November 26, 2016
Ketut had our breakfast ready in time for us to be settled into the car with Jati and Pasek by 9:00 this morning. We were off on a day of exploring and the volcano (Mt Buta), a coffee plantation, the natural hot springs, and Pasek's village were all on our agenda.
Once we left the hustle and bustle of the city behind we began to climb in elevation and the higher we went the windier the road became. Some of those hairpin turns were pretty "hairy" alright! In fact, the vehicles all use their horns to communicate as they go round corners here. They give a honk prior to entering into the corner in the hope that anyone coming in the opposite direction will be able to hear and be forewarned of oncoming traffic. Most of the vehicles on these windy mountain roads are motorbikes and scooters and we're thankful for that because the roads are NOT wide enough for two full sized vehicles to pass. On the occasion that we did meet a full sized vehicle coming toward us one of the two of us would have to pull as far off the road as we could until the other inched by before we were able to proceed again. Now don't get me wrong....that was not the only roads we were on....many of them were great; nicely paved and plenty wide enough for vehicles of all size to pass comfortably.
As we climbed in elevation the vegetation changed quite a lot as the temperature dropped. There were areas where massive jackfruit hung from the trees in abundance. There were miles and miles of mandarin orange groves along both sides of the road in other areas. And once we reached about 1300 meters elevation we kind of felt like we could have been driving around Stanley Park in Vancouver! Certainly the vegetation was a little thicker and made up of plants that are a little more tropical but honestly many of the plants and the trees looked like something we could have seen in Vancouver!
The volcano's most recent eruption was in 1999-2000 at which time it caused significant devastation to the people and the island of Bali. In true Balinese fashion though the people were able to reframe even this catastrophe and so their silver lining to that cloud was that the volcanic ash resulted in regenerating the soil and as a result the next year's crops were abundant. The people of Bali are masters at seeing the positive in every circumstance and when you couple that with their philosophy of "everything is in order - there are no coincidences", it is a culture that leaves this visitor feeling very much 'at peace'.
Arrival at the hot springs that sits adjacent and offers a great view of the lake that provides food and income for local villagers was marked by the fact that we were directly across the lake from Goodday's village. (Goodday works at Julie's and we know he is home in his village today to redo the fish traps for a reason that I will go into in a minute). The hot springs consists of four pools, the hottest of which we decided to avoid. The others though were lovely and we spent a good two hours there. It was great floating around in the water of the deepest coolest pool and it was relaxing to lounge in the warmer waters where hot water cascaded out of a bamboo spout about 6 feet overhead. That cascading water was a natural massage and it felt good. It all felt good until much later that night when both Lynda and I realized that we may have overdone it a little as the sunburn began to materialize. Not to worry though....we're both okay....not badly burned....just enough to remind us not to be so foolish as to not pay better attention to the fact that we're just 8 degrees off the equator for heaven sake!
The reason Goodday had returned home to redo his families fish traps is because according to the Balinese lunar calendar today is a special day that comes around just once every 210 days. Today is "Animal Day" and so the best day of the year to redo your traps and to make an offering to any and all animals. For instance, this morning as we walked out of our little alleyway we were met with a much larger than usual offering on the ground. This special offering was in honour of this special day for animals. Goodday will have been having a special ceremony for the fish in the lake and as you'll see later in this post we even got to participate in honouring some cattle. The Balinese have about 5 or 6 of these special days each year and each of them comes around 210 days after the last time it was celebrated. One of them is for metal objects, another of them is for ancestral spirits, and yet another for musical instruments, one for plants (especially flowering plants), and there is even one for shadow puppets! Ceremonies and celebrations are a way of life in Bali!
Also across the lake from the hot spring is another village that can be reached only by boat. That village practices some very traditional and unique norms. Every village does something a little different with their dead and it is just once every 5 years that there is a big ceremony to honour all who have died in that 5 year term. Some villages cremate their dead and then recreate likenesses that will be re-cremated on that special 5 year day. Other villages bury their dead and then dig up the remnants for cremation on that 5 year day. And then there is this one village that was across from the hot spring and reachable only by boat where their dead are placed on top of the ground in a sacred space. Magically, their dead will decompose but there will be no odour or interference by wildlife etc. The Balinese believe that it is some kind of special magic place and also acknowledge that there is a specific tree growing there that is known for its fragrance. Whether magic or science....it is all so interesting and we're loving that we get to learn so much straight from our Balinese friends. Jati and Pasek have been so forthcoming with anything we want to learn about - it is a real treat!
