occupation in its tracks. Since then, May 5th has been a day of music, dance and celebration, not just in Mexico, but also in cities with a strong Latin presence around the world.

continents. It also gives art lovers and collectors the opportunity to meet with the artists, peruse their latest collections, and purchase original paintings, sculpture, photography and limited edition prints. This spring there will be over 100 exhibitors including emerging artists, those in mid-career, and those who are highly recognized and respected in their fields. The exhibitors will come from all over Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America, and they will collectively display more than 2,500 artworks.

May 11 to May 15 — Cheung Chau Bun Festival: Definitely one of Hong Kong’s most colourful and spirited celebrations, the Cheung Chau Bun Festival actually started as a simple Taoist ritual to pray to Pak Tai, the god of water, to protect the fisherman of Cheung Chau Island against misfortune and illness. However, today the annual festival is a magnificent display of Chinese and Hong Kong culture with lively lion and dragon dances, parades and games, and the most important element of all – three massive towers covered in over 60,000 buns.

June 9 to June 12 — Dragon Boat Festival (Tuen Ng): Traditionally Tuen Ng was a day to commemorate the death of a Chinese hero named Qu Yuan who drowned himself in the Mi Lo River over 2,000 years ago to protest government corruption. In response, the villagers raced to the water, hopped in their boats and began beating drums and cymbals and scattering rice balls into the water to prevent the fish (and perhaps evil spirits) from eating his body. Today Tuen Ng has evolved into a Dragon Boat Festival in numerous cities around Asia, and nowhere are

the races as colourful, lively and heavily attended than in Hong Kong. Last year’s Dragon Boat Festival drew in massive crowds who came to cheer on over 4,000 athletes from 14 countries.

IF YOU’RE IN AUSTRIA… April 4 to April 9 — Snowbombing (Mayrhofen): It may be cold in the Austrian Alps, but world-class ski resort Mayrhofen seriously heats things up every spring with Snowbombing, a week long extravaganza of groundbreaking DJs and bands, kick-ass parties in unique venues, and sick pro ski and snowboard comps. Shred the slopes by day, hit up mountaintop patios to watch pro riders slay the Snow Park to a soundtrack of sick beats, and discover exclusive parties in igloos, backcountry barns and secret forest clearings. And with a line up this year that includes returning artists like The Prodigy, Andy C, and Fatboy Slim, it’s no wonder Snowbombing has often been referred to as Ibiza on Ice. May 13 to June 19 — Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen): According to the founders of the Vienna Festival, the event was established in 1951 “as a demonstration of Austria’s will to survive and to prove to the world that a city marked by the ravages of war and its aftermath was able to engage in cultural activities”. There is no doubt that this annual celebration of opera, classical music, theatre and dance has set out what it aimed to do, and helped to restore Vienna to its former glory as a worldrenowned cultural metropolis.

The authentic taste of home-cooked Indonesian cuisine Now open for lunch.

Open daily 12 pm — 4 pm, 5 pm — midnight Potato Head Beach Club Jl. Petitenget No. 51 B, Seminyak, Bali, 80361 +62 361 4737977 reservation@ptthead.com lilin-bali.com

Address: Jalan Raya Seminyak No.16A, Kuta, Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80361 Phone:(0361) 730810/732513 Email: drink@sip-bali.com

Web: www.sip-bali.com

giving back

charity begins at home.

BASAbali How many times have you been told by Balinese and non-Balinese people alike that learning Basa Bali is just too difficult? True, there are at least three different levels of Balinese language that change depending on your caste and to whom you are speaking.

This has made it quite difficult for language learners to grasp when and where to use the various forms. In fact, only a small sliver of non-native speakers have mastered all the nuances and forms of the language, and even many Balinese people often find it easier to use Bahasa Indonesia to avoid social faux pas.

Currently there are only about 3.3 million people who can speak Basa Bali fluently, and this number is actually dwindling due to both internal and external forces. BASAbali is a non-profit organisation based in the US that aims to reverse this trend by bringing together linguists, anthropologists, musicologists, videographers, and software specialists from Indonesia, Singapore, the US, Australia and South Korea to produce the first comprehensive multimedia language materials in Balinese.

BASAbali’s plan is to not just document the language, but to revive it as a living, working and proliferating language. As part of this mission, they have created a series of 30 dialogue-based videos that teach Balinese language in the context of everyday situations. The inspiration for this method of instruction comes from Professor John Wolff and his Indonesian language learning materials that encourage people to speak naturally in real-life scenarios rather than memorise long lists of words.

The conversational videos are just one part of a series of language learning tools supported by the Transparent Language Platform. Along with the dialogue videos there are also exercises, grammar notes, word-use explanations and cultural explanations. There are also videos for learning Balinese script with detailed instructions about the different components like consonants, vowels, semi-vowels, sound killers, sacred symbols and punctuation. The organisation hopes that this will function as a modern, interactive and effective way to learn Basa Bali.

The software is available online or in DVD form in versions for Indonesian and English speakers for USD $25, or free of charge for Balinese schools, community groups, or nonprofit organisations. Proceeds go towards helping Balinese university students use these materials in Balinese middle schools, technical support, additional script modules, and updating the software. www.basabali.org East Bali Cashews When Aaron Fishman and his wife Lindsay arrived in the small village of Ban on the slopes of Mount Agung in 2012 to begin work with a local NGO, they encountered an impoverished village in an arid landscape where it was difficult to grow nearly anything except for the hardy cashew tree.

The couple’s arrival happened to coincide with the cashew season, and so while they taught the villagers about nutrition and sanitation, the villagers taught them about cashews. Aaron and Lindsay discovered that middlemen purchased most of the raw nuts and shipped them off to places like Vietnam and India for processing. The nuts were then distributed worldwide, including back to Indonesia.

Aaron quickly realized the potential to build a processing plant that would produce high-quality cashews and empower the people of Ban by providing jobs and skills training. Within just a few months he was able to put together a business plan and gain the support of investors. Soon after, East Bali Cashews, the first modern large-scale cashew processing plant in Indonesia, was born.

30

Today the company employs more than 350 people from the northeast of Bali and buys cashews directly from over 3,000 farmers, making it the region’s largest employer. In addition, approximately 90 per cent of the employees are women, a conscious decision on the part of the company to address the fact that women in this region have very few if any economic opportunities.

Social initiatives are also high on the list of priorities for East Bali Cashews. Their first extension project was AnaKardia, a preschool where the children of factory workers and community members can receive quality education and nutritious meals every day. They also have a factory store where employees can get subsidized groceries, and a farmer extension program that teaches farmers how to get better yields and generate more income.

You can support East Bali Cashews by donating to The Cashew Families Foundation or purchasing some of their delicious cashews flavoured with natural Indonesian ingredients like sea salt, chilli and kaffir lime. They also sell muesli, granola, snack mix and rosella tea. www.eastbalicashews.com Krishnalila Foundation Krishnalila Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering women, youth and children in African and Asian regions. The foundation was founded in 2015 and came about as a collaboration between two independent organisations working for different causes, but with the same goal of reaching out to provide more opportunities to individuals in an effort to create a better quality of life for all and create a more peaceful world.

The Forrest Club began with a mission to empower youth through the arts, and bridge communications between disparate communities in Bali. Their main goal was to encourage conflict resolution and a peaceful atmosphere on the island. Their activities were so successful that many local, national and international institutions and organisations have adopted their methods. They continue to do this work, and have also turned their attention to partnering with schools to assist with teaching job-specific knowledge and practical skills.

The African Asian Women Network (Afrosian) is an organisation established by alumni of the Asian Peacebuilders Scholars and their colleagues at the United Nations-mandated University for Peace (Upeace) in Costa Rica. It was established with the realisation that Africans and Asians share similar histories, cultures, and stereotypes, particularly when it comes to women.

Together the Forrest Club and Afrosian merged to become implementing units of the Krishnalila Foundation, with an additional unit added that focuses on children with autism. The foundation takes the concept of childhood love as their theme because they believe that pure love is at the root of all actions. Their main goals are to eliminate misery and sorrow among neglected and mistreated people, bring people and nations together in peace, and raise a new generation of youth who are equipped to handle future issues with compassion and wisdom.

Krishnalila Foundation achieves its goals by implementing empowerment programs that are carried out using a community-based approach, education and human resources for quality-of-life improvement. For more information on their projects and missives, visit their website. S.M. www.krishnalila.org

15 minutes

sade picked me up in first class Gava Fox wasn’t always such a smooth operator.

IN 1985, I was a twenty-something poorly paid journalist working for an English language newspaper in the Middle East and had scrimped and saved enough money for a holiday in the United States — a country I’d never visited before.

A few weeks before I was due to leave, tobacco conglomerate Phillip Morris, who were marketing heavily in the Middle East at the time, offered me a “freebie” to cover the British Grand Prix. The package included business class flights to and from Bahrain, a few days at the luxurious Dorchester Hotel, all-access VIP passes to the race itself and exclusive interviews with selected drivers — all in exchange for a few casual mentions of “Marlboro” in any stories I would write.

Unfortunately the race clashed with my U.S. holiday, but so keen were Phillip Morris to have me on board that they offered to fly me both ways across the Atlantic on Concorde if I would interrupt my vacation. With a little bit of negotiation and juggling of dates — and the approval of my editor — we agreed I would make my own way to Britain, they would fly me to the U.S. for my holiday and back for the race, after which I’d make my way home.

Flying Concorde was not what I expected. Sure, it was a great novelty, but the seats were actually not much bigger than those found in today’s so-called premium economy cabin and certainly a lot smaller than your average business class recliner.

Still, it was a thrill watching the digital dial count up to the moment we broke through the sound barrier and the staff dispensed champagne to the passengers — most

32

of whom were rather smug looking businessmen in matching suits, including the crushing bore sitting next to me who worked in finance.

After a great but impoverished vacation I made my way back to New York for the return to Britain only to discover that because of a lifelong pathological inability to translate a 24 hour clock into real time, I had missed the flight.

“Never mind sir,” the British Airways staffer told me. “Your Concorde ticket is the equivalent of first class on one of our Jumbos, so we’ll just put you on the next 747, which leaves in about 45 minutes.”

Thus I found myself a seated in 4D, at the rear of the First Class cabin, greedily swigging champagne and eyeing a menu that included oysters and roast beef — amazing luxury after a three-week holiday spent mostly staying at YMCAs and eating fast food.

Shortly before take-off I thought I’d be the only passenger in first class, but with minutes to go there was a burst of activity and the flight crew escorted a stunning beauty to seat 1A. Although she was casually dressed, you could tell she oozed style and grace. Her caramel-coloured skin bore just the slightest trace of make-up and her hair was pulled back in a bun, but I don’t think I’d ever seen anyone quite so ravishing in the flesh.

While taxiing and during take off I tried to catch a sly glimpse of my fellow passenger, lustily harbouring thoughts about joining the Mile High Club, but given the

15 minutes

as the flight went on, i was falling madly in love

cabin layout all I could see was her top knot. Never mind, I thought, with the flight due to last over seven hours, she was bound to need to visit the loo, so I’d be able to get a better look then.

Sure enough, just a minute or two after the seatbelt sign was switched off, my fantasy princess stood up and walked down the aisle — but instead of heading for the toilet, she stopped at my seat, gave me a dazzling smile and spoke.

“Were you planning on sleeping on the flight over?” she asked, a voice like melting chocolate. “I’ve had a hell of a few days and I’m not sure what timezone I’m in so it would be great if you fancied a chat.”

I did what every red-blooded, somewhat timorous, shy-around-hot-women male would do. I blushed spectacularly and stuttered.

“S-s-s-ure … I wasn’t going to sleep. I don’t mind at all.”

She settled her slender frame into the seat beside mine, introduced herself, and we shook hands — or rather her elegant hand briefly touched the clammy wet mess that mine had become.

She asked what I did, and recoiled a bit when I told her I was a journalist, but relaxed when I explained my specialty was the Middle East and laughed when I related how I had come to be traveling first class when I could generally barely afford a bus ticket.

Then it was my turn.

“Erm, what do you do?”

“I’m a singer,” she said.

“Oh yeah? I’m sorry, I’m not very clued up on music. What sort of stuff do you sing?

Have you made any albums?”

“Mostly soul, blues and jazz, but modern and contemporary,” she said. “And yeah, the reason I’ve been in the States is because I’ve been promoting it on chat shows.”

“Er, what is it called? Might I have heard of it?”

“It’s called Diamond Life,” she said, and then the penny dropped.

“Shit, you’re Sade. Bloody hell! I’ve got that album. You’re fantastic. I’m a huge fan”.

She took my lack of recognition with amused grace and we spent the rest of the flight chatting about all sorts of things. I told her about my African childhood and she

34

told me of growing up in Nigeria before moving as a child to Britain. As the flight went on, I was falling madly in love with this stunning vision with a personality that radiated life. She would occasionally touch my arm to emphasise a point and it felt like an electrical jolt.

The flight seemed to go more quickly than Concorde, but shortly before landing she told me she was being picked up by a limo at the airport to be taken to a cocktail party in Notting Hill. Would I like to join her.

My already furtive imagination ran wild. Maybe she likes me? Where is this going? I suppose I’ll have to quit my job and move to Britain. What will our kids look like?

We chatted more in the limo, sitting even more closely together than on the flight, her matching suitcases on the floor in front, next to my grubby rucksack. Our thighs nestled against each other. “I’m so in,” I thought.

We pulled up to a smart house and an assistant rushed out, taking care of our luggage when she escorted me up the stairs, her arm nestled in mine like any young couple arriving at a party. The place was packed, but everyone cheered as she entered.

I swear I saw Elton John holding court in one corner, while I definitely spotted actor Richard E. Grant smoking extravagantly in another. The air kissing was furious, but all the while she kept a close grip on my arm. “Look at me,” I thought!

Then a rather nondescript man approached from another room. She dropped her grip and leapt into his arms, smothering him with kisses before turning to me to say, her face radiated by love: “I’d like you to meet my fiancé …”.

sounds around

L-R: Arun, Damian, Has.

Fifth Element For this special W-Turns-Five edition of musical musings we catch up with Damian Saint, Arun Ramanathan and Has Sidik – the music curators from W Bali, W Hong Kong, and W Singapore – for their contrasting back stories and perspectives on the Woobar experience, five years down the road since W Retreat & Spa Bali – Seminyak opened her musical doors . . .

Growing up – who were your top five musical heroes?

Damian: Not an easy question to answer. It changes every week for me. Favourite DJ, favourite producer, etc. Off the top of my head . . . Massive Attack for their Blue Lines album, early Daft Punk (Homework and Roulé), big Jamiroquai fan, Henrik Schwarz, SBTRKT. Arun: Tough one to just pick five! Michael Jackson, Mos Def / Yassin Bei, Robert Nesta Marley, Ravi Shankar and Frankie Knuckles.

Has: Fela Kuti, David Bowie, Thom Yorke and James Yancey.

[That’s four, Has] What defines The W approach to music for you?

Damian: International sound with quality DJ’s and acts pushing things forward and setting trends whilst paying attention to other new and upcoming acts.

Arun: Eclectic, global, forward-thinking.

Has: Anything worldly, cutting edge and groovy.

Top five gigs you have witnessed or been a part of at 36

W so far?

Damian: There have been a bunch, especially the annual SPF parties with the likes of Dubfire and Miss Kittin, but I’d have to say the ridiculous thousand-people-turn-out for Soul Clap on a Thursday a few years ago; Sunset Session with Art Department, Apparat and last night’s Catz n Dogz gig . . . amazing.

Arun: Clockenflap After-Party at Woobar, W Hong Kong.

IMS Conference at W Singapore, Atjazz at Woobar, W Hong Kong, Silent Disco at W Bali. Haunted House Halloween Party at Woobar, W Hong Kong.

Has: Courtyard – Woobar Singapore Pop Up Party, Mark Ronson at W Singapore, SPF at W Bali, W Barcelona Summer Series opening party, Clockenflap after party at W Hong Kong.

Top five Bali destinations?

Damian: Scratch restaurant for food. Nook . . . for food again, Kuta reef for surf, Woobar, because I pretty much live there, and Bedugul for a quiet getaway in a wood cabin by the lake.

Arun: La Plancha, Single Fin, Uluwatu, Ibu Oka’s in Ubud, Tirtha Empul and Jari Menari.

Has: Jenja, Dreamland, Jari Menari, Ubud Market and Gitgit Waterfall.

Funniest/most unexpected W musical moment so far?

Damian: Being promoted to Music Director/Music Curator at W Bali.

Arun: Fending off hundreds of fan girls while hosting Pete

To dig some dirty downloads check out : https://soundcloud.com/damian-saint; https://soundcloud. com/arunr https://soundcloud.com/trustmrhas

Doherty for Clockenflap.

Has: When Azealia Banks asked for KFC outside of her rider.

Thanks so much for your time online, sound boys. May the Woo be with you!

BEST OF BRITISH IN BALI We’re all about great pub life at The Orchard. Great beer, great food, great live music.

Your home away from home.

JALAN NAKULA, GANG BAIK NO. 99X

•

(0361) 3003 502

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THEORCHARDBALI

POSH NEW PAD IN PAYANGAN For a little bit of luxe living up the hill, head to Padma Resort Ubud, a gorgeous new property ensconced in a lush river valley in Payangan. The 149 rooms here are bedecked in artisan furnishings, hand carved wooden accents, and contemporary Balinese artworks. Each room has spacious bedrooms and living areas, spa-inspired en suite bathrooms, and private balconies that look out over the treetops and the river valley below. Also on site is the top floor Puhu Restaurant and Lounge, which offers views of the 89-metre infinity pool and rice terraces beyond; the world-class Padma Spa; a Kid’s Club; and a 3.4-kilometre jogging track that winds its way through the gardens and past the river.

Tel: 0361 301 111 www.padmaresortubud.com Vampire Facials at Cocoon Cocoon Medical Spa, the winner of Best Medical Spa in Asia (AsiaSpa Awards 2014), Best Anti-Aging Treatment in Asia (AsiaSpa Awards 2015) now offers the most advanced PRP treatment on the market today. PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma, often referred to as the “Vampire” facial) has been used in facial rejuvenation around the world since 2006.

This is a natural, painless and non-surgical procedure that helps improve health of the skin. PRP Plus provides maximum effectiveness by working to diminish the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. It does this by rapidly injecting platelet enriched blood plasma that contains high levels of growth factors. The treatment involves multiple injections of enriched blood plasma into the layer of skin just below the surface using a very fine needle. Advanced PRP Plus+ – unique to Cocoon Medical Spa – uses a combination of three techniques to infuse PRP into the skin. www.cocoonmedicalspa.com 40

Bubbles over ice They call it intense, fruity and fresh . . . and it has finally arrived in Bali. Moet Ice Impérial, a.k.a the new pin-up for all things bubbles. It is “the first and only champagne especially created to be enjoyed over ice. An experience that combines fun, fresh and free sensations while remaining true to the Moet Chandon style”. Seductive, elegant and mature – distinguished by bright fruitiness – perfect for our balmy days and warm tropical nights. Refreshing, captivating and voluptuous, it sounds like a must-meet.

Prepare to heighten your Champagne experience with mint leaves, lime or white grapefruit zest, our beloved cucumber peel (very posh); or go Middle Eastern or Asian style with Cardamom seeds. Sync it all up with three ice cubes in a large Cabernet-style glass. Moet Ice Impérial – appearing first at Bali’s best cliff-top sunset spot, El Kabron. www.moet.com Be Yourself - the Art of Stepping Up So many of us post uplifting posts that we find on the web, and in turn we receive uplifting posts from our family and friends. Wouldn’t it be amazing just to be in that space…the space of the uplifted? That space where we are in full flow of the what, who ,where and the why of our lives? But what does it take? What must I do? I hear most of us ask…I think it’s time to buy a book and find out. Rebecca Walker, Founder of The Wellness Nomad has this to say about the upcoming book, “Be Yourself - the Art of Stepping Up”. “Grounded in authenticity, this inspirational book is full of empowering guidance and practical tools to help readers cultivate self-awareness and self-realization.

Nicky Kassapian is a genuinely gifted soul healer and teacher who by tapping into her deep well of wisdom and thought provoking insights, sheds fresh light on matters of the heart and spirit.” Soon to be published (end of April) I’ll definitely keep my eyes and soul peeled and let you know when it is in stores or online. www.nickykassapian.com

AZUL BEACH CLUB LEGIAN Nestled between the stylish Bali Mandira Beach Resort & Spa and the sandy shores of Legian Beach lies Azul Beach Club Legian, a hot new seaside spot that spans three levels and includes buzzing bars, sleek lounges, swimming pools and a Jacuzzi. Dine on vibrant global cuisine prepared by Chef Arief Wicaksono and his talented team, and sample signature cocktails designed by renowned mixologist Joseph Boroski. Come to soak up the sun from a beanbag by the pool, linger on for one of Legian’s legendary sunsets, and groove to smooth DJ sets as the stars sparkle overhead and cool ocean breezes wash over the patio.

Tel: 0361 765 759 www.azulbali.com RUSTIC REFINED ITALIAN Settimo Cielo means ‘Seventh Heaven’ in Italian, which is a pretty good description of what you can expect at this modern restaurant serving up rustic yet refined Italian cuisine. Dine outside on the garden terrace next to water ponds and subtle fire features, or head indoors where the glass ceiling allows you to eat in comfort during rain or shine, day or night. Lunchtime menu items are focused around being light and fresh, with a selection of antipasto sets and carpaccios, salads, ciabatta sandwiches, sour doughbase pizzas and a new selection of handmade pastas.

Tel: 0361 474 1117 www.settimocielobali.com 42

INDONESIAN HERITAGE CUISINE AT HOMAYA Nestled in the heart of the INAYA Putri Bali in Nusa Dua is Homaya, the newest addition to the resort’s signature dining venues. This open-air restaurant affords views out to the shimmering Indian Ocean, and a range of seating including intimate tables for two and a long communal table for social dining. The menu pays homage to Indonesia’s rich culinary heritage with dishes from around the archipelago made with market-fresh ingredients and local spices. They specialise in megibung meals, a Balinese communal dining tradition where guests share an array of classic Indonesian dishes like braised lamb shank in coconut gravy, smoked duck, and mixed satay.

