Bali, full day #2: we started early leaving the hotel around dawn to take a rice paddy hike just outside of town, planning to end right at the hotel hosting our vacation-staple: a cooking class.
Emerging from our alley-way hotel, right past a very common offering holder.
A rice paddy with offering holders. I’m not sure what the purpose of the tall swaying bamboo poles was, but they were pretty.
A rice field scarecrow.
Woman with basket (on her head).
We ended up missing a turn and what we expected to be a 45 minute hike turned into a very rushed 2 hour walk/jog to make it back in time for our cooking class. We just made it!
Market for spices and fresh foods before cooking class.
Patrick grinding ingredients for the base paste – chilis, garlic, ginger, and lots more.
Our instructor teaching us how to “wrap” meat paste onto sticks for grilling.
Grilling satay. Key = butter.
Our teacher made lovely presentation of all our dishes. Bell pepper flower!
After class, we packed up and met our driver. We decided instead of the direct 3-hour drive, we’d take the scenic 5-hour route with some exciting stops on the way.
Stop 1: the water temple where local and tourists come to purify themselves in the sacred spring water. This is required before any ceremonies – naming, wedding, and the teeth-filing ceremony. Yes, a coming-of-age ceremony – young men and women have a priest file their canine teeth (just a tiny bit, symbolically) to remove their animal natures. It’s supposed to signal an end of irresponsibility, anger, lust, greed, and make them ready to be responsible spouses and parents.
Bathing in the purifying water.
An original part of the temple from the 11th century.
The president’s house, above the temple, where he can stay if he visits Bali.
Stop 2: an “agro-tourism” farm where they grow spices, fruits, cocoa and coffee. Then use those things to make lovely tea mixtures and traditionally ground and roasted coffees.
A pineapple bush!
Woman roasting coffee over flames.
We got to sample all their teas and coffees. I actually drank some of the very chocolately mocha. My favorite? Lemongrass and cinnamon.
What’s that? A civet cat!
The highlight of all coffee places on Bali is civet-cat coffee. These cats eat the coffee beans and digests the outer-most skin, leaving a couple other seed coats covering the bean when it gets poo-ed out. It’s supposed to be amazing and is some of the most expensive coffee in the world.
Patrick trying a little cup of cat-poo-chino. 🙂
Stop 3: volcano overlook. Bali sits on a hot spot with an active volcano (last activity in the early 1990s).
Very old collapsed volcano ring on the outside, then water ringing the newer volcanic peak in the middle. Beautiful!
Us at the volcano.
We reached our next hotel in Tulamben at about 7pm. A long and lovely day!
Check out our next post for stories from above and below the water in Tulamben!