Day 53: Around Bali (March 1, 2011)

I saw a lot today on a driving tour around the northeast part of the island, but I don't feel like most of it sunk in, like I slept-walked through my day.  Not sure why...  I left Ubud at 8:30 with my new friends, Ruth, Paulette and Chuck, all of whom currently live in Sonoma County, and our driver Nyoman.  They are really nice and made the day a lot more interesting than it might otherwise have been.

Our first stop was to see a performance of a classic Balinese dance in the town of Batabulan, the Barong & Kris Dance, which is about a battle between good and evil (this appears to be a common theme in the hinduism practiced here in Bali).  This was probably my favorite part of the day, as dance is my hobby and I've been planning to see a show.  Two things stood out about the style of dance in this show:  There is a lot more emphasis on subtle hand, arm, head and even eye movement than in western dance, which tends to put a lot more emphasis on the legs.  And there was a lot more pantomime and puppeteering going on, as several dancers were in animal or characature costumes.  I only sort of understood the plot of the dance, but so what, I liked it anyway.

The Tiger

The bad guy (bad gal?)

Two servants of the bad guy.

We continued on and stopped at a famous hindu temple here, in... I forget the name of the town.  It's architecture is a lot of the Ubud Palace, so even though I still don't know what all of the buildings and statues are for, I'm beginning to recognize balinese architecture and art.  Hmm, maybe today didn't sink in because I can't put anything I see into context.  But that was true at a number of other places I've seen, and I didn't have the same problem.  Maybe I'm just droopy today.

We continued north where we stopped for lunch overlooking Mount Batur and Lake Batur, both formed long ago by a volcano.  The drive up took us past shop after shop of art and furniture and handicrafts.  And they weren't where tourists go so we wondered why there were so many.  Then someone, maybe Chuck, suggested that's where merchants from other countries visit, and order goods in bulk to sell overseas.  It made sense.  The guys at the Art Market in Ghana told me people do the same thing there.

A fun stop was at a coffee plantation and spice garden.  It was similar to the spice gardens in Sri Lanka (makes sense, they have similar climates) but they grow coffee here too.  I tried one new coffee I really like, ginseng coffee, which I hope I can find in the States.  And we all shared a cup of luwak coffee, which I've never heard of before.  Luwak coffee comes from local animals -- civits -- eating the coffee berries.  They can't digest the coffee beans, but the chemical composition of the beans change as they pass through the disgestive system.  Then the civits poop the beans out, and people collect them, wash them, and roast them.  Yum, huh?  Well apparently this produces the most expensive coffee in the world.  I can't guarantee it's the most expensive, but at $40 for about 4 ounces, it must be a contender.  Frankly, it tasted like ordinary espresso to me.  And with ordinary espresso, one doesn't have to deliberately ignore some of the places the beans have seen.

Our final stop was in Tampaksiring, home to the Gunung Kawi Temple, which was built in the 11th Century and is comprised of 10 shrines cut into the rock cliffs.  To get there, we had a climb down of about 300 steps.  Then back up, obviously.

Then it was back to our hotels, where I ate well and inexpensively.  I was exhausted by 7pm but stayed up to write this.  Now that I'm done, I'll probably catch my second wind and will be up until 1am.  But I'm sleeping in tomorrow, so that's fine.