Bali, Indonesia - pt 2

Our next stop was at a place deep in the jungle of Ubud called Swing Heaven. https://swingheavens.com/ We had never heard of this, so we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. As it turns out, "swinging" literally meant being swung out over a lush valley with a river rushing through it. Beautiful? Yes! Scary? YES! So NO. Even if they strap you in (?) I wasn’t interested in swinging out over the valley. If I had fallen into it, they might never find my body! Of course there was a waiver to sign just in case - even for only the picture taking part. Check out this website if you want to see what this place was like - it's a bit hard to describe here.

hook up for one swing - valley below

So we opted to just pay the entrance fee and get our photos made in some of their photo settings. That was enough for me. I failed to mention that if you wanted to swing, you could choose a long flowing dress to wear that would look pretty flying behind you in the photos. You could also choose between different settings and they would take your photo or make a video, depending on what package you purchased. From the pictures, you can see I wasn't too daring.

choose your flowy dresses/gowns and choice of packages

I have a little fear of heights, especially if there is nothing to prevent me from falling over the edge, so I'm afraid we only made it halfway to heaven in the picture below. ha! We did probably a half dozen settings but nothing too risky. It really was a gorgeous place though!

 

reflection in the water below

see what you're swinging out over!

such beautiful photo settings!

In Bali, 90% of the population in Bali are Hindu. All generations of the family live together. The property is not for sale; it just passes down through the generations. Even siblings families can live together. Ronnie asked our guide what the palm leaf decoration on the fronts of the cars was for. Yogi explained to us that twice a year they have a ceremony where they make offerings and pray for blessings on their cars. 

 

Twice a day, they pray for their cars and scooters. In the morning, they pray for blessings of safety on them, and in the evening they say prayers of thanksgiving. I read that Hindu's have 330 million dieties they pray to, so I guess they have one for their cars. However, Yogi did say there are a lot of car/scooter accidents. It would be miraculous if there weren’t because there are relatively few traffic lights. Mostly they just negotiate their way through intersections. Motorcycles are like water – they tend to just “flow” around cars that are stopped. Dogs get in the road and many of the roads are very narrow, especially for the amount of traffic they carry.

Re: offerings – there are tiny offerings to their "gods" and other objects of worship lying around pretty much everywhere - even in the streets. These are little square boxes made of palm leaves that hold flowers and sometimes even cigarettes or candies. I left my shoes in the photo of the one in the street to show size.

little altars

little offerings

Yogi also took us to a wood carving place. Again, the workers were sitting on the porch carving their designs. They use ebony, walnut, hibiscus, mahogany, teak and crocodile wood. They carve designs that have been handed down through the generations and they don't use any patterns. The finished carvings are shined with bees wax. They are very intricate but most of them are of their Hindu dieties or related. None were appealing to me, but I could appreciate the craftsmanship.

skilled wood carvers hard at work

sample products

Our last stop of the day was at Teba Sari, a local open air restaurant. Our table was on the side with a view of the rice paddies. We enjoyed a meal of nasi goreng (rice) and chicken satay. The Indonesian people love spicy foods, so one needs to be cautious with the small dishes of condiments.

sate and nasi goreng

 

Teba Sari Resto

our table view with rice fields beyond

At that point, we were still about 1.5 hours from the ship. Our last stop was at a pharmacy. Ronnie showed the pharmacist a bottle of Azithromycin and she sold us another round of it for $8 in Indonesian currency – no prescription necessary. Unfortunately, they didn’t accept American currency or credit card, but thankfully we were able to exchange $8 in Rupiah for US dollars. 

Since we were spending the night in Bali port, the ship had some local entertainers come in for our show last night. It was a long but enjoyable day.

 

Bali, Indonesia - pt 1

Bali is located in the western most end of the Lesser Sunda Islands between Java and Lombok. It has long been a tourist destination because of its miles of white sandy beaches, volcanoes, rivers and lush tropical forests. It is 96 x 50 miles in size and its main crops are coffee, copra (the dried, white part of the coconut), rice and vegetables. I might add that their tropical fruits are delicious! It has wet/dry seasons. It is 90% Hindu, then Islam, Buddhist and Catholic. It has a population of around 4.5 million. It is 8 degrees south of the equator and therefore extremely hot. My clothes are wet after walking around outside for even a short period of time! 

As we pulled into port, our ship was greeted by a Gamelan orchestra. If you're curious about what that sounds like, I encourage you to type "Gamelan orchestra" into www.youtube.com to get the idea. There was also someone dancing (?) or perhaps making fighting movements to the music.

 

Welcome, Oceania Vista

Balinese Gamelan orchestra

Welcome to Bali

our driver, Yogi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday was a long but interesting day. Our excursion was through our travel agency and those are often much smaller, and sometimes even private. Our first day in Bali was a private tour with just Ronnie, me and our driver, Yogi. He had lots of things planned for us, but we had enough flexibility to mark things off the list that we didn’t care about seeing in our relatively short time here. We’ve seen plenty of Hindu temples in the past, so those was a ‘no’ for us. Our driver told us that every house has its own temple and I believe it; the island is covered with over 20,000 temples!