The views of the volcano all through our drive today have been majestic. Sometimes the summit is completely encased in cloud and other times it is bathed in sunshine. Interestingly, there are two distinct calderas atop this volcano. As we enjoyed the views of this spectacular and majestic geography.....there was something else to note too. We had just come from the hot springs and you know how hard it is to get out of a wet suit? Well, I had opted to just keep my bathing suit top on as it is kind of like a shirt - sort of. Lynda on the other hand had shed her suit and was quickly digging out a scarf and a jacket to combat the cool winds at this high elevation. By the time she was done, she had her shirt and her sweater and her jacket and her scarf. Oh ya...and her hood was up! I on the other hand, was wearing a wet bathing suit. Lynda says she was dressed just like all the other people up there but heh....I'm a person too and I wasn't dressed like that! LOL. We had a good laugh about the fact that this is not the first time we've been at elevation and wearing opposite attire. Different strokes for different folks. LOL. In fact, as I type this I am sitting here sweating (so I've turned the ceiling fan up a notch) and Lynda is huddled into her jacket and threatening to climb under her covers! Yep, we're all unique!
Our next stop was Pasek's home where we were welcomed by the entire extended family. We were given a tour of the family compound where Pasek and his wife have a beautiful traditional home. It is comprised of three separate buildings. One for their outdoor dining room and indoor bedrooms, another for their outdoor living room and indoor guest room, and a third for their kitchen. Pasek's brother and his family also have a home there that consists of two buildings (bedrooms and kitchen) and Pasek's parents also have their home there which is just one single building. Pasek's father is 88 years old and he has lived on this family compound (that gets passed from father to son for as long as there are sons) since he was a teenager. Each family compound also has it's own temple area as well as an extended family temple area and that is over and above the village temple area. Temples are beautiful and very obvious here and a huge part of daily life. I'd be remiss not to add that Pasek is an amazing craftsman! He built all of the buildings in their home himself but the one that stands out is the living room/guest room. The detail relief work that he has done on the door (in wood) and on the walls (in stone) are impossible to do justice with mere words. The number of hours/weeks/months/years he must have spent on this one building alone - I cannot imagine! Also, remember....he lives most of his time in Ubud where he works. All of this building has been done during his short visits home! Pasek and his family honoured us with coffee, fruit and fried bananas which we enjoyed heartily. After our coffee, Pasek's father invited us to observe the ceremony that he would be doing for their cattle and we jumped at the opportunity. (Remember it is Animal Day). The two cows were fed an extra helping of the long grass that is their usual sustenance and then Pasek's dad performed a ceremonial rite that included a blessing, a sprinkle of water, some paint on their foreheads, and an offering that hung from the corner of the roof of their shelter. Again, we felt very honoured to be guests and able to witness this special day in the lives of this lovely Balinese family.
From Pasek's place we hopped back in the car and were off to Jati's family compound where his mom, his brother and his sister in law made us feel warmly welcomed once more. Again, we were honoured with coffee, steamed bananas, boiled peanuts, raw peanuts, and two kinds of cookies. Again....it was all delicious and in the end the leftovers were packed up to come home with us! We had a great visit and while we were there Ketut's parents (who live right next door to Jati's family) came by to join in the party. Ketut is the young man who brings us breakfast every morning. His parents invited us to come see their home too and so when we left Jati's we walked down the hill a little way and had the opportunity to visit at Ketut's home too. From there we were gifted with two pineapples to bring home with us. There is no question that the Balinese are incredibly generous people and we learned that it is rude to turn down a gift so we just said thank you yet again as we headed off back to the car. One of the things we learned about while we were here in this village is that water is a real issue and so every home has a substantial eavestrough that they've constructed from bamboo. That eavestrough runs from the buildings and over to the well or cistern. Their cisterns range in size and style. Some are above ground and concrete while others are more like a well. The similarity is that all water is precious and treated accordingly. Another thing we learned is that the ground here is quite porous so the rains can be absorbed. The preference though is to have a harder packed ground that can be swept and that is easy to walk on. To accommodate that, they haul in clay and hard pack it atop the natural ground. This clay would not allow the heavy rains to dissipate though and so there are drains (like a shower drain) put into the layer of clay. These drains allow the water to get down to the layer of earth that can accommodate the heavy rain. Clever folks!
As if we hadn't already had enough coffee for one day we made one more final stop on the way back home. This one was at a coffee plantation and yes folks....we had a cup of the most expensive coffee in the world! This very tasty little cup of coffee is also fondly known as "catpooccino". Yes....we drank the coffee that comes from the poop of the lewak! Before you gag....you need to know that the coffee isn't really their poop....it is made from coffee beans that went through their systems and were never chewed or digested before they were pooped out. The coffee bean has two skins on it. One of those skins is still in tact when the bean is pooped out. It is washed 3-5 times before that skin is peeled from it (by hand) and then it is roasted (by hand) and then it is crushed (by hand) into the powder that is used to make Bali style coffee. Neither of us believed it until we tried it but there is a distinct difference in the flavour (in a good way) between regular Bali coffee and Lewak coffee. As well, the catpooccino is also naturally decaffinated by the process of passing through the lewak. Yep....we did it and we're glad we did!
What a day! What a full full day! A great day! Lucky Lucky - that's what we are!
Till next time,
L & L
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