Tel: 0361 774 488 www.inayahotels.com

INNOVATIVE ITALIAN Old world charm emanates from the softly lit interiors of La Sicilia where chandeliers hang from the ceilings, black lace curtains adorn the windows, and vintage Italian photographs line the walls. Whet your appetite with paper-thin slices of beef carpaccio topped with shaved Parmigiano Reggiano and drizzled with truffle oil before moving on to a main course of fire-roasted octopus simmered in white wine and stirred into a creamy risotto flavoured with sweet potato puree. Save room because desserts are too good to pass up, like the pear bagatelle with dark chocolate and a whisky caramelized pear. Weekends are a good bet, as you can stay on after dinner and sip on signature cocktails while listening to beats by resident DJs. Tel: 0361 474 1598 www.facebook.com/La-Sicilia-Bali-1943438222547980/?ref=hl

Hospitality and residential furniture since 1989 INDOOR | OUTDOOR | CUSTOM

WARISAN LIVING Jl. Raya Kerobokan 38, Br. Taman, Kuta, Bali Tel: 62 (361) 730 048, Fax: 62 (361) 736 475 living@warisan.com

WARISAN CASA Jl. Raya By Pass Ngurah Rai Jimbaran, Bali Tel: 62 (361) 701 081, Fax: 62 (361) 701 634 casa@warisan.com

wa r i s a n .co m BALI | LOS ANGELES | CESENATICO | LONDON | CAPE TOWN | BANGALORE | DELHI | SINGAPORE

Art Class Voyager Fresh from a recent renovation Voyager will be hosting one of South Africa’s most innovative art couples, Nigel Mullins and his wife Tanya Poole in a month-long residency, which will culminate in a series of Oil Painting and Ink/ Watercolour Painting masterclasses held between 10~14th April. A final exhibition of the artists’ work being held at Voyager’s brand new Art Space on Saturday 16th. Both student and the Master’s artwork will be for sale with a percentage of the proceeds going to Canggu Surf Community (CSC) projects.

The masterclasses, aimed at professionals, students and amateurs alike, will immerse participants in the beauty and culture of Bali, whilst exposing participants to the extraordinary technical skills of Nigel and Tanya first hand.

Nigel Mullins, a colourist of the highest order, is renown for both his incredible photorealist paintings and his intensely impasto new works, while Tanya Poole is currently pushing the boundaries of monochromatic ink portraiture.

Masterclass participants may join the group either as guests of Voyager for the full week of 10th-16th April, or as walk-ins for each or all classes. The Ink/Watercolour Masterclass (Poole) will run 10/11th April, and the Oil Materclass (Mullins) will run on 12/13 April. The cost of walk-in bookings is IDR2m per person, which covers breakfast and lunch on both days. The cost of joining the full week’s retreat as a guest of Voyager is IDR10m, and includes breakfast, lunch and evening sundowners.

This exclusive retreat is limited to eight resident guests and eight day-guests only.

For more information please contact Ida at contact@voyager-retreats.com Tel: 0878 615 83209 www.voyager-retreats.com OUH LA LA Straight out of Paris, Ouh la la Lingerie is now available in Bali for everyone’s pleasure. Located at the prestigious Niluh Djelantik showroom in Petitenget, the Ouh la la Boudoir is open everyday to sensually underdress women in four exclusive French lingerie brands: Aubade, Implicite, LOU and Simone Pérèle. Corsets, bras and delicate undergarments are crafted to fit any size or shape, and the fine details of the pieces are inherent in the careful attention to craftsmanship using embroidered lace, silk and satin.

Whether you’re showing them off or keeping them just to yourself, each piece is the perfect combination of comfort and seduction for any woman.

Tel: 0812 3720 9239 www.mylingerie-paris.com 44

Business, beach or both Prama Sanur Beach Bali is one of those “we have it all” hotels that fulfil all needs, on all counts. If we are talking about having a drink or two Prama not only have a fabulous and very popular Bamboo Beach Club, fringing the sands of Sanur Beach, but they also have a city-style bar within the hotel grounds called Prama Bar. Fully air-conditioned, with a full bar and mixologists at the ready, the Prama Bar brings elegance to a night out on a tropical island. Do you want a casual tete-a-tete with a loved one, without exuberant holiday makers?

Maybe your lady is wearing a seriously gorgeous pair of Manolo Blahniks and wouldn’t be seen near a grain of sand? Or possibly its a serious post-business chat you’re after, or even a night cap with coffee and a brandy. Either way Prama Bar offers the luxury of city living with all the trimmings, with the added luxury of an adjoining Club Lounge should you so need.

(Non-hotel guests can avail themselves of the Club Lounge services at daily rates). tel: +62 361 288 011 www.aerowisata.com

THE KATAMAMA You’ve got to give it to the PTT Family—when they embark on a new venture, they definitely don’t do it half-assed. The Katamama is the latest kid on the block in the Potato Head Beach Club neighbourhood, and oh what a venture it is. Designed by renowned Indonesian architect Andra Martin, every aspect of this 58-suite boutique hotel was created using the finest local artisans with understated luxury in mind.

Throughout you will find Indonesian materials like Balinese bricks, teak, and hand-made tiles, plus curated artworks, furnishings and vintage collectables hand-picked by owner Robert Akili. The hotel is also home to the Akademi bar, created by award-winning mixologist Dré Masso; and MoVida, the acclaimed Spanish restaurant from Australia.

Tel: 0361 302 9999 www.the-katamama.com

WHAT’S IN A NAME? Big changes are going down at Komaneka at Bisma, as the luxury lifestyle resort has recently announced new names for both their spa and restaurant. Wana Jiwa Spa was named after the words for forest (wana) and soul (jiwa), which perfectly reflects the philosophy at this serene sanctuary set in a tropical jungle and offering soothing healing and beauty treatments. Indulge in a detoxifying herbal steam bath or skin-smoothing body wrap, and then make your way to the newly named Seneng Kitchen where you can dine on exquisite Indonesian and international cuisine.

Tel: 0361 971 933 www.komaneka.com BEAUTY FROM THE INSIDE OUT Vietura, Artisan of Anti-Ageing at the Sofitel Bali Nusa Dua Beach Resort is a leader in lifestyle detoxification and holistic healing that is 100 per cent non-invasive and nonsurgical. They believe in healing the whole body to promote wellness and beauty from the inside out. Their newest therapy is the ULTRASLIM treatment, which penetrates into deep-seated cellulite and stubborn fats as it aids the body to remove toxins through lymphatic drainage. The result is a reduction in fatty deposits stored in the body.

Visit Vietura to consult with one of their experts, who will design a specific treatment protocol specifically for your needs.

Tel: 0361 849 2988 www.vieturabali.com BOTTEGA ITALIANA CANGGU Fans of Zibiru probably already know about Bottega Italiana, the boutique gourmet marketplace just next door to the restaurant on Jalan Drupadi.

Well now thanks to popular demand, the Zibiru team is opening another location in Canggu on Jalan Pantai Batu Bolong. Here foodies and Italian aficionados can peruse the shelves and counters for homemade breads, cured meats and cheeses, fresh homemade pasta and sauces and delicious paninis.

There will also be fresh juices and mineral water flavoured with herbs from Zibiru’s own edible garden.

Visitors can grab light bites to eat at the shop or take away premium products to make fine Italian fare at home.

Tel: 0813 3952 0788 www.zibiru.com 46

TRIBAL SIGNATURE A new fashion and accessories label Tribal Signature proudly features Indonesia’s rich culture and tradition in textiles. Inspired by the rich tapestry of color and pattern from all across the region, the collection includes handbags, shoes and accessories.

With the label, the founder and designer, Anita Prasetyaningsih hopes to promote the beauty of Indonesia’s traditional textiles to the international marketplace through creating a fashion statement with dashing fashion styles using traditional textiles. She continues her passion in designing using traditional textiles and the latest inspired collection is the sweetest baby shoes ever that completes her collection range. www.tribalsignature.com Water, water everywhere and tapas on the side Tell me where you can head out into the sunset, whether by SUP or kayak, paddle out along the coastline, past private coves and fishing boats, bathed in the glorious gold of the setting sun to then gently paddle back and sit down to an amazing array of seriously good Spanish food that is ‘de la casa’? Akua Bali, our new weight loss programme with the eat as much as you like ingredient included! Yup, burn before you replenish. The difference is the scenery and the camaraderie. Kid-friendly, even salad-dodger friendly (you can leave them up at the bar) Akua Bali prides itself in safe professional body powered outings around the Bay of Jimbaran and beyond - hey, we even made it to Padang Padang and I am a well-known gym-dodger! Paddle paddle SUP SUP followed by a sip sip - nothing better! Head down to Pantai Jimbaran and make the bay your own!

Tel: 62 361 709071 www.akuabali.com

...celebrate personal wellness

Sanur I Ubud I Nusa Dua I Jimbaran P. 62 361 705 777 F. 62 361 705 101 E. experience@kayumanis.com www.thegangsa.com www.kayumanis.com

SEXY SUMMER BEATS How many times have you been chilling with a few sunset drinks and listening to killer beats down at the Ku and wished that you could just copy the DJs entire set to use as a playlist at home? Well now you can with the release of the KU DE TA Volume 9 CD, a kicking compilation of global beats and mixes concocted for us by Jim Breese and Adrian Giordano. The tracks are by mixmasters from places as diverse as Russia, Australia, the UK and Switzerland, and they include a smooth flowing mix of everything from retro summer style grooves, up-tempo pop rhythms, and euphoric deep house.

You can grab your copy at the KU DE TA boutique or online from iTunes or SoundCloud.

Tel: 0361 736 969 www.kudeta.net Frockk-ing it Bali-based label Frockk is gracing the cupboards and bodies of the sleek, chic and serendipitous of Byron, Bronte and Bali’s Batubelig. Think cotton-linen mix and silks.

See stripes, whites and charcoals. No-sleeve, mid-sleeve, or long-sleeves. Cotton/knit or cotton/linen hoodies, linen-mix shirts and linen shorts. hand-dyed with lots of TLC. Now available on their online store or at their flagship store chez Byron Bay at Bell and Ford. Check out their new line for 2016. www.frockkclothing.com HANGOVER LOUNGE Life is too short to suffer through an epic hangover when you’ve got beaches, rice paddies, and more bars to explore. That’s what the good folks at the Hangover Lounge believe, and we have to agree.

After a big boozy night, simply contact these guys and gals via email, phone or WhatsApp, and they’ll send a free shuttle to pick you up and take you to their practice. Once there, the talented team of registered nurses and doctors will hook you up with treatments like IV hydration, electrolytes, vitamin B complex, vitamin C, IV headache or anti-nausea medication, and oxygen therapy to rehydrate, reenergize, and have you feeling human again in as little as 30 minutes.

Tel: 0361 475 2052 www.hangoverloungebali.com 48

MACAN CAFE New to the Canggu scene is Macan Cafe, a light-filled, laid-back space sporting comfy booths and wooden tables with cushioned armchair-like seats. The cafe is already garnering rave reviews for its excellent breakfasts that include quinoa granola bowls, all manner of eggs bennies, and coconut milk pancakes.

Their all-day menu is also enticing with finger foods like the crispy coconut prawns, plus fresh salads and sandwiches.

Amped up mains include the truffled ravioli with creamy wild mushrooms, grilled sourdough, thyme and goat cheese, and the tuna steak with a cherry tomato, olive and cucumber salad with parmesan croutons and basil pesto.

Tel: 0812 3800 9970 www.macancafe.com

PLANT-BASED GOODNESS When was the last time you ate a meal and got to gaze out at farmers harvesting the very ingredients that made their way into your dishes? Welcome to Moksa, Ubud’s newest plant-based restaurant with their very own massive permaculture garden. Brought to us by Made Janur and Chef Made Runatha, both formerly of Fivelements fame, this quaint little spot in the rice paddies of Penestanan offers up innovative raw vegan cuisine intensely flavoured with fresh veggies, spices and herbs (50 percent of which come from the garden on site). Try the meaty Jackfruit Tacos and fiery Asam Laksa Noodles.

Tel: 0821 4591 7884 www.moksaubud.com

COFFEE & THYME Stepping off the boat at Gili Air’s little harbour, your craving for coffee intensifies when you catch the welcoming aroma of freshly brewed joe wafting over the sand. In between the hustle and bustle of horses, bags and people, an inviting green area opens up to a cosy cafe dotted with colourful people and pillows. Coffee & Thyme is the spot on the island to grab great cup of coffee with a slice or two of cake (all of which is vegan). Craving something a little more substantial? They also have sandwiches and wraps ready to take away or enjoy from a comfy seat as you watch the people go by.

Tel: 082144993622

www.coffeeandthyme.co

RUSTIC DINING WITH A HEALTHY TWIST Indonesian culture reigns supreme at Suarti Boutique Village, a collection of 25 Javanese wooden joglos surrounded by working rice fields and coconut trees in the peaceful artist’s enclave of Nyuh Kuning, Ubud. Owned by acclaimed Balinese dancer and jewellery designer, Desak Nyoman Suarti, the property is inspired by traditional Indonesian villages, and this sense of community extends to Kassava Restaurant, which is housed in a classic wooden pavilion. Here you will find rustic healthy cuisine including tapas like fish cakes and rice paper rolls, fresh salads made with crunchy vegetables from their garden, and a variety of Asianinspired mains like BBQ fish, crispy duck, and citrus chicken.

Tel: 0361 908 0585 www.suartiresorts.com

Razzle Dazzle US nail polish brand, Dazzle Dry has just been released worldwide. Created by US-based bio-organic chemist, Vivian Valenty and distributed by Karen Cox in Australia, New Zealand and now also in Indonesia. This non-toxic, vegan-friendly polish range has been launched after 23 years on the drawing board.What’s so exciting about Dazzle Dry, is not just the amazing colour palette on offer (there are 190 striking FDC and DC certified shades) but the fact that this polish range contains no nitrocellulose, or any other reactive ingredients, yet sets solid in five minutes – and the staying power is impressive. Dazzle Dry is the only nail polish system that air dries rock hard in 5 minutes and does not turn nails yellow because it doesn’t contain nitrocellulose. www.manikhairandbeauty.com or online Dazzledryaustralia.com

JL Pangkung Sari 10A, Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia I info@settimocielobali.com Reservation : +62 361 4741 117 I +62 361 4741 118 I Office : +62 361 4741 116

WWW.SETTIMOCIELOBALI.COM

surf, shoes, shop.

Josh Hall Slim Bird & Eagle By Deus Rp16.500.000 www.deuscustoms.com

50

Capra Bag Small, 164$

www.apy-as.com

www.jasmineelizabeth.com Necklace Selma Black, IDR 380.000 www.shan-shan.info

www.tribalsignature.com

Necklace Aerona Multi Black, IDR 280.000 www.shan-shan.info

www.burobali.com

Hematite choker, www.mojajewellery.com

SUNDAY SOMEWHERE - LITTLE GOD IDR 2.999.000

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SUNBRELLA® IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF GLEN RAVEN, INC.

S UN B R ELLA. C O M/YAK

PEOPLE Dirk Goetz is the man behind Malamadre Motorcycles.

He spoke to Tony Stanton about bikes, custom builds and being a romantic at heart.

Photo: Anthony Dodds

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Hi Dirk. Can you tell us a little about where you’re from and how you grew up?

I was born in Spain, in a rainy, industrial city in the north called Bilbao, capital of the Basque Country. Things changed when the Guggenheim was built – it turned into a beautiful place with amazing food and stunning landscapes, although I have to say it still rained. My father was an engineer and we travelled a lot: Portugal, Argentina, Mexico, USA, and finally in 1985 back to Spain, Madrid. I remember having a really happy childhood. It was an enormous privilege to experience so many different cultures at such an early age.

When did your love affair with motorcycles begin?

It began in my teenage years when my friends and I discovered scooters … we all had 50cc Piaggio Vespinos. My parents wouldn’t let me have one so I kept mine at a friend’s house nearby. Even back then we modified the bikes … boring out the engines, changing exhausts, anything to get more power. We’d get to 100km/h on those things. On Sundays we’d watch the Motorcycle World Championships, the 500cc races with Kevin Schwantz, Wayne Rainey, Randy Mamola and the like … wow! That blew our minds. Soon enough we graduated to 125s, the Yamaha TZR and the Honda NSR, real bikes and so much fun. And then one day I saw my basketball teammate die in a crash on his NSR, and that touched me deeply. I forgot about motorcycles for 25 years.

What made you move to Bali?

I studied acting and then business administration at university, and after that I joined the car industry, working for 20 years for Ford and then Volkswagen in various management positions around the world. Finally I got tired of the corporate bull and decided to move on with my life. I met and fell in love with my fiancée in April 2014 while she was taking a year off from her job at an airline company. Her plan was to spend some time in Bali, so I quit my job and moved here with her the following August.

Tell us a bit about Malamadre Motorcycles and what you do there …

Malamadre means “bad/mad mother” in Spanish. It’s not that my mother is mad or bad … hahaha … she’s the best. The name actually comes from a character in a Spanish movie called Celda 211. MM is a prisoner, a badass who scares the shit out of everyone. And so Malamadre Motorcycles became our brand – it’s a 100% motorcycle company that makes dreams come true. We create authentic, unique, elegant, high quality and reliable custom motorcycles affordable to anyone. I love designing, repairing and building bikes, and that is what I do there. I also advise customers who want to build their own bikes. Most of my time is spent building the brand and thinking about how to improve quality and reliability. My (now) wife Elo helps me out with all the merchandising stuff, like helmets, t-shirts, hats and leather wallets. She has an amazing taste for everything (except possibly in men, lol).

We have a brilliant staff: Adi (head mechanic and welding), Komang (welding and painting) and Made, my partner. They are masters at what they do and lovely people.

Without them MM would be nothing.

What is it with Canggu and modified bikes … it seems like quite the centre for it these days?

I guess it’s Bali in general … on this island, everything invites you to ride a bike: the weather, landscapes, the traffic … we’re newcomers, of course, and Deus Ex Machina

really built Canggu as it is today. They have made some beautiful machines, and they’re brilliant at marketing their brand. They have created a desire in people to own one of their products, and many local builders have copied their designs. It’s admirable to watch. In addition there a local builders like Smoked, Island, Treasure and Backyard that have done amazing builds.

Have you had any big wipe-outs?

In life, yes, many … but, as they say, it is not about falling, it’s about how many times you get up. With passion, confidence and self-belief you can achieve anything.

What do you do when you’re not riding or modifying bikes?

You know it … same as you … I play golf! Or surf. I also love to walk with our six dogs along the beach.

Tell us about your wife and how you met.

Elo is the most amazing woman I have ever met, and I have met a few. She’s smart, fun, crazy, authentic … beautiful inside and out. She was a stewardess and a purser on the flight that brought me back from Paris where I was playing a golf tournament.

She asked me for an M&M (the chocolate, not our brand, but what a coincidence), I said yes, and the rest is history.

Was it hard to persuade her to live the dream with you?

Quite the opposite. She was the one who inspired me …

OK, here’s one for you. You’re riding your bike and the road is blocked by a large wounded animal of some kind. You can’t get around it – and it’s hours back to the nearest town. What do you do?

I love all kinds of animals … especially dogs, cats and orangutans. I would try to rescue that animal. That would be priority number one for me at that time. The rest can wait.

I can see why she married you. If you had to drive a car in Bali, what would it be?

Something small and automatic.

Two wheels good, four wheels bad. Discuss.

That’s a mean question. I spent half my life working in the four-wheel industry. So there’s a time for four wheels and another time for two wheels. But I guess if I had to choose, I would say … two wheels always good.

And if you had to choose between art and money, which would it be?

Art, in all its forms. www.malamadremotorcycles.com

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people 56

Belinda, tell us a bit about where you’re from and how you grew up . . .

I graced planet Earth with my majestic presence in Jakarta on December 24, 1992. My mother is Indonesian mixed Chinese and my father is German.

Growing in Jakarta was challenging, especially with a mixed background; it’s pretty hard to figure out where you belong. I had a lighter skin tone than everyone else but I spoke fluent bahasa . . . yet I couldn’t fit in with the locals.

I was lucky enough to be placed in two international schools that surrounded me with kids who had the same confused culture-clash problems as I had. It was pretty interesting. I think kids in Jakarta, and Indonesia in general, grow up a little faster than everywhere else in Asia, just because we are exposed so quickly to the outside world.

We’ve seen your FB videos . . . you could do stand up. Where did that sense of humour come from?

Why thank you! Funny that you mention that. I have piles of videos back home of me doing stand up and theatre comedy when I was growing up. I love comedy and comedians . . . Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Jackie Chan . . . and I guess I mix that with a bunch of childhood cartoons. These are the main ingredients, and from that comes the randomness. I sometimes look in the mirror and question my sanity.

We’re guessing you don’t much mind what people think of you...

The last thing that bothers me is what people think about me. I’ve always stood up for who I am in spite of other people’s opinions of me and what I do with my life. I guess you can say it’s also gotten me into trouble, but I always think to myself that you can never please everybody at the end of the day . . . so you might as well just stick to your badass self and conquer the world one strawberry-filled jam doughnut at a time.

One day you’re modeling, the next you’re dressed up as a moo cow.

What’s with that?

About 80 percent of my day consists of making fun of myself. I love it. And I love it even more when people are entertained and they laugh. If I can make a person’s day a little bit better with a giggle, I’m more than satisfied with that.

Modeling is a form of art for me, where I can express myself in photos through beauty. Coming from a theatre background, I’ve always attached emotions to modeling to not only make pictures seem more real but to also capture a moment. That, for me, is what modeling is about.

Ok so - what are the five words that best describe you?

Strawberry Filled Jam Doughnuts With coffee Lol, ok. Tell us about an event that had a big impact on your life.

