Month: June 2016

Day 67: Journey to Moni

This morning as we woke up and started packing our bags for the flight to Ende, we realized something terrible had happened. Lindsay’s couple of boots were missing. Tracing back our steps, we realized that she had set them down in the taxi the night before, and didn’t check the seat before getting out. We had no way of finding the driver again, nor would he be able to find us even if he did volunteer to bring them back.

TRAGEDY. I lost my boots!

Lindsay was super upset for the rest of the day, over the loss of her beloved boots. We had no choice but to keep going according to schedule. So we boarded the flight and took off for the next adventure.

Once we arrived in Ende, we were once again greeted by the sound of a dozen taxi drivers, each insisting he had the best price to Moni. Since all of them were shouting prices, we didn’t even have to really haggle – we were more like auctioneers calling out each driver’s price, letting them bargain themselves down. We got the price down to 300,000 IDR for a one-way trip to Moni and headed off. The trip normally takes 2 hours, but due to construction on the mountain road, we waited an extra hour in the late morning heat. We had to insist that our driver turn the AC on.

All the cars and ojeks waiting for the road to clear

We finally arrived in Moni and checked into the AntonEri Lodge – one of very few accommodations in Moni available for booking online. It was pretty basic, but clean. However, when Igor saw that there were no screens over the decorative tiles above the door, he insisted that the manager give us a mosquito net, otherwise we would find a different lodge. The manager (the owner’s brother) complied and we had a very nice net set up for us.

 

We’ve had enough of mosquitos after Kakadu – we don’t need malaria too. The net helped us sleep soundly (literally)

As the main attraction for the area is Kelimutu Volcano – best seen at sunrise – we didn’t have much to do during the day. We wandered over to the Rainbow Café – a “resto” pointed out by our taxi driver as we came into town. We ordered a couple of cold sodas, and while we were relaxing in the shade, were soon joined by Cristo – a local who had noticed us coming into town, and gently started asking us questions: “Where are you staying?” “Are you going to Kelimutu?” “How are you getting there?” He informed us that he was an ojek driver and could pick us up in the morning to take us up the mountain to see the sunrise. As we were bargaining on a price, we were joined by Rolf – an Australian tourist travelling solo, who was Cristo’s current client. We chatted with both Cristo and Rolf over lunch and got a good feel for Cristo (especially when he realized Lindsay didn’t have any hiking shoes and immediately ran home to loan her his old sneakers! They were a size too small, but they were better than sandals) so we booked him for sunrise the next day.

 

A common sight in Flores – people tie up their livestock (cows and goats mostly) on the side of the road and just leave them there to graze all day. This one was particularly friendly.

 

Exploring the outskirts of Moni – many dirt roads to pastoral neighborhoods. Very few people own cars or trucks in Flores (ojeks are the main form of private transportation), but the few that do give everyone a lift.

Across the street from the Rainbow Café was the trail to Murondao Waterfall, so we headed over to check it out. After admiring the falls in silence for about 15 minutes, a group of about two dozen villagers came down the trail – apparently it was laundry-day! All the women had carried down loads of clothes on their heads, and all the children started jumping into the water for bath-time. After observing the spectacle for a while, the villagers eventually realized they had an audience – which made them ask us for pictures! Unfortunately, we have no way of giving them copies of these pictures, but they seemed pleased to know that somewhere, someone was admiring their poses.

 

Walking past so many tropical fruit trees on our way to the Muronado Waterfall

 

Locals coming down to the waterfall for laundry & bathtime

 

The kids noticed we had a camera and immediately starting yelling, “Mister! Picture!”

Unfortunately, Lindsay had been developing a migraine throughout the day as a result from getting so upset over her lost boots, she had to lie down in the lodge to try and sleep it off, leaving Igor by himself for the rest of the afternoon. He spent a good couple of hours chatting with the hotel manager, asking him questions about Indonesia: religious make-up of Flores vs Bali vs the rest of the country (90% Catholic vs 90% Hindu vs 90% Muslim), police corruption (you have to pay 100M+ rupiah to become a police officer because the profession is so lucrative due to the ability to shake down bribes), and tourism (during the high season, the entire town sells out and you would not be able to come to Moni without a reservation – you would have to sleep in the street! Hard to believe when we were the only ones staying in his lodge). Just before sunset, Igor took a short walk to try and find dinner, but the only restaurant with Wifi said it was only for guests of *their* hotel, so he came back to the room at 6:30PM to join Lindsay for a *really* early night (Hey! We’re getting up at 3:30AM the next day).

