Bali Culture And Nature

This part I’m going to post some photos of the nature and culture of Bali, how it’s rich culture influences the way they design the buildings, landmarks and so on. Also, there will be photos on the nature of the Bali land.



Paddy field…



Outside a gold and silver smith shop in Celuk village (famous for its gold and silverworks of jewelry made using age-old techniques)



Bali’s Reptile Park and Bird Park.





The entrance fee into the bird park was about USD 20. We decided to skip this and head elsewhere…but before we left, this beautiful parrot was just outside nearby the ticketing counter, waiting for people to admire it.





Reached Mas village where wood carving or wooden sculpture is famous for. Mas is famous as a village of wood-carvers, where many of Bali’s old masters still lives.

Brought into one of the "tourist" shop again and watched some wood carver working. Here it is known that carvers produce highly stylist and elongated figures, leaving the wood in its natural state rather than painting it as it was the traditional practice. We then moved on into their shop (for them hoping that we will spend spend spend)







Rumah Sakit in Mas…it’s a hospital. Looks more like a museum to me.



Then on to another nearby town, Ubud, where painting is famous for. Ubud is derived from the Balinese word ‘ubad’ which means medicine (’obat’ in standard Indonesian) as the town supplied medicinal herbs in ancient times.



We then head up the mountain in Kintamani to view an active volcano and a lake, known as Mount Batur & Lake Batur.

Unfortunately it was a cloudy day, with rain in the early part of the morning…so this is only what we can see (from the restaurant). The tour guide didn’t even bring us further up for a better view…since it’s so cloudy and misty.



If you want to view how it really looks like (without the mist), click here and here.

We had lunch at one of the restaurant up there. Buffet lunch. Almost every meal we had in Bali was buffet style.













Add it all up…



All these Bali folks were trying to sell souvenir items to us once we exit the restaurant…we quickly ran and go into our van. The weather there is very cooling…something like Genting because it’s at high up altitute.



We then headed on down the mountain and stop by Temen Village to have a taste of Bali’s famous coffee, Bali Coffee Luwak.

And what’s Luwak?? It’s a type of animal (cat-like) which likes to feast on high-graded coffee beans. This is how the manufacturer determines which beans are of high standard…by collecting those beans on trees that the Luwak eats, which means it’s fragrant and have a strong taste.

How the beans are roasted…the man below is just doing it for demonstration purposes.



The coffee here are free…for tasting. One group, four cups of different coffee to try. Clockwise from top right:Hot Cocoa, Ginger Tea, Bali Coffee, Ginseng Coffee.



A kayu manis (erm..forgot what it is called in English cinnamon stick) is provided for you to stir your coffee. It will give an added fragrant taste to the coffee.



"Come and feel the nature" is its tagline and yes..it does feel very relaxing to be able to sip a cuppa overlooking the nature



But of course, it’s a tourist spot, so don’t imagine it to be very quiet and peaceful.

A shop selling its product is located nearby. The most expensive coffee is of course the Bali Coffee Luwak. Made by collecting the waste of luwak which ate the coffee bean, and processed into coffee powder. How does it taste? I have no idea. This coffee was not given for free try. It is sold for Rp. 30,000 a cup though. But I wonder if I dare to try it even if I had the chance to. Here’s how it looks..



Next destination was Tampak Siring, a place where the Pura Tirta Empul temple is built around a sacred spring. This holy spring water temple has a bathing place valued by the locals because of the spring water’s curative powers.



The view around the temple…







Magnificent stone sculptures





The sacred holy water surrounded by walls



And flows out through these outlets for people to bathe. The pool is not deep, just up till about waist height.





The colourful offerings seen on top of the outlet are a norm for Balinese. They do this small offering daily, when they open their shop for business, before they start work (as in the case of our tour guide driver), before prayers and so on.





A local lady praying and do offering before going into the pool to "cleanse" herself.



A statue outside the temple.



I like this photo where I managed to capture the moon which is getting visible as night arrives and also a bird flying nearby the statue.



Finally we head on to have dinner. But while on the way to the restaurant, the tour guide stop at a rice terrace.



This beautiful terrace rice field in Tegallalang is very famous in Bali and most tourist will be dropped here for a short photo-taking.

We then arrived at a restaurant to have dinner. What’s on the menu? Crispy Duck!!!



Set meal for each of us. The main dish is of course the crispy duck. It’s really yummy but not very healthy for those health-conscious as it is deep-fried. Accompanying side dishes are soup, vegetable, crackers - something like papadum and 2 sticks of local satay (hidden below the crispy duck), rice and fruits.



While on the way back to the hotel…a big statue stands grandly on a roundabout. It has a long historical story of how this statue come about but I’m not gonna bore you with that here :P

The van was moving hence I couldn’t get a good photo of it.



This ends the second day in this full-day trip. More beautiful places and nicer photos next…. :)

to be continued….