The next day we head to the mountain, to an area called Ubud, this is the center of culture and art in Bali, with many resident artists, both local to international settling in between magnificent setting of rice paddies and calm breeze, many came and never left, but for us that afternoon this is also the center for great culinary art, with a staple selections like Bebek Bengil ( the Dirty Duck ) it tastes much better than the name suggests, and the infamous suckling pig with rice of Ibu Oka, and a must visit to probably the best ribs in the whole region, Warung Nuris and its sibling Nacho Mama and don’t forget to grab dessert while visiting one of the best gallery in the area, GAYA gallery, which recently added a new gelato café, whom Mario said, it’s the best outside of Italy. No paintings bought, but we had great meals that day, after rigorous bargaining our Canadian friends bought lots of souvenirs to bring home from Ubud Market, and I picked up a nice plaid throw blanket that I am going to use as a play carpet for Rivers room.

I love a good cup of coffee in the morning and I found a perfect companion for my cup of Joe in this great home bakery called Roti Segar, which literally means fresh bread in Indonesian, it’s a nice stall facing ride fields in Umalas, I highly recommend the Chocolate Brioche and the Biscotti, it is just beautiful, freshly baked by the owners wife every morning, the man behind is Giuseppe Verdacchi, Pepe is a kind of a renaissance man, who is trained as an architect, create furniture and crafts and managed to satisfy our taste bud with excellent bread, you can see his furniture at

We spent the nights savoring what the sea has to offer, that night we decided to try Dewi Sri Seafood on Jalan Kartika Plaza, the next day we splurge on lobsters and other seafood delicacies at Feyloon, a Chinese restaurant, which idea of entertainment is a dark, cowboy hat wearing singer singing mandarin songs, the Chinese tourist seemed to enjoy it, after that I don’t think we can take anymore seafood, I’m sure it’s bad for my cholesterol level.

For the remainder of the trip we try to eat simple, settling for what we can find around the neighborhood, the road is nicknamed Eat Street for the abundance of restaurants on it, so while looking we stumble across this yakitori restaurant, it’s a sister of the Japanese restaurant Kaizen, appropriately named K2, it’s good for the soul yakitori is to die for, especially the zucchini and cheese wrapped in bacon, and good value all across the board, we loved it so much, we came back the next day.

For all the trendy shops and fancy restaurants spread all across the area, I enjoyed most my downtime by the pool soaking the sun reading the latest from Asia Pacific edition of FORTUNE magazine, it’s a great edition by the way, covering all from how Francois Henri Pinault, the CEO of PPR of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent makes bold moves to reinvent his empire to how the auto industry is changing with Zip Car, and a great article on the success of Net-a-porter.com, an online fashion e-tailer, where the founder Natalie Massenet after 10 years into the successful venture, bought herself a weekend house that is beyond the reach of cellular service.

At the end of the day, my thought was, why spent half of your life chasing a successful career in life, when ultimately what everybody wants is to live and enjoy the pleasures of simple living, we are seriously thinking on how to retire early and Bali seems to be a perfect place

Leonard Theosabrata Born in Jakarta, July 26, 1977. Graduated from the Product Design Faculty at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA in 2002. Leonard is currently the head of the Jakarta-based LTD. Leonard Theosabrata Design studio, which focuses on interior and product design. His love for furniture has led him to build Accupunto for which he received the Red Dot Design Award in 2003, and Good Design Award Japan, 2005, and the recent Wallpaper Design Award 2009 for his collaboration with Michael Young for Accupunto.