I was great that I had the opportunity to get away with Mom and Dad. All our first time, we went to Bali. We stayed inland in Ubud. Our hotel (Green Field Hotel - recommended by a friend
www.greenfieldubud.com ) was conveniently located just south of the town. It was so quiet and peaceful. We had a gorgeous view of the rice paddies.
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| Lake Batur |
The first day we explored the town - great shopping!!!! The second day we went on a bike tour (also recommend by many of my friends - and I also recommend it!) The company Eco-tours - picked us up from our hotels - there were 14 of us in the group. We were driven near the active volcano and the lake of Batur. We had breakfast up there and then toured a fruit and spice garden. We learned about Lewak coffee and tasted 6 different coffee. I enjoyed Ginseng coffee. Lewak coffee is basically coffee that a civet (animal) eats ripe coffee beans and then poops them out and what he poops out is the bean that is used to make coffee! It was really strong!
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| Dad planting rice |
We finally got on our bikes. It was a downhill ride so we used our hand muscles (braking) way more than our leg muscles! We went through small villages and even went into a compound where a family lives. 19 people lived in this very small, 3rd world environment, unsanitary area. We also stopped along rice fields and learned how rice is harvested. Some of us (Dad and I) ventured with trying to plant the rice while we waded in knee deep mud and planted one rice grain at a time! What a difficult job - in that mud, in the direct sun and bending over all day long. No thank you!
Dad and 3 other people from our group decided they wanted a more physical workout of cycling than the nice downhill route we had enjoyed and rode the last 10 km up almost all uphill to the restaurant where we enjoyed the lunch which was provided in our tour. While they exerted themselves, the rest of us chose to take the van to the restaurant! The ride was extremely tough.
Our last day we did another activity - we took a cooking class. We met the group of 14 people at the local market and learned about different spices and produce then went to the woman's house who does the lessons. We all had different jobs of chopping, slicing, cooking, grinding and mixing. It was very well laid out and everyone had ample opportunities to participate.
www.paon-bali.com Paon means kitchen in Balinese. We made clear mushroom and vegetable soup (Kuah Wong), the basic yellow sauce for curry (Base Gede), minced chicken grilled on bamboo sticks (Sate Siap), Vegetables in Peanut Sauce (Kacang Me Santok), Coconut and Snake Bean Salad (Jukut Urab), Steamed Fish in Banana Leaves 9Pepesan Be Pasih), Deep Fried Tempe in sweet soy sauce (Tempe Me Goreng) AND Boiled Banana in Palm Sugar Syrup (Kolak Biu)!
The first day we explored the town - great shopping!!!! The second day we went on a bike tour (also recommend by many of my friends - and I also recommend it!) The company Eco-tours - picked us up from our hotels - there were 14 of us in the group. We were driven near the active volcano and the lake of Batur. We had breakfast up there and then toured a fruit and spice garden. We learned about Lewak coffee and tasted 6 different coffee. I enjoyed Ginseng coffee. Lewak coffee is basically coffee that a civet (animal) eats ripe coffee beans and then poops them out and what he poops out is the bean that is used to make coffee! It was really strong! 
Dad and 3 other people from our group decided they wanted a more physical workout of cycling than the nice downhill route we had enjoyed and rode the last 10 km up almost all uphill to the restaurant where we enjoyed the lunch which was provided in our tour. While they exerted themselves, the rest of us chose to take the van to the restaurant! The ride was extremely tough.
Our last day we did another activity - we took a cooking class. We met the group of 14 people at the local market and learned about different spices and produce then went to the woman's house who does the lessons. We all had different jobs of chopping, slicing, cooking, grinding and mixing. It was very well laid out and everyone had ample opportunities to participate.www.paon-bali.com Paon means kitchen in Balinese. We made clear mushroom and vegetable soup (Kuah Wong), the basic yellow sauce for curry (Base Gede), minced chicken grilled on bamboo sticks (Sate Siap), Vegetables in Peanut Sauce (Kacang Me Santok), Coconut and Snake Bean Salad (Jukut Urab), Steamed Fish in Banana Leaves 9Pepesan Be Pasih), Deep Fried Tempe in sweet soy sauce (Tempe Me Goreng) AND Boiled Banana in Palm Sugar Syrup (Kolak Biu)!
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