Lost In Bali - Healthy Living

Day two and there's is still no sign of Han Ching's baggage being recovered. Luckily I brought some extra t-shirt which I borrowed to her. Proudly showing off the instruction "Do Not Disturb, Genius At Work" printed on the shirt, it is quite obvious that Han Ching was not in a good mood to poke fun on that day. Well, the show must goes on. So was the trip. We just have to give way to the obstacle and deal with it step by step. Yande brought us to a typical Balinese style house in the morning. I was puzzled to find the house was named "Rumah Sehat".  The owner must be very healthy instead! Wonder will there be names like  "Rumah Kuat" or "Rumah Kaya"?

I know that there was open-concept office where Han Ching used to work before, I've been to her office and I can guarantee you that there won't be any secretary-boss extra relationship going to happen in that office. Even when you coughed, sneezed or farted, the whole office will know that it was coming from you. That was the case in Bali house too. Basically they don't have walls or cubicles. Everything is open. Only the the rooms has some sort of curtain to shield the people inside. There is no privacy at all. For sure there's no naughty naughty period without getting the kids locked outside the house :-)

We then headed to try out the famous coffee, Kopi Luwak. Touted as the most expensive coffee in the world, kopi luwak was famous because of the way it is produced. Believe me, you wouldn't want to know the origin of this coffee after you try it. It is made from the beans of coffee berries which have been eaten by the Asian Palm Civet and other related civets, then passed through its digestive tract.

We all knew that some tea leaves need to undergo fermentation process.Guess what? You coffee bean will undergo fermentation process inside some animal's stomach before being recovered through their faeces. A civet eats the berries for their fleshy pulp. In its stomach, those enzymes seep into the beans. Passing through a civet's intestines the beans are then defecated, keeping their shape. After gathering, thorough washing, sun drying, light roasting and brewing, these beans yield an aromatic coffee with much less bitterness, widely noted as the most expensive coffee in the world.Other's poo-poo is your great source of coffee satisfaction.

You will wonder why Nescafe does not want to have this type of coffee in their range? Nevertheless, we gave it a try. World most expensive coffee oh? It costs  five of us to share one small cup of this coffee le! The taste is like those strong herbal-like medicine that give you the extra oomph. In this case I don't think the extra oomph they meant are the same effect of those "Tongkat Ali", "Kacip Fatimah" or "Kopi Jantan" like. No faster heart beating, no sweat and no sudden burst of energy felt. Just some sore pain in the heart because of paying so expensive for drinking animal's poo poo.

After a an early teatime, without wasting time, we headed to the our planned destination of Mount Batur and Lake Batur. Lake Batur is the widest lake in this island. It lies down in the feet of Mount Batur and Mount Kintamani.

The surrounding of the lake is a favorite place for picks you self up. Mount Batur itself is actually just a small volcano, but its setting is in the heart of a huge crater. Adjacent to the volcano is the large crescent-shaped Batur Lake, all surrounded by the high walls of the crater rim.

We then went to Ubud to try this must-try "babi guling" or in other words meant rolling pig. Nope. This has nothing to do with "Angry Bird". "Babi guling" is Bali’s most famous dish. Ask any Balinese person what their favourite food is and there is a good chance they’ll say "babi guling”. Indonesia is a Muslim country, so pork isn’t as celebrated as it is here in Bali.

The famous stall to serve this babi guling was Warung Ibu Oka. Finding a seat might be difficult and the sight of strayed dog hunting for leftover just make the stuff place stuffier. I must say the skin of he pork is very crispy. It's so crispy that you can literally hear the sound of paper being teared off when you try to cut the skin into smaller pieces. Having said that, this dish is not recommended for those with high cholesterol.

Tegalalang rice terrace is part of our itinerary on that day. Tegalalang countryside is located at 5 km northern part of Ubud. The rice terrace is designed very beautiful with exquisite hollowing rice field and precisely located on the hill bank forming a contour which surveyor in engineering field will be very delighted  to map the topography here. So easily defined. Trust me, you will enjoy the beautiful panorama of valley with rice terrace and coconut trees.

Goa Gajah, our last trip for the day as we we heading back to our hotel. You see, Bali is quite a sizable island. To travel to one attraction to another needs some time and proper planning so that you won't need to make repeated journey. Furthermore, the people here adhere to the speed limits. Well, this cave is really small and basically Goa Gajah provides the beautiful panorama if we overview from the step down to access this place. It looks a bathing shower, Hindu temple, hole of cave with unique ornament in firm of relief and lush tropical trees surrounded.

Boon Chuan suggested to us Bebek Bengil at Dirty Duck Restaurant Ubud for our dinner. The name Bebek Bengil / Dirty Duck has made it big across the region and internationally but have you ever wondered what does the name means?

Here’s the story extracted from their menu:

“One tropical monsoon morning, when the restaurant was very close to being finished (we had the concrete floor down, and the tables in ), a flock of ducks from the rice field across the road ( yes, there were rice fields all around us then ) ran quacking and squawking into the restaurant and across the floor and tables. They left muddy webbed footprints all over the place. They were our first guests – those dirty ducks !”

Hmmm... it makes me wonder, does "Beggar Chicken" share the same story?