TUESDAY, FEB. 7: TOUR AROUND BALI
Our driver Gusti (husband of tomorrow’s masseuse!) picked us up at 7 a.m. (I had suggested 6 but was voted down!) so we could start our tour and avoid traffic and tour buses early on. We headed for the farthest point, as some of the places didn’t open until 9.
Our first stop was a little village where you could view curving, lovely rice terraces, with the shoots coming up through the water. There was what looked like a bride posing for pictures down on the bank. Gusti said it was a foreigner, not a Balinese bride! They don’t do that! The terraces were lovely!
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| Either a bride or a model posing on the edge of a rice paddy! |
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| Watery rice paddy in the valley. |
Our next stop was Tirta Empul Tampaksiring temple where we had to don a sarong and sash to enter. This is where there is a holy spring and people can bathe in the waters (one guys was doing that - we just wiped some water on our face!).
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| Locals bringing offerings to the temple as we were leaving. |
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| Priest was there with tied back hair and decorations but I wasn't quick enough with the camera! |
Next was a coffee farm - Sutri. Here as we approached on the path, Gusti pointed out coffee plants, banana, ginger, turmeric, cloves, pepper, cardamon, cinnamon, lemongrass and many other tropical plants. We came upon baskets laying out of white and black pepper, turmeric (white and orange), cloves, cinnamon.
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| Cinnamon in the middle, white and yellow tumeric |
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| Bottom left is the "cat poo" coffee bean! |
Then we saw an 80 year old lady roasting the coffee beans. Our guide there explained about male and female coffee beans - they are sorted by hand. The male has a stronger flavor. Then he told us about the “cat pooh” beans! There is a civet (wild) cat-like animal called a luwak they keep in cages. They are let out and eat the coffee cherries. The seed is changed in its stomach, loses some of the caffeine, gains some protein and is pooped out and then collected!! The beans are treated and the coffee is sold - very expensive!! Weird!!!
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| Stirring the roasting beans! |
We had a whole tray of sample teas and coffees (not the cat poo one!) and then shopped in the gift shop!
On we went to our highest point overlooking Mt. Aging (which erupted in 1963 killing thousands) and Mt. Babur across from our restaurant. We could see steam escaping out of the side and what looked like old lava flow down the hillside. Tours climb up this at 4 a.m. to watch the sunrise (we’ll skip that tour!) I had a pepperoni pizza and Betty had a breakfast (we had left too early for breakfast here). A busload of Chinese came in for the lunch buffet as we were leaving.
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| Big volcano on right. Lake caldera. |
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| Lava flow below; steam vent white spot on left. |
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| View to the side of Kintamari |
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| Pepperoni pizza! |
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| Overlooking mountain. |
By this time it was getting warm! there was a traditional Balinese village in the countryside we stopped to walk through. Each family has a compound, with a family altar, a kitchen on the right as you walk in, and other buildings. This is like Darta’s compound where we are staying. He has 9 rooms at the back of his that he lets out. It was very peaceful out here, although each compound had snacks and stuff they were trying to sell the tourists.
We stopped to visit a couple of more temples. There are only tourists there; apparently the locals only go there for ceremonies, which happen frequently. Certainly NOT in the middle of the day!
By this time the heat was building up! We had been gone 7 hours. So when we stopped at the Bird/Reptile sanctuary that we had wanted to go to, we decided no! It was something like $43 - we thought it was very expensive! One more temple stop and then we headed back through very HEAVY 3 o’clock traffic back to Ubud! Gusto was well worth his $50 for the day! They are very picky here about the bills! We gave him American dollars and he rejected a $5 and a $20 with tiny tears! I forgot to ask the bank for spanking new money!! I think this was true on our South American trip - but I had forgotten!! Oh, well!
Back in the lovely pool as the afternoon rain poured down!
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