The biggest impact on my life so far was my move from Jakarta to Singapore. I moved to Singapore by myself when I was 18 thinking I could be independent.

Boy was I wrong. I was living by myself and did a course in make-up artistry, which eventually got me an assisting job during the day for a professional freelance make-up artist, but I also worked in restaurants and lounges during the evenings, which ignited this hospitality fire in me. It was no walk in the park. It was many hours of hard work, plus at the time I was in the dumbest relationship that drained me emotionally. In the two years that I was there, I learned a lot about myself. You don’t really know how strong you are until

being strong is your only option. I finally threw in the towel and moved my sorry ass to Bali, which is when I finally broke out of my shell. Best decision yet.

What are you most proud of?

My parents. They have always had my back, and they still do. My parents even each other out, filling in what the other lacks, so they’re literally balanced. I’ve seen them go through tough times together, and this has taught me to never give up. I’m really lucky (and proud) to say they are still happily married, and still showing me what a strong relationship is all about – to value love as a whole.

What do you dream about most often?

Growing up I always had nightmares. It was either vampires hunting me down, or zombies, but this was probably a lot to do with the fact I’ve always had a love for horror movies. Recently I’ve had dreams of going up on stage and forgetting my lines, and having to improvise on the spot.

What’s the maddest thing you’ve ever done?

Oh God. Where do I start? I’ve done a lot of crazy things in my short life.

Probably the first one that pops into my head was when I was in high school – I used to sneak out of the house a lot, but it was my method of sneaking out that you could say was slightly mad. So my room was on the second storey and I had a balcony, which was right next to the roof of the garage. If you climbed up the roof, it led to a back part of the house that was the laundry room and down a ladder to the garage, then out the back door. I locked my room on the inside so it looked like I was sleeping, then climbed from my balcony and ninja’d my way up the roof, balancing in mid-air in the middle of night. I used to give myself a curfew – I had to be home before the sun came up.

What does food mean to you?

Food is life. Literally. Growing up with an executive Chef father and a mother that owns her own food supply factory was definitely a privilege in terms of giving me a knowledge and appreciation of food.

Talk to us about Kilo restaurant and the restaurant business as a whole . . . is it all long hours and moaning customers?

The first thing that attracted me to Kilo was the concept. The whole philosophy of ‘Kilo’ itself is based around communicating memorable moments through delicious food, music and soul in homey scenery. I think people feel this when they come to Kilo; it filters out a certain crowd of guests that just want to have a great time. You don’t really feel the hours when you’re enjoying what you do.

What’s the best thing on the menu?

Beef Tongue Tacos, BBQ Pork Ribs, Wasabi Tuna Tartar, Squid Ink Rice and the oh-so-mouth-watering Chocolate Lava Cake.

What do you eat all the time at Kilo?

Squid Ink Rice. All day, everyday. Or until my jeans don’t fit anymore.

If we were to order one cocktail and a starter at Kilo, what would you recommend?

My go to signature cocktail is either the Sake Sangria or A Sure Thing, I can’t choose between the two. Recommended choice of starter I would say Seafood Ceviche, a fresh combo of octopus, kimachi and tuna. One scoop of that and it’s literally like a party in your mouth.

Belinda Betz, thank you for your time.

My pleasure. www.kilokitchen.com/bali

belinda betz minds kilo for a madcap clientele. photo: stephane sensey. words: tony stanton

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people

Stephanie Mee talks to Potato Head honcho Ronald Akili about the PTT Family’s new hotel, Katamama, restaurant MoVida, and centre of mixology, Akademi.

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Since you opened Potato Head in Jakarta in 2009, you and PTT Family have gone on to open successful institutions including Potato Head Beach Club here in Bali and Potato Head Folk in Singapore. What is it about PTT Family projects that make them stand out from the rest?

Simply put, we invest a huge amount of thought and passion into all our projects and work with the best people in their fields on everything from the architecture to the overall look and feel to every single dish and cocktail we produce. When we create our concepts, we always strive to create something that hasn’t been done before, while always keeping a timeless quality. We also tailor each project to its surroundings and make them truly sitespecific and unique.

You’re no stranger to the hospitality scene, but Katamama is PTT Family’s first hotel.

What made you want to open a hotel?

Katamama allows us to express our creativity on another level and in a different way from the rest of PTT Family. It’s a different and bigger canvas for us to show our creativity and our vision. We want to showcase our own definition of bespoke luxury through the design, cultural programming and service, and to be a contemporary interpretation of the Indonesian culture.

When you and architect Andra Matin first started coming up with the plans for Katamama, what was the inspiration behind the architecture and design?

We were inspired by Indonesia’s rich culture and we wanted a way to best show the finest aspects through our contemporary context. We combined beautiful aspects of Indonesian culture with a timeless innovative design and the result is Katamama, a completely unique hotel and experience in Bali.

Your website says that every aspect of the hotel has been personally designed, and then crafted by Indonesia’s finest craftsmen. Can you give us some examples?

It’s going to be hard to narrow it down to just a few examples as nearly everything was bespoke and made by hand in Indonesia. Starting with our timber and wood furniture, we worked with a Surabaya-based carpenter and used only Indonesian Grade-A teak, sourced from certified forests. Our team was very involved in the development, from timber selection to prototyping to extensive quality control to final installation.

From south of Gianyar, Tarum textiles created Katamama’s carpets, bed throws and bathrobes. Tarum is a textile workshop that specialises in natural-dye manufacturing as well as hand-weaving their own fabrics.

One of Katamama’s visual themes is indigo and ombre dying and a lot of it that you will see at the hotel is the work of Tjok Agung Indigo, a husband and wife team, who run a workshop on the outskirts of Ubud. They specialise in the traditional method of dying and stamping fabrics. They created the table runners, ‘fukoshiki’ wrapping textile in the snack boxes and an impressive art piece in the penthouse.

Then there are the more than one million bricks handmade in Bali that we used to build the hotel. This traditional product was then used in our modern geometric design, unexpected and so beautiful. I could continue all day pointing out all of the great Indonesian-made products at Katamama…

We sampled some amazing cocktails at Akademi, Katamama’s ‘centre of mixology’.

Can you tell us a bit about the unique concept behind Akademi?

Created by the award-winning Dre Masso, Akademi is so much more than just a cocktail bar. As a centre for the craft, it focuses on the exploration of Bali’s indigenous ingredients.

Every month will be dedicated to a new Indonesian ingredient and Akademi’s mixologists will study, experiment and create with it. Akademi will also invite the world’s best mixologists to experiment with Indonesian ingredients and to pass on their knowledge to other bartenders.

We’ve already sampled the innovative Spanish cuisine at MoVida in Australia. How does the MoVida at Katamama differ from its Australian ventures?

MoVida at Katamama is the brand’s first international outlet and a really unique collaboration between MoVida and us. The menu takes inspiration from its new island location and climate, whilst still retaining the authentic Spanish flavour that MoVida is known for in Australia. On the menu you can find MoVida signature dishes recreated with local ingredients, lighter options that reflect the island atmosphere, and a variety of goods imported directly from Spain.

What’s also impressive is that MoVida co-founder Frank Camorra and MoVida Bali head chef Jimmy Parker worked with local island producers to develop the menu in Bali and currently even have local farmers growing ingredients native to Spain especially for the restaurant. The new restaurant definitely has surprises in store for both MoVida fans and Bali diners.

In addition to Akademi and MoVida, Katamama has built up a tight community of like-minded establishments with whom you work closely, like Potato Head Beach Club, lifestyle boutique Escalier, and Alchemy, Bali’s first 100% raw food restaurant.

What’s the common thread that ties you all together?

The common thread in the neighbourhood, which is our informal name for the grouping, is the high quality of their work and their dedication to bringing people the best of the best, whether it be food, drinks or design. Every business has a strong creative ethos like us and we enjoy being surrounded by like-minded people. We are working with amazing people like One Fifteenth coffee, for example.

What other exciting plans does the PTT Family have for the future?

For our existing establishments, we always have exciting plans and ongoing projects. To continue being a leader, you always have to adapt and innovate so we never rest on our past achievements, instead we’re inspired by the need to always stay ahead and break new ground. We regularly collaborate with local and international groups from the realms of architecture, design, music, fashion, art and craftsmanship, so there is something exciting always happening at PTT Family.

In addition to our hotels, we are busy preparing a brand-new Potato Head outpost for Hong Kong, and we plan to introduce Kaum, a revolutionary Indonesian culinary concept.

Kaum will take undiscovered or not-often-used native ingredients and not-often-used cooking methods, such as fire pit or bamboo and coconut husk smoking, to create innovative takes on Indonesian cuisine. We have further businesses coming up in Jakarta, Bali and globally, so watch this space! www.pttfamily.com

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people

Mauricio Alpizar, when and how did you arrive on planet earth?

I believe I’m from heaven so I guess I came from there! My first destination in this world was the country of Costa Rica where 45 years ago I had the very great privilege to meet my amazing mother, Señora Elsie Alpizar.

How did you grow up, and what were your parents like?

I come from a very large family of tailors and farmers.

My grandmother had 16 children including my mum, and as a typical Latin-American family we all lived in the same suburb and city, so you can imagine the Latino drama and fabulous parties! I wouldn’t have had it any other way. My mother was both a mother and a father to me. I’m all about my mother.

When you were a teenager, was there one event that changed the way you thought about life?

I went to a boys’ school where I was bullied a lot for being in touch with my feminine side. I was ‘different’, as they say these days. Somehow I found the strength to face those boys and teach them a lesson that they will never forget. I managed to make them listen to the pain they were putting me through, and they did. From then on, everything changed.

I felt no shame or fear any more, and from then on I knew I belonged in this world like everybody else. I started loving and respecting myself more.

Who is the most important person in your life, and why?

This a very complex question as so many people are important to me for different reasons, but at this moment I’m the happiest I have ever been. I married an amazing man that I call my hero, Danny, and he makes me feel safe and loved. On the other hand my son Santiago makes me feel the proudest and happiest father in this world.

In which country have you spent the most time, and why?

Funny I was thinking today about this and I realized I have spent half of my life in Costa Rica and half in Australia, where I now call home.

What does style mean to you?

Like my mother always says, you’re born with it – you can’t buy it.

What brought you to Bali?

I believe it had to do with destiny. In the beginning I was looking for a place where I could do charity work and I found an amazing orphanage called YKPA that looks after the street kids here. I got the opportunity to organize fashion events in Australia to raise money for their programs and that has been very successful. As a fashion designer right now I don’t

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believe there is a better place to be. When I am here somehow I get more inspired. I have wonderful friends that are like family. I love Bali.

When did you get into clothes?

I grew up with and was surrounded by my family’s very successful tailoring business in Costa Rica, then around 20 years ago I moved to Australia. I first arrived in Perth, full of passion and ready to further an already successful career in dance and choreography, which I did until five years ago when I went back to my roots in fashion.

How would you define your designs, and what inspires you?

I toured many countries for work as a dancer and choreographer and I think it is because of this and various cultural experiences that I possess a mix of creative flare and functional design that flows through all my work. My artistic background is evident in each garment I create; a fusion of my passion for culture, movement and art. As my drive towards multiculturalism has grown over the years, I have been inspired to work with the Aboriginal communities of Australia.

This journey led to a collection called Australia based on Rebekah Treacy’s art work (an Aboriginal artist based in the Kimberly, W.A) and was showcased in New York Fashion week 2015 with the collaboration of the Dream Time Project. This project has been a major success within the fashion industry and has drawn interest on both an international and local level.

What do you do when you’re not designing.

I love to cook. For me it’s like having sex ¬– you need to do it with love and passion. Every moment counts when you are cooking. From the music to the ingredients and of course the company. I love to entertain; it’s a big part of who I am. I also love a good shot of tequila.

What’s next for Mauricio Alpizar?

I want to reach a wider audience. Increase PR and marketing through social media and continue with an international online presence that showcases my designs through parades and trunk shows in order to gain the attention of high-end retail department stores and investors. Then I want to open dedicated retail spaces and showrooms in Australia and other fashion capitals, including Bali. I’m also looking to expand into a men’s line and secure a place as one of Australia’s leading designers. Time to get busy.

Mauricio, we wish you all the very best of luck. www.mauricioalpizar.com.au

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people

Fiorenzo Nisi – I’m guessing with such a gorgeous name you must be from Italy?

Thank you for your compliment! Yes, I am Italian, although I left Italy when I was 29. Since then I have heard many different versions of my name, which I eventually shortened to Fio. Now I get Theo, Rio, Dio . . . I just smile away.

What was early life like for you?

I grew up in a simple, small town called Forli, near the Adriatic Coast about an hour from Bologna and two hours from Venice. A land of great food, great wine and hard working people with a zest for life. Fellini’s backyard – my hero. And Mussolini’s too – not my hero.

My parents were and still are amazing and lovely souls. Honest, with solid values.

They always supported my choices, even when those choices defied their logic.

They are still happily married after 57 years and in good health and spirit, God bless them.

When I was younger I practiced a lot of sports at semi-pro level: volleyball, tennis, soccer, martial arts . . . great fun for me. I also watched too many movies, read everything I could get my hands on, went to epic music concerts and did a lot of clubbing – there’s so many great clubs on the Italian Riviera.

My family wasn’t wealthy, so the only way I could afford university was to work, which I did every summer from the age of 11 to 18 . . . I worked at my uncle’s furniture factory, as a bus boy, waiter, bar tender and as a door-to-door salesmen selling encyclopedias, the toughest sales gig ever!

Then in 1980 after my national service I got my first full time job with Conde Nast as an advertising agent for Uomo Vogue and Vogue Pelle. I moved to Bologna and then to Milan.

Have you always been such a stylish devil?

No! I remember when I went for my first interview with Vogue I didn’t own a suit so I showed up wearing an olive green leather bomber jacket (although it was

by Armani and I still have it). Underneath I wore a white shirt and a loose tie, kaki pants and cowboy boots. My future boss looked at me doubtfully when I walked in, and he definitely was not impressed.

At the end of the interview he said: ‘You’re next meeting will be with the founder and president of Italian Conde Nast in Milan. I suggest if you would like to work for us you wear a tailored suit, English shoes and wear a tie properly.” I followed his advice and got the job.

I worked there for almost six years before I moved to Mondadori, the biggest publisher in Italy. I worked for Marie Claire, Panorama, Grazia, Fortune, La Republica . . . those years taught me a thing or two about style. I got to meet everyone in fashion.

Was there one event in your young life that changed the way you looked at the world?

New York blew me away. I travelled there for the first time in 1986 with the editor of Italian Vogue, Aldo Premoli. I could barely speak English. We were on a Conde Nast gig but I was having such a good time I barely slept a wink, although of course I did the meetings. After the second night I didn’t even bother going back to the hotel, I just turned up in the morning ready to go. Aldo thought I’d been kidnapped or something and had called the police.

When did you discover girls?

I think they discovered me lol . . . it was often love and passion at first sight, always falling in lust and love over and over again, always chasing that magic feeling when I met someone new. On more than one occasion I moved continents because of love.

What’s the best trip you’ve ever done?

Apart from NY it was Mexico and the Palenque jungle. I shot a film about shamanism in the mid-90s and took a few amazing trips there. It wasn’t glamorous but it was magical. I remember we got robbed at gunpoint by a bunch of Mexican bandits. They stole our film, which was devastating. We were lucky to get out alive.

When did you discover photography?

I started organising and producing fashion shoots in my 20s for Vogue. Working with the editorial department at the magazine kept me in constant touch with creative ideas and I met some great photographers, Hiro, Newton, Avedon. Later I set up a photography production company in Miami with two Italian partners, and finally in 1993 I moved to New York where I represented some great talents.

But I always longed to be on the creative side, not on the production and marketing side, so in ’95 I took a leap of faith and went to visual art school to learn the basics of photography and film-making.

That’s when I picked up the camera for the first time and found my real passion.

I worked on a film/documentary that was requested by HBO and New Line Cinema but after a long wait it didn’t get picked up. I moved to LA to be with my newborn daughter, and then to Bali to repair my bruised ego. I had a garment factory here which gave me a great income but very little professional joy, except when I shot my collections for my lookbook. It wasn’t until 2008 I picked up a camera again.

We’ve seen you on some of the brightest red carpets over the years . . . how long have you been snapping the luxe party scene?

I took an apartment in Singapore about four years ago, and it started at that time with high society events for Tatler, Passion, Laboutin and Farah Khan. In the last year I’ve been hired for many red carpet events by Xeitgeist Entertainment Group and have shot many film festivals from Canne, Toronto, Zurich and Dubai. I’m just off to the Berlin Film Festival. It’s a fun but demanding job.

What’s beauty in a woman?

I’m a beauty junkie and all women are amazingly beautiful in a unique way, but for me I think it means a mix of something that transpires from the heart . . . intelligence, serenity, sensuality, confidence, vulnerability, class and style.

What’s the toughest shoot you’ve had to do?

The last Singapore Film Festival. It was a back-to-back marathon from red carpet to several private events that lasted a week without a break. Part of events photography these days involves social media of course, so I have to edit pics immediately and get them online, even if it’s at 3am. The selfie age.

What are you most proud of?

My beautiful daughter, without a doubt. But also how I managed to raise her on Bali as a single dad. I’m definitely a proud father. Taking responsibility for her has changed me, and made me a more balanced, happy and caring human being.

What do you dream about most often?

I dream about going back to live in LA where my daughter is now. I’d love to work full time as a photographer and producer in the film industry.

What’s the hardest thing you have ever done?

To forgive the people who really hurt me . . . and myself for having hurt them. But when you do, life flows again.

Rio, many thanks for your time.

Thank you for your great questions. By the way my name is Fio not Rio . . . LMAO! Ha ha ha, you see what we did there?

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passions Phantasmagorical fashionista and equestrian extraordinaire, Mary Lee learnt her tricks of the trade outside the classroom.

Whilst most kids would be hanging out at the beach for the summer she’d be living with a tribe in Botswana. Adventure runs in her blood and her latest trip brought her right into the lap of The Yak. Images: Julia Comita.

Mary Lee portraits: Anthony D. Words: Jack Taylor.

flower power.

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twisted.

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passions mary lee by anthony d. assistant mirza nurman clothing monarc 1.

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Escaping a snowed-in New York landed you in Bali, why here?

Besides Bali being absolutely stunning, I have a genius network of friends here that I wanted to spend time and collaborate on projects with.

You’re no stranger to travel, when did you start exploring the world?

My life has always been an adventure. I was raised with a mother that believed in extreme travel over a typical educational system.

So you had a pretty unconventional upbringing, how do you think that shaped you?

We would go live with tribes in Africa for months at a time and I feel that it shaped me immensely. Overall though I like to think in the present and keep every day as formative as the rest.

You rode in the Mongol Derby, the longest and hardest horse race in the world, and came fifth out of 48 riders! What was your toughest moment and what does horse milk wine really taste like?

The hardest moment was when I was in first place and headed to the largest mountain pass of the race. My horse then flipped over from a gopher hole and took off 20 kilometers the wrong way, leaving me horseless. I then had to head back to a past horse station, grab another horse to re-ride the route again. Another challenge was the food, which was either horse, yak, or lamb meat and at times was hairy, fatty and uncooked. The fermented horse milk called Airag was not pleasant either and tasted like rotten chunky milk. Overall though it was an incredibly challenging experience that pushed me in ways I never expected.

Besides riding horses, you design some pretty far-out fashion too through your brand and site, TwistedLamb. How was that born?

I needed a channel to show my artistic direction and to showcase others who inspired me so I created a blog, which is what TwistedLamb was originally.

What about the name, how did you come up with it?

The name stems from my name, Mary and the nursery rhyme, “Mary’s little lamb.” Add a twist and there you have it.

Can you describe the aesthetic of your creations in just one word?

It’s tough to pinpoint just one aesthetic of my work but if I had to use a few words to describe it I would say dark, surreal and futuristic.

I like to switch it up and push myself into new genres and create combinations of styles that haven’t coexisted before.

Where does the darkness in your fashion come from?

From my heart. To me darkness in the world is more beautiful and realistic than the lighter side of beauty. However one cannot have darkness without light and there is always a balance of the two.

Do any mind-altering substances play a part?

Let’s just say it’s not beer that inspires me.

What about influences, where do you find inspiration when dreaming up your next idea?

I’m inspired by the creative network of friends who surround me; also by tribes from around the world; people who don’t give a damn what society thinks of them; Alexander McQueen . . . and late nights on the dance floor.

Have you drawn any inspiration from the dark side of this island?

There is a lot of magic that occurs and it’s impossible not to feel it on a daily basis.

You’ve worked with artists like Kanye West and Lady Gaga, to name just a couple. Have you ever shocked a client with your vision for a project?

Not as much these days, but in the beginning there were a few times I was asked to create stories that had nothing to do with my aesthetic. However, any work is a welcome challenge, even if it doesn’t fit who I am as an artist.

You were also one of the first fashion stylists to create digital clothing collections for video games. What do you think the future holds for virtual fashion?

It’s just the beginning for virtual goods. Technology like Oculus Rift will take us further into the digital world and create a society where virtual reality will be the ultimate fantasy, filled with everything a human could want, including goods such as digital clothing.

In your latest project, IceBound [featured here], you explored even more new ground for yourself, how did that go?

IceBound was the first time I showed my work outside the digital realm and in a gallery. It was a collaboration between photographer Julia Comita and myself. With the saturation of online images in today’s world, we wanted people to experience the art of creative direction and photography through large scale photographs and to create an experience where all the senses were felt inside a gallery space. Also, we wanted to show the arc of a storyline within photography. With IceBound it was a story of seduction told though the combination of extreme sport and gender-bending fetish-based fashion.

If you could choose any project, had carte blanche and money was no object, what would you do?

Great question! I would dive with Narwhales while wearing couture… www.twistedlamb.com

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passions rear view.

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crystalized.

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passions mary lee by anthony d. assistant mirza nurman clothing monarc 1.

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passions foot fetish.

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funktuation.

