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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Rice terraces |
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| Mangostem, yum |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Civet cat |
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| 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.
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| 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.
