Day 4 - Bali Adventures Day Tripping!

Rachel's husband like many Balinese men seem to be has many different talents and different jobs including a bar job at Hibiscus (where Rachel met him when he was doing magic tricks - another talent!), raising/herding ducks, wood carving, export and driver/tour guide!  We booked Made to take us on a day of exploring.

Made picked us up from our hotel at 9am (well 20 past by the time we stopped messing around) and we headed off first of all to have a look at some silver smithing.  There wasn't a huge amount of demonstration to be seen, but we got to have a look at some of the raw materials and then we looked around a huge shop of some beautiful pieces.  For the equivalent of £8 I bought some lovely silver and amythyst stud earrings.  

Next stop was a beautiful waterfall - It was a few steep steps down to the waterfall and then a scramble over some rocks and then edging around a watery ledge to get right up in front.  The roar of the sound of the water was at the same time intense and crashing, but also extremely calming.  I clambed across to get a closer look whilst Anna looked at butterflies - there are so many gorgeous butterflies in Bali, just hard to get a decent shot as they have a habit of moving around!  I asked a nice couple by the waterfall to take my photo, but in actual fact my "selfie" was probably a bit better!

We clambered up the steps again - hot work! - and then it was onto our next stop - coffee and tea tasting.  A lovely chap took us through a garden of all sorts of interesting plants - I'd never seen cloves growing before and they look as you would expect, but also quite different, also he showed us chilies, cocoa, coffee, evil lemon, ginger, a strange looking different type of rhubarb and ginseng.  

We got to meet a Civet - the mongoose type creature that is used in Bali to create the famous Civet or Luwak Coffee.  Civet Coffee apparently is produced only in Bali and only 300kg per year is manufacturer so it's considered a real delicacy!  In fact whilst all the other coffee and tea we tasted were free - our Civet coffee was 50,000 rupiah (£2.50) for a cup.  Civet coffee is produced by getting the Civet to eat coffee beans, these are then fermented in the stomach and quite frankly excreted before being collected for roasting.  The shell of the bean is removed and the bean is roasted and ground as you would with a usual coffee bean.  We waited with anticipation to compare and contrast standard Bali Coffee with this delicacy of Civet coffee.  

We were fortunate enough to sample a whole host of different varieties of tea and coffee and so here are my opinions on each taste test!

Mangosteen Peel - fruity, but not overly sweet, apparently good for all sorts of ailments including preventing stress, cancer and anti aging - I decided to buy some of this to take home at the end!

Coconut Coffee - Like a syrupy latte that you might get from Starbucks, really sweet, but not too sweet.

Bali Coffee - slightly bitter, a bit like Turkish coffee, but without all the sugar added - grainy finish at the end of the coffee grounds.

Ginger Tea - sweet, much more fiery ginger taste than you usually would expect.

Ginseng Coffee - considered buying some of this - good for male virility and tasted almost similiar in sweetness to the Coconut Coffee.

Lemon Grass tea - loved this one as I love the flavour of lemon grass and it was sweet as we found out they had added sugar to everything!  

Cocoa Spices - similar to the "aztec tea" that they give you to try at Cadbury World - really fiery spice and dark chocolaty flavours.

Lemon Tea - Sweet and sour - nice lemony flavour - I would have bought this as well!

Vanilla Coffee - Again - very similar, but nicer, to a Starbucks latte with vanilla syrup.

Bali Cocoa - chocolatey and not overly sweet - not quite as spicey as the Cocoa spices, a really smooth flavour.

Red Ginger Tea - Similar to the ginger tea, but not quite as fiery.

Luwak / Civet Coffee - So this was nice, smoother and much less bitter than your usual Bali coffee, but the question of whether I would buy it specially or take any home, not for the price as the differentiator wasn't really there.  

We also got to try milk chocolate, vanilla chocolate and orange chocolate - all were lovely flavours, but slightly unusual textures - a bit too gritty and waxy compared to what we are used to in the UK.

Anna has been on the hunt for some wine glasses and with a whole host of glass shops on the route we were driving she got Made to pull over and have a look around, although nothing quite right for what she wanted to pay, but looking at the craftsmanship was really interesting in itself.  

