Bali: Ubud / Uluwatu Temple (Part 1)

So sorry for being MIA for such a long time. Finally I'm done with my thesis! Fuhhhh!~ Long rough and sleepless days.. And for those who don't have to go through this to get your degree cert, thank your lucky stars because this ain't fun unless you love doing all these. It's so time consuming and energy draining..

Anyhow, let's get back to my trip to Bali! Haven't done posting about it yet! :D

So, day 3 in Bali, we went around Ubud area and the Uluwatu Temple. Was supposed to visit the temple on the 2nd day but could not make it on time so we postponed to the 3rd day.

Places we visited:

1. Barong Dance

2. Batik making factory, silver accessories' making and wood carvings

3. Bu Oka 

4. Coffee and tea plantation (Luwak coffee!)

5. Painters' gallery

6. Uluwatu

7. A restaurant and bar in Seminyak

Balinese people start their day by preparing an offering to the Gods in return for safety and good luck. You can see many of these on the streets, usually right in front of the entrance. BE CAREFUL NOT TO STEP ON THEM. It's fresh flowers with a small amount of money and they prepare a new one every single day.

So, to have an insight on their culture, we went for their cultural dance performances.

First one, the Barong Dance! (:

Traditional musical instruments were played for the song and all of them are dressed too.

We were each given a copy of the script so that we can follow the story since they were all speaking in their own local language.

The Barong and his monkey friend.

I really love how colorful and elaborated their costumes looked.

You can read about the story here.

It was a soso experience as we can see that some of the actors are not fully committed in their act, probably too bored of repeating the same thing everyday. But the end part where the men were said to be in the trans state while trying to pierce themselves with the keris, it will get you wondering for a bit as the keris used do looked a little sharp.

The Rangda, the evil one. So hairy and bushy.

After the show ended, they took out the Barong costume and display it so that the audience can take a photo with it. The crowd went crazy, everyone was so excited.

Then we went around Ubud for the arts and crafts, that's what they are famous for. Things you can find; Batik, silver crafts, paintings, wood and stone carvings. I would say that the arts and crafts there are rather similar to what we have here (Malaysia) so we end up leaving the factories and stores empty handed. LOL

The traditional way of weaving a piece of Batik cloth.

When we arrived at the painters' gallery, they welcomed us with smiles and friendliness. Then one of them brought us around the huge gallery to view the paintings available for sale. Some of them are rather magnificent! Pricey of course, no doubt. After walking around for about 10 minutes and not even halfway through the gallery, he asked which piece would we like to purchase. I'm just a student, not a millionaire, so which piece do you expect me to purchase when all of them cost thousands or at least few hundreds (in ringgit)?

Once he knew we do not have the intention to make any purchase, we were chase out at once. He told us, "Okay, you can leave now." and immediately escort us out. No more lingering around the gallery, straight to your car, open the door for you and one cold "thank you". That was so rude and it was my first and only bad experience in Bali as the rest of them that we met throughout our trip were so friendly and nice.

ONE OF THE MUST EAT IN BALI?

Babi Guling Bu Oka!

This dish is pretty common around Bali as most of them are Hindu and pork is everywhere. The famous one is Bu Oka. Pretty interesting dish and I really like the crispy piece. Wouldn't say it's a definite must-eat but you should try if you have the chance (:

Then comes the interesting one..

LUWAK COFFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!~

Apparently there's only two coffee plantations in Bali, hmm..

Btw, do you know how Luwak Coffee is made?

As folklore has it, civet coffee, or kopi luwak in Indonesian, was discovered by plantation workers in colonized Indonesia. Forbidden from consuming coffee beans picked from the plants, they picked up, cleaned and then roasted the beans excreted by wild Asian palm civets that entered the plantations to eat the ripest coffee cherries. The civets’ digestive systems gave kopi luwak a uniquely rich aroma and smooth, rounded flavor. 

So basically, they picked up their dungs and then clean them piece by piece. The coffee beans are then roasted for an hour or 2 till the aroma is released. After, they will smash the beans using the traditional way of stone made pestle and mortar and sift the product to get your coffee powder. Add some hot water and you'll have your Luwak Coffee (:

He made us a cup of Luwak Coffee (you'll have to pay for this) and a cup of Balinese coffee to compare the differences between the two. Luwak Coffee has a smooth and rich aroma and is a little sweeter compared to the Balinese coffee which is more bitter and has a heavy texture (not sure if that's the right word, LOL) and both are tasted without adding sugar.

Other than the infamous Luwak Coffee, they even have a wide range of coffee and tea for you to taste and it's all for FREEEEEEE!~

Luwak Coffee

I really like their Mangosteen tea, very unique and fragnant. It's not literally tea leaves; they actually took the mangosteen fruit's skin and grind into powder form. Add some warm water and it's ready to serve.

They even served us their homemade liquor, one is black rice wine and the other tasted something like Vodka but Balinese version. The black rice wine was very sweet and the other one was pretty strong.

Homemade chocolate; normal chocolate, orange chocolate and dark chocolate.

Tasted pretty normal, nothing out of the ordinary so we didn't buy any.

We left with some mangosteen tea and Luwak Coffee as souvenirs.

Mangosteen tea, sugar-free (100g): 100,000 IDR
Luwak Coffee (5 satchels): 175,000 IDR

If you are planning to visit Bali, do remember to bring along a MOSQUITO REPELLENT! The mosquitoes there are very voracious. We came back with lots of mosquitoes' bites :( 

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

I'll end this post here and continue with the Kecak dance in another post.

So stay tuned! (:

Till then,

Much loves, xoxo.