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. 

A Quick Break From Blogging About The Warm Weather...

to show you what the weather is like where I am at right now...

I 

I miss Bali.

Bali-Part 1

Over Thanksgiving, our friend Neil came to visit us and we took an awesome vacation to Bali, Indonesia. We were able to spend 8 days exploring the island and laying on the beach.  It was a wonderful and much needed time away.

The girls were so excited to get on the plane. (They might have also been excited about missing a few days of school and going to the beach, but I'm not sure about that. :) )

Ok, we were probably a little bit excited too.

 Good bye cold Seoul...

We got some cool cloud pictures on the way there.

Hello warm Bali...

We rented an awesome villa that had a private pool.  Our first day in Bali was a little bit overcast so we spent the day on the beach near our villa and swimming in the pool.

These beautiful flowers were right outside the entrance to our villa.

Lucy had to keep a journal of our daily activities for school.

 The second day we went to a town in the middle of the island called Ubud and did a lot of sightseeing.

We visited 2 very old temples.  One of our comments was how green everything was.  Nothing in Seoul is green right now, but Bali was full of color.

Gunung Kawi Temple is a Hindu temple from the 11th century. We had to hike down over 250 steps to get to the bottom of the river valley to see one of Bali's oldest and largest ancient monuments.  Gunung Kawi consists of 10 rock-cut candi (shrines).  Each candi is believed to be a memorial to a member of the 11th century Balinese royalty, but not much is known for certain about them.  Legend has it that the whole group of memorials was carved out of the rock face in one night.

Because we were entering a temple we had to wear "temple clothing" which was a Sarong wrapped around our waists that covered our legs.  Here Russ is getting help putting on his Sarong.

We also had to sprinkle some holy water on our heads before we could enter the temple.

With the stone carvings.  There were 4 stone carving on one side of the river and 4 on the other side.

The girls did some exploring and found a waterfall behind the temple.

Taylor sitting at the entrance to the temple.

It was awesome for us to think about the places we were walking were over 1000 years old.  So much history.

 As we were leaving the temple Russ saw these ladies making mortar for laying bricks by hand and stopped to help them for a while.  They really enjoyed the free labor and he had a hard time getting away.

On the way to the second temple we saw these ladies walking towards the temple to make their daily offerings and prayers.  They all carried the offerings on their heads.

The second temple was very full and we didn't stay there for long.  This temple was discovered in AD 962 and is famous for the holy water pools where Hindu Balinese people go for purification.

I was able to get this picture in an area that didn't have anyone in the pool, but the other side of this pool was filled with people, fully clothed, bathing.

On the way out of the temple we stopped to get a snack.  Here we are in a foreign country and Lucy picks American cookies and Korean sports drink for a snack. 

Feeding the fish before we left.

I took a ton of pictures on this trip.  I am trying to pick out only the best ones to share with you.  Sorry if my posts get a little long.