8/20 -- Visit a Village, Hike Down to Ubud

Today we headed to a lake in a caldera to visit a village relatively untouched by tourism. On the way, we stopped at a restaurant on the rim of the caldera for a rest break and had a good, if hazy, view of the volcano that has grown up in the center. The rim of the volcano that blew out 30,000 years ago is huge!

This temple area was located in one corner of the restaurant.

We loaded into two boats like this for our 30 minute ride to
the village. The long hill in the background is the rim of the
caldera.

The walls of the caldera are really steep and
terraces are needed for agriculture.

The other boat with the new volcano in the background.

The village we visited

This gentleman is pulling in a fishing net.

 Once we landed at the village, we were shocked by the amount of trash in the water and the streets. Our guide told us that the first time he came here many years ago, the trash was MUCH worse and he told them if they wanted tourism, they would need to make changes. While they are improving the look of the village with the hope of generating tourist-driven income, they have a way to go on cleanliness, and we were disappointed to see at least 3 old ladies and 2 kids holding  out their hands for handouts as we walked past.

On the plus side, it was interesting to see what life was  like in a village like this. When we got to Bali, I was impressed with how much more affluent it seemed than Java. However, as we left the cities, the quality of construction fell and it was more on a par with what we had seen elsewhere.

There are roosters in cages like this all over
and their crowing  makes a huge racket.
Cock fighting is very popular and officially
legal. It is just the associated gambling that
is illegal.

School children before class started.

A family temple.

Mother and child.

Home owners in plaid shirt and pink shirt.

The inside of the home. 75% of it is dedicated to bed space in
two rooms with no door between them.

Village bank, entirely empty. Indonesia encouraged the development
of village banks to facilitate business loans but rarely were local
people found who had any clue how to run a bank.

A prosperous looking house.

Fish farms here along with growing shallots and other vegetables
are the primary income sources.

About 5 minutes away by boat is a unique cemetery. Only 11 people at a time can be interred here. When someone dies, he is typically laid to rest within a day. Bodies are laid on pallets on the ground then covered with a cloth (except the head) and a bamboo tent-like fence is built around them. A special tree here apparently keeps odors of decomposition at bay. We smelled nothing unpleasant despite a two-day old burial.

The bamboo tents are short and skinny. Gifts for the dead are in
baskets in the front, and a couple graves had umbrellas at the
head end for protection.

Once bodies have decomposed, the skulls are grouped together
here and the rest of the skeleton and all the grave goods are
moved to the other side of the small clearing.

This is the 'magic' tree that controls the odors,
called a Taru Menyaon tree,

 After we got back to our starting point, we had lunch at the rest break restaurant, with fabulous views all around. Afterwards, we went to a demonstration plantation that specializes in luwak coffee, similar to the weasel coffee we saw in Vietnam. In this case, a civit (luwak to locals) eats coffee beans which get processed in its digestive system before getting pooped out whole. The theory is that these processes produce unique coffee (that does not taste like poop!) which is becoming very popular.

They also grow several other spice trees as well as cocoa trees. We got to sample several kinds of coffee and tea. We especially liked the unsweetened lemongrass tea and the coffee/cocoa blend (sort of a mocha java with a more significant cocoa flavor). I was not impressed with either the civit or the standard Bali coffee -- too strong as provided and adding creamer just made it gritty.

On the way back to Ubud, Arinto told us one theory of how pooped out coffee came into being. The Dutch brought coffee growing to Indonesia and took the coffee beans back to Europe to sell, not allowing the local people/growers to have any. While walking in the woods. the workers found the pooped out beans, cleaned them up, roasted them, and got to have coffee without disobeying the Dutch rule to not pick for their own use.

Cocoa beans.

After the coffee stop, we drove toward Ubud until we reached Sunset Hill, a popular mostly downhill stroll back to town. Although it was theoretically two miles, Ron (first by a ways), Jim, Margo, and I got to the end within 35 minutes. 

Typical shrine in a rice field, petitioning for a good harvest.

Interesting homes along our walk with a rice field shrine.

Old man cutting grass on a steep hillside to feed livestock

With a free evening (no group dinner) we had more time to relax on our own and plan for our free day tomorrow. We have been eating our way through Indonesia, so it was easy to skip dinner. I went to the spa across the street and got a pedicure --  not as good as the ones I get in San Rafael, but for less than $8 including tip, it served its purpose and now I have sparkly pink toenails!

While I was luxuriating, Jim explored a couple local small supermarkets and found magnum bars (very yummy high quality ice cream bars that we discovered first in Turkey and finally can get at home) so after my toes were done, that was our dinner.