First Tour in Bali - June 25th

On June 24th, we flew from Penang to Indonesia, to spend 15 days on the islands of Bali and Lombok. For the first 5 days in Bali we stayed in the city of Ubud. We spent our next five days in Amed and then took a "fast boat" over to Lombok, where we spent the last 5 days of our vacation.

The first tour we went on in Bali included a rice terrace, some Hindu temples, and an extinct volcano.

The first place we stopped on the tour was the Tegalalang rice terrace just north of Ubud. It was a beautiful rice terrace in different stages of production, from planting to harvesting to lying fallow. We took a short walk through the terrace.

Garth and the girls with Tegalalang rice terrace in the background

Kate was thrilled when a tiny butterfly landed on her thumb; she carried it around for awhile

Some houses and restaurants on the terrace

We then headed up to Kintamani, an extinct volcano at the northwestern part of Bali.  We could have taken a hike up the mountain but would have had to start the hike at about 2 a.m.  It is so tall that it can be seen from many parts of Bali.

Kintamani

The next stop was at Satria Agrowisata, a coffee plantation. There are a variety of fruits and spices grown there as well as the coffee bean trees.  We were able to see and feed a couple of caged civet cats that make Kopi Luwak, which is a highly valued specialty coffee. Otherwise the civet cats roam wild in the back forested part of the plantation.  Kopi Luwak is made by civet cats feeding on coffee beans off trees in the forest out on the large tract of land of the plantation. After they have eaten the coffee beans and pooped them out, the poop with the beans in it is collected and the beans are separated out.  They are then cleaned, roasted, and ground up. It is the most expensive coffee in the world. We got to sample different types of local coffees and teas and then all of us watched Garth pay extra and drink a cup of Kopi Luwak.  It cost about $5.00 Canadian. This place was one of our favourite stops on this tour.

Feeding the coffee bean to the civet cat. He spits our the shell of the coffee bean and eats the bean that is inside.  You can see a red empty shell on the floor of the cage.  It reminded me of us eating sesame seeds.  We had to use a stick because they bite


This is the civet cat poop with the coffee beans mixed in with it (don't ask whose hand is holding it :)


There is a male (smaller one) and female bean (larger one)

It is considered a desirable job to be a civet cat poop collector.  It is done at night as civet cats are nocturnal and will climb trees and poop down from them.  It is difficult as the "hunters" need to know where to go to collect so it takes experience to be good at it.  The pay is supposedly pretty good for a local job

Kate helping to roast coffee beans over a wood fire

Aimee and Elizabeth grinding the coffee after it has been roasted

Sifting the ground coffee

Enjoying 12 samples of local coffees and teas; after Eileen did an informal poll at the end of our taste-testing we discovered that Garth (of course), Hannah, and Aimee preferred the taste of the coffees and Eileen and Kate preferred the taste of the teas.  Elizabeth liked both with a slight leaning toward the coffees

A display of the coffees and teas we tasted

Garth drinking his cup of Kopi Luwak



Below are pictures of other plants and trees we saw on the plantation:

Coffee tree.  The coffee pods start out green but are red when they are ripe

 Papaya

 Chocolate pod

 Red chili

 Cinnamon tree.  The cinnamon sticks are the bark of the tree

 Poinsetta plant

Bali is primarily Hindu.  We saw many of these offerings with smoking incense everywhere we went


Another offering

We also visited two Hindu Temples. At the Tirta Empul Temple, many people present offerings and then bath in the water for purification. We also visited the Gunung Kawi Temple which is famous for royal tombs that were carved into stone in the 11th century.

A sign at the entrance to the temple

People presenting offerings and purifying themselves at the Tirta Empul Temple.  One surprising thing was that the ladies often dressed with very nice white often lace clothes for their dip in this water

Royal Tombs carved out of rock at Gunung Kawi

After stopping for lunch, we went to the Tegenungan Waterfall. It took some effort to climb down the stairs (Eileen didn't go) to get a close up look at the waterfalls. On the way down we could see some monkeys in the trees.

Waterfall in the background

Hannah and Elizabeth at Tegenungan Waterfall

The last place we went to was to see a mask wood carver just outside of Ubud. His masks were very beautiful.  The one we liked the best (and just about bought) was of a person's face that was happy one way but when you turned it upside down it was a sad face.  We enjoyed this tour.