Bali Day 4 - Death, Birth, and Poop Coffee

Sunrise over the rice fields. Mt. Agung, an active volcano, is visible in the background. It's usually obscured by clouds. The structure in the right foreground is a temple where the farmers leave offerings for their crop. Each field has its own temple.

Today couldn't have started much better. At least, for me. There was a glorious sunrise over the rice fields across the street. Mt. Agung was briefly visible through the clouds and it was perfectly gorgeous.
It was probably a less delightful morning for the bat, which was still in the same spot on the chair when I woke up. I started to have suspicions about its health or, more specifically, its lack thereof.
When Ayu arrived to make breakfast, I pointed it out to her. She walked over to the chair, poked it roughly with her index finger. The index finger she would shortly be using while preparing my breakfast.
"Dead."
"Yup," I agreed.
She picked it up and brought it outside. Possibly she gave it to one of the machete guys. Or the cow. I don't know. I don't want to know, but I will be checking my dinner for wings.
Our plan for the day was a full day tour with Wayan, the house manager. He texted me to tell me that his grandmother had died last night (no relation to the bat, I hope) and he had contacted Kadek to drive us other places.
I apparently took some bonus random photos of the villa this morning, so let's take a look at other parts of the house before we set off for the day.

Breakfast was red rice pudding with shredded coconut and fresh fruit.

The shower is lovely.

In Bali, you can't flush toilet paper. Every toilet has a hand-held water sprayer for cleaning purposes. It takes a bit of practice not to firehose the entire bathroom . I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.

The bat graveyard.

The living room.

Fancy bedroom business!

Kadek arrived at 9:00 and we set off to visit a temple before drinking poop coffee. As we headed for the temple, we saw a scooter being driven by a man wearing all white.
"Holy man," Kadek explained. "Maybe going to my house for celebration."
He explained that Balinese people celebrate 2 birthdays; one for the global calendar, the other based on the Balinese calendar, which was never adequately explained to me so I won't bother telling you a bunch of crap that probably is totally wrong.
The holy man pulled into a small home compound and Kadek nodded. "Yes. This is my home. Do you want to come to the celebration?"
Oh, HELL yes we did!
Kedek pulled into his driveway and, after assuring us that it was okay and we were dressed properly, we joined his family for a delightful half hour of celebrating his niece's 6 month birthday. He explained that his family was very poor and of the lowest caste in Bali. They were some of the most delightful, warm, welcoming people we have ever met. It was a 6 month birthday celebration and they welcomed two strangers who don't speak the language in to their home and made us feel very welcome. We were given some small snacks and water. Kadek's uncle explained (In very good English) that he had worked in carnivals in North America for 22 years. He was the uncle that every family has. Loud, funny, and very kind.

Preparing the space for the holy man.

Kadek in his family compound common area. There is a partial roof, but there are no walls.

Getting that adorable baby to smile. Kadek explained that babies are not placed on the ground for a month and 7 days after they are born. They are considered holy creatures for that time and cannot touch the ground.

The holy man praying as the extended family watches the baby photography in full swing.

We only stayed for about 30 minutes, but it was honestly one of the highlights of our entire trip. It was such a beautiful experience - a meeting of strangers who are eager to make connections with one another. We were very grateful to have been included.
From there, we headed to Pura Tirta Empul, a sacred water temple built in the 14th century. It's located in a lush valley directly downhill from the palace where the president of Indonesia stays when he is in Bali.
The temple is built around a spring that flows up from the ground in a shimmering pool of water. I couldn't get a good photo of it, but the bottom of the pool is covered with sparkling sand (maybe mica?) that flutters and dances constantly as the water flows up from the spring. It's beautiful to watch. 
From the spring, the water flows through pipes into another pool through 10 fountains. Worshipers enter the pool and visit each fountain. They wash their heads, take 3 sips of water, douse their bodies and move to the next fountain to repeat the process. Each fountain is supposed to be good for a particular thing: skin, hair, bad dreams, etc.

A floating temple in the middle of a small pond covered in bright algae.

Lots of rules.

Way up on the hill, the Balinese palace of the president of Indonesia.

Worshipers praying at the temple.

More rules!

Worshipers in the fountain pool, praying and, possibly, getting dysentery.

I really adore all these statues.

A jack fruit tree. Do not park your car under one of these.

Jack fruit is HUGE!

