Trip to Bali - Day 2

Day 2 is the only day we will spend on taking a tour around Bali. Well, not exactly a full on tour around Bali because I think that may take a couple of days rather than just one day. Please be warned that this would be a lengthy write up of my fruitful tour :D Anyhow, as we took up the 13 hours Kintamani tour, our pick-up time was pretty early in the morning so as you could have already guessed, we woke up earlier to catch some breakfast by the poolside before heading out. The breakfast served at the hotel was pretty standard stuff such as scrambled eggs, sunny side up, flavoured pancakes, garlic bread, porridge, juices and et cetera. Quite a variety, just depending how light or heavy you want your breakfast meal to be :D



Care for a swim?


Breakfast by the pool side ;)


My light breakfast


Anyhow, very much to our surprise, our tour guide were very punctual as she arrived on time to pick us up at 8.30am. Luckily we were equally punctual :P Our ride for the day is in an air-conditioned Suzuki APV, you must be wondering why I pointed out air-conditioned since in this modern day most passenger vehicles would be equipped with air-conditioner. Unfortunately our taxi ride to the hotel from the Denpasar International Airport was not air-conditioned, so it was rather hot and stuffy at the back :( I supposed the ride to be new since some of the seats are still plastic wrapped and not forgetting that it had a very very clean interior. In case you are wondering, in the vehicle is our driver, our tour guide, me and June.

We left our hotel for Batubulan to watch the Barong Dance. It is a classic example of a battle between the good spirit and evil spirit. I quote Indo.com:

"The story goes that Rangda, the mother of Erlangga, the King of Bali in the tenth century, was condemned by Erlangga's father because she practiced black magic. After she became a widow, she summoned all the evil spirits in the jungle, the leaks and the demons, to come after Erlangga.

A fight occurred, but she and her black magic troops were too strong that Erlangga had to ask for the help of Barong. Barong came with Erlangga's soldiers, and fight ensued. Rangda casted a spell that made Erlangga soldiers all wanted to kill themselves, pointing their poisoned keris into their own stomachs and chests. Barong casted a spell that turned their body resistant to the sharp keris. At the end, Barong won, and Rangda ran away."



The Good Spirit, Barong!








The boar attacking the ministers


The performance was actually quite good, partially hilarious from the cheeky acts of the performers. My dad has numerously emphasized to me that the Barong and Kecak Dance (I'll write about this at the later part of this post) should not be missed as both are the most popular performances in Bali. This Barong Dance performance lasted approximately 45minutes if i recall correctly. There was a little disappointment from a large tour group that made quite a lot of noise throughout the performance, quite an annoyance in my opinion. Most unfortunate that this group of annoyance was from our beloved country.



Prince Sadewa, tied to a tree for the sacrificial ceremony but given mercy by God Shiva that turned him immortal


The Evil Spirit, Rangda makes an appearance!


The hilarious scene


The hilarious scene


The Erlangga's soldiers stabbing themselves with the keris


The traditional instruments


After the Barong Dance, we were taken to a silver and gold smith shop to check out how the silver and gold jewellery were hand made. I was quite astounded at the handiwork involved in jewellery making as thin and tiny pieces of silver were made into creative patterns of jewellery pieces. Definitely did not stop June from making a purchase there :) Being the first customer for the day also helped our negotiations for a good price!



The interior of the gold and silver smith shop we visited


Next stop was to a traditional art gallery nestled in the traditional Balinese residences in Ubud. Here we get to witness the creations of art from different styles of painting, namely the traditional painting using calligraphic ink and also there is the rather modern ones by young artists. It would have been better if there was an artist doing their thang right there and then. As this place in actual fact is the residence of a family, we get to see the building arrangements as in their rooms, kitchen, workplace, and et cetera. Our tour guide told us that it is a norm for each Balinese family's residence to each have their own "temple" within their very own compounds for worshipping purposes. I ain't talking bout those mini-altar we have back here in Malaysia, but proper ones in their very own Balinese style.



Work of several months using calligraphic ink


One of the many artworks found


One for the album!


Place of Worshipping


On the way towards the top of the Kintamani mountain, we made a stop to sample the world's most famous coffee, the Kopi Luwak! Actually, that decision was made after thinking for a moment that since we're already there so might as well :D Why? Well, considering the very fact that Kopi Luwak is actually made from the faeces of the Asian Palm Civet (One of the pictures has the whole description). The sampling of their balinese coffee, ginger tea, cocoa and (can't remember the other type) was free but it'll cost you a cuppa starbucks to sample the kopi luwak. Cheap considering the fact this coffee is sold for a lot more elsewhere (US$160/pound).



