Singapore Day 10

Bali from the ship

We arrived in Bali in the early morning, and after breakfast and a wait for the tender, were carried ashore. Bali is beautiful, green and lush, and even the port area is pretty. Supy was waiting for us on the pier, our names on his board.

We had a hired car, driver, and Supy as our guide for the day. The Denpesar area, the capitol of the island, has about 400,000 inhabitants, all of whom were going to work at the same time as we were heading up the mountain toward Ubud. Although not as crowded as Jakarta, traffic seemed as bad...lots and lots of motorcycles and cars with some trucks thrown in to make things more interesting.

Offerings are everywhere

Our first stop was at a traditional farmhouse. Catering to tourists, it was still a glimpse at how the local people live. Inside a courtyard are separate buildings for the kitchen, bedrooms, a farm area (in this case, a pig sty with pigs) and of course the religious area, which all Balinese houses seem to have. Interesting, we were shown three stones which belonged to the children of the household, specifically, their placentas were buried underneath the stones.

The second stop was at a silversmith's. There we saw how traditional Balinese jewelry is made. I fear my eyes would give out as they use tiny tiny beads and wire, all done by hand, with no magnifying glass to help. Christmas presents, Surani and Holly, done.

Rice terraces

Mangostem, yum

Rambutan, mango, dragonfruit

Proceeding further up the mountain, we stopped to look at rice terraces. Most houses seemed to be on ridge lines, with the hillsides going down to the various streams terraced, mostly for rice. Higher in the mountains we saw extensive tangerine groves. Supy stopped at a fruit stand and we sampled rambutan, snakeskin fruit, mangosteen and mangos. Loved the rambutan and mangosteen, and of course, mango, but snakeskin is a bit tart for our taste.

Mount Batur

Finally reached a vista where we could see the volcanos of Bali. Mount Batur stands inside a a 20 km wide caldera, what is left after the eruption of the original Mount Batur. Within the caldera is a lake, and on the rim are Mount Agung and Mount Abang. It was misty and rainy but we could clearly see the lava flows on the side of the mountain. The last time the volcano erupted was 1994 so it is still active and we could see steam rising from the side.

Civet cat

Tanis, not too impressed
with luwak coffee

We left the mountain and stopped at a spice garden. We tried civet cat poop coffee, kopi luwak. Civet cats eat coffee fruit and poop out the beans, which are collected, cleaned, roasted and sold. Not to terribly impressed with the coffee, but bought some for Rob so he could try it.

and this was only part...

Drove all the way down the mountain in afternoon commute traffic until Supy told the driver to take backroads. We saw some lovely countryside with egrets and farmers and rice. We finally reached Denpasar where we went to the street where most of the fabric is sold. We had a good time in the fabric shop, at $2.00/meter.

Back to the ship for an overnight stay in Bali. Tanis and I are both sticky and tired. After dinner, though, we went to the Princess Theater for a special, a Balinese cultural show. There was an orchestra (gamelan) with xylophones, gongs, drums and flutes and five dances were performed.