 

Igor was shooting the breeze with the hotel manager while Lindsay took a nap at the AntonEri Lodge

 

Exploring the outskirts of Moni just after sunset

Day 66: Flores XP Dragon Tour – Day 3

After a super tasty breakfast, we packed up and said farewell to our tropical hideaway, as we headed off to revisit Batu Bolong and Manta Point. Half of the rock at Batu Bolong was protected from the current in the morning, so we got the green light to go into the water. Unfortunately, since we were flying to Ende the next morning, Igor and Lindsay had to forgo diving for snorkeling. Shame too, because this site was another “wall” reef – but we still saw our share of turtles and triggerfish.

 

Chocolate muffins!!!!!

The highlight of the day was Manta Point. There was a very strong current, but we stuck with Paul as our guide and the boat drifted along with us. Guys, there were SO MANY MANTAS! At one point, a school of six mantas – each about 3m wide! – were swimming around us! At one point, Lindsay turned around to see her “buddy” Igor furiously swimming against the current away from the group – as she chased him to try and tell him to come back, all of a sudden a huge manta ray breached the surface an arm’s length from Igor! Mind. BLOWN.

 

Really wish we had a camera for this…

 

I FINALLY FOUND DORY! There were dozens of Dorys at Manta Point. Honestly, I don’t know which fish got me more excited.

Just before lunch, we stopped at another Pink Beach. We were all kind of snorkeled out (after all, what could top Manta Point?), so we mostly just swam around for pleasure and explored the beach.

 

Crystal-clear waters at Pink Beach

 

Having a great day on the beach

 

Chillaxin’ in the water

 

The beach really is pink, due to small bits of broken coral

 

Lots of dead, bleached coral washed up on shore, and artfully arranged by tourists

In the afternoon, we headed over to Rinca Island for our second Komodo Dragon trek. We all agreed the quality of the trek and the enthusiasm of the park rangers on Rinca Island was better than Komodo – so if you ever visit and only have time for one, we recommend Rinca.

 

Pulling up to the dock at Rinca Island

Our park ranger guide explaining the trail

 

You are GUARANTEED to see dragons at Rinca, as the rangers tend to throw small food scraps out their kitchen windows. Not enough to really *feed* them, but enough for a little treat

 

This male dragon is so fat, he doesn’t even care about the bird walking RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS MOUTH

 

Taking a pic with a lazy dragon, before continuing into the jungle where we found a female dragon digging a nest for her eggs. Apparently dragons will take over nests originally built by jungle turkeys, and then add a few decoy nests to protect their eggs from other dragons.

 

Taking in the vista at the top of the hill

 

Adding to the rock piles! Don’t let them fall!

 

We spotted a deer the distance – one of the many prey for the dragons

 

Farewell to Rinca – it was fun!

As the sun started to set, we headed back toward Labuan Bajo. Our final destination of the trip was a quick stop at Kalong Island where every night one can see thousands of Flying Foxes heading over to Flores Island to find food. Speaking of food, we were getting a bit peckish – our trusty chefs surprised us with one final Indonesian treat – fried bananas! Thanks so much to the crew & fellow passengers of the Flores XP Dragon Tour – it was seriously a blast!

 

Heading back to Labuan Bajo

 

Our new favorite dessert – fried bananas!

 

Flying Foxes at Kalong Island

When we got back to the wharf, we had to settle our bills (beer & dives were extra) before grabbing our boots out of the storage box, hobbling off the boat and looking for a taxi to our hotel. We walked through the fish market on the wharf and for once, couldn’t not find a taxi driver! Just as we thought we would have to start walking the 5km out of town, our confusion finally got the attention of young woman whose uncle had a taxi. Exhausted, we jumped in the back of the taxi, Lindsay tossing her boots on the floor, and settled in for the long drive out.

When we got to the Sylvia, our formally deserted resort was now hosting a party of about 75 Indonesian tourists. When we tried to check in, the receptionist couldn’t find our reservation (our fault – we later realized we had booked a room for the next day), but luckily they had an empty room for us anyways. We quickly escaped the madhouse of the hotel lobby, and crashed in our room.

 

Fresh fish market at the wharf in Labuan Bajo

Day 65: Flores XP Dragon Tour – Day 2

While we were told there would be an early wake-up call the next morning, everyone seemed to get up naturally with the sunrise. After breakfast, we left our baggage on the island and headed off for Komodo to see the dragons! The boat ride took about 2 hours, so it was already pretty hot out by the time we arrived. When our tour guide suggested we walk the short trail through the jungle, there were no compaints. While we were warned that we might not see any dragons as it was “mating season” and the dragons tend to go up into the mountains to mate, I suspect the park rangers were just trying to set our expectations really low so we would be overjoyed when we found the dragons, since we found one almost immediately hanging out in the shade of the trees.

The dragons are, of course, wild animals and can be unpredictable and attack humans, so the park rangers would take all of our cameras in turn to take close-up pictures of the dragon’s face. When we asked the park rangers how many times they had seen a komodo on attack someone, the young guys admitted they had never seen an attack on a human…but there was that one Swedish guy who was bitten and died in the 1970s. So, you know, safety first.

