First full day in Bali and we have a full agenda. We’ve hired a driver to take us to many places today. Wayan, the driver we’ve hired, is going to take us to 6 sites. Temples, hot springs, rice terraces and views of the volcano to come.

Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave) Temple

Next Wayan drove us up the mountain in Ubud to see the beautiful sight of the Kintamani Mountain.  But the higher and higher we drove the foggier and foggier it got.  So by the time we go to the top we couldn’t see anything. But the drive alone was spectacular.

Hot Springs (Lake Batur)

We had a very relaxing time at the natural hot springs.  It was drizzling rain the whole time and the lake was covered in a layer of fog creating a very calm atmosphere.  We really loved the hot springs.

Rice Terrace view for lunch.

Rice Terraces up close

Poop Coffee

Next we went to see how the Luwak coffee is processed. What makes this coffee so special is the way the bean is pre-selected by the Luwat cat, and how it’s harvested and processed. The Luwak cat automatically selects the sweetest and best quality coffee seed fruit to eat, and then during digestion the stomach dissolves the flesh of the fruit and the body expels the seed. By being in the stomach, it adds healthy enzymes to the shell of the bean and also adds antioxidants to it. Just like a peanut, the bean shell is removed leaving the bean clean and ready for roasting.

This place also happened to process and make many different types of herbal teas, which were available for tasting.  We had a taste test of 14 herbal teas and coffees. At the end, we had a taste test of the Lewak coffee and compared it to regular Balinese coffee.  The Lewak coffee really was much smoother and sweeter.

Holy Spring Temple

The water that feeds this temple bubbles up from the earth and is gathered in a beautiful stone pool.  The water is then take from that holy spring pool and sent out of a series of springs from the wall.  Each spring has it’s own statue that the people put offerings on.  There were two springs at the end that Wayan told us could not be used.  Those two were for funeral rituals only. This is a very humbling experience for us to see people bathing in the holy springs.  Wayan said we could join them but we wanted to be respectful of their culture so we tried to take a few photos but not disturb their holy ritual.

Happy New Year!!!

Our hotel owners have two restaurants and they are hosting an 80s theme New Year dinner/party. We decided to get ticket for that party.  The restaurant was beautiful and the food was delicious.  The 80’s tunes we were promised were lacking though. 

The DJ played an odd mix of music from the 70’s-2000’s, in the end it didn’t matter.

We had a blast!