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yak#50

yak#50

“It all started with a cocktail, as many epic things do.”

If you’re even remotely familiar with this sassy little publication that you hold in your hands, it probably shouldn’t surprise you that it rose out of the mists of Bloody Mary-fueled banter.

The reason to reminisce on the origins of The Yak is because this is the 50th issue, and just one of many milestones that the magazine has hit over the past few years. In 2013 the mag turned 10 years old. In 2014 it held the 10th annual Yak Awards.

In 2015 came the first ever Yak Magazine Golf Invitational.

And so far this year The Yak website has been revamped and there are a slew of exciting projects on the horizon.

it’s a cover up.

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yak#50

“As soon as we started to bring the idea of great content to our online channels, we started to see great numbers�

yak online brings a decade of quality to all devices.

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With so much already under their belt and much to look forward to, you might wonder: why bother looking backwards? Well, to quote Bob Marley, the prolific poet and luminary musician who also rose to stardom from next to nothing, “In this bright future, you can’t forget your past.”

In recalling the moment in 2003 that ignited the spark that would start it all, The Yak magazine co-founder Sophie Digby says, “Mish (Michelle Lamb) and I were getting massages next to the pool and staring down at these bowls of daisies through the holes in the massage tables. Boring right?

“So we ordered Bloody Marys and bloody long straws. It was all very un-Zen of us.

“We had always wanted to do a magazine together, so we just started coming up with ideas, usually fuelled by alcohol. And we just bounced off each other and then wrote a couple of notes on the hotel paper. And I kept these notes…”

At that time there were a few other Bali mags floating around, but most of them were geared towards the hotel and tourism industry. In addition, Seminyak was not yet the heaving hotspot that it is today.

Ku De Ta had just recently opened its doors and there were only a smattering of luxury hotels and villas in the area.

Yet Sophie and Michelle saw a real gap in the market for a luxury lifestyle magazine that would represent Seminyak, their tiny (at that time) piece of the island, and the people and businesses there that they knew and loved.

Sophie says: “At one point I picked up the phone and called Mish and said, ‘It’s on. We’re doing it.’ We went out to market with very little backing.”

“I think the most amazing thing though is that we called about 48 potential clients I had worked with through Bali Plus, and 24 of them came on board. That was on November 7th, and the first mag came out on the 27th of December. So in seven weeks the first magazine landed in Seminyak. Impressive, we thought.”

The first magazine topped out at just 48 pages, but it was something truly unique on the Bali scene. Not only were they covering a niche that no one had covered before, but they also opted for glossy paper and the somewhat off-the-wall size that you still see today.

Sophie says: “ At that time we didn’t realise there were norms. You know, many people say that you should complete business studies or understand magazines. We didn’t realise that most people start a magazine with half a million dollars or more. We just did it very much from the heart, which we thought was the right way to do it.”

John Halpin, General Manager of The Oberoi, Bali, says: “I first encountered The Yak on Sophie’s kitchen table as she and Michelle

cooked up the idea to do a magazine for ‘our’ Bali. And when it came out I loved it. Prior to that every magazine produced locally was full of spelling errors, grammar mistakes and dull, witty-less content, except for Diana Darling’s Latitudes magazine which is sadly no longer in print.”

Susanna Perini of BIASA says: “It had a super glossy presence for us still-hippies at that time. Glossy and cool. You could see that someone with a sharp fun side, with one foot in the ’80s and the other one forward in the new millennium, had the hitch to come up with a Bali-based magazine that had the potential to mingle at distinguished international lounges around the planet.”

Says Sophie: “The Yak gave the world a window so that people could see Bali and go, ‘Oh my God. Is that Bali? I didn’t realize that was Bali.’ Basically we were and still are one of the windows that reflects a certain type of Bali.”

However, despite the positive response, there were still many who thought the idea was crazy.

Naysayers withstanding, Sophie and Michelle continued on with a great deal of support from businesses in the area including a few that were there with them from the beginning – Ku De Ta, The Legian and Elite Havens. Sophie says: “People really believed in us at a time when confidence in Bali was thin on the ground.

“Then in 2007 Michelle made the decision to move back to Melbourne, and at Michelle’s going-away party I met Nigel (Simmonds). It was like the universe was on my side.”

Sophie was quick to invite Nigel on board as Editor-in-Chief.

“It wasn’t actually until Nigel came along that the magazine grew from a somewhat irreverent product into the magazine that it is today.

Without a doubt, I think we started a seed and what Nigel did was fertilise it and encourage it.”

Nigel says: “Originally when I started, all the magazines were basically directed at hotels because there weren’t so many independent places at that time. But The Yak was capturing the attention of people who were independent.

“The type of people who were coming to Bali started to change.

We started to see more people who weren’t constrained by money, but who also didn’t want to spend their lives constrained by five-stars or social norms. They wanted to go and do whatever the hell they liked. And I think The Yak either instigated that or was in sync with that.

“Also, you started to see more people opening independent restaurants and fashion labels and whatnot, and they wanted an independent voice to reach independent people. So that was the idea.

That was kind of how it got traction I think.”

Sophie adds: “People wanted something with a different tone. A

“I think people recognize that the yak is creative and passionate and quirky.”

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tone of voice that was a bit rude, a bit cheeky, irreverent.”

After Nigel came on board, Stuart Sullivan also joined the team as Creative Director and the whole look of the magazine began to change.

He brought an independent design element into the mix, revamping the masthead and interspersing different textures of paper throughout the mag.

And with an ever-increasing influx of creative types flocking to Bali’s shores, the writing and photography progressed even further, and in return The Yak helped others progress in their own careers.

Meanwhile, Seminyak was growing into the sophisticated and sexy holiday destination we know it as today, and Bali in general was amping up the luxury game. Some might argue that The Yak was one of the catalysts for these changes, but at the very least, the relationship was symbiotic.

Yanie Mason of Bali Adventure Tours says: “The Yak has evolved with Bali’s ever-increasing quality, and by continuously showcasing these upmarket aspects of the island and making them look more appealing and hip, the island has shifted into a contemporary hotspot of Southeast Asia.”

Whether an instigator for change or a mutually morphing entity, there is no doubt that The Yak has become a beloved institution with people of all walks of life in Bali and around the world. In 2014, the readership poll results showed that the readers range in age from 14 years to 75 years, and of those multigenerational readers, 48 per cent are men and 52 per cent are women.

In addition, the magazine is visible in international locales as varied as Buenos Aires, Belgium or Brisbane, partly because there are copies in airport lounges like Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong and the Sky Lounge in Singapore, but mostly due to the fact that people can’t help but nick themselves a copy from the various venues that carry the mag in Bali.

Marco Groten, General Manager of Alila Villas Uluwatu says: “I remember picking up a copy in a shop somewhere in Seminyak while I was waiting for my wife. We were living in Thailand and I was looking for opportunities to return to Indonesia, and the write-ups and advertisements had caught my eye. Usually I’m the one who wants to leave the shop first, but that time my wife asked me whether I was ready to leave. The magazine had a sticker on it that said ‘Venue copy, for your reading pleasure’, but I was glad I’d brought a big bag so I could continue reading it further during our holiday. This was probably about nine years ago, and I still read every issue from A to Z.” Besides the print version of the magazine, The Yak also offers the Yak APP, a guidebook application for Bali that was the very first of its kind on the

island; a fully responsive website that works on all devices and gets up to 100,000 page views a year, and a Facebook page that reaches up to 25,000 people every week.

Nigel says: “As soon as we started to bring the idea of great content to our online channels, we started to see greater numbers. People want to be entertained, compelled, grabbed by great ideas, great writing and photography… this is what we have brought from our print experience into the new world order of online content. We give Yak people exceptional quality, whether it’s on paper or through the medium of their iPhone or laptop.”

And as always, The Yak is always at the forefront of what they do, refusing to rest on simple words and pictures alone. Nigel says: “We film every fashion shoot behind the scenes. We make videos of our events. We work with internationally known stylists, photographers and writers. We take a 360 degree approach to content and quality.”

This means all readers, tech-savvy or not, and actually physically on Bali or not, can enjoy insider access to what is going on around the island.

Moreover, Bali-based businesses have multiple mouthpieces to let people know what exciting things they are up to. In essence, the magazine truly is a window into the world of southern Bali.

Sophie says: “The unique thing about The Yak is it is what I call “destination sensitive”. Whatever is in the magazine is about Bali or people connected to Bali. We might do one ‘outside’ travel story, but all our advertisers are either from Bali or Bali-based, and we talk about Bali products and Bali venues. It has always been destination sensitive, which is quite unique because everyone else is always trying to cover all bases, all places, all locations. We don’t. We just cover just this one, as beautifully as we can.”

To sum up perfectly, Nigel says: “I think people recognize that it’s creative and passionate and quirky. It’s an unusual product that defines an unusual way of life. It’s an identity that is very much about freedom and fashion and quality and doing what you want, being independent and doing it in style.

We’ve had a good time doing it and we’re still having a good time. It’s a great privilege.”

“People wanted something with a different tone. a tone of voice that was a bit rude, cheeky, irreverent.”

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www.theyakmag.com

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fashion

Photography: Anthony D CD/Producer: Omee Moon Stylist: Kelly Ariella Assistant: Mirza Nurman

Models: Simon Palmer Sheriff Cosgrove Cal Lathrope James Aiken

Words: Jack Taylor

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Sheriff is wearing Madewell shirt and Zara Man? Jeans.

fashion

James wears Lokals Only jacket from 7shores, jeans by People Vs grey skinny.Sheriff wears Peopls Vs denim vest and Zara jeans. Cal wears Deus denim shirt and Gap Skinny jeans.

Simon wears Deus shirt and Deus Selvage jeans.

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Cal wears GAP Skinny jeans.

fashion

“No one here gets out alive.” - Jim Morrison Who knows how long you’ve got. Tomorrow, next month, twenty years from now, at some point it’s going to be all over. So fuck it, do whatever the hell you like, whatever turns you on. Life is too short for anything else.

27 years short for Jim Morrison, who met his maker in a Paris bathtub. He joined the 27 Club, in good company with Jimi Hendrix, who had already been there for a year propping up the bar. As time went on Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse became members of the gang too.

Besides being phenomenal musicians, doing lots of drugs and passing away at the same age, they all had another thing in common. They pursued their passions to the bitter end.

“I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.” - Jimi Hendrix Some people seem to know exactly what they were put on this planet to do, others struggle all their lives trying to find out and a bunch are just fine with not having a clue. Each to their own, but going your own way has to be one of the hardest things to do. It’s not just about what you wear and how you style your hair. It’s sticking to your guns even when it alienates you. Resisting the pressure to conform and taking a path different to the ones laid out before you. Ignoring the propaganda to follow your dreams against the advice of people around you.

“They laugh at me because I’m different; I laugh at them because they’re all the same.” Kurt Cobain One problem lies in the fact that most of our minds are hardwired to try and make us fit in with those around us. Psychology tests have shown time and time again that individuals will change their decisions, even from the right decision to a wrong one, just to fit in with a group. Crowd mentality can suck you in and before you know it you’re not even holding yourself responsible for the choices you’re making. Just going along with what everyone

else is doing because it seems right, it seems like the normal thing to do.

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” - Franz Kafka It’s not hard to realise how people can end up doing something they don’t really want to do.

So it’s a good idea to get on the right track early, when you’re young. When your brain is brimming with dreams and you’re ready to live them. Your first wave, your first love, your first line, life is full of firsts when you’re growing up. Before the dreaded monotony sets in. Stagnating in the same town, the same job, the same bars, stifled and silenced by conformity.

“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.” - Charles Bukowski Making money is one thing, but a life worth living is harder to earn. Dreams rot if nothing is done with them but they linger on in minds, wrinkled and decrepit, whispering why they’ve been left to die. So keep riding life out, ride planes, ride waves, ride anything that moves, anything that takes you to someplace new. Get excited and don’t think too long on what the ending will be like. It might not be a happy one but the fun is in finding out.

“This is what being alive’s all about, all those fucked up feelings. You’ve got to have them; when you stop, watch out.” - Irvine Welsh

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fashion

Sheriff wears Madewell shirt.

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Cal wears Deus Denim Shirt, GAP jeans & Sunglasses by See Concept.

Sheriff wears People VS denim vest & Zara jeans.

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Cal wears GAP jeans.

fashion

Sheriff wears People Vs denim vest, People Vs jeans and stylist’s own sunglasses.

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gava fox clocks in.

Unless you have the good fortune to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth, chances are you’ll spend most of your adult life working.

If you’re very lucky, you might end up profiting from something you have natural talent for a professional athlete, an actor, musician or an artist, perhaps. You could have an aptitude for teaching and gain great satisfaction from a lifetime of moulding young minds, the healing hands of a surgeon and save countless lives, or a brilliant scientific brain that unearths a technological breakthrough which benefits all mankind.

Like millions around the world, you might have the misfortune be born into poverty and inherit the drudgery of toil, working endless hours for a pittance and living a hand-to-mouth existence with scant opportunity to improve your lot regardless of the effort you put into life.

But, if you’re reading this, you’re more likely to be an upwardly mobile professional, applying yourself diligently to whichever field rewards you with the means to enjoy the pleasure and leisure it brings.

Enjoy it while you can.

We’ve all seen pictures from the Great Depression of the 1930s - grainy black-and-white images of dirt-poor farmers in America’s Midwest, despondent and destitute labourers lined up at

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soup kitchens, their eyes as downcast as their pride.

That was triggered by the infamous “Black Tuesday” of October 1929 when Wall Street stock prices plummeted, sending shockwaves around the world. The ensuing financial meltdown saw global GDP fall by 20 percent in just two years, bankrupting tens of thousands of companies and sending unemployment in some countries to as high as 30 percent of the adult “working” population.

By contrast, the Great Recession that followed the financial crisis of 2008 saw global GDP fall just two percent, and while unemployment was never as calamitous, our modern, technology-based economies have yet to recover fully.

According to McKinsey and Company, global debt has increased by $57 trillion since 2008 and now stands a shade north of $200 trillion.

Average household debt (not including mortgages) in Britain is estimated at nearly $15,000, while in Australia, which uses a different yardstick, statistics show a normal person would have to give up 18 months of salary to pay off what they owe on credit cards, bank loans and car hire purchases -- assuming they don’t accumulate any more.

In the novel David Copperfield, Mr Micawber famously laments: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six,

work ethic: ladies first.

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riveting.

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result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound and six, result misery.”

Author Charles Dickens, of course, gave us the word that has come to define poverty - “Dickensian” - and he modeled Micawber on his father, John, who like the fictional character also spent time in a debtors’ prison.

So most of us have to work in order to live, and we have to live within our means to avoid the fate that befell Micawber.

For many of us, the opportunity to play golf is a welcome break from work, but go to any professional golf tournament and you’ll see most of the field grinding away at the practice range or putting green when they aren’t in the middle of a competitive round. That isn’t play; that is work.

The injured Tiger Woods may have earned “only” $600,000 from playing golf last year, but he remains the sport’s best-paid athlete with an additional $50 million in sponsorship endorsements. Nice work when you can get it.

Indeed, the world’s top golfers earn staggering amounts of money on the European and US PGA Tours, but spare a thought for the likes of Australian Marcus Both who made less that $10,000 on the Asian Tour last year despite taking part in 19 events.

Given each tournament is effectively six days of work - including a Pro-Am and practice day -- and that he is responsible for all his own travel and accommodation expenses, it is likely the affable Both is shouldering more than the average of the previously mentioned Aussie household debt.

Britain’s National Health Service in the middle of a crisis sparked by Health Minister Jeremy Hunt’s insistence that newly qualified doctors work more than the current scheduled 40 hours per week for which they are paid around $30,000 a year - an admittedly tidy sum for many around the world.

But given most medical students graduate after six years of brutal study with debts totaling over $40,000 and the fact that the minister popularly known as “rhymes with” makes $200,000 a year - it is no surprise Britain’s 30,000 junior doctors are threatening to go on strike.

Members of Indonesia’s parliament, the House of Representatives, earn a staggering $70,000 a year plus cars and allowances, and while that pales in comparison to MPs in Singapore, the highest paid in the world at $150,000, it dwarfs the national average annual wage of $2,000.

In fact, some Indonesians earn considerably less than that. A chat with a group of itinerant Javanese women

planting rice in a Bali paddy recently revealed they earn 30,000 rupiah a day for doing literally back-breaking work.

But even if you work hard and make lots of money, there is no guarantee it will be worth anything.

Take the case of Zimbabwe, which achieved majority rule independence in 1980, some 15 years after the white minority had broken away from British stewardship. At independence the Zimbabwe dollar was worth US$1.20 and remained generally stable until the new millennium, but in the wake of the aforementioned Great Recession - not helped by a series of ludicrous and spiteful government policies - monthly inflation soared to an astonishing 79.6 billion percent. Yes, that’s billion!

The government tried to keep up by printing money in bigger and bigger denominations - the largest note was Z$100 trillion, or to write it out, 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, but even that was worth less than $4. A trip to the supermarket required suitcases full of cash, which was weighed rather than counted, and the nation produced a generation of math-wizard children who could rapidly calculate the cost of a soda and packet of crisps in hundreds of billions of dollars, and make change.

Unlike most vainglorious African leaders, President Robert Mugabe declined to have his image printed on the currency, probably aware that is was cheaper to wipe your bum with thousand dollar notes than it was to buy a roll of toilet paper, worth Z$10 million.

The game was up in 2009, and the Zim dollar was scrapped and replaced by the U.S. greenback, eliminating overnight the lifetime savings of an entire population and precipitating the exodus of a sizeable majority of the professional and skilled workforce to seek employment abroad.

Norman Tebbit would have been proud. As Secretary of State for Employment, the so-called “hatchet man” of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet famously told tens of thousands of unemployed miners to “get on your bike” after her union-busting policies of the 80s laid waste to entire communities across the country.

Baron Tebbit of Chingford, as he is known today, sits in the House of Lords - an admittedly salary free position that does have the advantage of offering over $250,000 a year in allowances and other perks, as well as an annual pension from his time as a government minister worth over $150,000 per annum.

Britain wasn’t alone in crushing unions at that time, and the demise of organized labour heralded an era of global prosperity highlighted by the creation of so-

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called new technology jobs. The world got wired, and everyone who was anyone got involved in finance, or the media, or the Internet as global communications meant world trade opened up more rapidly than at any time in history.

Idyllic Bali changed significantly in this time as so-called “Cubbies” - cashed-up Bogans descended on the island from Australia to snap up property with their earnings from a boom fuelled by China’s ravenous appetite for the country’s mineral resources.

Stories abound of people making A$100,00 a year merely for emptying bins at mine offices in remote parts of Australia - the miners themselves were making vastly more - and the “two weeks on, one week off” shift pattern meant they could indulge themselves in their favourite activities of inflating a seemingly un-poppable property bubble and surfing Bali’s famed breaks.

Those days are over. With China’s economy sliding and the demand for resources on the wane, mining watchdogs in Australia estimated last August that up to 100,000 jobs will be lost in the coming 12 months, a figure borne out by latest statistics revealing tourist arrivals to Bali from Down Under last year declined for the first time in a decade.

Russia’s decline has been even more stark.

Arrivals from Moscow last year were nearly 30 percent down on 2014, and shops and restaurants across the island are slowly taking down their Cyrillic alphabet signage. Only China is showing significant increases in tourism to Bali, but they spend less per capita while here than any other nationality and tend not to splurge on activities, saving their money to eat in Chinese restaurants, generally owned by Chinese nationals with local partners.

But back to work.

The Baby Boomer generation, those born in the 50s, 60s, is credited with working hard to accumulate enough wealth to enable life to be enjoyed. Compared to the hardships endured by those who lived through World War II, the boomers had it easy. Global productivity soared and the new generation found time to create new forms of art and music, drugs and attire. They allowed independence for scores of developing countries, became liberal, gave equal

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rights to women and gay people tentatively opened the closet door to peek outside.

More mobile than their parents, Baby Boomers nevertheless could count on a lifelong career in whatever field they chose, with the promise of a livable pension once they retired.

Until the Great Recession.

Sure, greed played a role, but hundreds of thousands of people saw their investments go down the toilet in the aftermath of the financial crisis and the 40-60 year olds in the workforce were usually the first to be shown the door as companies downsized - they simply cost too much and were possibly behind the times when it came to the new reality.

The Baby Boomers showered their offspring — Generation Y, or the so-called Millenials born between in the late 70s to late 90s - with privilege and the world witnessed an unprecedented boom in education. In Britain, for example, less than one person in a hundred attained a tertiary education in the 1950s. The figure today is closer to 47 percent.

That has brought a raft of problems. Generation Y is often disparaged as having a disproportionate sense of entitlement, lack loyalty, and focus too much on having fun instead of working.

But the reality is that their parents were the ones who told them they could do anything, their lack of loyalty stems from watching their elders unceremoniously sacked during hard times, and they’re so plugged in to modern technology that they are generally baffled as to the idea of working 9-5 in an office. Why do you need to spend all day in a cubicle when you could do exactly the same task at a Starbucks, or at the beach, or at home - often with more creative results?

“I like work: it fascinates me, I can sit and look at it for hours,” wrote Jerome K. Jerome, the English humorist, but he could afford to after the success of “Three men in a Boat” which earned him the equivalent of millions in 1900.

But whatever you’re doing or planning on doing, the words dubiously attributed to Confucius probably sum it up best: “Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

left a bit...

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Savour the finest classic Italian cuisine in Seminyak, Bali.

OPENS DAILY

11:30AM TO MIDNIGHT Featuring an all-day menu of classic Italian specialties, finest wines and cocktails.

c0-working

Stephanie Mee connects at Peppers Seminyak, now offering a great co-working space. portraits by anthony d.

Rendi Rainando.

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Gone are the days when start-up companies had to come together over the kitchen table or at a noisy cafe. Today’s creative types are opting instead to head to stylish locales where the Wi-Fi is fast, the scenery is spectacular, and fab facilities are just steps away.

