nomad4ever

The thing I like about a place like Bali is the sheer variety of venues on where to eat, drink, relax or just hang out. One of those special places where you can do all of the above is Khaima.

What’s the venue?

Khaima is a chilled restaurant in Jalan Laksmana/Oberoi, the new ‘IN’ area of Bali. It’s one of the most well regarded restaurants in Bali and the only authentic Moroccan eatery on the island. It’s run by a Belgian/Moroccan couple.

Here you can eat like in a normal restaurant at a table – or chill Arabic style on large pillows and ground beds and smoke a Shisha (water pipe or hookah).

The chill-out area features a large tent-like atmosphere. It feels like you are somewhere in a Bedouin tent or Caravansary in the middle of the desert. Here you can watch the stars (the ceiling can be slid open when good weather), have a good look at other patrons, chat with your friends or just listen to some Arabic and Oriental tunes played in the background.

I just love laying on mountains of pillows, smoking a water pipe with menthol taste and drinking mint tea from small glasses!

Great food – exotic and delicious

For chilling out you can just order some tea and fresh white sesame or olive bread with yogurt dip, but you would miss out on the great food which is served here.

The menu contains an exciting blend of moroccan dishes, all home-cooked and freshly prepared. There are all kinds of chicken, beef, lamb and vegetarian dishes; of most of them I can’t even remember the names not to mention the spelling. :-) Of course they serve as well the all-time favourites like shish kebabs, falafel, couscous, humus and sweet desserts.

The prices are okay and whatever food I tried here was really tasty and delicious.

Special treats on weekends

On weekends however, mostly starting around 9pm, there is a special treat for guests and patrons – and one reason more to hang out here:

Belly Dancers will suddenly show up, dancing to arabic music around the tables, arousing the audience.

Up to 3 girls all dressed in exotic dresses in all different colours (red, silver/white and black) dance around you and move their bodies to arabic tunes and rhythms.

You feel like Sindbad in the Arabian Tales from 1001 nights and even 3 Scheherazade are dancing around and right in front of you!

Anyway – isn’t it great to have a place which you would expect more in the Middle East or in Arabic countries right in the middle of Asia?

Want to try some teasers?

I added a few short videos to Youtube.com with the dancing girls. Check them out if you are interested.

First is a Belly Dancer in a wine-red dress:

One more in a silver/white dress moving around with an umbrella stick. This is in the chill-out area further in the back of the location, to the right you can see a fountain and the nice lighting of the place:

Number three has a black/silver dress and looks and dances fascinating as well:

A last one, that’s the first girl in wine-red again – guess that was simply my favourite:

For more information about Khaima, check out this review from Beat Magazine.

Technorati : 1001 nights, Scheherazade, arabian tales, arabic, asia, bali, belly, belly dancer, bong, dance, destinations, hookah, indonesia, khaima, shisha, sindbad, travel, water pipe

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written by Chris