The one where we explore Bali (part 2)

After hanging out with the monkeys, we went to a cafe run by villagers that specialized in spices, coffee and chocolate! The cafe was nestled in among the trees and bushes that grow all this stuff and we got to taste all the teas and coffee. (don't worry, I later tasted the chocolate and bought some as well...in case you were wondering)

The coffee in the green cup is called Kopi Luwak. If you have seen 'The Bucket List'... you know what this coffee is....if not, we have some if you would like to taste it ;)

Kopi Luwak is considered the most expensive coffee in the world but since Bali is one of the main producers of this coffee, it was very cheap. And that's all I will say about that.

The next stop was another beautiful temple...this one was on a lake and I think it was even more pretty than the first one we saw.

Our tour guide told us that most temples' entrances look like the picture below. it's to represent hands while they are praying, which shows peace.

There was even a Buddhist temple on site and our tour guide said it was to show how the Hindu people are accepting of others.

The gardens were beautiful!!

Jaret was no match for the giant eagle that was in the garden :)

About this time, we were getting pretty hungry and our guide said we would love where he was taking us to lunch...he was right and our view was too amazing for words.

This is a close-up of some of the freshly planted seeds...and remember, this is all done by hand!



After lunch, we got to choose our next stop. Our tour guide said that different villages are specialised in certain areas of art. They were painting, fabric, wood and gold & silver. We chose to go to the fabric village due to the fact we wanted to get some fabric that we may be able to use in our house when we move back to Texas.

The fabric was beautiful and it was all hand painted and we got to see some being made!

That was the last stop in our tour, we picked up some really pretty fabric that I am going to make into pillows when we move back.

It was time to head back to the hotel and we had an awesome day seeing the beautiful countryside.

Here were are as we say bye to our tour guide, Ari and our driver :)

The one where we explore Bali (part 1)

Since our first day was such an early start to get to Bali, we really just relaxed and headed to bed early.  That's because the next day we were taking a tour to see everything the little island of Bali had to offer.
So Saturday, March 23 (just wrote that for me to remember)...we met with our personal tour guide, Ari.  He met us at the hotel at about 8:30 in the morning along with a driver (his name was too Bali for me to even try and spell).  For the next 9 hours...Ari showed and told us everything we ever wanted to know about the island.  And it was awesome!!

This was the route we took.  Our hotel is the blue dot in the southeast part of the island and we traveled pretty much to the middle of the island.

 

Our first stop was one of the Hindu temples...but on the way we got to see some of the massive rice fields that cover most areas of Bali.  These fields are huge and owned by villages.  Ari let us stop on the side of the road to get a couple of pictures.  And when you look at these huge fields...you have to remember, all the planting & harvesting is done by hand!!

 

You can see the little lookout spot and what looks like streamers all across the fields.  This is all to keep birds from getting to the crops.  The man in the lookout area keeps a watch out for birds and if he sees any, he pulls on one of the lines.  Not only do the streamers scare the birds but also they have bells on them which scares the birds away as well.

 

After looking at some of the fields we made it to one of the many Hindu temples.  This one is unique because it is on the ocean.  We learned that there are 3 parts to temples, and the 3rd area which is usually the biggest and fanciest is only for major ceremonies not just everyday worship.

 

 

That's one part of the temple behind us...and as you can see it is actually IN the ocean, so pretty!

 

 

 

Our tour guide said that depending on how high the tide is...that area where all the people are standing would be under water...we just got lucky to visit during low tide.

 

 

So at the temple, we saw this sign...

 

Our tour guide told us a story, I can't remember it all, but it was similar to the Moses & his staff turning into a snake story.  Except in this story, the man's head scarf turned into a sea snake.  But this was where that all happened and now at this spot there is pair of sea snakes that make their home here.  They apparently swim out during high tide to get food and then come back in low tide.  This spieces of sea snake is like the most poisonous snake in the world!...and here was this old man, that I guess is the guard of the snakes, that plays with them all day!





 

Of course, Jaret wanted to show how manly he was by touching the most poisonous snake in the world...he's so brave :)

 

I did not touch the sea snakes...one of us needed to talk to the life insurance people if something had happened :)

 

 

Our next stop was to one of the holy monkey forests!  This was something I was very excited to see.  They have these forests that are surrounding a temple and the monkeys have made a home...hence a holy monkey forest.  Monkeys were everywhere!

 

Part of the temple that the forest surrounded.

 

Ok, so funny story about the picture below...  Jaret's little cousin had a school project that was to send a little animal to places and learn cultures and about the world. (think Flat Stanley).  We agreed to take 'Cookie' along with us and we thought the monkey forest would be a good picture spot.  Well the first attempt at the picture below, I was holding Cookie so he was higher...but....the monkeys didn't like that very much and actually snarled at me.  Our village guide had to raise her stick she was carrying in case the monkey tried to attack.  Anyways, we got a picture with the not so friendly monkeys for the school project :)