Our first stop was the Tirtha Empul Temple (natural spring) where we actually participated in a Hindu prayer while in the inner section of the temple.
Here we are in our sarongs. We can't go in without them.
The people bathe in the spring water while praying to each god - health, prosperity, for the dead, etc.
The priest is giving us holy water after praying...and rice to put on our forehead and chest.
It's a good job Nyoman knew this cop. He was his best friend, apparently. It seems Nyoman has a lot of friends all over Bali. Good for him.
Our next stop was an area where many herbs, spices and coffee were grown. The family who owns the business has about 3 hectares of land where they grow everything they turn into products for sale. In Bali, the coffee produced is mainly for their own consumption. There aren't large commercial enterprises here.
Here are some coffee beans ripe and ready to be picked.
A very expensive and exclusive type of coffee is luwak coffee. OK, you can go ahead and try it if you want, but this is how it's created. He's holding a couple of "wads" of it.
It happens to be coffee beans swallowed by the luwak, and it ends up in the feces of the animal! Looks like a cross between a cat and a fox (there are 2 of them here). Yep, go for it. We didn't try it.
This woman is roasting coffee beans over a fire - for about 20 minutes I think. Remember, all this is done by hand.
They gave us several samples to try. Here Dan & Joanne are looking at the options.
And here are tasting samples - both teas and coffees. Dan & Joanne had a set, and we had a set. Very good. We bought some, both tea and coffee.
We tried this fruit too, called Snake Skin Fruit. Gross name, but the fruit is quite good.
Our next stop was at Mount Batur, an active volcano. The last eruption was 12 years ago and it usually goes off about every 10 years. Good job it's not thinking about it right now. It's within a larger volcano which erupted I'm sure 1000's of years ago.
The lava is still visible from 100 years ago.
We had lunch at a wonderful cafe looking over the old volcano cauldron. It was beautiful.
We then went to an area where rice terraces are a beautiful display of scenery. Again, the rice grown here is for Balinese consumption. Not much of it is sold outside of Bali.
This is a rice paddy field.
That was the end of our touring for today.
I think I mentioned before, everywhere are motorcycles carrying interesting things and/or people. Apparently many people do not have licences to drive motorcycles, but they do anyway, and there are so many of them it's impossible to ensure everyone is licensed. Here were a few of the more interesting things we saw on motorcycles.
A really cute young man putting palm fronds on his bike, smiled as we went by.
A warehouse of items to be exchanged.
Dad and 3 kids - 2 on back and the little one in front.
A guy's restaurant.
Can't even see the driver.
And mattresses!
Some cute school kids on a break at the local store.
We arrived back at Komaneka around 3:00 and relaxed around our respective plunge pools until it was time for dinner.
Gerard and Dan went to check in for our flights back to Hong Kong tomorrow. I don't know how much blogging I'll get done until I get home. We'll be back in Hong Kong tomorrow night, then catching a morning flight from there to Toronto, arriving home around 3:30 pm or so on Wednesday, Toronto time.
Safe trip home. Look forward to getting together and hearing all about it! See yo soon.
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