 

Welcome to Komodo Island National Park

 

Komodo Island Beach

 

Found our first dragon at the beginning of the short trail

 

Hiding behind the dragon for a photo-op

 

The rangers warned us that shiny objects might be mistaken for food – I’ll just hide these water bottles…

The rest of the short walk was dragon-free until we reached the beach and found a dragon walking along the shore. We all raced down the trail to try and beat other groups of tourists for an unobstructed view. Poor dragon – he just wanted a quiet stroll on the beach, and soon found himself mobbed by flashing cameras.

 

Dragon under the bridge! Quick – get a picture!

 

Igor got the first pic with the dragon, followed by many more (check out the ranger’s happy-dance!)

 

The dragon – tired of tourists – turns around and runs back to the jungle fast as he can

After Komodo Island, we stopped at Pink Beach for a quick snorkel before lunch (too shallow for diving), and then on to check out the conditions at Manta Point and Batu Bolong – two more dive sites. Unfortunately, our guides couldn’t spot any mantas, and the current at Batu Bolong was dangerously strong. So we headed back to Pirate’s Cove for more Bintangs and dinner.

 

Reading up on all the fishies – still looking for Dory, BTW

 

Checking the conditions at Batu Bolong – look at that current!

 

No mantas today – try again tomorrow

 

Heading back to the Cove for dinner – burgers! Yum.

Day 64: Flores XP Dragon Tour – Day 1

For our trip to Komodo Island, Igor booked us on a 3-Day tour with Flores XP – a company started by two expats (from Spain & Italy) which has built a glamping facility on one of the islands close to Komodo & Rinca. We had a fantastic time – highly recommended!

We met Michael, the Spanish partner, at the Labuan Bajo wharf at 7:30AM to board our boat. There were 8 other tourists booked for the trip (only 7 showed up – one guy was missing) – we all made our introductions over breakfast & coffee, before the boat shoved off.

 

Meeting at the wharf – next to a huge shipment of bananas

 

Fandhy and Paul explaining our schedule for the day: snorkeling/diving before heading to our campsite

 

Ready for our Komodo Adventure

 

So many pretty boats in Flores!

Our first dive location was at Kanawa Island. We were so excited to get back in the water after our Great Barrier Reef certification a few weeks ago – plus diving is so affordable (USD$25/dive) we couldn’t resist! While we had been unfortunate enough to have rainy weather in Cairns, we had a perfectly clear sunny day in Flores – visibility was twice what we had before! The first reef was full of interesting sea life: we saw two sea turtles, a lobster, pufferfish, and even a cuttlefish which changed colors as it swam away!

We brought our old Nikon Cool Pix camera underwater with us. While it is only supposed to work down to 10m, we had used it throughout our trip on the Great Barrier Reef with no problem – it would turn on underwater up to 18m, but would simply give an error message that it couldn’t shoot. Yeah, apparently 20m is the “no go” limit. When Igor pulled out the camera at the bottom of the reef, it wouldn’t turn on and Lindsay could see the screen was bending inwards. When we returned to the surface we discovered that the water pressure had finally killed our camera, breaking the water seal. So no original pictures – just Google Images.

 

I swear – we saw all of these in the wild.

After a delicious fried chicken lunch, we stopped at our second dive location: the Mini Wall. This was Igor’s favorite dive location of everything we’ve done so far, and his first real, “Wow!” moment while diving. Before this, he thought there was no big difference between snorkeling and scuba diving – you see all the same fish, just with a different perspective. The Mini Wall changed all that – it was like exploring a fish city! In addition to a large assortment of tropical fish, we saw two Lionfish, a Crocodile Flathead Rockfish and Garden Eels.

 

All the fish we saw.

We headed over to the “Pirate’s Cove” late in the afternoon to get settled into our accommodations. When Igor originally booked the tour, we assumed we’d be in tents on the beach – the glamping set-up was a very pleasant surprise! After claiming our huts, the 9 tourists broke into the Bintangs our tour guides brought for sale, and enjoyed the sunset on our private beach. Just as the sun was hitting the horizon, we saw another boat pull up in the distance – it was our mystery 10^th guest! Apparently he had forgotten the day of the week and thought the trip was starting the next day (sadly, very easy to forget the days of the week when you’re traveling). We got him a Bintang and welcomed him to the group, filling him in on the day’s adventures. After a delicious fish dinner (our guides are pretty impressive cooks!), and another hour or so admiring the stars, we retired to our huts and fell asleep to the sound of gentle waves on the shore.

Heading back to our camping grounds

 

Pirate’s Cove! Arrr.