Bali is currently experiencing a proliferation of co-working spaces where makers and entrepreneurial types can get their work done in tricked-out tropical office spaces among other like-minded souls. One such spot that earns top billing with a slew of cutting-edge creators is Connect at Peppers Seminyak.

You may know Peppers Seminyak as a luxury villa resort set in the heart of Seminyak, and you would be right to bring to mind gorgeous coastal gardens, tranquil lotus ponds, and elegant villas each with their own private pool and plenty of space to play.

The resort is also home to the serene SPA at Peppers Seminyak, a fully equipped gym, 35-metre rock pool, and The Laneway Restaurant, a fine-dining venue serving up contemporary Asian and Western cuisine. With the addition of Connect, Peppers is now attracting more than just foodies and holidaymakers.

Take for example Franklin Firdaus, fashion designer and founder of Franksland clothing brand. Born and raised in Borneo, Franklin has been passionate about fashion since he was a small child, but he worked in the automotive, oil and gas and IT Industries before starting his journey. He finally broke free from the nineto-five slog when he established Franskland in 2002, and he has been working on the brand full time ever since.

Although the designer is now doing what he always dreamed of doing, he often finds he needs a change of scenery to jumpstart his creative engine. He says: “Sometimes you just want to get away from your own office, studio or factory and meet with other creative people who can refresh your mind and give you new sources of inspiration.”

Franklin chose to join Connect for its central location, great extras - like fast Wi-Fi, pool and spa - and affordable prices. Plus he saw it as a great opportunity to connect with people from other industries and add some balance to his life by combining his busy workload with stress-releasing gym sessions.

Much like Franklin, Rendi Rainando also saw Connect as place where he could up his creativity and find a better balance. Originally from Bandung, the 27-year-old graphic designer traded in his fast-paced life in the city to live and work in Bali. He says: “After quitting the company I worked with for three years, I decided to become a freelancer. And as a freelancer I could work anywhere. Café hopping was fun, but I prefer to have one place as my base. I feel much more productive that way.

“Connect at Peppers is unique because it’s not a typical co-working space kind of setting. It’s more of a leisurely type of co-working space with a great concept of balance between life and work. For me the main advantages are

how you can get most of your daily routines done in one place. I don’t need to go outside to work out because the gym membership and pool access are included. You can also get coffee and all sorts of healthy meals while you get some work done and be productive.”

Another aspect of Connect that puts it ahead of other co-working spaces is the quality of service that it provides for remote workers and their colleagues and guests. Marisa Faizul is a digital content and marketing manager who often makes use of Connect’s professional meeting rooms.

She says, “I manage digital content for my favourite Australian sunnies brand Pared Eyewear, which includes graphics and online campaigns. And for my fashion brand, Rank and File, I manage communications and marketing for it, which involves meeting new and interesting people and getting great content to publicise our awesome designs.

“Connect offers me the privacy of a meeting space when I need it and the convenience of service whenever I need anything. The people that I invite for meetings feel less holed in and I find things get done better in meetings when I meet them here.

My friends also enjoy coming over after work.

It’s a complete mirror of how people work in Bali – seriously but with ease.”

All three agree that the space is ideal for people who work in the creative industry.

Marisa says: “I would recommend it for those who work really hard and sometimes too much. You know, the types who are basically workaholics who need a real vacation to do their job, but can’t take their minds off work when they do get one. This place just makes things easy, and that’s important for workaholics or people who need space to find their creativity.”

Rendi says: “ I have to say I would recommend Connect to people who are location independent, people who not only like to be productive but also like to enjoy themselves. It’s perfect for people who do online or digital business, tech nomads or just people who value that balance between life and work in general.”

Whether you are permanently based in Bali and plan to use the space on a daily basis or want to just drop in periodically between business trips on the road, Connect at Peppers Seminyak has a package to suit most needs.

You can opt for a one-month, three-month, six-month or annual plan, and each membership package includes access to high-speed Internet, the gym and the pool, printing, scanning and office supplies, meeting and Skype rooms on request, and a 15 per cent discount at The Laneway Restaurant and SPA at Sentosa.

Even better – readers of The Yak get a special deal. Just mention our name when you sign up and you’ll get 10 per cent off your membership. www.peppersseminyak.com

spas

Flung across the island, these sublime spas and retreats all offer their own distinctive surrounds and delicious array of pampering, healing and beautifying treatments, for a totally recharged and chilled you.

By Katie Truman.

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The Ritz-Carlton, Bali.

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spas

clockwise from top left: The Spa at The Legian Bali; SOHAM Wellness Center; aroma spa; Spa at Peppers Seminyak; kaiana spa; alila ubud.

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Natural Wonders Perched staggeringly high atop the Ayung River Gorge, surrounded

by Indiana Jones-style rainforest, Alila Ubud offers an all-nature affair.

Rustic Spa Alila reflects the setting, especially the open-air, double bale with sensuous outdoor shower and stone bath within a private forest garden. Similar to other Alila spas, Spa Alila uses sense-sational, 100 per cent natural Alila Living products and focus on nurturing and blissfully relaxing treatments and head-to-toe pampering, inspired by ancient Asian healing techniques and therapies. Massages are a strong signature, combining Asian and European massage techniques with long-serving therapists trained in physiology – armed with vicelike hands that work miracles; signature Therapeutic, incorporates Balinese, Swedish and Thai massage techniques in varying depths and intensity. From Journeys by Alila, Beauty and Balance Ritual (120 min; IDR1.085m), is a delicious combo of locally-sourced ingredients: the scrub features gently exfoliating coffee beans that draw out impurities as the coconut deeply conditions; the therapist works hard on knotted muscles in a 60-minute massage and a cocoa bean and coffee body mask tempts like chocolate cake – all contributing to total relaxation and glowing skin with improved tone. You can also create your own Indulgent Spa Package (90 min; IDR800,000). During sacred full moon nights, Moonlight Remedies (120 min; USD125++), draws on the moon’s strongest powers, with traditional Hindu prayers, four destination-inspired massage therapies and Reiki within an opensided canopy in Alila’s uppermost gardens. Waft away with a profound sense of well-being and spiritual growth. www.alilahotels.com/ubud Island Life In downtown Seminyak, Kaiana Spa and Salon makes for a most convenient one-stop beauty and pampering urban escape, especially after retail therapy overdoses. Kaiana is actually located within the mini-arcade beside Made’s Warung, the creation of the legendary restaurant’s Indonesian owners. Eschewing any traditional island ambiance, Kaiana wows with a European-style interior design and French colonial accent that screams elegance – from polished timbered floors to chandeliers. Over the bi-level property, airconditioned rooms are designated for reflexology, waxing and facials, private treatments with ensuite bathrooms, Mani-Pedis and hair salon helmed by an Indonesian, New York-trained master hair stylist. Kaiana translates from Hawaiian to “island beauty,” setting the tropical tone for the extensive, revamped menu that offers top-to-toe options from anti-ageing facials and traditional body and massage therapies to kid’s treats and salon grooming. Popular options include Signature Spa Packages, like Vanilla Coconut Passion and house favourite, Kaiana Indulgence (2.5 hours; IDR1.15m) a heavenly combo showcasing Bali’s iconic Frangipani flower, incorporating body wash, scrub, facial, reflexology and two therapists working ensemble for an intense fourhand massage. Kaiana’s premium Pevonia Botanica body and facial offerings include Green Coffee Anti-Cellulite and Slimming treatment (120 min, IDR800,000), helping reduce cellulite and toning-up the body – no wonder it’s popular. For ultra-shiny, lustrous locks, the Hair

Spa’s unusual Ice-Cream Bath Treatment applies ice-cubes to the hair and scalp. Cool. With inventive tropical treatments at remarkably good value, Kaiana is especially alluring for spa novices. www.kaianaspa.com Pearls of Wisdom As you’d expect from The Ritz-Carlton, Bali (RCB) fronting Nusa Dua Beach, their newly launched The Ritz-Carlton Spa is lavish; a contemporary-Asian designed, three-level sanctuary housing a 24hour Fitness Centre, yoga studio, salon, boutique, relaxation lounge and vast open lobby. Exceptional wet spa facilities boast separate Ladies and Gentlemen warm and cold plunge pools, sauna and steam room, plus a tropical-inspired, semi-covered, Hydro-Vital pool, with assorted hydrotherapy stations. Enjoy complimentary pre-treatment sessions to reap the aqua thermal benefits. Amongst self-contained treatment suites, book a palatial Spa Villa with football team-sized sunken bath and exclusive use of the Balinese bathing pool, inspired by ancient water palaces; the dedicated villa package, Couples Indulgence, Escape to Romance (120 min; IDR 4,800,000) spoils with Champagne and hand-made chocolates. Long revered as a source of energy with transformative powers, the ocean takes centre-stage at the Spa, combining the finest natural marine products with ancient Balinese methods and modern spa techniques. Signature treatments showcase two naturally therapeutic marine products, seaweed and pearls, locally sourced for bespoke spa products exclusive to RCB. Pearls epitomize The Ritz-Carlton brand (elegant, refined, high-class, and so on) and are the star of Iridescent Delight (120 min; IDR2.9m), featuring a shimmering pearl polish, pure pearl body wrap and shine renewal massage – slathering on vitality oils blended with pearl extract, basil and rose to improve circulation – all resulting in hydrated, iridescent skin, with an instant party-ready sheen. Seaweed, pearls and marine elements from premium French brand, Thalgo, are omnipresent elsewhere, including Body Polish and Wraps, Marine Facials and Indulgent Rituals, like the Marine Algae Trio. www.ritzcarlton.com/bali Oriental Odyssey From February onwards, The Legian Bali, a sumptuous all-suite boutique resort beside Seminyak Beach, hands over its management reins from refined GHM brand, to Legian Hotel Management (LHM).

The Spa retains a status quo, still offering a classically elegant sanctuary and out on beachfront lawns, four self-contained pavilions housing semi-open sunken terraces with terrazzo baths (perfect for Romantic Bathing Ceremonies) and steam shower. Any management changes haven’t as yet affected the GHM-legacy menu of utterly nurturing and healing treatments that combine ancient Asian spa rituals and therapeutic massages inspired by the Orient’s healing traditions, with modern expertise. The Spa proudly sticks with high-grade boutique spa brands, with pure, sustainable, organic ingredients harvested from select areas of the planet. These include top-notch UK brand, ILA, a pure, organic spa product, with far-flung sourced ingredients like Moroccan wild-grown Argan oils (here

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blended with juniper berry, geranium, or wild poppy extracts) and wondrous, Himalayan pink crystal salts; even Mani-Pedi’s use vegan, wild-crafted products.

Distinguished offerings include the impressive Therapeutic Massages (from IDR960,000) and rare, Tibetan Ku Nye Massage, healing and strengthening the energy flows with ancient Tibetan traditions (a star player in Adreno Restore Ritual, helping cure 21st century syndrome, Adrenal Fatigue). Other notables include Himalayan Crystal Body Polish, where warmed, negative-ion charged Himalayan salts zap nasty’s like stress and burn-out and Nurturing Envelopment Rituals, featuring Amethyst wraps. Two-hour plus Indulgent Oriental Rituals features the menu’s destination signature, Bali Oriental Ritual (IDR1.85m), a right royal Balinese indulgence and reconnection with spa traditions – including bathing in a Frangipani-filled bathtub. Actually, the only major change is the just-launched, subterranean steam room, sauna, and cold and warm plunge pools – unisex facilities complimentary to spa-goers. www.LHM-hotels.com Urban Escape Guests at Petitenget’s boutique MACA Villas now get to enjoy a new spa and leisure playground – along with the rest of Bali. Just a stone’s throw from their villas, recently launched SOHAM Wellness Center offers the general public an ultra-modern, multi-level building dedicated to wellness and leisure; facilities cover a hi-tech fitness centre with cycle room, outdoor lap pool, healthy café, MMA Boxing studio and yoga-dance studio, with classes from Yoga to Brazilian Circuit Training. The Spa, like elsewhere, is vast and stylish with polished concrete floors and floor-to-ceiling glass walls, contrasting with earthy-toned treatment rooms that boast stand-alone tubs. The great value menu includes Facial and Body treatments using top-notch Thalgo, Elemis and Pevonia products, spa mani-pedis and reflexology at the open-plan salon and from the comprehensive Massage selection, Royal Thai with Lukprakob (90 min; IDR500,000), administered in a dedicated Thai massage room. Stand-out healing offerings include ancient Indian Ayurveda; Best of Ayurveda (120 min; IDR700,000) rebalances individual dosha types with three combined Ayurvedic rituals. Rhythmic Abhyanga massage with dosha-related herbal massage oils is especially soothing for stressed-out souls; the body scrub exfoliates with ground cardamom, coriander and sandalwood and profoundly spiritual Shirodhara offers serene emotional balance, drizzling warmed virgin coconut oil over your “third eye”. A special Healing Room is set aside for Chakra Healing and other therapies, like Ank Treatment – ancient Egyptian cosmos healing! Two-hour plus Ritual Packages, which include complimentary use of the downstairs steam, sauna and plunge pools, include sexy Unity, with Champagne and lingering romantic soaks in the couple’s suites. MACA guests can use all SOHAM’s facilities for free; others should sign-up for membership and day passes to get fit and fabulous. www.sohamwellnesscenter.com Oasis of Wellness Tucked away within all-villa resort Peppers Seminyak, in deepest Petitenget, Spa at Peppers Seminyak offers a nature-inspired day spa and wellness retreat.

Amongst its diverse menu of pampering, beautifying and stress-busting treatments, there are results-driven Facials and reinvigorating Body Treatments

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with high-octane UK brand Elemis, an under-12 range and inventive Packages, including blow-the-diet Chocolate Fondue. Massages include signature Hot Stone Massage (90 min; IDR650,000), an utterly energizing, ancient therapy where warmed, smooth stones massaged over the entire body gently release stress, negativity and jetlag. However, with accolades like “Asia’s Top 10 Wellness Resorts, 2015” from CNN Travel, this spa is most noteworthy for its pioneering holistic wellness programmes, helmed by a Reiki and Theta Healing Master, certified nutritionist – and celeb favourite. Healing Treatments incorporate specific healing modes, such as Theta, to help clear past emotional issues and overcome fear, anger and resentments hindering moving forward.

Holistic Nutritional Consultations and Life Coaching counselling (helping achieve anything from career dreams to finding a soul mate) follow similar lines. Wellness Escapes offer a gentler, more realistic approach to standard retreats or boot camps – holed-up in a luxe pool villa with ample downtime, yet still achieving life-changing results. Three or seven-day Wellness Retreat Packages (all-inclusive from USD1,600) present three customized programmes, incorporating private healing, natural cleansing, nutrition and lifestyle workshops, healthy meal plans, spa treatments and yoga sessions – even post-retreat support. Their Juicing Cleanse regime is a Bali first; raw, organic cold-pressed juices incorporated in complete cleansing programmes, which can be home delivered for private cleansing – so no excuses. www.peppersseminyak.com/ Retreat from the world We’re guilty of fixating on spas in Seminyak and Ubud, but there’s actually a gem on “the other side” – Sanur’s only beachfront spa, located within Prama Sanur Beach Hotel. Two Australian sisters created Aroma Spa Retreat for precious “me time”, taking guests to another stratosphere for complete relaxation and pampering. Their highly regarded spa combines high-touch treatments using premium organic products with the latest technology; staff are highly trained and experienced, with professional health specialists contributing to the workings. Although there are heaps of great one-off treatments, their signature is out-of-the-box inclusive packages. Airport Chill (IDR1.49m), offers six hours of bliss treatments – reflexology, detox massage, Indo hair ritual and more – interspersed with chill time, before you are whisked, zoned-out, to the airport to fly home. Signature One-day Retreat (IDR3m), is not only an eight hour “holiday within a holiday” but a bespoke day of treatments and spa cuisine options – including full body Ayurvedic body brushing and milk and honey bath – to reconnect body and mind.

Other packages cover five hour-plus Wedding/Honeymoon and Half-day options (from IDR1.79m) jam-packed with island-inspired indulgences.

Their TDA facials using technologically advanced miracle worker machine, Transdermal Application, presents a new, non-invasive anti-ageing technique that transports active, non-chemical ingredients into the skin’s deepest layers (without needles), for long lasting, anti-wrinkle results (hoorah); choose from individual TDA facials (from IDR850,000) or a series of procedure packages. www.aromasparetreat.com

weddings anantara uluwatu.

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into the white katie truman checks out a quiver of five-star bolt holes offering slick wedding events to cater to your wildest whims.

ANANTARA ULUWATU Like many Uluwatu resorts, perched atop sheer cliff-tops in southern Bukit, views from Anantara Uluwatu are gobsmacking, looking out over the Indian Ocean’s endless rolling surf (next stop, Australia). A spectacular spot for a wedding and here, Anantara, tiered down limestone cliffs, delivers its trump card with cliff-edge Dewa Dewi Chapel. Ultra-contemporary yet oozing elegance, this dedicated wedding venue comes glass-encased and set over water features to maximize the ocean-blurs-with-sky views – at sunset, aglow with floating candles – simply divine for ceremonies with a maximum 50 guests. Non-legal wedding packages (from IDR 7.5m++) – legally binding weddings cost extra – include a wedding blessing ceremony, English-speaking celebrant, two-night stay at a Ocean View Suite and bespoke Dine by Design a deux. For the height of luxury (literally), splash your cash on the Dewata Penthouse Wedding Package (from USD4,999), inclusive of full wedding ceremony and two-night stay at a duplex style, two-bedroom penthouse, indulging honeymooners with high-tech gadgets and ultra-private pool with sun deck. Anantara’s wedding organizers can assist with tailor-made options and additional services. Snap your first newlywed photos down on ‘Impossible Beach’ accessed via private inclinator to the cliff base. In-house venues for cocktail soirees and receptions include signature 360 Rooftop Restaurant, with sit-down dinners catering for around 150 guests and all-encompassing Indian Ocean views. Tailored honeymoon packages are also available in spacious suites and private pool villas, all ocean-facing with generous-sized balcony Jacuzzi tubs – an edgy start to just-married life. www.bali-uluwatu.anantara.com ALILA VILLAS SOORI In a galaxy far, far away – well, Tabanan, on Bali’s less chartered west coast – environmentally committed Alila Villas Soori magically blends with its tropical beachfront setting: volcanic black-sand beach, surrounded by UNESCO World Heritage-protected rice terraces and distant Mount Batukaru. If you seek a wilder, practically deserted beach for your wedding, but demand the sophisticated comforts expected from ultra-luxurious Alila resorts, read on. Alila Villas Soori‘s in-house wedding concierge offer both bespoke arrangements or wedding packages, from intimate to full-scale productions or simple blessings, organizing everything from rehearsal dinners to honeymoons. Wedding service options include tailor-made menus, from canapés to barbecues, created by Executive Chef Fernando Trump, for indoor or outdoor receptions and entertainment must-haves, including fireworks and dove releases. Wedding venues cover Soori

Estate (maximum 60 guests), a magnificent 10-bedroom villa complete with a floating pool stage; beachfront Sunset Lawn, heaven-sent for sunset weddings and reception dinners and Cliff Lawn, doubling-up as the helipad, with stunning peninsula backdrop. Wedding packages incorporating these venues include a dedicated wedding assistant, marriage celebrant and two-night stay at one of their 48 ultra-spacious pool villas. Full legal weddings, be it Buddhist, Christian, Protestant or Muslim, can be arranged at extra cost (from USD 1,100++), while Balinese Wedding Blessings, with a local Hindu priest and full indigenous traditions, start from USD 1,600++. Soori’s wildly beautiful backdrop offers one-upmanship photo opportunities (a two-night pre-wedding photo tour package, or a la carte video options are available), while the contemporary Asian villas come designed to maximize the lush West Bali landscape views (but still maintaining utmost privacy). A Honeymoon two-night stay package throws in a 15-minute aerial helicopter tour. Still can’t decide? Soori offers a night’s stay for couples to inspect the resort and if they book a wedding here, the night’s accommodation expenses are deducted from the wedding bill. Sweet. www.alilavillassoori.com HOTEL TUGU BALI Canggu presents another wild beach destination, with boutique Hotel Tugu: boho-chic, evocative and studded with Indonesian antiquities, this internationally-acclaimed resort presents a living-breathing museum preserving and celebrating Javanese and Balinese art, cultural heritage and traditions – with lashings of romance. All permeating through to gorgeous weddings hosted here.

Tugu’s experienced wedding planners ably handle all the nitty-gritty, from permits to menu design, traditional blessings to dreamy western all-white affairs, plus vow renewals, legal marriages, multi-faith or spiritually-inclined ceremonies. Whatever, Tugu offers three heaven-sent ceremonial spots: beachfront lawns beside crashing surf (maximum 350 guests standing), Barong Gardens, within the resorts’ lovely tropical grounds (maximum 100) and Bale Agung, an impressive highceilinged lobby hall (maximum 250). Couples can create bespoke ceremonies, or opt for a la carte-style packages, for personalized adaptations, like the Heavenly Sunset Wedding Package (from USD2,150++) with marriage celebrant and two-night stay at one of Tugu’s rustic-inclined suites. Tugu’s signature is exquisite indigenous detail, from village-style floral arrangements (think island coco palms and tropical flowers, braided into ceremonial arches) to traditional Royal Javanese Keraton settings and colourful Balinese Hindu ceremonies (if you must, book the royal horse-drawn carriage).

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clockwise from top left: alila villas soori; anantara uluwatu; hotel tugu bali; Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve; komaneka; COMO Shambhala Estate.

