For the last few months, almost all of our family weekend has been spent on looking for a new place to live in. During the searches and wandering through mostly unfamiliar territories, we noticed then that most of the houses on rent in Denpasar aren't listed in any newspapers! Hence why making our trip becoming more a safari like where we travel to certain hot spot areas with hopes of sighting the rare beast that we're looking for. We wish there is a centralized information board that inform house seekers like us about the most recent house on market for rent/selling; this would be a great time saver especially for new settlers like us.

And an idea come up to our mind; with all of the places we visited and scouted, why don't we start a list ourself? Well it's a pity that our journey hasn't been well documented, and all that's recorded from each house scouting was a mere "yes" or "no" conclusion. We only remember vaguely which houses we have scouted, and which streets we have traveled through.

Then I remember about the gadget a friend brought with his visit to our place a while ago: a pocket sized GPS device. I wonder if I had one of those, then I can record all of the places I visited with a simple click on the device? I guess so; though just based on common sense and educated guess.

Interestingly, after a quick search we found out that we can have such GPS device without spending a fortune, and after some time thinking, we're seriously considering of having one of those because it will also be a very useful device to help us track and record eateries into the Bali Food Map. Not to mention that it will make our address searching easier.

And so after a quick scouting, we decided to buy the iWare 8801 from a local shop at Jl. Teuku Umar; "Fast n' Cheap", mainly because I am quite familiar with their online store, and I could not find any Denpasar based store address on its competitor website; the original model we want.

A little disappointment to find that the price for iWare 8801 is about 100K higher than we expected, and it has not included the scratch resistance film for its touch screen, but we bought the thing anyway as we're too curious and would not want to spend extra time looking for other sellers; especially when we don't know where those other sellers are.

Well the initial look of the iWare 8801 device looks promising, sleeker than its competitor the Super Spring, and turns out that it was not just a GPS device but a multi-functioned device based on dual-core processor Windows CE 6.0 system capable to play music and video, reads document, receives FM radio signal, and it also has the AV in port, and a micro SD card reader; so it's basically a PDA, a very affordable one!

As we found out later, this iWare 8801 device has three GPS software installed; the Papago, Amigo, and Garmin XT. Amigo seemed to excel over the others as it has a quite easy to use interface and a detailed map of Denpasar pre-installed. And indeed it has made our place recording easier, as we can add the current place we're at into its "favorite" folder with just a tap of our finger, then it's ready to be retrieved anytime we'd like. And it's route finder has been really useful too; with the voice instruction and earphone plug, I can put this device into my shirt pocket and use it while riding on my motorbike. I think I'm into GPS from now on.

Should you are interested to acquire one, you can get one of these iWare 8801 with IDR 1.099.000 and IDR 75K for the scratch resistance film. iWare store locations (in Indonesia) are available at its online website here. (byms)

[Updated Screenshot - July 2010]
Click on the picture to visit the Peta Makan Bali on Google Map

There are lots of good and interesting food here in Bali, but most tourist knows only those that has been exposed in the high profile media, or by their own fellow tourists. It's true that Bali has the breath-taking eateries up in the hills, right by the beach, or in the middle of the rice fields. But there are also local geniuses who are able to create enchanting food, but less known to the tourist albeit has been around for a while.

As my visit to Bali this time is not for holiday, but rather a 365 days of vacation, so I got a chance to explore more of Bali's culinary beauties, from the eye and mouth of a local epicurean. But alas, since my comprehension of Bali's city streets is second to none, hence why being lost is rarely extraordinary. Even though equipped by the up to date addresses, looking for location in a foreign city requires more solid reference. And I see the answer in Google Maps! Equipped with down to the most detailed aerial shoot of most areas in Bali, and reliable accuracy, I think it's a good way to plan my trip to the target place, or to mark those places I have visited.

At the moment this entry is written (Dec 09), the list is not much but it will definitely grow over time, and you are welcome to share your spots too! The map contains short description, budget, addresses, and photos where available, also links to outside resources usually related to reviews. The icon on the map, majorly represents status of the place (normal, on visit agenda, and contradictory).

I have also included some spots from Jakarta and Bandung, but the main focus at this moment is Bali.

The map is available here: http://tinyurl.com/petamakanbali

Feel free to comments, link, share the map, or join in as contributors (bay)