Bali Escape! -Day 5-

This is the final day of our Bali trip, and what an adventure it has been so far. We have been river rafting, shopping, been to the nicest beach that I have ever seen, (ZA : hopefully not for long) but it has to come to a close. We checked out of Courtyard by Marriott early in the morning after packing up our luggage and having the buffet breakfast as usual.

As our flight back to Singapore was due at 10.30 PM, my Mom came up with a fantastic idea to burn the time during the day. We booked a full-day tour from “Bali Traditional Tours”. This is a small family business run by two cousins, and although small, the reviews on TripAdvisor and other sources were overwhelmingly positive. We decided to book the “Kintamani Tour”, which main highlight was the visit to the Kintamani Volcano, which last erupted in 2002 and the Lake Batur.

 

*Author’s Note: Before this, I was not aware of the Balinese unique naming system, you might be interested in this. For more information, head over to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balinese_name

We finished our breakfast, and made way to the lobby, where we were introduced to our guide, Nyoman*. Nyoman arrived in a traditional Balinese outfit, and greeted us as we arrived. We hopped into his car (A Toyota Innova, pretty popular car here in Indonesia, it seems.)  and left for the first stop, a traditional Balinese market in Sukawati, about an hour’s drive from the hotel.

The market was filled with people, bustling much more than any other market that I have ever been to. The market sold many items ranging from fresh produce to Jewelry, and we ended up picking up some prawn crackers and a shell necklace for Ashley. After this quick stop, we set off for the “Holy Spring Water Temple”.

(ZA : Back in Singapore, fried and ate the prawn crackers. Regretted not buying more. Cost S$1.65)

 

We arrived at the Tirta Empul Holy Water Temple located in Tampaksiring, which Nyoman informed us was close to a thousand years old, with some original structures still standing after all this time sitting open to the elements. As soon as we got off, we were needed to wrap a yellow cloth around our waists before entering the temple. The temple housed a natural spring which was fresh from under the Earth, and it had been from a thousand years ago.  We observed Balinese bathing in series of holy water fountains and also had an opportunity to wash ourselves with the holy spring water which symbolizes health before moving off. (Of course, not without enjoying the wonderful architecture around us.)

We set off for the second stop, which was going to be a coffee/tea plantation. We braced ourselves for another long drive throughout the countryside, which I dearly enjoyed. The drive took us through many narrow village off-roads and although all paved, it was quite a bit more exciting than the usual (and not long lasting) speed that we get in Singapore. We stopped at some points along the way to look at some animals and traditional items, but soon after reached the destination.

We walked into the plantation, and were immediately greeted with scenes of vibrant green. Vanilla, Lantana and various other plants were abundant (rather than just coffee), and we walked to one of their many outposts along the way. Here, we were greeted with the sight of a traditional coffee roasting and processing process. The beans were cleaned, roasted, then filtered into coffee powder for consumption. Ashley had the opportunity of roasting the beans, and enjoyed the experience too.

 

After this, we were treated to a sampler of all the coffee flavors that they had in the shop. I enjoyed the Coconut Coffee and Vanilla Coffee, while my parents decided that they preferred the “Mocacchino”, a blend of Cocoa and Coffee and Lemongrass tea more. Since we were there, we also decide to try out a rarity in the world, the infamous “Luwak Coffee”. Unlike most other sources, the Luwak Coffee (known as Cat-poo-cchino here) made here is cultivated by wild Civet Cats, rather than confined ones, and all the beans that were made into the coffee were all harvested from the wild, only to be picked up by workers in the company. The Luwak Coffee had a more sour taste than I would prefer, and so we skipped over it in our final bill. We picked up many packets of coffee and left happy drinkers!

A short break after, we were on our way once again to the main attraction, the Kintamani Volcano. We climbed up to 1100m above the sea level, where the highest village in Bali were residing next to the awe-inspiring Kintamani Volcano. We walked into the Grand Puncak Restaurant serving a buffet lunch and sat down next to the company of the volcano and Lake Batur. The food, although not amazing, was acceptable and we proceeded on with taking pictures of the volcano, which stood as a testament to the elements and time.

After this, it was almost 3pm, and we decided to skip a temple visit which would take 320 agonising steps up a steep staircase as we have not fully recovered from the ache from the rafting. We then headed to visit some rice terraces at Tegallalang. The terraces were unique, as they were built on a mountain, and required many steps to be made efficiently. We were told that the fields feed 120 families, and they usually do not have enough produce to export the surplus. We took some photos of the landscape, and we took off in the search of a traditional Balinese House.

When we arrived, Nyoman had the surprise that we were actually visiting his house, rather than a normal Balinese House. His house spans a large area, and houses 28 people over 3 generations of 3 different families. His house also houses a large variety of animals ranging from Pigs, Chickens and dogs. I am informed that most of these animals are later sold on, rather than for their own personal consumption. The house also has a form of “Hierachy”, where the oldest of the family would sleep in the North room, and the others in the other rooms. Unfortunately, Nyoman’s pair of twins were out and we were not be able to meet them, Ashley would have probably enjoyed seeing them.

Seeing as we still had time, we decided to visit one more stop before going off for the airport. We headed to the same Monkey Forest where the famous film “Eat, Pray and Love” was filmed. Here,we were able to feed and play around with the monkeys around the area. The monkeys lived freely without any restrictions, and we were able to take photos and play with them without any restrictions of cages. Also at this time, My Fujifilm X10’s second battery had run dry, so I was being conservative with the photos taken. Goes to show, better safe than sorry!

After all this, it was dinner time, and we headed to a roadside “Warung” styled dinner with Nyoman. We ordered Nasi Goreng and Bee Hoon Goreng for Ashley and had Teh Botol (Bottled Tea). Ashley enjoyed playing with the bottle caps which she has not seen before. The food cost around 1.80 SGD per plate, and it was simply delicious. I personally enjoyed this food stop a lot as it really is more of a throwback to what the normal Bali person would consume on a daily basis.

Soon enough, it was time to head on the trip back to the airport after a long day cruising around Bali. We waved goodbye to Nyoman, checked in, and headed onto the long flight back to Singapore.

(SF : Bali Traditional Tours is simply amazing. We had requested for a tour extension to include dinner and drop-off service to the airport so that we can have a better time control. Nyoman suggested that we bring our luggage along and a stop for dinner in Sanur before heading to the airport. We were only charged an additional USD 10 for this tour extension!)

(ZA : Thank you Jarod for your contribution to our family blog on our Bali Trip. Enjoyed reading it)