 

quick (partial) car window shot

We didn’t arrive in port until around noon and we decided to eat before we got off the ship. We met our driver just outside the port entrance a little before 1 pm. He dropped us back off a little before 8 pm and we crammed a lot in to those 7 hours. As with other recent ports, we are still in the last part of their rainy season so we did experience one really hard rain. Between large umbrellas, people to help us in and out of the car and the driver pulling up very close to covered areas, we somehow managed not to get our shoes too wet.

Our first stop was a batik factory. http://www.legongbatik.com We’ve always admired the Indonesian people because they are very hard workers and are so good at their crafts. Before entering the store, we watched employees painting the fabrics with their hot wax. The “pens” they use have a tiny reservoir that holds the hot wax and allows them to draw on the fabric. I was watching one man and he asked if I would like him to paint a design on my pants leg. He showed me probably 8 or 10 patterns and I chose the butterfly. I regretted it later because he added the date to it. If I’m still wearing these pants 10 years from now, perhaps I can change it to 2036. Ha! The store was very large. The downstairs was clothing and gifts while the entire upstairs was wall-to-wall framed batik prints.

applying wax pattern

From there he took us to Yanyan Gold & Silversmith. Almost all the houses up and down that road had their own silver shops inside the houses! Whatever business you visit, a salesman follows you closely, not because he/she thinks you’re about to steal something but just to hover and try to get you to buy. I’m sure they were disappointed that we didn’t buy anything but I was really only there because our driver thought we should go there. He probably gets a little “commission” if he brings in tourists that make a purchase. 

 

little offerings everywhere

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The artisans were working on such tiny and intricate designs! There was another room where people were taking a class in jewelry making. After the silver shop, we traveled to Cantik Agriculture 2. As we walked through the property, a guide showed us coffee beans, vanilla and cocoa pods growing in the lush vegetation. 

ripe coffee beans

vanilla plant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tea and coffee samples

Front: grinding the beans  Back: roasting small batches

We watched coffee being pounded with a cobek (wooden mortar) and beans being roasted over a wood fire. We were seated at a table where our host brought samples of some of the teas and coffees that were made on site. My favorites were the mangosteen and lemon teas. I bought some of both along with some cocoa coffee (ground coffee and ground cocoa beans with palm sugar) and Ronnie bought some “mud coffee” – finely ground coffee beans that are not brewed but simply stirred in boiling water and allowed to sink to the bottom of the cup. He grew quite fond of mud coffee when we lived on Java.

If you haven’t heard of luwak coffee, it’s coffee beans that have been eaten (but not digested) by the luwak or mongoose animal. They had one in an aviary-type housing. Our guide explained that they go into the mountains once a week and trap one, then bring it back and collect its poop to make luwak coffee. After a week they return it to the wild and trap another one. Luwaks eat the red coffee beans when they can’t get papayas or bananas. 

And NO, we did not try it! Luwak coffee (kopi luwak) is considered one of the most expensive coffees in the world, with prices ranging from $100 to $600 per pound. This is because of its rare and labor intensive productive methods. A single cup of luwak coffee can cost between $35 and $100 in cafes. My apologies in advance if you have a weak stomach.

"before"

removing the outer husk

luwak (Asian palm civet)

This post is getting too long so I will continue with Pt 2....


 

 

Komodo, Indonesia

Some might wonder why we enjoy travel. At home I rarely see the sunrise. That's because I don't get up in time. This morning I stepped out on our balcony to watch the sun rise and I took 24 photos! I simply couldn't quit snapping - the world is such a beautiful place, and watching the sun rise over the ocean while sailing through the Indonesian archipelago is truly indescribable! I even took a couple of panoramic videos but unfortunately the ship's internet and this website don't allow me to share them. Sigh...

 

this morning's sunrise

 

As I write this, we are sitting off shore from Komodo island and those who had booked excursions are already tendering in. No one is allowed to go ashore unless in a guided group. Truthfully, that's fine with me because it's super hot and I really didn't care about seeing them anyway. However, I can share some photos that our butler Prashant took here in 2024 and some that I took at the Bandung, Indonesia zoo when we were here in 2012. I'm not really into reptiles anyway, so once was enough for me. 

 

view from our balcony

photo credit: Prashant

The following is in our Currents today. "Due to National Park regulations on Komodo, and for safety and security reasons, guests are not permitted to go ashore independently during our call at Komodo, Indonesia. Only guests on arrangements that are made for a local tour either coordinated independently or via the ship's tour programs are permitted to go ashore at Komodo. Guests are reminded to always stay with their groups while on the tour. The terrain on Komodo is rough and uneven and not suitable for guests with limited mobility. Do not wear or carry any red items on Komodo Island. Do not bring any food ashore and do not attempt to feed the dragons under any circumstances. Guests who may be menstruating or have open wounds are advised to stay on board the ship." 

 

enter at your own risk!? (photo credit: Prashant)

Male Komodo dragons can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh over 200 pounds, whereas females are slightly smaller. They live between 20-40 years in the wild. And get this - they can smell their next meal up to five miles away!!! They have extremely strong, huge hooked claws and a forked tongue that is used much like a snake. They are fast on land and able to swim as easily as they can climb a tree. Their favorite prey is the wild pigs and Timor deer that are found on the island. The male dragon is very territorial and the bigger the dragon, the bigger the territory. The Komodo is not averse to attacking and eating other dragons that enter its range. 

Bandung zoo

 

I was using a zoom lens!

 

And as we are getting ready to leave Komodo, I will leave you with this - again, taken from our balcony.

God's promise