Even the underside of the roofs are elaborately decorated.

I don't know why and I didn't find out.

This is the beautiful shimmering pond. The photo doesn't do it any justice.

A prayer temple.

Even the ceilings are stunningly elaborate and beautiful.

This is the guy who kicks your ass if you throw coins in the holy pond.

Frog guy!

Some of the biggest koi I have ever seen.

They sell fish food at the temple and the koi are well trained!

Please exit through the gauntlet of hawkers where you can buy some sacred penis bottle openers. They come in 5 packs!

 We climbed back into the car to go drink poop coffee.
Yes.
Really.
There is an animal called a luwak in Indonesia. Generally, they are carnivores, but some of them have developed a taste for coffee beans which they eat and then excrete. (See how delicate I'm being here?) Poo hunters gather the poop, clean the beans, and sell it to stupid tourists.
Like me.
In Bali, there are unofficial districts where there are specialties. You might go to an area that has a lot of woodcarvers, or silversmiths, or poop hunters. We passed a lot of Luwak Coffee Plantations. Why Kadek selected the one he did, I will never know, but I'm glad he did.
We were greeted by Juli, who wore a shirt emblazoned with "Poo Hunter" on the front. The back of the shirt was much better. You'll see.
Juli showed us the process of making coffee (minus the actual delivery of it from the luwak) and we were given a free flight of coffee and tea.
I haven't really stressed just how hot and steamy it is in Bali. The idea of a flight of coffee and tea in 94 degree heat was less appealing than you may imagine. I'm happy to say that it was much less sweaty than anticipated.
The ginger tea was like a hot glass of ginger.
The ginseng tea was offered with the motto "Dad drinks, mom is happy" due to ginseng's alleged effect on male bits. Despite the promises the ginseng tea made, I preferred Rosella Tea, which probably translates to Limp Tea. I have no idea.
There was no luwak coffee on the free flight. If you want to try that you need to shell out 50,000 IRD (about $3.50) which, for Balinese locals is a stupidly absurdly high price to pay for coffee. For those of us who are used to seeing people regularly shell 2 or 3 times that for a crappy cup of Starbucks, it seemed worth the price just to try it.
It was a rich cup of coffee. I tried it. I wouldn't drink it again.

Fortunately, we did not see the luwak in action.

And, in case you were thinking about petting it...

We got a demonstration of how the coffee is roasted.

And Kerri got conscripted to roast some beans.

Here, Juli shows me a whole bean, extracted from poop.

And then I got to grind it in this huge mortar and pestle.

Balinese coffee is ground as fine as powder.

And, as a reward, she gave me a coffee bean to eat.

Oh. Thank you. A coffee bean that came out of an animal's ass. Yum!

I spent the next 45 minutes picking coffee particulate out of my teeth. At least, I hope it was coffee particulate.

Here we are with Kadek, about to get a flight of coffee and tea so I can finally rinse the crushed bean and/or poop out of my mouth.

So many coffees and teas!

And, finally, the luwak coffee. Thick and rich. This will keep you wide awake and paranoid for weeks.

Kerri bravely gives poop coffee a try.

Oh, my. It's... so... nutty.

It's messy, but fun™!

And, at long last, here is the back of Juli's shirt. Balinese humor is deep and perplexing.

After drinking a literal shitty cup of coffee, we headed off for lunch and then to Penglipuran Village, touted as "an authentic Balinese village!"
I had a hard time here; I'll be honest. It was stunningly beautiful. The houses were gorgeous, the only street in town was made of lovely cobbled ramps connecting flat areas, the scenery around the town was beautiful. It was, however, overrun with busloads of people including several busloads of Javanese kids - maybe 10 years old or so - hundreds of kids, running, screaming, and it seemed like every one of them had purchased a small toy that was a wooden handle with a crank that, when turned, made a sound like a clacking machine gun.
Only louder.
Yes. I know exactly what kind of old poop I sound like, but poop seems like the theme for the day so I'm embracing my poopiness.
Almost every house in town had its front gate open, welcoming visitors in to see and, hopefully, purchase the same cheap plastic crap that was for sale every other place in Bali.
I get it. I honestly do. Most people in the country are desperately poor and they're working hard to make any sort of living. I just wish that there was a way to make that happen without destroying the traditional culture and the environment of the island. It's such a beautiful place and the people are so kind. It's hard to see overtourism eroding that.
Kerri and I visited the quieter houses that were open and enjoyed the gardens and elaborate temples that are found at every house in Bali. We also found a huge bamboo grove at the far end of the one street in town. It was amazing.

