City Day Tour

The colourful traditional market
see all photos »

We did the city day tour today. Before the van came to pick us up, we had our breakfast at the cafe in the hotel. The breakfast buffet was expensive, so we all ordered the local breakfast.

The mee goreng was okay, but the coffee was something else. It was like drinking hot water with sugar and milk. Giving the coffee at McDonald's a good fight.

Our first stop was at a batik-making factory. It was very small. Just a small hut where some ladies were sitting, demonstrating how batik was made. There was also a weaving machine.

Small art shop. The child on the man's lap was so cute.
see all photos »

The guide who was explaining the process had a very heavy accent, so it was difficult to understand her. After the short demo, we were ushered into the store, as to be expected. And as expected, none of us bought anything there. We are savy shoppers mah. Or you can say giam-siak shoppers.

Next, we went to a wood carving factory. According to our tour guide, this is a village and there are many such wood carving factories around. The pieces of art they carved where pretty intricate. The artisans can really do magic with the chisel and hammer. But given our climate and pollution, it would be mad to buy something and leave it there to collect dust. So again, no one bought anything.

Close-up of the cute kid.
see all photos »

There was supposed to be another stop at another village to look at jewellery, but we gave that a miss. But we did make a detour at someone's house near the wood carving factory. On the way to the factory, we had seen it from our van, and we had thought it was some kind of temple or something. It had a really scenic bridge across a stream of some sort leading to the front gate. We were all shocked to learn that it was actually someone's house.

Next, we headed to a Balinese art gallery where we saw how the paintings were done, and marvel at the pieces of art on display, which were also for sale. We ended up buying 3, after some hard bargaining.

Encik at the paddy field.
see all photos »

From the gallery, we made our way to a coffee plantation to satisfy our coffee addition. On the way, we came across a funeral procession. It seems the whole village was out to send the deceased to the cemetery where he/she would be cremeted, and it might be true. According to our guide, every family in the village will send a representative to such processions.

Leaving behind the procession, we headed for the coffee plantation. The coffee there was good and many of us ended up buying some home. There were also fruits on sale - passion fruit and an Indonesian fruit called "snake skin fruit" in Chinese. Of course there was some vigorous haggling before money and goods were exchanged.

Like right out of my geography textbook
see all photos »

After that, we took a scenic drive over small roads overlooking beautiful rice terraces to the mountain village of Kintamani (about 5,000 feet above the sea) which offers spectacular views of Lake Batur and the volcano. Mount Batur is still active till this day. As it was already lunch time. we had our pitstop here and filled up our stomaches at a restaurant there.

On our way back to the city, we stopped by a rice field that is cut into the slope of the hill. I'd learned this in school before. Something about making full use of the available land for cultivation. It was beautiful.

Even the windows at the art gallery are like pieces of artwork.
see all photos »

Then, it was on to the city. We walked around the traditional market, soaking in the atmosphere, feasting our eyes on the multi-coloured wares and traditional crafts on sale. And then it was time to return to the hotel. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant across from the hotel. The food was pretty decent. And there was live music.