Around The Island Trip

  Bali, Bali, Indonesia Thursday, February 5, 2015

Last time we were on Bali we didn't actually spend much time here. Being so disappointed that Bali is NOT the tropical paradise island we expected it to be, we scooted off pretty quick to the Gili isles which were perfect. So now we are back, we decided we wanted to have a bit more of a look around and booked this trip with Eddie to spend the day sightseeing. Eddies friend Komang picked us up at 8:30 and our first stop, just 30 minutes outside of Denpasar, was the Balinese Show and Dancers. We were greeted by two pretty young ladies in Bali costume and they looked beautiful. Then we noticed one was wearing stripy socks were her flip flops which spoilt the image a little but but it made us laugh. We were given a script to follow the play and a "tiger" came onto the stage. It seemed to stay there for a very long time (10 minutes) just opening and shutting its mouth and nothing else happening. We were not even into act 1 yet and we thought "oh no - here we go again!" remembering the overly long show that we got really bored at Kochi Fort in India. Luckily the show moved on at a pace after that. The costumes were lovely and we could follow the story line. It did become a little bit pantomime which got a bit silly but at least it was entertaining. On to our next stop the batik factory. We saw Batik in Sri Lanka but we didn't see it being made there, so it was interesting to see how they apply the wax before dying to make the patterns. We also watched the weavers making the design of fabric that all the taxi drivers at the airport were wearing. Now it made more sense about why they wore it! Onwards again..... Next stop was Jody's favourite. The jewellery workshop. Located in Ubud, central Bali, it is a very pretty area with lots of temples and ornate Balinese houses. It certainly doesn't look like a poor area and every building seems dedicated to jewellery making although not all have a show room for tourists. We went to Yan Yan Gold and Silver Smiths. First we watched the craft workers doing different things. One lady had the job of flattening all the little silver links, another was polishing rings. All the silver here comes from Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) and everything on sale here is made either on site or in the immediate surrounding area. After an hour of watching and browsing the cabinets, Jody bought a little silver ring and Bryan bought something too. Our next flying stop was a waterfall but we could only view this from the opposite side of the valley and it wasn't that impressive either. Nice if that is the only one you have seen but we have seen some of the best waterfalls in the world (with more to come later on our world tour) so we were not impressed. Our next whirlwind stop was a wood carving factory. We have seen many buildings covered in Balinese wood carved with the most beautiful intricate designs and here we learnt a bit more about the wood they have here. Apparently the flowers of the hibiscus tree will tell you the colour of the wood inside. The red flowers have warm coffee coloured wood with cream ripples running through it. yellow has very pale wood with green wood streak running through it. Bet you didn't know that either! By now we were very hungry. Lunch was promised for 1:00pm ish but it was now 2pm and we always believed lunch was the next stop. The itinerary seemed very loaded before lunch and we wondered what the afternoon would bring. So was our next stop lunch? Nooooo! it's a tea and coffee plantation! We have seen a fair few of these on our travels around the world so was this one any different? Yes it was actually. Komang took us through the grounds pointing out various plants and trees for us like vanilla pods, peppercorns, Papaya and durian fruit. All things we have seen before. But then he showed us some cages where some civits lay sleeping. We have seen much of the famed coffee whereby the beans are collected from the pooh of animals (in Vietnam they called it weasel coffee) but we had never actually seen the animals themselves. As nocturnal creatures they were all asleep now but they were quite cute. Their pooh was not so cute and Komang described how their pooh was collected every morning, (it actually looked like a bar of peanut brittle) it is washed to collect the beans and then the beans roasted and processed in the same way as other coffee beans. And we got to try some of the coffee too. No it did not taste like pooh it tasted like coffee - but very strong coffee. Although we did wonder what the brown sludge was in the bottom of the cup after we had drunk it. Urgh! Our young girl guide took over from Komang and she showed us how the beans were roasted over a fire for an hour and you had to keep moving them so they didn't burn.  