The actual village is beautiful.

Temples in homes.

Pesky kids.

Way more, way peskier kids.

I have an honest fascination with 20-something Japanese girls and the elaborate photo shoots they do EVERYWHERE.

Cheese!

Random tortoise on the move.

This is a typical spirit gate in the front of the houses.

Another gorgeous home temple. I just love these so much.

An authentic Balinese washing machine!!

Kerri had her own Instagram photo shoot.

The bamboo grove was totally amazing.

So we had another photo shoot. Because we are horrible people.

But we have pizazz! At least Kerri does.

this appeared to be a small outbuilding in a family compound. It was all thatch and woven plant fiber.

At the far end of the main street was the village temple. It was ornate and gorgeous and swarming with Instagram People staging elaborate photo shoots.

I could have stayed and watched the photo shoots for countless hours, but the noise was a bit much and we had more to see. Back on the road so we could get to the Tegallalong Rice Terraces.
Scenes from the drive:

Vendors lining the road to sell durian, a fruit know for its pungent odor and its ability to get you drunk by eating it.

There's a scooter under that load.

These sorts of amazing gates are everywhere. I love them!

A short break from traffic and stores lining the roads.

People dry their rice on tarps inches from the road. I took this from the window of a moving car.

Gathering coconuts to bring to market.

Stands like this were everywhere. Almost always Absolut vodka bottles with green or blue liquid in them. It's gas that people resell from their homes. We passed one where the bottles were all capped with rags.

These were an absolute nothing in Bali until they were featured in the movie Eat, Pray, Love. Now, they are overrun with tourists, shops, and restaurants. Kadek couldn't find any open space along the road where we could park and see the terraces, so, in a Ninja-Driver Level 100 move, he pulled into a restaurant parking lot. We went in to have some fruit juice. For a few cents worth of tasty juice, we had a great view of this beautiful area. It's a series of tiered rice fields that are still very much in use even though they're crawling with tourists. I think the farmers should offer an "Authentic Balinese Experience" and give the tourists a chance to tend the field for them. For a modest fee, of course.

Public service announcement: My wife is a babe.

I went for a short walk. This is the restaurant from down in the terraces.

The whole time we were drinking our drinks, these two girls were staging an elaborate photo shoot with costume changes, epic, dramatic poses, and various hairstyles. It was fascinating to watch them.

The ride back to the villa was long, but pleasant enough. I'm still amazed by how intimate everything feels here. The stores and houses are built right up to the street. People, dogs, chickens, kids all wander inches from the road, seemingly oblivious to the traffic zipping by. Hundreds and hundreds of scooters and motorbikes swarm everywhere. And it all seems to work in a way that I cannot understand, but I really appreciate.

This is a very typical view along most of the streets we've been driving. There's much less traffic than we normally see, though.

If there are sidewalks, people don't use them often, preferring to feel the breeze of racing cars blowing through their hair.

A typical shop. There might be dozens of these in any quarter mile stretch of road.

If you don't have access to a bottle of gas, these tiny, hand-cranked pumps are also very common.

Terrible photo, but here is a family of 4 on a scooter. Impressive driving!

As we approached the villa, Kadek had to pull over because someone had been doing their laundry in the drainage ditch by the side of the road and they just left it all there, completely blocking the road. What was lurking in the rice field that made someone abandon their laundry in the middle of the road? I hope I never find out.

No. I wasn't kidding.

When we got past the terrible laundry road blockage, we went for a swim. Ayu arrived 90 minutes early to make dinner and I was very thankful that I had brought my bathing suit to the pool with me. She made an amazing dinner of shrimp curry, rice, chicken curry, vegetables, and soy bean cakes.
There were no bat wings that I could see in any of the dishes.
Ayu continued to teach me new Balinese words and she got a big kick out of talking fast and making me really work for it. She's delightful.

It's even better than it looks. Oh, I love this Indonesian food.

Begin with a beautiful sunrise; end with a gorgeous sunset.

Our pal, Ayu!

One exciting element of the house having no walls are the visitors we get. The geckos loved climbing around in the lights at night.

Tomorrow, we're heading in to Ubud Center for the art market, the royal palace, and a royal water temple.