Poop Coffee

We were exhausted from waking up so early in the morning and climbing the volcano, but we gathered our strengths to head out on the road to Ubud, Bali's "undisputed cultural enclave." Ubud is known for being a "hippy-ish" town full of yoga, organic food, and linen pants but it is also known for its rich culture with dance performances, spectacular cooking, craftsmanship of silver, basket weaving, painting, wood carving, stone carving, many colorful worshipers at the numerous temples, and more! We were so excited to finally get to see this amazing town. Siobhan was especially excited because it is said that Ubud has the best shopping from all over the Island! Look out!

Cruising down to Ubud on the motorbikes, we stopped at a fruit stand on the side of the road because we had spotted the most desired, "queen of the fruit" mangosteen! This fruit looks like a little plum with a few green leaves on top. The outer part is a hard shell, but easy to break open like a pomegranate. Inside there is the most juicy white fruit you ever tasted. It's like fruit punch! Shaped like a tiny orange with multiple slices, piece by piece you taste a little bit of heaven. Its that good. We were suckered into paying about 3 dollars for three mangosteens. (I think Roy has a soft spot for fruit stand ladies) and we were back on the road.

Until... Roy randomly stopped in front of what looked to be a garden, or small farm and said "Lets see whats here!"

Because we were still exhausted from our early morning, what better way to wake up then with coffee? We had stopped right in front of an organic farm that produced Luwak coffee, the most coveted and expensive coffee in the world! What makes this coffee so special and famous you ask? Well, it is because these coffee beans are first consumed by the luwak animal who digests them until they come out the other end. Then the farmers harvest the digested coffee beans on the ground and begin the process of drying, roasting and grounding, producing the most amazing coffee!

We quickly put our bags down and traveled through the maze of the garden.

 Not only did they grow coffee beans, but they grew pretty much everything else too! Vanilla, Cocoa pods, cinnamon, passion fruit, papaya, pineapples, coconuts, coriander, cumin, black pepper, ginger, hot peppers, were growing side by side, all organically grown. We had our own personal guide who informed us of the plants growing with little tidbits of knowledge about each.

The tour ended with a free tasting of 6 coffees and teas the organic farm produces and boy were they delicious! The drink pallet came out with little samples of bali coffee, hot coco, ginseng coffee, coconut coffee, vanilla coffee, ginger tea, and lemon tea.

 Then we ordered a cup of the famous Luwak coffee to try at 50,000 rupiah, (almost 5 USD, not bad considering its sells for upwars $20 a cup at home) It was pretty good. It was very rich in flavor and texture. We were really glad we tried it, but luckily we don't think we will be craving the expensive coffee anytime soon!

After our little boost from our organic coffee experience, we were recharged and ready to make our way to Ubud!

A Bad Case of the Mondays

I think we can all agree, Monday mornings are the worst... especially when you have to wake up at 3:30am to go climb a volcano!

It all began Sunday in Amed... Roy sprung out of bed and said, "Let's go to Ubud today!" We originally planned to stay in Amed a little while longer to explore the sunken USS Liberty wreck, spearfish, and get a better feel of the area but Roy had come down with a terrible cold that would prevent any diving, ultimately putting our plans at a standstill for the next few days. So we made an executive decision to pack a bag of the essential items, leave the dive gear in storage for when we return, rent a motor bike for a week, and head out of town down unknown roads through the countryside with a single map and a friendly smile asking many, MANY locals which direction to go. 

We got lost only a few times...

Before heading to Ubud, Siobhan insisted that we first stop and climb Gunung Batur, Bali's second largest volcano at 5,600ft not only famous for its incredible sunrise at the summit for trekkers to marvel at, but even more famous for being a live active volcano that has the possibility of erupting any minute! Brief History: Since 1800 Batur has erupted 22 times, in 1974 Batur erupted wiping out much of the area with its lava flow killing 1,000 people. In 1994, Batur experienced a small eruption that did no harm as well as in 2000. This was the last bit of activity this volcano has seen. It has been predicted that it is due for another eruption within the year! We crossed our fingers and hoped Batur would not blow the day we were there!

We finished our 3 hour motorbike ride in the town of Toya Bungkan located at the base of the volcano and on the shore of lake Batur, the largest lake in Bali. We arrived right before nightfall. What a dramatic temperature difference we experienced from scorching hot Amed to the cool breezy town of Toya Bungkan. We were in tank tops and shorts, but all the locals were wearing puffy jackets and pants. We were freezing, tired from traveling, and could not find the desired homestay we had hoped to find  when out of the blue, a man on a motorbike followed us down the road and asked if we needed a place to stay. Normally we would politely say "No" to people when they give us their selling pitch but in this small and almost barren town of Toya Bunkan, It seemed that we did not have much of a choice. We got a decent room at Under the Volcano II for a budget price and did even better with getting a tour guide ticket the next morning,two for the price of one! Thanks Roy!

