Stormy Travels: Authentic Bali

Good morning from Bali! Today (June 7th, 2023), we are off on more tours exploring the local areas! We got up and around for a 7am breakfast and were then picked up at 8:30 for an "Authentic Bali" tour.

More delicious fruit and free sparkling water

Foie Gras with Kobe Beef

Crepes

Here is a quick overview of our full day!

Our first stop brought us to Tegenungan Waterfall. The area was full of shops and also a swimming club! On our walk down to the falls, there were many photo opportunities which our guide helped us take full advantage of including a fun and very photogenic little nest! It was quite hot and sunny, so when we finally got down near the falls and felt the mist, it was very refreshing! We stayed for a little bit, and then headed back up to the car to continue our exploring.

Cool old FJ 40 Land Cruiser

Waterfall from above

Nest!

We made it

Slippery Bamboo Bridges

The next stop on the tour was a wood carving shop Werochana Wood Carving. This type of stop is typical on tours as they want you to spend money at their friends' shops, but thankfully because we were potentially traveling home via Australia, we just got to blame their customs and immigration rules for plant material as to why we couldn't buy anything. Their carvings were pretty impressive nonetheless!

Such detailed carving

After the woodworking stop, we headed to a Hindu temple called Pura Mengening. Our guide helped us with the sarongs and then we entered the temple which had many stairs and seems to be a theme for us! The temple is located on beautiful grounds with well-kept trees and flowers. There is some impressive architecture as well as it was built in the 11th century and had extensive flowing multi-level water features. This temple is also a place where many locals perform the Melukat ceremony (spiritual cleansing ritual to wash away bad spirits and purify the body and soul). Tourists can also take part, but we did not, generally, we try to respectfully observe in these situations and not dive fully into the culture of others. There were some people there preparing for the ceremony and it was interesting to watch.

In addition to the spiritual aspects of this temple, there is also a lovely garden and an awesome fish pond. Our guide told us they used to have many more fish, but due to COVID-19, many of them died. The temple was a very peaceful place and luckily it had almost no tourists as it's not one of the most popular locations that get all the attention. It was nice getting to see something more local-oriented since Bali's beauty attracts so many tourists.

An insanely beautiful temple

A flower offering

Us in our sarongs

Koi pond!

A beautiful cleansing spring

Our next stop brought us to rice fields near Pegulingan Temple. Here we got to see a bit of the irrigation systems they use for the fields and we also got to see them drying out rice on tarps. It takes quite some time to process rice, I was honestly pretty surprised rice doesn't cost more after realizing all the work that goes into it.

Some local dogs

Rice harvest season

Farms here are mostly communally owned, people only individually own their houses

Local water management system

Temple Gates

Local irrigation in action

Drying Rice out for storage

Free Samples!

After the rice, we headed to Satria Luwak Coffee where the famous cat poo coffee comes from! This was another one of the gimmicky stops on our tour, but actually turned out pretty fun! We got to see various fruit plants and even the "cats" (really palm civets) that poop out coffee beans that are sanitized and roasted for coffee! (These adorable little guys also might have been the start of COVID-19 in a Chinese wet market). We then arrived at a little but that goes through the whole process of making coffee which was fun. We got to roast our own beans and grind them for coffee. Afterward, we were brought to the cafe where we got a free sample board of many flavours of coffee and teas. Hunter and I really enjoyed a few we didn't think we ever would!

Another VW Thing

Cacao pods at the planation

Coffee Flowers

Sleepy Civet

Catpoochino

They put Stormy to work!

Sampling ALL the drinks

Surprisingly good tea

Hunter loves a pink drink

More sleepy civets

Next on the itinerary was lunch at Pangkon Bali Resto & Agrotourism. Hunter and I weren't super hungry, but we each ordered the vegetarian option and it did not disappoint! There was so much food neither of us fully finished everything, we enjoyed the beautiful view of the rice paddies and some Coke Zeros in the shade.

Our lunch spot was quite picture esque

Lunch Views

We got almost this sleepy

After lunch we headed to our last stop of our tour which was the famous Tegalalang rice terraces and swings! These UNESCO world heritage terraced farms are incredibly photogenic and have become quite the tourist hotspot in recent years as Bali sees more visitors. The swings were fun, but kind of painful. The guys operating it were pretty fun however and took a ton of awesome pics!

Rice terraces!

These are 100s of years old communal farms and the terracing was designed for irrigation originally

Crazy tourist activities

We love Bali too!

Swinging in style

After our fun activity, we started the journey home around 2:30. We got back to the St Regis at 4:30 and then took a walk to the convenience store across the street as well as visiting the ATM since we wanted some more local bills available for food and tips.

Our hotel's magnificent gate

Always have time to stop and smell the flowers!

After getting a few more drinks and snacks to keep in our room, we walked back to the hotel and decided to go check out the main pool which was pretty large and warmer than our private pool. We swam around for about an hour and then stopped by the beach to dry off and lounge.

Beach+St Regis Beach Bag

I left around 6 to go back to the hotel room to shower and get ready for dinner while Hunter stayed behind a little longer to enjoy the crashing of the waves. After our long and busy day, for dinner, tonight we decided to do the evening buffet special and it was fabulous! So many tasty options.