Bali-Part 2

To finish out our day in Ubud we at lunch at terraced rice fields, visited a monkey sanctuary and drank some Kopi Luwak coffee.

The terraced rice fields were absolutely beautiful and were probably my favorite thing we saw in Bali.  We went to a very popular tourist area to view the rice fields, but our driver was excellent and took us to a part that was very secluded.

The small house was for honeymooners to spend the night. 

The women in the background are harvesting the rice.  Since it is warm in Bali year round the rice is always in season there.  They plant it in stages so that it will be ready to harvest in stages.

One of the farmers came up so the girls could get their picture taken with him.

We had lunch at an outdoor cafe overlooking the fields.  Lucy ordered a strawberry Fanta.  When the can arrived she said "Mom, I have no idea how to spell strawberry but I am pretty sure this isn't the right way." (stroberi)

 After lunch at the rice terraces we visited a Sacred Monkey Forrest.  This was a highlight of the trip for the girls.

Notice a few things about the following picture:

1.  There is a monkey climbing up my daughter's body onto her head to get a banana

2. The monkey has a baby attached to it's stomach

3.  The man helping her feed the monkey is also smoking a cigarette

I wonder what they are all looking at.

Even Russ joined in on the fun...I did not.

 We saw this awesome bridge and tree in the park. 

She is growing up so fast.  The time is flying by.

 One last picture of the monkeys before we left.

We finished up the day by heading to a Kopi Luwak Coffee Plantation.  If you have never heard of Kopi Luwak  here is the best description I could find:

Kopi luwak is a type of coffee. It is made from coffee beans that have been eaten and then excreted by the common palm civet. The coffee beans are subjected to a process inside the civet that partially prepares the beans. They can only be found in areas of Indonesia and the Philippines where both coffee plantations and the native civet are present. Considered to be the world’s most expensive coffee, these unusual beans are said to produce coffee with a smooth, chocolaty taste and very little bitterness.

The common palm civet is sometimes called a civet cat. It is not a cat but is a nocturnal carnivore native to parts of Asia. This mammal’s diet consists of insects, small animals, and fruit. Like many fruit-eating animals, it prefers fruit that has ripened. This leads the common palm civet to eat the fruit from the coffee tree — the coffee berries — that are ripe and ready for harvest.

Once the civet eats the coffee berries, they pass through the animal’s gastrointestinal tract. Digestive enzymes erode the outer layer of the berries, exposing the hard endocarp layer of the coffee beans. The digestive process also partially ferments the coffee beans. Eventually, the kopi luwak coffee beans are excreted in the civet’s droppings, where they are collected by local harvesters. The harvesters separate the coffee beans from the excrement, clean the beans, and remove the outer shell before roasting them. --www.wisegeek.com

In one sentence...it is coffee that comes from beans that have been pooped out by an animal.  

Taylor holding a civet or as they called it at the plantation "The Coffee Makers".

The basket on the left holds the beans before they have been cleaned (by hand).  The beans on the right are after.  They asked us if we wanted to touch the "before" beans-we all said no.

Taylor and Lucy are helping with the roasting and the crushing.  The very old lady in the background is the one that actually does the work.  We saw the actual owner of the plantation and she was 95 years old. 

They grew everything at the plantation that they used to make the coffee and teas.  It was interesting to see the ingredients in their raw form before they were turned into coffee. 

We tried all these different types of coffees and teas.  We all had our favorites but none of us liked Bali coffee.  In Bali they don't use coffee filters, so their coffee is not only bitter but it has bits of coffee bean at the bottom of the cup.  It is terrible.  Thankfully my friend warned me ahead of time and I had brought some Korean coffee with me to drink every morning.

Here we are getting ready to try the Kopi Luwak coffee.  It was actaully very good.  Not bitter at all like Bali coffee.  I always use cream and a little sugar in my coffee but I was able to drink the Kopi Luwak black.

As many of you know I grew up near Hershey, PA and I LOVE chocolate.  At this plantation they grew cocoa pods.  I have never seen a raw cocoa bean so our guide cracked open a pod so we could see the beans.  They were white and kind of slimy.  She told us we could pick one out and suck on it but not to chew or swallow it.  It was sweet but didn't taste like chocolate at all.  It had a fruity taste.

Our tour guide through the plantation.

They had a gift shop at the end and it had this funny t-shirt.  The four stages of Kopi Luwak coffee: 1. eat 2. poop 3. roast and 4. drink.  We didn't buy the shirt but it was pretty funny.

 A great day of sightseeing for us.  This was our main day of sightseeing.  The rest of the days were much more relaxed.