We then reached the Elephant Cave Temple which oddly had a pan-piped version of "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion as we arrived.  I had long trousers on, but Anna had to borrow one of the stock sarongs to be "decent" enough to walk around the temple.  In the temple there was a very shallow pool with lots of huge fish that couldn't even seem to fully submerge themselves in it.  The entrance to the "Elephant Cave" was an ornate, and quite scary looking carving.  Once in the cave it was a heady smell of lots of different types of incense burning in a very enclosed space and it felt almost sophorific - would be good for all sorts of strange thoughts whilst meditating I thought.  The temple was set in quite shelving slopes of jungle, so it gave us a good opportunity for exploring and we passed a few locals including one lady who was naked and having a wash in the stream!

After a brief drive we got to the Holy Water temple - I've been here before, but it's really stunning and I was happy to have a second visit.  There are various jets of water that the idea is that you walk along and pray at each.  People make loads of colourful offerings that run into the water and make a beautiful watery scene and there are even bottles on sale so you can collect your own holy water to take home!

There is a huge fish pool with loads of Koi carp everywhere and the colours make an incredible sight.   I particularly liked the view of the garden where they were washing and drying all the tourist sarongs that you borrow to be able to enter the temple against the lovely lush green rainforesty setting.

They cleverly make you walk back past all the shops to get out of the temple and so you have people running after you offering you all sorts of good bargains and less value for money options - i.e. 1 banana 1 dollar!  I especially liked that they had a Princess Diana head to model one of the kaftans on sale!  Anna bought some carved masks after a bit of negotiation, but I managed to escape without spending any more cash as it's dangerous in Bali as there are so many lovely things you can buy that aren't even tourist tat and they aren't expensive, but I'm on a desperate mission to declutter!

By this point we were pretty hungry and so were pleased to get driven up to Kintamani for lunch!  It was a buffet style lunch, not cheap for Bali at 120,000 rupiah or £6, but it's the price you pay in tourist places and we got to eat whilst looking out over a volcano which you don't get the opportunity to do all that often!

We started the route back to Ubud and stopped off at Tegalug rice terraces - beautiful view that they used in Eat Pray Love I believe and I got a nice picture of a chap working in the rice terraces complete with a hat that was woven from banana leaves!

The last stop on our whistlestop tour - Made crammed in loads for us on the one day! - was to see some white cranes flying over at 6pm to a particular tree - there were loads of them!  They were on time and it was really strange how they all navigate to the same place each day - you can tell that this is the case based on the amount of guano on the ground beneath!

We arrived back to the hotel exhausted from our fun, but busy day and so then it was a quick meal at one of my favourite places in Ubud - Juice Ja where I tried a locally brewed beer called Stark.  I also decided to be naughty and have some ice cream and tried both Pannacotta and Tamarillo ice cream - Pannacotta was pretty much just a very vanilla flavoured ice cream, but Tamarillo definitely tasted as described!

Bali 3.2 - Walking through rice fields, catching up with friends and Luxury Spa

I didn't end up sleeping until approx 2am, and I'd had an idea that I might go to Yoga  and doing an early morning class, instead I decided to wake up naturally and was awake about 8.30am.  We had breakfast brought to our balcony at The Swan Inn Omelette for me (with lots of Garlic!) and pineapple pancake for Anna with some fresh fruit and coffee - really tasty!

We then went for a little walk around Ubud so that Anna could get her bearings - first all the way down Monkey Forest Road going past the actual Monkey Forest and then onto Hanoman and back around onto Monkey Forest Road an up past the palace.  Rachel had given us some excellent directions to her house - about 3K from The Swan Inn.  My favourite part of the directions was "past the bamboo house and you get to a little garden with a goat - you need to go down the stairs here and cross the stream"  We wandered through some gorgeous rice fields before finding Rachel's house - impressed that we found it first time!

Rachel is in a different house to the last time I came when she was still living with her In-laws and the house is much closer to Ubud for her.  It's the same slightly scary Balinese traditions with hard stone floors and steps which I'm amazed at the agility both Kiran and Maya were able to navigate.  Maya has just the same character now that she's nearly 4, as the last time I saw her when she was 2 - bright, cheeky and mischievous with a devilish sense of humour, but unlike last time when she was shunning speaking any English (whilst understanding every word!) she was babbling away sounding great and with no hint of a Balinese accent.  

