This is our second time to Bali. The first time was nearly 3 years ago when the toddler was just 2 years old. At the time we decided to stay put and went with ClubMed. We stayed inside the comfort of the resort and only got a peek of the tropical island as we ate the food, smelled the beautiful flowering plants and walked by the many stone Hindu gods/sculptures in the garden. Not that exciting huh?
This time we decided that we need to "see" Bali in its everyway. So our lovely friends referred us to a local Indonesian driver who is absolutely helpful and reliable and quite a delight to travel with. With his help we covered many miles throughout the island and had an amazing time.
Here are some highlights.
Visiting the elephant park. The premise is beautiful and tranquil although is a little on the smaller side. We watched an elephant show, and strolled around the park adoring the beautiful plants and colorful koi fish. Kodi had so much fun feeding that baby elephant. The 5 year old elephant loves to feed on the palm shoots, especially from her hands, not mine!
Legon dance. A traditional Balinasese dance, featuring 6 females and 2 (or more) male dancers. The story was a classic about Hindu gods and goddesses. The content of the story did not attract me much but the dance was beautiful and charismatic especially that they seemed to focus a lot on the dancer's eye balls. Yes I mean eye balls, not any other facial expression. It was almost like they were "staring" all the time. The hand shaking also expressed a lot of subtle emotions, such as surprise and freighten. The male dancers also had a signature "shrudded shoulders" pose throughout the performance. It looked a bit strange at first but soon we realized that it was delibrate as the dancer remained in this posture ALL the time while doing their other body movements.
The accompaning music was amazing too. The men only ensemble played various traditional Balinese instruments (mostly percussions) and to me it worked like Jazz. You could see them in the back of the picture where they sat on the floor. The musicians didn't seem to follow a particular tune but rather each had their own unique dynamics and rhythms while the summed music was complex but harmonious.
We later visited the fine art museuem there and the painting below totally captured that "staring" look of Legon dancers.
The famous rice terraces, UNESCO's world heritage site. The terraces follow the natural contour of the hills and they are amazingly photogenic. We arrived in the late afternoon hours when the sun was setting at a slant angle. The light shone on the rice plants like gold growing from the ground. Kodi picked some fallen stems of rice plant that had the brown to yellowish color paddies on them. She kept them in her travel journal.
Now onto some "poop" business, Kopi Luwak. This coffee is made of beans that comes out of the digestive end of a racoon kind of animal called Civet. The animals eat the beans (or nowadays being fed on) but couldn't digest them. The enzyme in the GI system of the animal somehow does miraculous things to the beans so that when they come out from the other end undigested, cleaned and roasted, will produce a cup of coffee that tastes much better than those made by the regular beans. The Civet is only found in Indonesian jungles and thus Kopi Luwak is one of the rarest and most expensive coffee in the world.
We once read an article in Wall Street Journal, touting how precious Kopi Luwak is due to its rarity (as you can't force the civet to eat the beans as much as possible) and how peculiar its taste is. Therefore, when our driver Wayan took us to a man who raises his own civet and roasts the beans, we gladly took the challenge.
The guy not only has two Civets but also one fruit bat which apparently can also produce a similarly tasted coffee when fed on the coffee beans. It was quite a sight to visit the "farm" with the racoons laying on the lumber which is part of the hut that the man makes and sells his coffee while the fruit bat hanging upside down right next to them.
Nonetheless the coffee does taste different. I am not an adventurous coffee drinker although I do enjoy the aroma. No you can't taste the poo and it smells just as wonderful as the regular coffee. The taste is much milder and less acidic. This is about how much I can tell you.
Visited Pura Ulun Danu Bratah, near Handara golf course. Handara sits on a dead volcano crater and is situated in the Bali heighland. Cool and full of green pine trees. We all had a great time there.
It is a 380 years old Hindu temple built on the shore of the lake. The highlight of the temple visit to us was seeing the pilgrims finishing their worship ceremony. The procession probably had hundreds of people, carrying their babies and children. They would either had a large basket on their head or a colorful flag in their hands. They all wore nice Batik sarongs. To Kodi, it is the playground outside of the temple yard. Lots of kids were hanging out there.
Showing off her latest Bali style outfit.
The tropical fruit in Bali was fresh and tasty. We had the luxury of being treated with a plate of tropical fruit every morning while we stayed at Komeneka Ubud. The little girl of course found this too exotic and requested to have apples and grapes on her plate.
We stayed in Senur along the east side of Bali, north of Nusa Dua for the first half of the trip. The beach was good but not as clean as we expected. There were many fishing boats parked along the beach. However, it was just outside of the resort and a close walk for morning sunrise.
Ok... someone just had a pedicure!
