Cowbright: Bali, Indonesia

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.