Kiran is now 2 and still has a lovely baby face, but is definitely a little boy in behaviour and loved playing with the cars.  He is talking too, but his English has a hint of a Balinese accent - it's really fascinating how they are developing and I'm so jealous of how amazing their linguistic capabilities will be.  Kiran was lovely and when Maya spilled my cup of Bali coffee (just the grounds) he cleared it up with a cloth!

Kiran and Maya liked their clothes that I'd brought with me as presents from both my Mum and me and put them on straight away.  We got to meet Rosie and Robbie rabbit who are tiny and very cute.  

We went down to a nice restaurant with a good play area for the kids that kept Kiran and Maya busy for most of the time that we were eating.   Anna and me both had Tuna with vegetables, but we both think it was actually swordfish!  It was tasty and I had another soup - have had a few this holiday already - developed a taste for sour and hot seafood soups!

We wandered back up the road after poor Maya was separated from a Hello Kitty toy microphone from the restaurant and then walked back through the rice fields to Ubud and went on the hunt for a suitable spa for a massage.  Anna had a picture in her mind of the sort of luxury spa experience she was looking for and so after a few trips, leaflets and examining of treatment rooms we settled on the extremely luxurious Dala Spa.  In Ubud you can get a full hour of massage for approx 70,000 rupiah which is the equivalent of about £3.61.  Dala Spa was a little different of 450,000 for an hour so more like £23.18 - about 6 times as expensive, but in comparison to the last massage I had in the UK of an hour for £50 still extremely affordable for the average British tourist purse.

So you're probably wondering - was Dala Spa 6 times as good/luxurious and I have to say it was the *most* plush spa experience that I've had and I have tried out a couple of different places both for treats to myself and hen weekends etc.

First of all we sat in a wooden classic looking reception area and were served a cool ginger and lemony tea with a cold towel.  We got to choose from 5 different massage oils - I went for a lavender based one.  

We were then shown into the "Marigold" room and then taken straight into the "Ylang Ylang" room which was a bit confusing, but the room was beautiful and the whole place as we walked down the stairs smelt a strange combination of clean, eucalyptus mixed with the general Balinese incense smell that you get all over the place which hits you with a cool air in contrast to the humidity upstairs.

Both Anna and me were treated in the same room - I had gone for 90 minute massage selecting "strong" on the pre-treatment questionnaire for my pressure and Anna had gone for 30 minute body scrub and a 60 minute massage.  We changed into the paper knickers (lovely!) and sarongs and were shown the safe to put our belongings - although we didn't feel that it was necessary.  

We first of all had our feet washed in a wooden bowl of water to which the therapists stared intently at us whilst telling us what they were adding to the bowl - lime, ginger and then lemon grass - it felt at one and the same time decadent and a bit wasteful - you could have made a lovely Thai soup with the ingredients!  We had a quick foot scrub and then lay down on the really comfy treatment beds.  My massage was commenced by the therapist sounding a bell/sound bowl (useful I knew that when I heard Anna's I still had a further 60 minutes to enjoy!)

The massage was very good, but I was so tired that I definitely drifted off into some sort of subconsciousness several times so may not have been fully aware of it all - although I did really enjoy it and was incredibly relaxed at the end of it.  I definitely woke myself up at least 3 times snoring (my nose blocked after lying face down for 45 minutes!) so poor Anna had to cope with my snoring as background music mixed in with the "classic" that we had chosen on our questionnaires.

At the end of the treatment they sounded the bell again and we sat up and slowly got dressed again and sat back down in the reception area and had some warm tea and a cinnamon biscuit.  We settled the bill - a bit weird as they produced the card machine with just a prompt for my pin - I declined as I wanted to check the amount that I was paying first!