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Open-air receptions feature beachside full moon BBQ dinners, dancing barefoot to DJs in lantern-lit gardens, or indoors, within historically-themed dining chambers; the highlight, red-themed Bale Sutra, housing a 1706 Kang Xi-era Chinese family temple shipped-in from Java. These atmospheric-charged chambers offer a unique Cultural Dining Series with set wedding menus, fusing local gourmet delicacies with culture-rich, ceremonial rituals. Delicious treats laidon for honeymooners include seven-course Aphrodisiac Picnic in Bed, feasting on an ornate 18th-century Javanese bed beside the beach, and Gemulai Penari, with eight hours of bathing rituals, body treatments and gourmet nibbles at Tugu’s acclaimed spa. Puri Le Mayeur, a vintage villa elevated above a lotus pond and romantic tribute to this Belgian artist’s love affair with a Balinese dancer, delivers the ultimate love-nest. www.tuguhotels.com Komaneka Ubud can’t provide any fabulous beach backdrops, however it does present more bucolic splendour than you can shake a (bamboo) stick at and is one of Bali’s more traditional destinations for local Hindu rituals, culture and spirituality.

Dotted across this highland town, the family-owned Komaneka group presents four upscale boutique hotels, infused with high-end Indonesian art and heritage.

Each can host small-scale weddings, expertly supported by in-house wedding organizers arranging all the logistics and services, be it flowers, cake, kecak monkey dances, or tedious pre-wedding paperwork. Besides two wedding packages, plus F&B and photographic packages, couples can design their own weddings, whether it’s a commitment celebration, a rite according to faith, non-religious exchange of vows, or legally-binding ceremony. Secluded in five hectares of tropical rainforest, yet a quick saunter from central Ubud, signature wedding venue Komaneka at Bisma offers two nuptial spots. Non-denominational Wanaswara Wedding Chapel, overlooking the Campuhan river gorge and constructed Torajan-style from timber and glass, accommodates 48 guests and comes with a dedicated Suite for pre-wedding preparations. Formerly rice terraces and now manicured lawns shaded by coconut trees, Garden Grove is lovely for small, late afternoon ceremonies, with receptions hosted at the lower lap pool on a specially decorated deck. Other facilities run to an open-air Roof Terrace, fab for cocktail receptions, Terrace Restaurant for wedding banquets and an open-air mini-amphitheatre and stage for post-wedding shin-digs. An elevated sanctuary set amidst tropical fruit trees, Komaneka at Tanggayuda boasts the largest venue, Batukaru Twilight Terrace, a rooftop deck for maximum 50 guests, open-air with awesome river valley and volcano vistas; receptions are hosted in the restaurant below. Komaneka wedding packages are available, but just-married’s should splurge on Bisma’s super-luxe, Masterpiece Bisma Residence, a three-bedroom pool villa camouflaged amongst the tree tops – quite the cool first home! www.komaneka.com Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve Secluded in rain forested hills, this boutique gem spectacularly tumbles down a ravine to the Ayung River, but is still utterly refined with off-the-charts service.

Well, what did you expect from a Ritz-Carlton property, or namely, Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, the world’s third in the prestigious Reserve portfolio.

Designed as a private sanctuary to relax one’s mind, body and soul, Mandapa offers guests a full immersion into Ubud’s native culture and nature, evoking traditional Balinese village life – working rice paddies dominate centre stage –

albeit holed-up at sumptuous 35 suites and 25 private pool villas, with the 24-hour services of a patih (personal assistant to Balinese royals). In short, a gorgeous setting for a destination wedding; so get those nice Ritz-Carlton ladies and gentlemen on to it. Dedicated wedding planners can organize bespoke weddings or lavish wedding packages (from IDR39,000,000++) catering to around 30 attendees (additional charge for extra guests, maximum 80). Signature Mandapa Balinese Wedding offers an authentic local experience, officiated by a Hindu priest, while Mandapa White Wedding offers a more Western-orientated approach with wedding celebrant. Nuptials are hosted on lawns beside the rice terraces, along the Ayung riverbanks, or at Mandapa’s uppermost levels, either in front of a temple at the Kul Kul Tower or at the Wantilan welcome pavillion. For ultimate privacy, get hitched at the two-bedroom Reserve Villa or three-bedroom Mandapa Villa (a whopping 2,000-square-metres), with intimate ceremonies held in riverside gardens on a wooden deck, followed by poolside cocktail soirees. Customized receptions incorporate specially crafted menus from Executive Chef, Maurizio Bombini. Making it legal comes at additional cost, as does booking-up the entire Reserve, all yours for a four-day, three-night package, accommodating up to 120 guests, including helicopter transfers from the airport. Continue the high-life, reserving a honeymoon package. www.mandapareserve.com COMO SHAMBHALA ESTATE From the prestigious COMO group, multi-award winning COMO Shambhala Estate is best known as one of the world’s first full-service residential holistic health and spa retreats. Focusing on 360-degree holistic wellness and long-term healing and lifestyle changes, every aspect here – from accommodation to cuisine – contributes to wellness. Weddings however can also be held here; not so surprising, given its restorative and secluded setting, elevated high above the Ayung River gorge in Ubud’s hills, with luxurious facilities and 30 rustic-Indonesian accommodations built in jungle clearings, plus water-tight privacy (you need a good excuse to enter the 10-hectare estate) and exceptional service that attracts A-List celebs. COMO’s wedding organizers offer personalized yet unobtrusive assistance, whether it’s for bridal hair and make-up or masked fire dancers and expertise on anything from Indonesia’s legal protocol to meticulous floral arrangements. Weddings (commitment ceremonies, traditional Balinese, westernstyle and more), are incorporated in non-legal wedding packages with Englishspeaking celebrant; bespoke weddings are possible, including legal marriages, but must include Estate accommodation reservations, while receptions are tailormade to suit couples’ whims. Weddings at Residence package (from USD5,800++) is hosted for around 20 attendees at one of their five grandiose Residences, each boasting four to five suites, expansive semi-open living-dining areas and massive pool. The Water Gardens, accessed 250-plus stone steps down to the jungleengulfed riverbanks, presents an ultra-secluded, miniscule ceremonial spot beside sacred spring-fed pools. For large weddings (100-plus guests), the Amphitheatre and Parkland amply suffices, but you’ll have to book-up the entire estate at extra cost. If money is no object (and it wouldn’t be, getting hitched here) that shouldn’t be a problem. www.comohotels.com/comoshambhalaestate

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Sarah Douglas feasts on Seminyak’s latest hotel hero, Alila. food photography by lucky 8.

laps of luxury.

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This stretch of Seminyak coast is pretty cool already. Home to Ku De Ta, W Retreat & Spa and Potato Head Beach Club, there’s no shortage of groove going down. Some of the best chefs, stunning resorts and not-so-secret hangouts offer more play here than there are hours in the day. So what more do we need, one might ask?

And then along comes Alila Seminyak, slipping into the little black dress of neighborhood beach life like Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Cleverly conceived along a strip of land that leads down to the beach, and with a minimal chic that sets the bar high for it’s competitors, Alila never shouts, rather it intrigues with simple sophistication. It’s at the heart of the action and plays to it without ever raising a sweat.

Sunsets are a destination event complete with a spacious deck, smooth tunes and a front row seat on the beach. Canapés come in all shapes and sizes from the pan-Asian kitchen with miniature cocktails to match. It is refined and relaxed all at the same time, perfectly composed to meet with friends or enjoy a romantic cocktail as the sun bids farewell.

Food is the heart of the resort’s philosophy. Chef Stefan Zijta made the move here from Alila Uluwatu where he won fans for his rarifed take on European-style dining incorporating some of the best local products and his early entry into Indonesian street food at the stylish Warung.

At Alila Seminyak, The Restaurant combines both and then some. The menu is more than a mouthful at first glance but once you get the hang of it, the culinary journey begins.

Stefan, the creative Dutch chef behind the menu, first took on Jakarta at the Anouska Hempel-designed fine dining restaurant, Shy. His two compatriots, Eelke Plasmeijer and Quirjin Rademaker, are now cooking up a storm at Locavore and Gado Gado respectively. These guys are among the island’s top chefs and share a passion for local produce and for mingling local flavours with contemporary European cuisine.

The Restaurant at Alila Seminyak plays to an upmarket Asian palate with a sophisticated European sensibility. The interior of the restaurant is spacious, modern and echoes the clean lines of the resort. An open kitchen that wraps around the interior is enough to make professional chefs green with envy – it’s quite beautiful and acts as a fiery juxtaposition to the cool interior. A large deck outside echoes the beach club and propels the diner towards the sea.

The thoroughly modern menu takes on some great Asian classics from China, Thailand, Malaysia, India and Indonesia. It begins with small bites, an Asian tapas of sorts, and then travels from the garden to the wok, to the grill and back to the curry house. There is also a rotisserie section and a carvery to satisfy the meat lovers. It’s quite a creation, this menu.

Dishes like quail-egg minced pork balls, a classic Indonesian dish that I had never seen before, was our first taste sensation, kind of like an Asian version of the scotch egg. Paired with the ever-present Chinese staple, shrimp toast, these two common street dishes were authentic and contemporary all at once.

From here our dinner travelled to Thailand with a Larb Nue, tender rare beef slices atop a cool glass noodle salad dressed in pomelo, mint, young

mango and coconut-milk dressing. It was refreshing and light and perfect on a balmy night with the rolling waves reflecting the moon, quite special.

We danced with the cocktail menu created by Mexican-born beverage director, Carlos, who was tempted away from Manhattan by the soft lights of the tropics and has made his mark on the drinks here at Alila. He is quite the charmer too and before you know it, he has lured you into his web of creation and made the night.

However, we were ready for wine and a fairly well-priced Spanish Rioja felt right at home with the meat selections we’d made.

Here a local producer shines with Gede’s beer-fed pork belly. The soft, pale meat was offset with crisp skin and a house-made tamarind hoisin sauce. Finely sliced and laid out on slivers of cucumber, the inspiration was clearly Chinese with a depth of flavor that is almost French. We had to go the beef as well, and a beautiful beef rump steak was sliced to share by our waiter and served with a biting green peppercorn sauce.

The concept of a shared meal is front and centre here and dishes arrive much like a Chinese restaurant; as they do so the table fills with a variety that can be overwhelming. We will be prepared next time.

The vegetables on the menu are much more than sides. A glistening plate of warm beetroot was dressed with a warm sweet and sour dressing, pickled perfectly in their juice. Sweet slivers of pumpkin were roasted and dressed with crisp pumpkin seeds and cinnamon and creamed spinach arrived dressed to impress, with a toasted sesame seed sauce.

Our happy ending was approaching with a dessert selection I would never have considered if not for the company. It reads like a mad scientist’s breakthrough, a traditional martabak (that looks crumpet–like) smeared with chocolate, cheddar cheese and sesame seeds and folded over like a sandwich. How could this be good, I wondered? Well, it might sound ‘out there’ to the uninitiated and you sure won’t be attracting any body-conscious dieters with this, but it worked. Warm, soft and gooey with a balance of sweet and salty.

As I am about to ready to slide up the elegant staircase to the lobby, Carlos reappears with the offer of a post-dinner drink and we’re down with an Eastern Promise, his take on a whiskey sour. An artisan bourbon gets soured up by tamarind, sweetened with a ginger syrup and shaken up with an egg white.

That’s me, that’s us, that’s the story, anything beyond that goes in the private message box! We leave with a bungkus as Alila is lean and green with a no-waste policy. I’m still not sure who made it home with that.

Cheers Carlos, until the next time. www.alillahotels.com/seminyak Sunday Graze Special starts from 12 noon until 4pm IDR465.000++

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Ondy Sweeting is seduced by the lush flavours and chic interiors at this hip new addition to Petitenget’s culinary scene. photos: lucky 8.

It doesn’t take long to taste the history of Shanghai Baby’s chef Ganesha Pideksha – both in genes and genre.

Starring on the upscale modern Asian menu is foie gras, truffles, and confit and crème brulee . . . so there are no secrets here as to what influences Chef Ganesha – a sassy and creative talent now exposed.

“We are not Chinese at all but a modern Asian dining experience that has been modified to develop something new,” he says. “We use elements of contemporary Shanghai cooking – a style that is popping up in some wonderful old buildings in that city, which is more experimental than traditional dining.

“I’m also influenced by the foods that were abundant in Shanghai in 1900 when it was a major trading place with European foods impacting on the local environment. Locals started to eat with forks and spoons and it was a complete melting pot of cultures and cuisines,” says Ganesha.

This melting pot presents a wild ride through adaptations of traditional Chinese entrée favourites such as Xiao Long Pao – tender and juicy steamed dumplings that explode with a stream of flavours

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in your mouth. Shanghai Baby has mastered combining foie gras – a most traditional French delicacy – and it’s rich and buttery taste, with an ethereal Asian broth. The black winter truffle Xiao Long Bao is worked into delicately spiced chicken creating a taste sensation of steaming delight. The third in this trio is a suitably sublime nod to classic Chinese cuisine with Shanghai spiced chicken that is a traditional time bomb that lasts just a moment.

Other Chinese favourites that appear on the menu include wonton soup – seafood dumplings in a rich ginger broth, plus a hot and sour soup with chicken dumplings in a chilli, ginger and garlic broth.

The wok-seared scallops are awesomely tender and finished with soft cauliflower, hoi sin and cucumber foam. This is balanced with a thin tempe crumble plus a hint of citrus and Hong Kong-style XO sauce.

Maintenant pour le style Chinois Francais with sesame crusted foie gras where the rich fullness of the liver is stabilised with apple plus a ginger and carrot foam. A little slice of Bali grape intensifies the flavour of the spiced wine gastrique.

Chef Ganesha has chopped, simmered and sizzled his way from

Chinoiserie funk.

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eastern promise.

culinary school in Jakarta to the kitchens of five-star hotels in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, landing himself the job of Demi Chef at the game changing Mozaic Restaurant Gastrominque in Ubud, where star chef Chris Salans has had a major hand in developing the skills and curiosity of culinary gifted locals.

“I love French techniques and methods,” says Chef Ganesha, “as they can be successfully applied to cooking styles from any region. It’s about knowing and understanding food and the ingredients used. During my time in the UAE I bought a lot of books by the master chefs. I still do. I love to explore and experiment,” he says.

His exploration serves several surprises particularly a gem of a main that is butter soft Black Angus beef on baby corn flavoured with lemon grass and coriander with a most exquisite crab and corn sauce. This is a main event that is so tender it was carved with a fork and spoon. Prepare to have the tastebuds astounded.

Seafood lovers will enjoy the confit of coral trout – which is cooked slowly at a very low temperature and comes with a black bean sauce, XO sauce and a crisp oriental salad.

Devotees of Peking duck, which has been a mainstay in Beijing for 700-years dating back to the Yuan Dynasty when the Mongol Emperors ruled the region – will immerse into the many tastes of the restaurant’s stir-fried version. Chinese dining diehards will love the Kung Pao chicken and roasted pork belly, or even the pork and prawn curry. There are vegetarian options including stir fried 1,000 vegetables and braised tofu with a soy and ginger broth, plus an exotic Shanghai garden salad with Asian vegetables and fruits with a Shanghai dressing.

Desserts are also a unique blend of European and China, with grilled spiced pineapple dressed with a shaoxing sabayon listed beside chocolate

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crème brulee. As a cherished delicacy, chocolate makes two appearances and the true fiend of the bean will most likely select the lush Five Elements Chocolate with a mousse, a tuile, chocolate soil plus a sable with kluwek ice cream. Francophiles should aim to savour the shaoxing poached pear with red wine, Shanghai chilli with caramelised granita and the extraordinary crystallised candlenut that was almost like a candied pop corn in it’s lightness.

“I was lost before I came into a kitchen,” says Chef Ganesha. “I just love it and believe working as a chef is like being a DJ - you have to feel it. Listen and smell and taste. They are all connected. Now I think I’m living the dream,” he says.

Shanghai Baby is a hip and buzzing place with beautiful interiors of funky Chinoiserie, painted ceiling, huge round windows and a very hip lounge and bar.

The lounge is a seething hot spot for Bali’s beautiful people. A team of sensational mixologists who squeeze, crush, grind and pour their way into producing a series of stand out cocktails including a bourbon-based Whiskey Sour and the signature Miss Young – a subtly sweet concoction that is served in a spectacular pot of smoking dry ice and topped with fresh lychee sprinkled with black pepper.

Shanghai Baby is as big and beautiful as its landmark building in Bali’s sophisticated night time strip of Petitenget and with Chef Ganesha rolling out divine dishes this new destination could well be prepping for some series encores. www.shanghaibaby.asia

oral pleasures

Sarah Douglas visits Tiigo at Montigo Bay. Jamaica? No she went of her own accord.

Montigo Bay is an awful long way away, or is it? The new resort in Petitenget has captured the name and the flavor of the island paradise far, far away and the buzz in town is painting a very pretty picture.

The Singapore-owned group is launching its first Bali property smack bang in the middle of Jl Petitengett on the site of the former Semara. With a very competitive landscape, they have transformed the former Deck restaurant into something quite different and refreshing.

Tiigo is the name of their street-side restaurant and their ethos of providing experience-driven resorts and added value across the board has been thoughtfully conceived at this airy eatery.

The restaurant occupies a large street frontage and operates as a standalone restaurant and café as well as providing in-house guests with a place to dine and play.

Tiigo is decked out with tropical elegance, which reminds me of Singapore in many ways. The blue and white theme brings the Mediterranean to my lunch partner’s mind, and I get that, but the huge overhead fans, the high white ceilings, the gleaming surfaces, open kitchens, the columns and air-conditioned interior are almost Raffles-like in their interpretation.

They are however, doing some things that marry Bali and its food into the mix very successfully.

There are two distinct kitchens at Tiigo, both of them are located at the

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front of the restaurant, giving passers by a taste of what’s inside. The western kitchen is where the grill, pizza oven and rotisserie are placed. A bevvy of welldressed chefs are busy creating the meals and sides on the menu, regularly rotated on the specials board.

Passers by are seduced by the fresh selection of seafood and meat that the chefs will cook to order, in a variety of styles. The seafood and meat are also available for sale, as the group’s Managing Director tells us, “we know there aren’t many butcher’s shops in this area so it is an added bonus for our customers”.

This is the kind of approach to service that instills a sense of comfort that goes beyond the menu.

Adjacent to the Western kitchen is the open Asian kitchen. Woks flying and stoves burning, it’s a hive of activity that can be seen from the street.

Our lunch is being prepared as we are seated at one of the open tables. The fans cool the room but we are given the option to dine al fresco or in the airconditioned restaurant area, which is humming as well. We chose to sit where we could see the chefs at work.

Bali restaurants have taken to serving Balinese food in recent times, sometimes not very successfully. I’m a little unsure as we are told the chef is preparing his famous ayam betutu for our lunch. I’ve eaten a lot of trumped up warung food of late but this chef has earned his place at the top of the

oral pleasures

rung, however, and as an asli Balinese with a couple of decades of five star resorts among his credentials, I’m intrigued.

I can happily report that this was among the best renditions of the dish I have been served, and they number many. The enthusiasm of the waiter was also infectious. The dish, created for two, was beautifully plated, the sides were stunning and the selection of sambal and sauces hit just the right flavour notes. My partner went for the fiery sambal matah, I played it down, but the chicken was succulent, the urupan (the green bean salad) was fragrant and delicately spiced, the perkedel (corn cakes) were fresh and crisp.

The sate served with it balanced and gorgeous.

For those seeking a local experience, this is a perfect introduction. The waiter masterfully portioned the meal and served it to us in classic restaurant style. As he began to wax lyrical about some of the other Balinese dishes on the menu, we agreed that the local bebek goreng was among our favourites.

With some fancy footwork, a bamboo plate appeared with the crispy local duck sending off waves of spicy aromas. Without doubt this will give some of the big players in town a run for their money.

At Rp275,000 for the Balinese betutu for two, the menu is well priced.

The menu plays to the pan Asian palate and dances between Balinese, classic Asian and Western dishes including some French and Italian café favourites. An impressive salad bar inside offers a glimpse of the detail that has gone into the restaurant. With a healthy array of vegetable dishes, little

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bottles of dressings, some Japanese sushi selections and a dizzying variety of flavoured salts, it’s clear that they have considered their customer and played to please.

As the kitchens are open so is the produce on display, with big glassfronted refrigerators lining one wall of the restaurant with salad and seafood for all to see. There is nowhere to hide here, which could be daunting for the staff but management says they have grown to like it. Everything is so clean – this has to be the Singaporean influence!

Breads are created at the front alongside the pizza oven and in the airconditioned interiors. The pastry chefs are also on show. A tasting plate of desserts followed and this was both a good and bad thing. The chocolate decadence was fought over, the tiramisu disappeared in moments and the lemongrass crème caramel was savoured. Nice effort and plenty to choose from.

The resort is still in soft opening stage as a new wing is built at the back, a new age spa is under way, “marshmallow” beds are arriving from overseas and some unique experiences are planned for in-house guests. Tiigo guests won’t notice the action behind the scenes as they arrive at the fully operational bar/ café/restaurant where the prices are affordable and the menu swings both ways. They do that in Montigo Bay, I’ve heard. www.montigoresorts.com/seminyak

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Jalan Subak Salá - Banjar Salá - Pejeng Kawan • Ubud Bali, 80571 Indonesia Tel. +6282144081998 • www.glampingsandat.com

oral pleasures bring the 45.

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Ondy Sweeting visits Republik45 and samples the local revolution. Photo: Lucky 8.

Recline into the cool vibes of Seminyak’s buzzing live music scene, sip enticing cocktails and indulge in the distinctive delights of upscale Indonesian dining.

Republik45 is a mainstay for a hip night out or casual lunch with a menu that reflects the vast geography of Indonesia with street food, cuisine of royalty, home cooking, regional specialities and traditional recipes. This is offered within the beautiful confines of an architecturally designed two-level building with intimate lounges, lotus ponds filled with fish, a large garden al fresco dining area and superbly trained staff of waiters and mixologists.

Course after delectable course arrive as a result of the skilled hands of Balinese chef, Ketut Udiana, who trained with Mozaic’s chef Chris Salans.

He prepares dishes that are true to their roots. Authenticity is clearly key to Chef Ketut’s work ethic, which honours the very meaning of the year that Indonesia shed the shackles of Imperial colonisation – 1945.

