Crafts/Temples/Dances, volcanos, poop coffee and crazy giggles

This was a super fun day probably one of the most fun days we had. When we got back to the villa from Kuta and all the craziness of that day we decided to call one of the tour companies and see if we could get a guide and driver for the day. 10 hours with both a driver and guide costs 45 dollars. It was a great deal. Anyway we got Adi and Mani (spelling maybe incorrect). They picked us up at about 8:45 after driving in circles in our neighborhood for about 15 minutes trying to find our villa. The sign for the villa name is too small I have to agree with them.

When we got in they said okay ladies.. where do you want to go? We didn’t pick a packaged tour and had basically circled a few places on the map we wanted to go the night before. As we suspected we would not be able to do all of the things we wanted to do because well it was just too much. The island isn’t that big but it takes forever to get around it. Mostly because of traffic and bad roads and well not a lot of roads..

Anyway Adi suggested they take us to a few crafts places to see how things are made etc and for us to get a sarong at one of them so that when we got to the “Mother Temple” later in the day we would have something to wear. He also suggested we go watch a traditional dance performance. Then we could hit up some of the temples we wanted and see the volcano.. have dinner there and head home from there. It all sounded awesome to us and so we set out.

The first stop was the Sarong makers. Later I promise to put up some photos. The whole process is a pretty elaborate thing. They have some that are all done by hand and some that are done with presses etc. We purchased a few sarong’s for later and went on to the next stop.

The next stop was the traditional dance. Again I have photos and video and will post links to them later. The dance is the Barong Dance. I’ll post some pictures and videos later. There was a scene involving a monkey, his tail and some little people that was a little bizarre and uncomfortably funny.

After this we headed to our first temple. First question before we were able to walk in was whether or not either of us had “The problem of menstruation”. Once we had both confirmed we did not have “this problem” we were allowed to enter. Adi took a good deal of time to explain the temple to us. What each statue was for and why it was there. If you are interested you should read this article Hinduism in Indonesia. It is quite different than my experiences with India Hinduism. The temple we visited was called PURA Puseh & PURA Desa (I think) that is what the sign read anyway.

After the temple we started heading toward the Holy Spring Water temple or Pura Tirta Empulwhich was my favorite temple that we saw the whole time we were there. One reason it was my favorite is because we had to head up through this very beautiful green lush area full of rice terraces etc to get to it. We even had some incidents with coconuts.. Adi nearly got bonked on the head when trying to move some out of the street so we could pass. Another reason is that its just damn beautiful. It is so peaceful and magical and apparently not that many tourists make it up there and that made us very happy. Also the Indonesian go here to wash their clothes and bath to get rid of bad luck.. The day we visited there was only one person there washing his laundry.

After this we headed on up toward the volcano. Marlo had decided she wanted to hike to the top of this thing the next day and I was going to go along with her. We were suppose to get up at 1:30 like (just a few hours after we were heading up to the top in a vehicle with Adi).. to hike up for sunrise.. pickup was like 2:30 and it was a couple of hours hike. Anyway we headed up there with Adi and had dinner at a restaurant up at the top. It was an amazing view for the few minutes that we could see it before storm rolled in with high winds and clouds.

Our next stop was the Mother Temple of Besakih . Adi had already drawn us a map and given us specific instructions like 3 times before we got there. He wouldn’t be allowed to go in with us and had told us do not take a guide. Here is where you go here is what you do etc etc. He handed us our tickets and said.. DO NOT GIVE THIS TO ANYONE.. just show it if anyone asks. Anyway we thought we understood but once we were in the area we clearly had not. We walked this way and that way trying to figure out what he meant by his map. I tried to call him but didn’t go through.. anyway we finally figured out where we were to go and started heading that way. As we approached where we were suppose to go a man told us we could not go without a guide because there was a ceremony. Now Adi had told us to just say no thank you and keep walking so we tried that but the man insisted we would be in trouble.. I hesitated.. and we went back down.. at this point Marlo was pretty annoyed and I just didn’t want to deal with it.. we sat for a minute and we decided to try it again. This time we walked right past him and he fussed at us again.. insisting we were not allowed.. we continued up the steps but on the way up I saw a sign that indeed said that if you were not worshipping there you could not go which made me hesitate again. Again Marlo was pretty annoyed. We ended up not really seeing what we went there to see which was the view from the top out over the mountain. Really if the people had actually been nice I think all would have been fine but it felt weird there. I felt very very uncomfortable like there were predators all around me and I was pray… we didn’t stay long.. we just said f it and headed back to the truck telling Adi and Mani to just get us the hell out of there.

Its really unfortunate that a place called the Mother Temple was one of the places I felt most uncomfortable in because the people were just not good.. Anyway I think Adi and Mani wanted to cheer us up so Adi asked if we drank coffee or tea and if we’d like to stop at a place. We said sure and headed to this little cafe (i think) in the forest that had animals all around etc. This stop is the one where I did something way out of what most people believe to be my character. We arrived and the gentleman there took us over to where the beans are cleaned, roasted and then ground into powder.. they were picking up beans and smelling them so I went to do the same at which point Adi grabbed my hand and said.. NO.. those poop beans… I looked at him like he was crazy and figured he was pulling me leg.. then he asks if I have heard of it to which I respond no.. so he takes me over to a cage where this cute little animal is and says he poops the beans.. and then I remembered! AH YES I have heard of this.. I saw part of a documentary or something on this. Its suppose to be the world’s most expensive coffee. He tells me its Kopi Luwak and Marlo confirms.. Just then the host brings over 6 small cups of various drinks for Marlo and I to try free of charge. One is lemon tea, lemongrass tea, ginger tea, coco, balinese coffee and some other coffee.. none of these were the Kopi Luwak.. but the guy tells me for just 50,000 rupiah (about 5 to 6 US Dollars) I could have my very own cup of the most expensive coffee in the world produced right here by the animals I see…Ummm after a little discussion with Marlo we decide yes we want to do it. I mean.. its a once in a lifetime experience right.. so yeah we went for it. I drank about half the cup before deciding it was a bad idea considering we were getting up in a few hours to go hike a volcano.. so I offered the rest to Adi. He pushed not to take it but eventually he caved and did. After he added lots and lots of sugar he was good.

Here is the photo Marlo did for me.

Anyway it was great. Once we got back into the car I think the coffee must have gone to all of our heads because we just got silly. All of us.. everything became funny and we taught Adi all sorts of stuff. There were a few really funny miscommunications. Once we got home (ride took forever due to traffic), I realized I was so exhausted and climbing a mountain in a few hours didn’t sound appealing to me. Marlo finally pried it out of me that I wasn’t really digging going although I was going to go anyway so that Marlo could go. She thought about it and decided she would go the next day and that maybe we would go to Tanah Lot the next day before she went hiking.

So I didn’t climb that volcano.. which I am totally fine with.

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