Bali: Day 3

Our third day of the trip was the only day we had planned before arriving in Bali. We signed up for a bicycle tour with a company that Krystal used last year. She highly recommended them, so much so, that she wanted us to do the exact same tour as last year. Erin and I were not disappointed.

The tour company picked us up from our hotel around 8 am, we stopped to pick up another couple and then we headed to the northern part of the island. Our first stop was a botanical garden of sorts. Our tour guide, Yeoman, pointed out several of the plant species we were seeing. A funny thing about the name Yeoman: about every 4th person in Bali is named Yeoman since the Balinese name their children after their birth order. Yeoman was the 4th child in his family. We saw cinnamon plants, "marijuana" plants (not really, they just look similar), all sorts of crazy fruits, cocoa and coffee. I was especially excited about the coffee because I wanted to buy a souvenir for Glenn. He is quite the coffee snob and I knew this coffee was one that he had never tried! Poop coffee!

"These little mammals live in the trees and one of their favorite foods is the red, ripe coffee cherry. They eat the cherries, bean and all. While the bean is in the little guy's stomach, it undergoes chemical treatments and fermentations. The bean finishes its journey through the digestive system, and exits. The still-intact beans are collected from the forest floor, and are cleaned, then roasted and ground just like any other coffee. The resulting coffee is said to be like no other. It has a rich, heavy flavour with hints of caramel or chocolate. Other terms used to describe it are earthy, musty and exotic. The body is almost syrupy and it's very smooth."


The coffee is pretty expensive and not appetizing to some people, but I thought it tasted alright. Same price as a frappachino from Starbucks, for one cup at least. I bought Glenn about 6 oz of coffee beans for $25.00. Definitely a new coffee experience for him!

We continued our tour to a local restaurant for brunch. The food was mediocre, but it could be cause the view made up for that-

Behind is us Mount Batur, Bali's most active volcano, that erupted as recently as 2000. It was recently infamous when a Swedish tourist slipped and fell to his death inside the crater. We enjoyed the view of the volcano from our seats at the restaurant.

Our next stop was the bicycles. In total we biked about 30 kilometers over the next few hours. Stopping to see the rice fields, understand how a Balinese household runs, take lots of pictures and fix a broken chain. It was a wonderful way to see the countryside of Bali.

Our day finished with my favorite meal of the entire trip. A home cooked Balinese meal by Yeoman's mom! I can't even name everything she made, but it was spicy and delicious!

After we finished lunch, Yeoman and his brother took us back to Ubud. It was still before dinner time so we had him drop us off at the Monkey Forest. A must see tourist destination in Ubud.

Most of the tourists were stupid and had food in their bags, which the monkeys quickly discovered despite numerous signs advising you otherwise. We laughed at their stupidity misfortune and stayed away from the aggressive ones.

We took the long walk back towards our hotel and found an internet cafe (I may seem obsessed with finding internet while on vacation, but that's the way I communicate with Glenn about 98% of the time, so yes, I am obsessive unless I am with him.) and found a fun restaurant.

We ran in to a Hindu parade and witnessed a beautiful sunset. I love Bali!