An early morning flight the next day took us back to Bali, the infamous beachy Indonesian party capital. Luckily, an inland hub called Ubud is well insulated from the raging Aussies and puking Brits who rule the party scene down on Kuta beach. Bali itself is a Hindu haven in this Muslim country. There, every family has its own ornate temples and all the women offer sacrifices of flowers and sweets to the gods. Ubud is at the heart of it with a beautiful royal palace, many temples, nearly a dozen types of traditional dancing, traditional crafts and art and just a generally hipster-foodie vibe going on.
Jeanette and I found a pleasant homestay where they fed us banana pancakes for breakfast and the family was super helpful and friendly. In fact, most Indonesians are. We snooped around the monkey forest where Jeanette's fear of our distant reletives balance my uncany exuberance towards them.
We caught a traditional fire dance that was more like India does Opera with an elaborate mythological plotline that was impossible to follow yet entertaining nonetheless.
The next day we rented a motor scooter from our hosts and drove to a couple ruined and restored temples
en route to a volcano and volcanic lake. The beautifully eerie basalt formations made me nostalgic for Iceland.
We also stopped by a local coffee plantation where a kid very well versed in English gave us a tour of the plantation
before laying out a spread of 5 teas and 6 coffees for us to try for free.
I finally broke my 6 week long coffee fast (only momentarily) for the opportunity to try Luwak Coffee!
The concept: civic cat meets coffee, civic cat eats coffee, civic cat digestive juices ferment coffee, civic cat poops coffee beans, farmer collects coffee beans, farmer washes, peels, and roasts coffee beans, farmer grinds coffee beans, and farmer serves us authentic acidic delicious Luwak Coffee! Our guide said that with about 500 mongooses (mongeese?) roaming his plantation it takes his family two weeks to gather up 1kg of Luwak Coffee beans which justifies the premium. I paid nearly $33 for 100g to take back home. But I think Indonesia is one of the few places in the world where you can get this sort of thing. So we capped our awesome day off with a fancy inexpensive meal at one of the town's many Anthony Bordain shout out worthy restaurants. The next day would take us out of Hindu country toward Mt. Bromo... or so we thought.
In catching our van out of Kuta beach the following morning we ran into several kids heading toward Mt. Ijen, a volcanic mountain en route to Bromo but less touristed and known for its sulfuric mine that boasts blue fire. We shelled out some extra rupiah and decided to scratch our prebooked Bromo trek for a glimpse of blue fire (burning sulfer) and so we joined a Belgian couple and Harvard law student for the ride.
As of 2 days post hike, I'm still not exactly sure why the fire's blue or why the sulfer is aflame in the first place but I do know its cool as heck.
A 1.5 hour climb at 2AM took us to sulfuric smoke stacks where villagers rot their lungs and break their backs mining and trucking 75kg loads of sulfer up and down the mountain for less than 6 cents a kg. The foreigners (bules) were instructed to wear nose masks (shirts and scarves) to avoid the toxic fumes.
To make matters worse, the harsh grip of Ramadan has befallen 90% Muslim Indonesia this month so the laborers can't eat or drink from before 4:30 AM to after 6:30 PM. I hope Allah takes good care of them in the afterlife cause their on a fast track... and speaking of Ramadan the loudspeaker prayers here have replaced the roosters in Thailand and Laos as alarm clocks. They come on 5 times a day and are periodically ornamented with explosions that sound like gunshots. It's random moments in life like passing sweating, coughing AND starving human mules that make me grateful for my devout athiesm. After the blue fire, we continued up the mountain not quite reaching the summit to catch a pretty sunrise.
Fast forward a couple days and we're happily planted in Jogjakarta, a univeristy hub and second most popular tourist destination in Indonesia. This town has a very unique charm of its own and to make matters better we may have stumbled across the best couchsurfing guide to show us around. But you got to stsy tuned for Jogja stories cause after two days, its time I close this browser window. Ciao.
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