Here we are in Indonesia. Specifically, Bali. Indonesia is very proud of her three B's. When Indonesia is mentioned, these three things should come to mind. They are: Bali, Borobudur and Batik. I am happy to let you know that Vialula and I have done all three now.
 |
Welcome to the port of Bali, Indonesia
|
Today we were in Bali, the jewel of Indonesia. What thoughts conjure up in your mind when you think of Bali. I am not sure but Bali is all you can imagine and more. Our only disappointment is that we only had one day to explore Bali. Bali is not a big place but it is very much alive. It's population is 4.2 million people and everyone of them has a scooter or two and is ready to run you over should you venture out in their path. The country has more scooters than people! I have never seen so many Evel Kneivel's in my life. Here we are on a tour bus and they fly around us on either side and dart out in front of us like the bus would bounce off of them should we meet. They are supposed to wear a helmet and obey the rules of the road. Unfortunately, their rules of the road pretty much means let's see who can get home first! We saw as many as four people on one scooter. Complete businesses exist on scooters, and they roll around from place to place as if it is perfectly normal to carry three tons of goods on two small wheels and a seat. Some of the women in skirts even ride side-saddle!
There are happy people everywhere. Like I told you before, the folks here are mostly Hindu and as such, karma and balance rule their lives .. positive/negative and good/bad ... Homes and businesses alike have shrines adorning them. Local and family temples are found on most every street. There are individual offerings everywhere you look left daily called "canungs". We saw them everywhere. These are offered with prayers and incense usually in the morning or at dusk. Sometimes they have flowers, herbs, bits of food from the house. One of the offerings we saw had a cigarette being offered among other things. See picture below. This was at the Uluwatu Temple.
Our tour today took us to the south coast off Bali to the tall cliffs and the Uluwatu Temple. Built in the tenth century, it stands 250 feet above and is perched right on the edge of the Indian Ocean and is considered to be one of the six key temples of the Bali spiritual pillars. The Balinese Hindus believe that the three divine powers of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva become one here making Uluwatu Temple, a place of worship of Siva Rudra, the Balinese Hindu deity of all elements and aspects of life in the universe. Now I am not going to pretend that I know what any of that means nor am I going to worry about it much. I will just say that it is very important place to the Hindu people and that it is a very beautiful place to visit.
As we visited Uluwatu we were asked to wear sarongs, as this is a place of worship. We were further reminded to take off our hats, our glasses and our jewelry, as this is also home to many monkeys who are likened to the children in nursery school, always pulling at hats, glasses and jewelry! They are macaque monkeys who are lured out of the jungle with the local fruits of rambutan, durian, dragon fruit, jack fruit, guava, and bananas. The single most talked about fruit is the durian as it is subject to a love/hate relationship. People love to eat them for their high protein and taste, but they also have the most horrific smell, and are even banned in some places! Google it - it's a real thing! P.S. The monkeys were very entertaining, and no, they didn't get Vi's ever-present hat!
As we continued our tour, our guide, Dika, was very informative about Bali and truly seemed delighted to tell us about his home. He grew up in the country here, and his family farmed for a living. He informed us all about rice which is a staple here. And I now know more about rice than I thought was possible. Let me just say that they grow black rice, white rice, sticky rice and brown rice. It used to be that their rice paddies would yield, at best, 2 crops per year. But today, because of genetic modifications, they get three crops a year. That is good for the business end of it but the resulting rice is not as healthy for them. It turns out that the GMR rice contains much more sugar and since rice is such a staple and eaten at every single meal, diabetes has skyrocketed not only in the older folks but much of the younger ones as well.
 |
| Our wonderful guide, Dika! |
Another crop is coffee. We stopped at a coffee plantation and had a coffee tasting. They bring this sampling of coffee to the table. It is a board with 21 different coffees and teas on it. These are the free tastings. There is one coffee that you have to pay to taste. It costs 50,000 rupiah to taste a small cup of it. Any guesses what it is? Has anyone ever heard of civet cats? These "cats" are really more related to the mongoose than the feline we know. Anyway, this coffee is produced by taking the feces of these cats after they have eaten the red coffee beans. It is rinsed off and then the outer shell of the bean is removed. Then the coffee is roasted in the traditional way and served. Vialula and I both had some, and I can happily say that LeRoy has no idea what all the fuss is about. Vialula loved the coconut tea and the local chocolate. They grow cacoa here, too. But, I confess, I don't get the fascination with this luwak coffee. Who was it and what were they on when they first came up with the idea on how to produce it? Think about that one.
 |
| Sivet cats are nocturnal and are mongoose like |
About rupiah. 50,000 rupiah is a grand total of $3.00 in American currency. (See the menu above) Their monetary system is crazy. We changed over a hundred dollars to their money and we got 1,400,000 rupiah in exchange. Their biggest bill is 100,000 rupiah so any large amount of money is a lot of paper. We asked why their money is like that and the guide said that they want to change it and basically knock off some zeros but the people are afraid that they will then be poor. If they have large numbers of money then they think they are rich. Whatever, it's their world, not mine.
On the way back to the ship, we were treated to a most delicious lunch at the Belmond Beach Hotel and Resort where we, too, got to sample some of the exotic fruit, delicious rice cakes, fish cooked in banana leaves and all sorts of wonderful local fare. The beaches are beautiful as you might imagine, and one of those 3 B's could easily be "beaches!"
|
Farewell to Bali. If you're ever in the area stop in and say hi to Dika. You will love it here! Next up is Semarang, Indonesia. Stay tuned for Borobudur and Batik.
LeRoy and Vialula
Comments
Post a Comment