We got to have a go ourselves and we can see why machines take over some of the more traditional jobs which had always been done by hand. It was very hot by that fire. She then showed us the 12 teas and coffees we would be tasting. of the coffees we like the "honeymoon coffee" the best (coffee with ginseng) and the Bali coffee the least (very bitter) but the teas were all really nice but we both agreed on our favourite - lemon grass tea with honey. So we bought some as it is easy to carry and would be a cheaper way of buying hot drinks as we travel - no one charges for hot water! We also got to try some local alcohol here. The rice wine and some arak. Arak is the coconut rum we had in XXXX but this was much worse. And the wine was horrible too so we won't be buying any of that. So is it lunch time yet? Nooo! we had to stop to see a volcano first. We had to stop and get a ticket into the national park first before heading to a view point. Fortunately (or unfortunately) it was too cloudy to see it so we skipped that stop and went straight onto the restaurant. It was now 3pm! Lunch was horrible! It was the type of restaurant where everything is laid out buffet style for the tourist buses which is the best way to do it. But everything was brown. There was lots of vegetarian food for Jody  but looking at the plate it was very unappetising. Rice was brown, noodles were brown, spring rolls were brown, onion rings were brown. The only colour on the plate was deep fried leaves in batter. They would have been brown but the batter had come off most of it so you were left with a crispy green leaf. Quite tasty actually so don't knock it til you have tried it. The only good thing about our lunch was that whilst were were there, the cloud lifted just enough for us to get a glimpse at the volcano - our 3 in 3 weeks - wow!. This one no where near as impressive as the last two but if it was a clear day we could imagine how pretty it would have looked. So, feeling a little bit disappointed all round (and still a tinsy bit hungry) we set off for the 2nd round of our trip. First stop was a temple. Well we can't come to Bali without seeing at least one can we now? This was supposed to have a holy spring although why it was holy neither of us can remember. It was a lovely setting though, very green and very peaceful. There were lots of separate pools with gargoyle type fountains emptying into big pools. He did explain what all the pools were for but again we have forgotten. They just looked nice to us with all the Koi carp in them. Komang explained some stuff to us about Bali temples. The Bali people are mainly Hindu but a Bali version of Hindu that split off from the Indian Hindu religion about 1000 years ago. When a man gets married, he must build a temple for his family in the grounds of his house. Each larger family ie uncles, brothers, cousins etc must build a larger temple for the extended family. Each village must build 3 hindu temples for the villagers - one for each of their Hindu Gods and then each village must also build a public temple for anyone and every one. So totting all that up; 450 villages on Bali x 4 temples = 1,800 village temples 4.5 million people on Bali so roughly 1.5 million family temples Phew! that's a lot of temples So back to the temple we were visiting and they also had large bird cages around the place with various birds in. One had a pair of doves, another a cockerel and another a white cockatoo. This one Jody felt sorry for as he did look lonely so she went to talk to it. As she put her hand up to the cage it reached its head forward and bent it so she could tickle it neck. It is obviously used to people doing that as it was happy to sit there for ages whilst she did it. Poor old thing. We left there and moved on to our penultimate stop. The rice terraces. We were looking forward to this. Komang pulled up on the road and we could see the terraces rising up on the opposite side of the valley. "Ok we stop here and make a picture" he said. "Hang on" we said, "can't we go and walk through them like we can see those other people doing" we asked him. He explained that we still had the monkey forest to get to yet and it was already 5pm. Well it didn't take us long to confer and agree, we would skip the monkey forest so we could stay here and explore the rice terraces for longer. As it turned out, we were so glad we made that decision. It was a steep climb down - there are no proper paths here - just muddy tracks, and slippery where the water runs off the terrace onto the track. Then we climbed up the other side. It was hard going and hot work but it only took us about 20 minutes to get to the top of the other side. And the views were beautiful. The photos speak for themselves when we say it was beautiful. This is an ancient rice terrace that has been here for hundreds of years and is still farmed in the traditional way - all by hand. The only people we saw were older people too - all upwards of 60 years old and still working - still farming by hand. They won't give up the old ways for more modern ways of farming the rice which is a shame because all their children are off working in tourism or with computers and this will become a rare sight soo as there will be no one to take over when they go to the paddy fields in the sky (we don't think retirement is an option for them as they are too poor). So we dropped some money in the box as a donation and said our "Suksamo" (thank yous) as we left. We had a fabulous day. Komang was lovely and a really friendly, helpful guide (he even helped us find a local supermarket to buy some cheap rum - it's banned in Kuta where we are staying). There were one or two parts we would happily have missed but our highlight was definitely the rice terraces. Not to be missed.   [gallery columns="4" ids="10308,10320,10336,10350,10361,10374,10383,10394,10400,10409,10420,10432,10443,10453,10462,10471,10484,10495,10508,10516,10528,10546,10551,10558,10565,10577,10581,10587,10596,10604,10611,10623,10630,10641,10648,10655,10661,10672,10685,10692,10695,10703,10707,10711"]