Cocoa


Coffee beans


Vanilla


Description and the coffee itself


Woooooo! Processed and non-processed


The various drinks


Kopi Luwak


In my opinion, the kopi luwak tastes quite thick perhaps due to the amount of powder when blended but i find the taste bitter to the throat initially and then a light after taste of caramel. Not too sure if those ample amounts of powder leftover in the mouth was because of too much powder when the coffee was blended or that is how the coffee is supposed to be. After tasting the different kinds of coffee and tea, we went to the shop to make our purchase of cocoa and vanilla sticks to be brought back home to be shared with our family. We also get to taste some fruit there such as passion fruit and salak among others available there. Salak fruit is also commonly known as the Snake Fruit due to its reddish-brown scaly skin. This fruit can only be found in Bali Island, talk about exclusivity. My tour guide was kind enough to pluck off some Salak fruit and also getting me more passion fruit as she saw me enjoying the fruit.

We continued on our journey towards Mount Kintamani for lunch with a spectacular view of Volcanic Mount Batur and Lake Batur. It was a buffet lunch, a mixture of traditional Balinese and Western dishes. I wasn't used to the taste of Balinese meals so I only had a light and sufficient meal but it was definitely not as shabby as the ones mentioned by my parents when they were here last year. Thanks to the awesome weather, the skies were clear and scenery was just so beautiful that pictures do no justice to what we saw in person.



My light meal :D


Me having my light meal


Volcanic Mt. Batur


Lake Batur


One for the album!


After taking pictures of the scenery, we hopped on our ride and head towards Tirta Empul at Tampaksiring to check out the clear pools which were believed to have magic curative powers. According to folklore, the clear pools was made by lndra when he pierced the earth to create a spring of amerta, the elixir of immortality with which he revived his forces who were poisoned by Mayadanawa. (Source) The water was really cooling as I dipped my hand to the pool to have a feel of it. As this is a sacred or holy place, females had to put on a sarong while males that are in shorts had to put on a sarong as well as a mark of respect to the place. Since I was in shorts, for the very first time I was made to put on a sarong :P







The clear pool of magic curative powers


The pool where water from below can be seen coming out of the 3 "piercings"


My BB June and Me in Sarongs :D


We left again for the road, stopping by the paddy terrace at Tegalalang for a few shots before continuing out journey towards the Ubud Art Market for an hour of shopping since we had a little extra time in our hands.



Paddy Terrace of Tegalalang


We then left to return to Batubulan for the Kecak Dance performance. The performance is usually held in the evening so you definitely have to make arrangements for your evening to be free especially if you only want to catch the Kecak Dance and not the Barong Dance. For the uninformed, this I quote from Wikipedia:

"Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 100 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. However, Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance."

The interesting part of the performance was when two virgins danced with their eyes closed in parallel that I couldn't pinpoint mistakes. The finale was the most anticipated part was when a man performs a Sanghyang Jaran dance. Riding a wooden horse, the man charges through a pile of burning coconut shells. I was quite astounded by the act because the man repeatedly kick, sit and jump on the burning coconut shells. At one time, he kicked a piece of the coconut shell towards us, falling just few steps away from where we were seated =.=! The downside to this venue is that because the sky is getting dark and it is an open air kind of place, there isn't really any proper ceiling to bounce my flash and without any speed lens I was left with a lot of crappy shots.



Sky getting dark


Man chanting "cak"


The two "virgins"


Prepping the man into a trance


Didn't your momma tell you not to play with fire?


Don't care la, my leg has no feel weh..


After the Kecak Dance Performance, we went to Jimbaran for Seafood Dinner fronting the Beach :D The food is nothing spectacular but the company of my lovely bb along with the soothing relaxing sound of beach waves and sudden fireworks in the sky from afar makes the whole experience just oh so wonderful. Try not to have additional seafood because I don't think it is worthwhile as I have gathered from my family and friends as well as witnessing the table in front of us leaving with the large plate of fried calamari basically untouched. But the grilled sweet corn is just to die for sia, it tastes so damn good damn it i'm drooling from thinking bout it right now.



Me no bluff leh, really got fireworks de..


I pretty ma?


See my bb smile sooooo sweet! :P


Young boy grilling it for us :D


That concludes Trip to Bali - Day 2 as I am sure you don't want to go on listening to me blabbering about resting in the Suzuki APV for almost an hour ride back to our hotel and then cleaning up and fall fast asleep on our comfy bed :) Day 3 is next!