We were woken up with a thud on our door at 3:30 am. Early morning start to get to the top before sunrise. It was still very dark, cold, and damp when we drearily headed out for the volcano trail with our tour guide and 2 girls from France. We bundled ourselves up, put our flashlights on, and hoped for the best!

What we found very quickly was that this volcano "hike" was more like a mountain climb! This climb was for the advanced! There were parts of the trail so steep that we needed an extra pull from our tour guide (Well Roy was too manly to get any help) Also, the trail was so slippery from all the volcanic gravel and ash. We were sliding and sinking into the gravel continuously.

 We took multiple breaks along the way because our legs were on FIRE! Throughout it all we maintained positive attitude, for reaching the summit would be a great accomplishment. If that was not enough motivation we had our own personal mascot, a sandy-haired canine friend who followed us all the way up to the top. What a dog!

The Pooch, tired from his daily trek up the volcano

Finally we reached the peak and it was as wonderful as we imagined it was going to be. There is nothing more beautiful than observing one of natures most thrilling sights. We  watched the sun emerge out of a sea of clouds next to Bali's largest active volcano Gunung Agung. We stood in awe next to the other hikers.

By then we were getting a little hungry... What better way to eat breakfast then by having the volcano cook it up for you? Because this volcano is still very active, there are many parts of the volcano that reach  more than 100 degrees Celsius on any given day and admit smoke into the air. 

We watched as one of the guides cooked us up some eggs and bananas right from the heat of the volcano. It might have not been the tastiest breakfast we've ever had, but certainly one of the most memorable!

After breakfast we walked around the crater of Batur to begin our decent down the volcano. Not sure if our legs were just overly exhausted from the climb up, but getting down was just as hard and tiring. We viewed the landscape below and observed the multiple craters from each eruption Batur had seen. 

We even saw monkeys living in their natural habitat!

When we had finished, we were relieved but proud that we climbed every one of those 5,600 feet to see the sunrise. We were exhausted! It was 9 am and we had already been up for more than 5 hours! It was time for a quick recharge nap and then back on the road again to Ubud!

Moto Ride Through East Bali

Waking up to a minor case of Bali Belly, the day was already off to a rough start. Unfortunately our friend Greg was departing us and had to catch an early taxi back to Denpesar airport, so we said our goodbyes and planned to take it easy for the rest of the morning. We hoped to be feeling better because we wanted to moto around the area with Wayan in the afternoon. By 12:00pm, we both were feeling up to it, and we were gone.

Our first stop, about 45 minutes away was a royal water park named Taman Tirtagangga, meaning “Water of the Ganges”. It was built in 1948 by the last Raja of Karangasem, Anak Agung Anglurah ketut Karangasem (say that 5 times fast) and was modeled after Versailles Palace in France. 

The park is fed by natural springs channeled out of the many statues and fountains and people swim in the pools during the day.

Siobhan quickly made some friends that continued to follow her the entire time as long as she was in eyesight.

As we left the palace, we stopped at a fruit stand and Siobhan fell in love with her new favorite fruit, Mangosteen!

After Tirtagangga, we followed Wayan to the same former King’s palace, Puri Agung Karangasem. It was built at the end of the 19^th century by his father, Anak Agung Agung Gede Jelantik, the first stedeholder in Bali for the Dutch Regime.

The Palace is broken into three sections. The first, called the Bencingah, a compound of rooms reserved for the King’s special invited guests.

The second section, called “Maskerdam” is an inner court where more prominent guests would be received by the King himself.

Balai Kambang or Gili is the island located in the middle of the pond. It was used for a meeting place for the royal family, and is stilled used by the family descendants for traditional dining, dance and music. The King had 10 wives, leaving 16 sons, 19 daughters and 90 grandchildren. That dude did work!

 

Needing a break, Wayan took us to a nearby town where we could grab some lunch and could pick up a few things for his children. We stopped at a Satay stall and ordered some delicious chicken satay, and what we believed to be young goat soup.

 Im afraid I didn’t recognize any of the chunks in the broth but it definitely wasn’t the meat. I don’t care to think about it anymore, so onward…

We finished up and prayed we wouldn’t have any issue digesting the tastey, but worrisome ingredients. We rode a few more minutes down the road and stopped at an indo version of a Super Wal-Mart, selling everything from groceries, clothing, and electronics. We bought some clothes for Wayans sons and we were back on the road. Sorry, we didn’t take a photo of the place for you at home.

We kept driving, working our way around towards the coast and eventually stopped at Taman Ujung , another equally impressive water palace built by the same king in 1926. According to his grandson, these water palaces are “a living testimony to his zest for harmonizing nature and art. His joy for blending traditional motifs with modern material for balancing European geometrics with a Balinese sense of place and symbolic form”.

These sights were so incredible that our words really cant describe them. We’ll let the pictures do the talking.

After Ujung, we were on our way back to Amed, this time taking the coastal road, up through the mountains, and arrived back at our placed whipped from a long day of riding and sight seeing. Hope you enjoy the photos.