Bean Traveling...

June 2, 2010

Kuta - Day 4

Today was the best day yet! I went on another tour, met up with Del and Anna again. There were also 4 other people on the tour from my resort, so it was nice to see some familiar faces. We started out at a wood working studio. They had hundreds of pieces that were all hand carved, some of them taking months to complete. Some pieces were made from 6' logs, all one piece and totally amazing. There were figurines, wall hangings, masks and even furniture. The furniture was extremely intricate, a bit too flashy for my taste. I took some cool pictures, but didn't buy anything. I figured it would just get broken on the trip back somehow. Plus, I don't really have any need for a wood carving right now.

Next we headed to Kintamani, where we had beautiful views of Mount Batur, an active volcano, and Lake Batur. The volcano hasn't erupted in years, but I was hopeful. It was beautiful to see the landscape, it was so alive from all the vegetation. We had lunch overlooking the lake.

After lunch, we headed to a coffee and cacao plantation. They had Luwak's in cages inside the grounds. These are the animals that eat the ripest coffee beans and then they are harvested from the scat afterwards. They kind of looked like big lazy ferrets. They were just laying around near the top of their cages. Walking through the grounds, we saw all sorts of spices, coffee and cacao plants. I would love to have access to these fresh ingredients all year round! We got to try all sorts of different drinks, Balinese coffee, ginger coffee, fresh hot cacao with cinnamon, ginger tea, lemon grass tea. We had the opportunity to try the Luwak coffee, but it would cost $3US, which is practically Starbuck's pricing. Not being a coffee lover, I opted out. The others were great though. The cacao was so strong!

Our last stop of the day was another Temple. It had natural fresh water springs running through it and locals would come and bathe in it to be blessed. No, there was no nudity. Everyone was bathing clothed. The water was so crystal clear. They had a giant basin that the water filtered into and it looked so refreshing and the plants growing in the water were vibrantly green. There was also a Koi pond here with some of the biggest fish I've ever scene. I'm pretty sure some of them were 15lbs at least!

That night I went out for dinner with Carl and Kristin, two Americans from the tour staying in my hotel. They are from North Carolina and were on their pre-wedding honeymoon. People seemed to really like having honeymooners on their tours, so they just went with it. We walked into Kuta and had a beer on the beach to watch the sunset. I had Nasi Goreng for dinner, which was deliciously spicy. Since I've been here, I've noticed that I enjoy spicy foods a lot more than I used to. On the way back to the hotel, we hit up an internet cafe to arrange for surfing lessons tomorrow!


~Bean