The menu is as light or complex as any appetite requires with a range of small sharing plates and luscious dishes from the garden including Ayam Tangkap – tender pan-fried boneless chicken bites infused with local spices and a touch of mild chilli which is a perfect start for those unfamiliar with local flavours. For the hard-core lovers of local food secure some rujak with crunchy tofu and peppery greens dressed with a sweet and sour sauce.

The Tempe Mangga is another wonderful salad where young mango is tossed with fermented tempe cake, fresh soybeans, corn, tender asparagus and shredded chicken sprinkled with peanuts and finished with a lime dressing.

The crisp freshness of the ingredients is a feature of these salads.

Vegetables and fruits are bought every day from Bali’s Badung market and organic and seasonal produce is on the top of the shopping list. Vanilla is sourced from Sulawesi while delicate green fern tips come from Sumatra.

So taken by the idea of super-fresh foods from the pasar – or daily market – that Republik45 has launched the Pasar Malam night market that will flaunt Chef Ketut’s talent for creating sensationally tasty Indonesian finger food and evolve it to a fascinating level of excellence. This monthly

event will be epic on March 27th when the restaurant celebrates its first anniversary.

The restaurant already has a hot reputation for its choice of artists for the live acoustic music schedule on Wednesday and Friday evenings where locals and expats regularly gather for a night out of great tunes and tasty sharing plates.

For the hungry and curious the main menu has traditional soups – including the opulent Sop Buntut – a rich concoction of ox tail, vegetables and spice – and the ubiquitous and flavourful Soto Ayam – is a light turmeric chicken soup with glass noodles, vegetables and boiled egg.

Lovers of seafood will adore the Udang Balado, fat juicy tiger prawns sautéed with a richly spiced sambal and served on the most luscious fried greet fern tips – a delicate plant from Sumatra that deserves to be offered as a stand alone dish or as a side order.

The Beef Rendang is an authentic slow-cooked dish flavoured with subtle chilli and coconut emulsion served on crisp fried greens.

Finishing a spiced dining experience with a sweet treat is wonderfully gratifying. The menu captures a small and reflection of local treats including Pisang Goreng – fried bananas – that come with Sulawesi vanilla gelato plus the Kue Nanas Bakar – grilled pineapple with sweet palm sugar, sponge cake and gelato.

The Dadar Unti is a divine crepe stuffed with a melange of shredded coconut and palm sugar, rolled and drizzled with warm caramel and topped with vanilla ice cream. It’s a winner.

Republik45 continues to offer a culinary experience that embraces both the novice and local gourmets making this a superb starting point for any culinary journey of the archipelago. Cruise in for a smashingly good cocktail such as the coconut and pandan Daiquiri and graze on the weekly special tasting plates. Alternatively grab 100 of your finest foodie friends and celebrate that special something in this elegant temple of fine times. www. republik45.com

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ondy sweeting samples tiger palm and decides to occupy the peninsula. photos lucky 8.

Cross cultural star chef and impassioned culinary explorer Will Meyrick knows a thing or two about Asian flavours and presents a persuasive gastronomic experience at his newest Bali venture, Tiger Palm.

Malaysian food is a simmering brew of ethnicity – the love child of multiple parents – starting with Peranakan Chinese or ‘Nonya’ folk who arrived in the region hundreds of years ago. Mate this with foods from the local Malay community, Tamil, Southern Indian and European eating traditions and you are getting close to contemporary Malaysia.

Tiger Palm’s menu reveals the delicious secret of this diverse cuisine with rich curries and braises, rarefied tandoori and roasts with complex marinated meats, fiery sambal stir-fries, crispy whole fish and delectable dim sum.

To open this elegant eatery on the forecourt of the new Seminyak Village mall, Will set off to further explore the region in an archaeologicallike field trip to unveil secret recipes hidden in family archives or unusual offerings from street stalls.

“I went off to Penang, Melaka, Langkawi and Belu to research and I also cooked with the Malaysian celebrity Chef Wan. I worked on a TV show where I helped to decide what Kuala Lumpur’s signature dish was. This got me thinking about why a city needed to know this since it should be apparent, but KL is only 50 years old. Then I started to delve into the

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ethnic mix of the region, the religions, customs and different communities conjuring everything from my Bali restaurants Mamasan to Sarong and I realised that no one does Malaysian food here,” says Will.

Tiger Palm – which is named after the five points of a tiger paw – offers curries that are lighter than in his fabled Indonesian restaurant Sarong while the Drunken Chicken is a Hainanese yellow bean classic with a twist of rice balls ready for dipping into the ginger, shallot and soy dressing and a pot of crunchy cucumber sticks to create a balanced textural experience.

With remixed retro music and a hip aesthetic that flashes back to the 1950s – which is, incidentally, when Nonya people started to be heard and seen publically – Tiger Palm has a groovy vintage feel with blasts of Penang blue mixed with tin plates, Kevala stoneware and a wall of funky jars. The artwork is worth a visit alone.

But the food is something again. Dig into the Cheung Fun, a shredded braised beef with coriander and ginger rolled into a soft white noodle, steamed and set into a shallow soup. The stir-fried squid is delicately coated and flash fried to crispy perfection then pushed into the stratosphere by a fiery sambal that is hot and pungent.

A tower of salmon salad is no ordinary dish with chunks of velvety soft seared salmon interspersed into a tower of cucumber with lashings of fried garlic, sesame and mint, all dressed in a Malaysian mix of pickle, turmeric,

penang blue.

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into the interior.

chilli, vinegar, shallot and garlic. Below the mountain are pieces of pineapple that taste like they have been marinating in the juices of this dish for hours and are a flavour sensation.

Lamb shoulder simmered with cumin and coriander curry plus tomato and fresh coriander was medium hot with a lavish sauce covering silky sections of melt-in-the-mouth lamb. Garlic naan bread is lightly brushed with oil and flicked with freshly cleaved garlic and is the perfect accompaniment to this creamy curry, while the fat cheese-stuffed naan bread was virtually a meal on its own. Cast away any notion of gluten free and bury yourself into a Malaysian gastronomic extravaganza.

“I went to Melaka with chef Florence Tan – she is really the last of the true Nonya’s – and I learned so much about the culture and food. These people have very specific testaments to live by. They don’t believe that their people can inter-marry. So if a Nonya marries an Indian their children will be Malay not Nonya. Subsequently the food culture will die with these last Nonya’s. I believe that’s why so many recipes are being pushed out into the public with books and television shows in a serious movement to cement the culinary legacy,” he says.

Happily for Bali, its locals, guests and expats, Will Meyrick is doing his bit to help preserve this unique cuisine at Tiger Palm. The menu is packed with examples of Nonya dishes including fish curry with coconut milk, curry leaf and Indian spices plus steamed whole fish with pickled lime, garlic and hot and juicy green chilli padi. There is Indian rojak salad, crispy mamak fried chicken with curry power, Biryani egg and curry sauce as well as Peranakan fish with ginger flower, chilli tomato and tamarind. For something very 128

different try a taste of lamb ribs with chilli padi, black vinegar chilli, hot bean paste caramel. These dishes are perfect for sharing.

During lunch, Tiger Palm has a special menu of laksa that will have the true connoisseur weeping with joy for the creamy coconut spicy noodle soup.

Desserts are an amusing take on the Nalu Bowls that fill Bali’s morning café scene. Instead these desserts are tropical coconut bowls that raise the bar when it comes to a unique melange of tastes and textures. The Bubur Madura has a black sticky rice lontong dumpling cooked in palm sugar with coconut and tapioca noodle plus coconut ice cream. It is literally amaze balls.

The more conservative salted caramel and espresso martini are two balls of ice cream side-by-side and covered with cacao nibs, chunks of honeycomb with deliciously sweet black sticky rice beneath. Divine. The beetroot and yoghurt cendol piqued my interest but that will just have to wait for another sitting.

The superbly gifted chef and partner Palm Amatawet has ensured that Tiger Palm is another coup de gastronomique for the Sarong Group.

Meanwhile, Will plans to open the restaurant as a western breakfast destination in the morning and develop pop-up restaurants within Seminyak Village.

In a push to create a rotating culinary scene, Will hopes to bring guest chefs, as well as local Ibu’s, into Seminyak Village to show their amazing skills in regular pop-up eateries and create cool social gatherings. Best watch this space. www.tigerpalmbali.com

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oral pleasures Sarah Douglas experiences the reign in Spain at MoVida, the latest restaurant venture from the Potato Head Family.

Flavours of Iberia.

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Sometimes it is more than just dinner. It’s the thrill of anticipation, the potential risk of disappointment, the weight of whispers . . . big reputations come with big risks. MoVida has been hotly anticipated and with Potato Head group behind it, this has all the hallmarks of a long-term success story.

The founders of Potato Head, Ronald Akili and Jason Gunawan, have a unique sense of cultural sensationalism and they continue to reinvent the wheel at MoVida, housed in the thoroughly modern Katamama Hotel, adjacent to the Beach Club.

Attracting the likes of Chef and MoVida owner, Frank Camorra, to our shores could go either way. Spanish-driven, the produce required for authentic tapas dishes is tricky to find here. The Spanish culinary adventurer has won countless awards in his Australian home and is one of the high profile chefs who regularly appear on television and in bookstores.

“Doing nothing is the greatest challenge for a chef,” he famously wrote, referring to sourcing the best produce and showcasing it in all its simplicity.

Arriving at MoVida is a little challenging. With heavy security at the entrance to Potato Head, a short walk is required into unknown territory. Once you arrive, traditional Balinese bricks line the stairs and surfaces that propel you towards this dining adventure. Your first stop is Akademi; a modern bar-cum-library built of concrete and beautifully lit. A turntable spins vintage records, softening the sharp edges. Soft lights illuminate shelves filled with jars that resemble chemistry experiments and turn out to be infusions of arak, a surprising ingredient in many of the cocktails, including the house Sangria.

There’s a definite vibe happening here, a scene set to seduce and happily, it really works.

The restaurant is modern but dressed with wood and stone it has the hallmarks of a Spanish restaurant. The soundtrack all but disappears as the waiters spin a tale of passion and creativity. They have done a wonderful job with floor staff who imbue the menu with life, taking the diner through the menu with a lust that is rare in local waiters.

There are some musts on this menu and a few dishes that have already captured Bali diners, but first … cocktails. Beverage manager Tobias was born in Ibiza and was working in London when Potato Head’s Bar Manager, English-born Dré Masso, suggested he come to Bali. His infectious Spanish hospitality infuses the restaurant with charm and warmth.

Our cocktails include a Mojito sweetened with pure sugar cane juice and a refreshing, though strangely murky, Limonada, with activated charcoal. Looks weird, tastes great!

We begin with a selection of cured meats, a plate of pure joy for those who savour the finest of Spanish goodness. It is served with crisp Catalan-style tomato bread that is a stand-out. Iberico ham, air dried wagyu, chorizo and Serrano ham lie gleaming in fine slices. The meats are sourced from a famous Spanish artisan house and the quality is clear with every sliver of perfection.

MoVida currently seats jut over 100 diners in small tables surrounding the banquette, low tables near the veranda and a scattering of larger communal tables. The waiters work the room in a wonderful dance of controlled frenzy and the hum of conversation creates warmth and a lively atmosphere. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it’s a happy place, unpretentious and infectious. Tables close together compare notes and enquire about the orders that arrive smartly.

The Sangria is infused with pineapple arak. A drink that is often awful, the red Sangria sparkles with personality, albeit slightly sweet. It’s a little cliché to order Sangria but hey, we went with it.

Head chef, Jimmy Parker, spent long months in Bali sourcing local suppliers who fit

the bill for this menu, and the marriage of imported Spanish products with local produce works well. From local organic lamb and pork to line-caught fish and wild honey, the local compliments stand up to the quirky tins of sardines and mussels that are currently a huge trend in restaurant food.

Our enthusiastic waiter suggests we try a few small bites from the tapas menu while we wait for our cordero, a beautifully soft Javanese lamb shoulder created to share.

Surrounded by saffron-scented potatoes, it is a dish that has Bali foodies talking. At 700 grams, it’s a little much for two, but hey, that’s what bungkus is for and I am revisiting my meal as I spread a little of the soft, pink meat on my sandwich the following day.

We sampled a tiny tapas dish called anchoa, a Cantabrian anchovy laid out on a crouton with a tomato sorbet to be spread on top that delivered on both flavour and texture. This is a signature tapas dish that harks back to the original MoVida in Melbourne.

Another signature was slightly disappointing; Atun Rojo, is a pressed piece of tuna belly atop watermelon with beetroot and a drop of a gazpacho-type creation. It is clever and beautifully textured but didn’t deliver the full flavour of some of our other dishes. A simple ham and cheese croquette was close to perfect.

I’m thinking the dish of the night has to be the lamb, which has the dining room humming as it arrives in all its rustic simplicity; flavourful and soft. No knives are required as it falls off the bone.

This is the point where you think, enough! But you’d be wrong. A tiny voice inside my head was asking if they had a traditional Spanish flan on the menu? The famous creamy caramel flan that is spiced with cinnamon and sometimes sprinkled with citrus is Spain on a plate, in my opinion. Dessert is often my undoing and this is one menu that will unravel all good intentions with a deft hand, and yes, the flan is on the menu.

Tantalising in its beautiful caramel bath, the flan is soft, creamy and served with cinnamon crackers. Paired to perfection with a cold glass of Pedro Ximénez sherry, this made my night. However, it was a burnt Spanish cheesecake that may have won the day.

A jewel-like portion of creamy cheesecake topped with a crispy burnt caramel, it was smooth and crisp, sweet and salty and burnt to perfection. This is one that really deserves the chat!

We couldn’t leave without sampling a signature cocktail at Akademi on our way out.

Ten signature cocktails are featured while a single ingredient is chosen each month for special attention. February featured chocolate, infused and broken down, recreated and spiced. Dre (on bar) explained that is a perfect after-dinner treat but warned of its richness.

I have been on a little cocktail adventure of recent times, sampling whisky sours. I jumped on the chance to sample his version, spiced up with an infused arak, some passionfruit puree and a number of exotic ingredients that probably shouldn’t work but were so balanced that the background of artisan bourbon still shone. It was the perfect ending to the evening; a large group arrived to fill the intimate cocktail bar as we headed out.

MoVida and Potato Head have filled this quirky space with charm and personality. The food was made for sharing, with friends and strangers, it’s a little bit of brilliance in truth and it will take a stronger woman than me to resist its charm. The food was excellent, and we agreed, MoVida is worth visiting more than once. www.ptthead.com

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big six

sarah douglas skips church to sample the best Sunday roasts in town. Hallelujah.

The Plumbers Arms The first pub off the rank to serve up a home-style roast dinner, The Plumbers Arms continues to be the drop in centre for those who yearn for Sunday sessions at the local. Brought to you by the team from the Echo Beach House and Scallywags, The Plumbers Arms’ roasts come piled high with freshly roasted joints of beef, lamb, turkey or pork, depending on what’s looking good at the market. With the full trimmings, including two crispy Yorkshire puds to dip into the rich gravy, a full smorgasboard of traditional veggies including roasted pumpkin, potatoes, cauliflower cheese and greens. At under Rp100,000, it is one of the best deals in town. The perfect antidote to Saturday night, a friendly meeting place for friends and families, The Plumbers Arms prides themselves on cold beer, a healthy wine list and has just introduced their low carb menu, that’s correct, roast minus the stodge for weight watchers.

Tel: 0851 0044 9132 www.theplumbersarms.com Grain Grain takes a more Australian approach with their specialty roast, a roast lamb dinner like Mum used to make. Complete with mint sauce, gravy, a warm, crusty roll to wipe the plate clean and a bundle of sparkling, fresh veg. The popular coffee shop in the middle of Seminyak’s main street has won fans for its artisan coffee and all day breakfast, but there’s more to this café’s menu. Putting the lamb roast on Sunday’s menu pulls in a whole new load of locals and tourists who need a little comfort, a reminder of home on a Sunday evening. The Aussies do it a little differently than the poms but no less delicious. A Gold Coast boy in the kitchen ensures that this one is the bonza, beauty special it needs to be. With coffee and some great dessert options to follow, you won’t leave hungry.

Tel: 0361 730529 www.grainespresso.com Yak Map. V.13 The Orchard Picking up the English pub theme in Seminyak, The Orchard is located in a back street off Jl Nakula, but that hasn’t stopped a growing number of local expats from finding a home away from home here. English-run, a proper English dude is cooking the Sunday roast out back and it has all the home-made markers we yearn for.

Brilliant Yorkshire puds as big as your fist crown the roasts of the day and a traditional assortment of sides includes the green veg your Mum made you eat, but in full glory and perfectly done (not the mushy grey stuff some of us were forced to eat!). The atmosphere is lively, the beer is cold and the live music turns this little pub into a full on party venue.

Tel: 0361 3003502 www.facebook.com/TheOrchardBali Yak Map. Y.13

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The Fire Station So often Sanur gets a short stick when it comes to food but in fact, there are some damn good restaurants and cafes on the quiet side. The Fire Station is probably the most popular and reservations are often required despite the fairly impressive size of the two-story venue. Also owned by an Englishman, a little royal if you don’t mind, and run by a highly efficient Dutch manager, The Fire Station breaks the sleepy Sanur mold every day. The Sunday roast is perfectly executed and a great way to break into the scene in Sanur ( yes, there is one). Meet the locals, settle into a lovely pork roast with crackling or an imported striploin of beef with specials on wine each week and sparkling service. When the pub came to Sanur, they called it the Fire Station and it is a hot pick for the Sunday session.

Tel: 0361285675 www.tfsbali.com Jemme This sparkling venue beside a stunning jewellery shop has done the roast so successfully, they have had to add Wednesday to the menu. Lit with chandeliers and festooned with jewel-like décor, Jemme takes it a step up with a beautifully presented roast that ticks the boxes and is often full, so make a booking to avoid missing out. Served on a wooden board, the roasts include chicken, beef, lamb and even a nut roast for the vegetarians. Everything is served separately to great effect, and diners relish the experience of creating their own plates. It remains the island’s most popular roast, despite some heavy competition. It’s really quite refined for comfort food and it makes no apologies for this. It tastes like Mama’s and it looks like royalty.

Tel: 03614732392 www.jemmebali.com Yak Map. R.3 Luna2 This one, I have to say is the Rolls Royce of the roast dinner picks. Luna 2 is one of the funky new players in town, festooned in retro ‘60’s style, the tiny diner is overseen

by English Chef Errol, who makes the rounds regularly and is quick to tell you which roast is his pick for the week. At Rp295,000 for two courses (pudding is not to be missed here), it is also the most expensive but hardly going to break the bank. Former Gordon Ramsay chef, Errol, does this favoured meal justice and it is served much as your favourite cook would do it at home but with the flair of a proper chef. The meat is perfectly cooked, we moaned over the crispy-skinned pork belly and the slow roasted shoulder of lamb. The sides are customized for each meat and it’s about as close to perfect as you will find. This is one that needs to go on the bucket list. Wines by the glass are also a great addition and the brunch-style cocktails are a treat.

Tel: 0361 730402 www.luna2.com Yak Map. O.10

yak awards

photos: bali this week.

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• Lights • Camera • Action • the yak awards at illido brought studio 54 glam to kerobokan (wait, that rhymes . . .)

The Yak Awards 2015 dropped into the fabulous open-air venue of IlLido to celebrate the 12th such event whereby newcomers, venues, people – and even wine lists – are all up to garner a coveted Yak Award of said year!

A tad later than usual due to the tad not-yet-finished venue of choice … I believe it’s almost there . . .

So racking it up just one more notch in the musically and costume-themed annual party, (past events being Shanghai Chic, Martini Years, Motown and Disco Inferno – we do actually have method in our madness – musically speaking), this year’s Studio 54 party gathered all and sundried under the sparkling sky of the “not so rainy season”.

The likely and unlikely crew assembled to red carpet interviews by Australia’s Channel 7 hosted by the evereffervescent Christina Iskandar. The dress code was fierce – Studio 54 – harking back to days of nutty New York and that Big Apple that never sleeps. Lapels, Elfen-ear shirt collars, bold-patterned rayon, barely-there frocks and lots of shparkle … We really should consider a Best Dressed prize next year!

And so they came, looking for a white horse – not allowed – and possibly Jagger, Jade and Jackson… ?

As always in true Yak-style there was more booze than food. Cointreau hit us on our way in, with their booze truck (we love those pimped VW’s) before getting fluted at the Chandon and Belvedere Bar. We then dripped (it was hotter than Hades) over the chaise longue provided by Bloomz and Vision 1 for those iconic images for ‘the night we can’t remember’. Moving on we sashayed forward to pick up a glass or two of vino by labels Isola and others privided by Indowines.

This is how our screenwriter saw it . . .

In the meantime the stage is set. (Moon and Spoon awards – stage right – by Pesamuan Keramik).

Microphones are held by the dream-team duo of

Simmonds and Ardie who warm us up to the ‘who has won what’ this year!

[Sideline - some of you were late!]

And the winners are: Best Newcomer: Go-Jek Best Retail Space: Seminyak Village Best Resort: W Retreat and Spa Best Event: Ubud Food Festival Best Wine List: Sip Seminyak Best Small Restaurant: Ginger Moon Best Chef: (Just one vote in it) Liam Nealon, Sundara at Four Seasons Best Bar: Potato Head Beach Club Best Community Services: Eco Mantra, Sean Nino & Maitri Fischer Best DJ: Phat Phil Cooper, Potato Head Beach Club Best Fashion Label: Religion Best Ad Campaign: Balquisse/Bistrot Best Photographer: (Just One Vote in it) Amberly Valentine Best Social Media Stream: A TIE (The Bali Bible & Best In Bali) Yak Woman Of The Year: Niluh Putu Ari Pertami – Niluh Djelantik Yak Man Of The Year: Alistair Toyne – Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessey Outstanding Achievement Award: Carlos Ferrandiz – Harapan Project Sumbawa In the meantime canapés are passed around by The Yak Culinary Sponsors (always delicious, always amazing, always just a mouthful!): With Thanks to: Anantaras Uluwatu and Seminyak; Gelato Secrets; ilLido; Ku De Ta; La Finca; Luna2 Private

Hotel; Merah Putih; Moonlite Kitchen and Bar; Motel Mexicola; Poule de Luxe; Republik45; The Oberoi Bali.