We sleepily and very calmly wondered back up Monkey Forest Road and stumbled into Dian Restaurant for dinner and sampled some Brem which is a local rice wine and then I had some more seafood soup and some Cap Cay - Chinese style vegetables with chicken served with rice.  We went for a quick drink at XL Shisha Lounge which was busy, noisy and had football on TV screens and live music and wasn't compatible with our very relaxed states and so we went back to the hotel and organised our flights to Lombok and worked out what we needed to do to get to Gili Air - still debating either public ferry or private charter boat! 

A screenshot of my favourite question about travelling to Gili Air!

On the walk back we booked a cooking class for the following morning at 9am at Bumi Bali.

We'd stopped off in a supermarket earlier in the day to pick up a drink and I'd spotted one of my favourite things about Bali - Mangosteens and so for equivalent to about £1.50 I'd bought 5 and put them in a plastic bag to take home - thank goodness for the bag as when I took them out of the bag on my bed about 50 ants came out with them too!  The fruit was fine, but I had to shake my sheets outside to get rid of the unwelcome passengers!  

I also thought I'd be brave and try mung bean juice - interesting flavour and texture!

California Dreaming - High Flyers Style - Day 1

Once again there has been a big hiatus in my blogging (well on here anyway, I've been keeping a more private journal online with some of the thoughts that are going around my head at the moment, but it's best to keep them separate from day to day stuff I feel)

Anyway, I couldn't go on holiday and not fill everyone in on the minutia of details of what I've been up to.  The post title is a bit of a clue...I'm currently in California and have had a really interesting week so far, but fairly limited time to sit and reflect and record exactly what has been going on.

First of all, this will be (for what I've managed to do so far) a fairly cheap holiday for me as my flights were paid for (bar a £65 amendment fee) as well as the first 3 nights of accommodation, food and activities for 3 days.  How you might ask?  Well I ended up doing pretty well at work last year and qualified for an incentive that we call in our organisation "High Flyers" although i'm not sure whether more accurately it should be "High Fliers"?

Anyway, when you are a High Flyer, it means that for 4 days you are treated a bit like a VIP/Royalty and given 2 extra days holiday and flown out to a destination with other High Flying colleagues.  There were about 15 of us in total that went on the holiday - more had qualified, but some couldn't make the dates.  We also had 3 directors with us to "supervise".  We met at Heathrow and made introductions and then shortly boarded the plane to LAX.  Being the extremely well coordinated person that I am, I managed to throw an entire Bloody Mary complete with ice down my jeans within 30 minutes of takeoff - I had only tops to change into, no change of trousers.  It dried eventually and I ended up smelling of tomato until I managed to get changed at the hotel.

My attention span wasn't great, so I managed to watch 2 films, but they were fairly low brow and I have to say, not very good at all.  In brief I watched For a Good Time Call it was incredibly predictable, but also really quite poorly characterized  so you didn't really care what happened to the characters who weren't at all realistic or in a realistic situation.  I then watched Smashed which was much more realistic and actually very sad - a mutually alcohol dependent marriage that changed when the wife decided to get sober.  Probably not the best preparation for a holiday where we'd be frequenting some high end bars - although it was a good sense check.

So we landed at LAX and took a long time to get through immigration, but fortunately we all made it through.  We were met by our rep who showed us to our transfer coach and then after a short journey we arrived at the fabulous W Hotel Hollywood.  We were welcomed with a cocktail and a seat outside as we walked through the truly awesome lobby.

We had about 45 minutes to get freshened up and accustomed to our hotel rooms before dinner.  The rooms were fairly spectacular - very white, bright and clean and with a very exciting, but expensive mini bar selection!

We went up to the rooftop restaurant of the hotel and had a really lovely meal which included 4 courses - although I had gone to bed by the time they brought out the desserts!  I particularly enjoyed a melt in the mouth steak with garlic mashed potatoes (although it probably had a posher name!)  The view from the rooftop was brilliant and the atmosphere was really good too, however at 10.30pm (equivalent to about 6.30am UK time) even an espresso couldn't keep my eyes from closing and drifting into mini sleeps so I snuck away and went to bed in my huge comfy white bed switching on the wave sounds machine to block out some of the partying noises from down the corridor.  I think that the rest of the guys were out pretty late - although everything in Hollywood does close at around 2am so not that late, but the equivalent of 8am for those who hadn't slept on the plane!