Musically, G Man holds us enthralled in true Studio 54 suspense, covering tunes that we can all sing along to, followed by Michael Jackson – BTW he has not yet left the building – and his team of Thriller dancers.

Whilst we sip and swing to the tunes and clap to the gilded ones, we notice Gelato Secrets and Poule de Luxe sweetening the sweetest of nights – poufs and cones all the way!

Just when we thought it was all over, Ouh la la Lingerie, we were so wrong! Here comes the after-party which starts with lace and lingerie . . . … And in true Studio 54 style, someone has taken their top off in the becak photo booth… possibly a girl guide from Canggu.

Summing up the aftermath of all good parties, we’d like to take our hats, tops and blouses off to those that patiently made it all possible: (without you it would never have happened) : Sponsors: Albens Cider; Anantara Seminyak and Anantara Uluwatu; Bali High Aerial Media; Bali Photo Booth; Bali VW Limo; Bali Reptile Rescue; Bali This Week; Belvedere Vodka; Best In Bali; Bloomz; Chandon; Cointreau; Gelato Secrets; ilLido; Indowines; ISOLA; Ku De Ta; La Finca; LiveStreamAsia; Luna2 Private Hotel; Merah Putih; Moonlite Kitchen and Bar; Mount Gay Rum; Nikki Beach; Motel Mexicola; Ouh la la Lingerie de Paris; Philip Lakeman by Seniman; Poule de Luxe; Pro Motion Events; Republik45; Spoiled Hairdressers; The Oberoi Bali; Vision One; Warisan.

PS. Did any of you find my shoes? CSD

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yak awards

“this year’s studio 54 party gathered all and sundried under the sparkling sky of the ‘not so rainy season.”

photos: bali this week.

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venting in a villa Premier Villas at the iconic Four Seasons Resort at Jimbaran Bay get a facelift that enhances their sense of place. we spoke to executive VP Larry van Ooyen from architects Jaya International.

Larry, what brief was Jaya given for this project?

We were asked to re-visit the concept of the interiors of all villas. The resort wanted to revive the interiors, the layouts and the design, to bring it to a new level of timeliness for Four Seasons guests. Our priority was to enhance the use of space and functionality of the villa interiors, while maintaining the strong sense of destination and authenticity. The resort also wanted to create new villa categories to cater for different types of guests.

How did Jaya approach this project and put its stamp on the villa, considering the original design by GKA was considered groundbreaking when the resort first opened?

Like Jaya always approaches every project, from a guest experience angle. First of all we made a simple but very effective improvement of the overall spaciousness of the interiors, the bedrooms, the living rooms, and bathrooms, without losing their sense of place and original Balinese village concept. Secondly, new Balinese carvings and fabrics have been introduced in a contemporary way, giving the interior a stronger sense of place. Meanwhile, existing art and decoration like the antique Balinese doors have been toned down in colour; we wanted the interior to be expressed in a subdued colour palette as it is the guest that adds the colour to the space. Marble floors have been lifted (which were not Balinese) and replaced by either stone or timber flooring.

In what ways is the renovated villa more functional than before?

This enhanced functionality was achieved by expanding the sleeping pavilion, and combining the indoor living and sleeping areas. Double sliding doors open the room up to the natural environment and ocean breeze, further extending their living space so the guest has a choice of sitting outdoors in the fresh air or indoors in an airconditioned environment. The location of the beds was moved to open up the room and accommodate the new living area, while we added a new children’s room in the Family Premier Villas. Also the circulation is such now that guests can move between the villa and the poolside bale under cover.

What are the main changes from the previous villas?

Apart from the structural changes mentioned, the entire interiors – in a nutshell. We 138

created specially designed furniture pieces for each villa type, and used new materials and finishes throughout, including flooring, wall paneling, wall carvings, bathrooms, and roofing.

What elements were maintained?

Most prominently the pitched alang-alang roof in order to preserve the sense of place, being in Bali of course. The alang-alang was replaced, but to create more insulation we used a local woven grass matting called lampit as an extra layer on the inside of the alang-alang. The layout of the bathroom was maintained as well, with the iconic outside garden shower, but the wall surrounding the vanities was removed to open up the space. All materials, fittings and finishes were replaced except the freestanding Swedishdesigned vintage bath which is not made anymore, and which the resort wanted to keep as a guest favourite.

Where did you source materials and artworks?

Materials were sourced locally wherever possible, for instance the lampit and ikat fabric, as well as man-made materials like the polystone tiles that were used to replace the bathroom flooring. Artwork-wise our famous master-carver Made Jojol from Ubud must be mentioned here (his first claim to fame was the magnificent carving he did at the lobby of The Legian in 1995). Made carved two panels for each bedroom placed above each bedside table in all villas – they are extremely impactful in adding an elegant touch of Bali to the new sleeping environment.

What if any challenges did Jaya face with this project, and how did you overcome them?

The main challenge was that it wasn’t a new space that we could design from scratch, we had to work within the existing structure and space available. Solution: By adjusting the layout of the interior, it now feels as if the exterior has become part of the guest experience space, while the bathroom was opened up by removing the sidewalls next to the vanities.

Thanks for your time. Can’t wait to stay! www.fourseasons.com/bali

classic elegance.

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golf

Ahead of the second Yak Golf Invitational on April 29 & 30 we talk to GM Mark Holland about the journey so far at Bali National Golf Club. photos: lucky 8.

Hi Mark. The Bali National Golf Resort hasn’t always been under that name. How did it start out?

The course first opened in 1991 and was called Bali Golf & Country Club - it operated that way until 2011 when there was a change of ownership.

After being closed for a complete renovation we reopened in March 2014 as Bali National Golf Resort.

Talk us through the major changes that happened when the course was upgraded?

Prior to the closure, the course and clubhouse had been in gradual decline over many years and so it was time for a major change. Firstly the course underwent a major redesign with holes 17 and 18 being completely replaced and several other holes changed, some were made longer or shorter and changes were made to the location of several tee boxes, not just in location but also height. The old grasses on the course were killed off and new grasses, more suited to our climate and local conditions, were seeded in all areas. The results have been amazing as reinforced by our returning players.

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How many hole-in-ones have you had at the course?

Our par threes are all different and challenging. We get about 10 holein-ones per year. We are pleased that Emirates have come on board as the hole-in-one sponsor on hole 17 with the winners eligible for an international trip courtesy of the airline.

What’s the course record, and who was that?

Last year we hosted our first professional event, the Bali National Championships, part of the Asian Development Tour. The event helps to get us established and respected as a tournament venue. We will continue to host similar or bigger events in the years to come. At that event, Gyeongjun Lee from Korea shot a course record 65 being 7 under par off the back tees, which was very special and one of the highlights of the event.

At the same time the old clubhouse was completely demolished and seven luxury villas, the Bali National Golf Villas, were built in that area. A new modern clubhouse with full Pro Shop, lockers, meeting and function space was built. By re-routing holes 17 and 18, an area was made available for the soon to be constructed hotel and an additional 33 Villas.

You’re from the golf world prior to BNGR, where was that, and how do you find Bali different to your previous gig?

I have been fortunate to have lived overseas for many years. After a career playing professional tennis I joined Hyatt International and spent 10 years setting up and managing their clubs and recreational facilities in Kuwait, Macau, Seoul, Pusan and Brisbane, with the last role at Grand Hyatt Bali, so it is interesting coming back after almost 25 years. There has been a tremendous amount of positive change in that time. More recently I was managing a premier club on the Gold Coast in Australia.

Which is the toughest hole, in your opinion?

Based on the feedback from golfers, hole 17 is the most interesting and challenging. It’s a par three island green, fully surrounded by water. With varying winds the hole can make or break a player’s score and definitely the biggest talking point by golfers enjoying a cool drink after their round.

The clubs in Australia cannot offer the same service levels as here in Bali and as a manager you are frequently very hands on due to the limited resources available. It’s refreshing that here we can offer all the services and facilities expected in a premier club, supported by the warm Balinese service.

Fairway to heaven.

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golf

Foreplay.

What’s planned for 2016 at the course?

Operationally we are continuing to re-establish ourselves within Indonesia and the region and we are pleased with the progress we are making. This is also shown by the great awards that we have won including 3rd Best Renovated Course Worldwide 2015 and 5th Best Golf Resort Asia Pacific. We want to be the “must play” course in the region where we become known for the great quality of the course and maintenance and the service levels we offer.

events. However being a high-end premium course we want to ensure all players have a great experience, so we tend to scale back from that number.

Our biggest event each year is The Bali Classic, which has been held here for over 15 years. It’s a three-day event for the oil and gas industries, with many players flying to Bali from overseas just for the event. The event has a complete social program and many of the players make a complete week’s trip to enjoy Bali, the event and the club.

We now have attractive membership options for golfers who appreciate the premier course and service levels that we offer. Soon we will be making the transition from a golf course to a full golf resort with the commencement of construction of our new 340-room hotel and 33 villas. Watch this space.

And how many caddies do you have? Are they mostly from Bali?

We have around 105 caddies at this time and trying to add more as our needs are increasing. The majority are from Bali but in recent times, with employment competitions from the hotels, we have to recruit from farther afield. We have a full training and development program for them to ensure they operate to the professional standards we expect.

We spoke about it being more than a golf course there, what else have you got going on at BNGR? We have the Bali National Golf Villas, seven luxury villas each with their own private pool overlooking hole 17 or 18. We offer full butler service and stay-andplay options for golfers, though interestingly we receive many bookings from non-golfers wanting a quiet setting yet close to all amenities.

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Can we bring our helicopter along to The Yak Golf Invitational 2.0?

Sure, we have a helicopter landing pad on the property and we do have several players and Villa guests who make use of this.

We are just launching ourselves into events as with the clubhouse, course, the Villas and private beach we have several great locations for all sorts of celebration events, ideal for weddings, parties, dinners and exhibitions.

What are the principles that really guide you at BNGR? We want golfers to leave the club knowing that they have had an enjoyable golf experience and received value for money. For this to happen, we need good systems and structures in place, including a high priority of training of our team members, who we believe are our greatest asset.

How many players can you handle on a single day, and what will be your biggest event this year?

We can accommodate up to 240 players in a day, which we do for certain big

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fashion freestyle

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advertiser's directory 152

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www.nusaduahotel.com Page 119 The Sanctoo Villas Tel: +623614711222 www.thesanctoovilla.com Page 81 Sandat Glamping Tel:+623618946388 www.glampingsandat.com Page 123 Sofitel Bali Beach Resort Tel: +623618492888 www.sofitel-bali-nusadua.com Page 74 Sthala Ubud psu.info@aerowisatahotels.com Page 33 The Gangsa www.thegangsa.com Tel: +62361270260 Page 47 The Oberoi Lombok Tel: +623706138444 www.oberoihotels.com Page 35 The One Legian Tel: +623613001101 www.theonelegian.com Page 109 Yak Map.V.16 Tugu www.tuguhotels.com Page 123 Voyager Boutique Creative Retreat Tel: +62878-6242-7775 www.voyager-retreats.com Page 137 W Retreat & Spa Tel: +623614738 106 www.wretreatbali.com Page BIC Yak Map O.4

PROPERTY Elite Havens www.elitehavens.com Page 1 Xp Properties Tel: +623618475955 www.xpbali.com.com Page 31

www.settimocielobali.com Page 49 Yak Map R.6 Sip Wine Bar

Yak Map P.8 Tel: +62361730 810 www.sip-bali.com Page 29 Yak Map U.13 Tamarind Restaurant Yak Map W.7 Tel: +62361771210 ext 6802 tamarindrestaurantbali.com RESTAURANTS & BARS Page 119 Azul Beach Club Tiigo Bali Tel: +62361765759 Tel: (0361) 3019828 www.azulbali.com www.montigoresorts.com Page 41 Yak Map Q.16 Page 45 Yak Map O.5 Balique The Bistrot Tel: +6236170494 Tel: +62361738308 www.balique-restaurant.com www.bistrot-bali.com Page 23 Page 27 Yak Map S.8 Bamboo Beach Bar Sanur The Orchard Tel: +62361288011 Tel: 3003502 www.aerowisatahotels.com Page 38 Yak Map .13 Page 33

Barbacoa SHOPS Tel: +62361739233 / +6281239999825 Bamboo Blonde www.barbacoabali.com www.bambooblonde.com HOTELS & VILLAS Page 133 Yak Map U.3 Page 13 Yak Map S.8, U.11 Alila Manggis Delicioso Bistro Biasa www.alilahotels.com Tel: +623618499346 www.biasagroup.com Page 6-7 www.deliciosobali.com Page 4-5 Yak Map V.12 Alila Seminyak Yak Directory P.6 Bloomz Flowers www.alilahotels.com/seminyak IlLido Tel: +623612171149 Page 6-7 Yak Map N.5 Tel: +62361731175 www.bloomzflowersbali.com Alila Ubud www.illidobali.com Page 98 Yak Map W.2 www.alilahotels.com Page 99

Yak Map U.4 Deus Ex Machina Page 6-7 Ixora Cakes www.deuscustoms.com Alila Villas Uluwatu Tel: +6285100206999 Page 8-9 Yak Map O.8 www.alilahotels.com Yak Directory P.7 Jasmine Elizabeth Page 6-7 Jenja Tel: +62815572 0100 Alila Villa Soori Tel: +628113988088 www.jasmineelizabeth.com www.alilahotels.com www.jenjabali.com Page 16 Yak Map E.10 Page 6-7 Page 17 Yak Map W.14 Kapal Laut Bali Mandira MEDIA / PRINTING Kilo Bali Kitchen www.kapal-laut.com Tel: +62361751381 Indonesia Printer Tel: +623614741006 Page 98 Yak Map T.14 www.balimandira.com Tel: +6221 29022055 www.bali@kilokitchen.com Paul Ropp Page 41 Yak Map Q.15 www.indonesiaprinter.co.id Page 103 Yak Map S.9 Tel: +62361701202/735613/730212/974369 Awarta Luxury Resort Page 153 Ku De Ta www.paulropp.com Tel: +62361773 300

Tel: +62361736969 Page BC Yak Map T.8 www.awartaresorts.com MISCELLANEOUS www.kudeta.net Periplus Page FIC Bali Landscape Page 3

Yak Map N.8 www.periplus.com Bali Handara Golf Tel: +62 81805661227 Lilin Page 129 Yak Map F.13/P.7 Tel: +62361288944 www.balilandscapecompany.com Tel: +623614737979 Religion www.balihandaracountryclub.com Yak Directory P.2 Yak Map P.1 www.lilin-bali.com www.religionclothing.com Page 24 Malamadre Motorcycles Page 28 Yak Map L.5 Page 19 Yak Map S.8/T.7 Bali National Golf Resort Tel: +6281239353202 Peppers Seminyak Shan Shan Tel: +62361771791 www.malamadremotorcycles.com Tel: +62361730333 Tel: +623617450687/704945/5512857 www.BaliNational.com Yak Directory P.3 www.peppersseminyak.com www.shan-shan.info Page 10-11 Third Millennia Health Page 21 Yak Map O.6 Page 23 Yak Map U.9 Four Seasons Jimbaran Tel: +62361737317 Queen’s Tandoor Sunbrella Tel: +62361977577 www.thirdmillenniahealth.com Tel: +62361732770 / +62361765988 www.sunbrella.com/yak www.fourseasons.com/jimbaran Yak Directory P.9 Yak Map Z.15 www.bali.queenstandoor.com Page 53 Page 121 VW Limo Page 129 Yak Map B.13/T.10 Tribal Signature Karma Beach Bali www.vwlimobali.com Republik 45 www. tribalsignature.com Tel: +623618482202 Yak Directory P.4 Tel: +6281916741844 Page 2 www.karmaresorts.com Waterbom www.republik45.com Warisan furniture Page 39 www.waterbom-bali.com Page 25 Yak Map U.5 Tel: +62361730048/701081 Nusa Dua Beach Hotel Page 52 Yak Map C.12 Settimo Cielo www.warisan.com Tel: +62361771210 Tel: +623614741117 / 18 Page 43 Yak Map U.4

astroyak

moodofthemoment

By Dr Deepak | astro-deepak@usa.net | www.astronlp.com | Skype: drdeepakvidmar

Bitch, bitch, bitch, my way or the highway. Mars moves into the 9th House of beliefs. So many people aggressively arguing their point of view without any regard for facts or feelings. A short period of loving impulse during the Spring Equinox and then back to “I am Right, You are a Fool, a Terrorist, and your mother was a UFO!”. The Tower of Babel repeats itself, but this time at top volume.

aries

The ruler of Aries moves into Sagittarius, another fire sign, and impulsivity becomes stronger than ever. The urge to strike directly and confront openly comes strongly to you now, but both your opponent and your opportunity are hidden and elusive.

It is a shape shifting Neptune energy without form or substance with which to contend. You end up fighting shadows and therein you find the truth. Truth is always in the shadows, which explains why it is so hard to see.

It was never meant to be seen in the light. It was always meant to be felt with your soul.

taurus

Dig for the truth, dig for the truth, but be quiet about what you find. Truth and Belief is meant to be experienced, not to be expressed. It is meant to be savored, not to be shared. It is a private, personal meaningfulness only you yourself can understand. It is not a public exhibition. When it becomes a social or common utility, it loses its purity in order to compromise and chop a little here and bend a little there in order to fit. Let your gift for stubbornness express itself in other ways. This is not a good time to convince anyone of anything that is not their personal experience.

gemini

Bitch, bite, fight just might be right during this time. Mars transit opposite Gemini.

Sometimes it clears the air or energizes what has been stuck and taken for granted. On the other hand, there is the tendency for the whole thing to be a miserable misunderstanding based upon misinformation or mistrust. And on the third hand, there is such a loving energy happening on the Spring Equinox that it might be worth it to have a fight just so you can make up in a loving way with twice the gratitude you ever had before.

Use this time to be busy, busy at what needs to be done.

cancer

A long, slow grinding Pluto transit opposite Cancer for the first and last time in your life. All the cardinal signs are going through this, but you are so incredibly sensitive to all the energies of the universe for yourself and others, particularly if born July 7-10, it is useful to understand some tricks to transformation.

Pluto is particularly about transformation and it brings crisis and intensity and empowerment and sometimes it hurts. But it only hurts one part of you, the Sun sign.

There are nine other planets or parts of you that are not

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hurting. However, they are not growing either.

you stress or strength or both.

leo

sagittarius

Many energies supporting you now and a good time to be in the lead. Uranus trine gives you originality, Mars trine gives you energy and vitality, and Saturn trine gives you sustaining power to get it all done and complete. Finances are looking good (as long as you stay away from get-rich schemes). It is a good time for less work and more play. Venus transit in solar 7th House indicates a particularly favorable time for spending more time in your relationship. Always a good idea to detoxify the body and to make a long-term plan for keeping it in optimal shape.

This is really a very, very good time to get what you have always wanted out of life.

Jupiter transit in the solar 10th gives you luck, recognition, and good fortune with goals in your life. This is when politicians get elected, workers get promoted, and retired people get to scratch number one off their bucket list.

Mars moving into Sagittarius March 6th energizes you into action to complete what you have started (finally) and to claim your prize. And during this time, you discover where home is … which is wherever your feet touch the ground.

capricorn virgo

Different energies going on for Virgo now.

If born last part of August, still some confusion or lack of clarity in your life. If born the 2nd week of September, good fortune and self-confidence guide your every step. Venus transit in Pisces most of March brings a lot of lovingness and feel-good relating into your life. The challenge, as always, is to keep that excellent mind of yours where it belongs and not interfere with matters of the heart. Pisces energy is about being in the heart, Jupiter energy about being in the joy, nothing about being in the mind.

libra

All the multiple paradoxical energies of the universe are constantly moving at different speeds and the energies of relationships and feelings seem to be the fastest moving of all. March will be just as chaotic and unstable for relationships as before, but April gives a window of opportunity for things to turn nice again … with a new partner who brings a fresh energy into your life or a familiar partner in a different way of relating.

Things have to change for you to grow and explore the multifaceted ways of being the many forms of you.

scorpio

Despite your efforts to maintain your budget, maybe sudden expenditures or impulse buying stretch the pockets thin. Not a good idea to take risky ventures to make it up at this time. Some lack of clarity going on with the money. If it sounds too good to be true it is. Use your research skills to dig deeper into the truth.

Meanwhile, the juice and joy of your life at this time is being with your friends and working toward a common goal. A closer connection with sister or brother will bring

Mars moving into your solar 12th House is a good time to learn to surrender to forces of The Program that cannot be “fixed”, cannot be controlled, cannot be endured, cannot be escaped, nor can they even be understood. Pluto halfway through Capricorn bringing us the lesson that banks and governments too big to fail can fail spectacularly and that all our careful preparations for survival are but dust in the wind. The paradox is that in the midst of this seeming disaster is where the power of the eternal which never dies is found.

aquarius Sudden discovery is waiting for you not in something new you have never seen before, but in something old from the back of your closet, from underneath that pile in your attic, from behind the cobwebs of your unconscious mind that sees, but is not seen. Pluto transit solar 12th House indicates there is supreme good fortune in looking again at what you have repressed or refused to look at yourself. Like older buildings beneath Stonehenge, there is something of value here. You will need a friend or guide to help you with this or you will end up playing chess with yourself. pisces Beloved, you are not here to dig the ditch or bake the bricks. You are here to make something artistic with the dirt that comes from the ditch or to paint pretty pictures on the bricks. There comes a Mars pressure now that you should be doing something, producing something as if to prove your presence is worthwhile. Relax into your Being, my love. Out of all the energies incarnated into flesh on Earth, yours is living proof that no justification is needed to just Be. You Belong to Everything, Everywhere.

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