 

GLAMPING

 

New friends sharing some beers on the beach

 

BINTANG – the beer of Indonesia

 

A stellar sunset, and a clear night sky

Day 63: Labuan Bajo

Since we were right across the street from the airport, we didn’t have get up too early for our flight to the island of Flores. We hopped on a small propeller plane (cue Indiana Jones music!) to Labuan Bajo – the jumping off point for Komodo Island.

 

Short flight to Labuan Bajo

The rest of the day was open for us to relax at the Sylvia Resort in Waicicu Beach, about 15min outside of town. Labuan Bajo proper doesn’t have a very swimmable beach, so it was nice to hang out at the resort for a few hours. We swam and kayaked and had a jolly time.

 

The beach at the Sylvia Waicicu Resort

 

We had the beach practically to ourselves – we only saw 4 other guests the entire day

 

Free kayaks were available, so we paddled around the small islands off the beach

 

Shuttle boats & a police boat “parked” on a beach? Returning to the Sylvia with a bag full of trash we picked up from the water. Probably futile as we noticed all the trash collected off the beach just goes into a pile behind a building on the property. Next storm will likely blow it all right back in the water.

When we checked our watches, we realized it was only 2PM – we did pretty much everything you could do at the Sylvia, and now were bored. The resort had internet, but only in the non-air conditioned lobby, so catching up on the blog/emails wasn’t really an option. The room had HBO in English (with Indonesia subtitles, of course), so we ended up vegging out in front of the TV until dinnertime.

 

Dinner sunset at the Sylvia Waicicu Resort

Now that we have started to veer off the “easy” places, a lot of our itinerary has buffer days & travel days built into it to account for bad weather & delays. So we’re starting to get used to the uneven pace of bursts of lots of activity, followed by uneventful days. Life of the traveler – don’t pity us too much.

Day 62: Bali – Mt. Batur / Ubud

We set our alarm for a 2AM wake up call, so that we could drive across the island in the middle of the night to climb Mount Batur in time for sunrise. Apparently it’s a thing here. Our driver from the day before agreed to pick us up from our hotel in Tuban and drive us around for the day, get us an English-speaking guide at Batur (guides are mandatory), and admission to the Ubud Monkey Forest for 1,365,000 IDR (USD$100). We probably could have gotten a better deal, but it’s nice to have an English-speaking driver and an air-conditioned car, so we felt satisfied.

We arrived at the mountain very quickly (no traffic in the middle of the night!) and started our climb with our guide, Cynthia, at 3:30AM. The first half of the trek was pretty easy – a flat trail (shared with about 200 other tourists) through farmland with a few ojeks passing by. Once we got to the half-way point, shit got real. It was about an hour, STRAIGHT UP. And the trail was not easy – oh no, this was some jagged-rock don’t-slip-or-you-die trail. Even though the temperature at this elevation was easily in the 60s, we were drenched in sweat and hiking in tank tops until we reached the top. We opted for the second peak lookout in the hopes it would be less crowded. With 200+ people on the mountain, there was no solitude to be found anywhere, but the stadium-style seating benches build at the summit helped everyone get a clear view. As we reached the top at about 4:45AM, we had a good hour to just sit around (while our cold sweat made us freeze) waiting for the sunrise. While there were vendors at the top selling hot coffee and tea, the lack of toilets made us decline.

 

Front-row seat, waiting for the sunrise

 

Batur Lake & Village, and Mount Rinjani on Lombok Island off Bali in the distance

The sunrise was pretty spectacular, especially since wisps of fog kept sweeping through the peaks – each time we get disappointed that the view is obscured, the clouds move and everyone whips out their camera again! After about 100+ new shots on our camera, Cynthia offered to take us around the crater before our descent, rather than heading straight down. Our driver had given us some hard boiled eggs for breakfast, so Cynthia showed us some vents in the volcano’s crater where we could heat up our food. She told us you could also cook raw eggs this way, but we were afraid of cracking the eggs during our ascent (which incidentally we did).

 

The Sun!

Sunrise view of Mount Abang with Mount Agung behind from the second peak of Mount Batur. If you stop at the first peak (right hand corner) you won’t be able to see the second mountain. We also noticed the first peak was often covered in fog, while our view was mostly clear.

 

Daylight reveals some animals at the top! Village dogs and some macaque monkeys looking for breakfast handouts

 

Two very happy trekkers

 

Steam coming out of vents in the crater

 

Our guide, Cynthia, warming up our breakfast

 

Hiking along the narrow crater ridge

 

View of the 1968 lava flow that destroyed the former village of Batur (now moved and rebuilt)

 

Sliding down the steep descent of Mount Batur

 

All the pretty mountain flowers

One thing that really stood out to us was how clean the trail on Mount Batur was – we were warned that Indonesia was going to covered in litter (which true – a lot of it is). But the Mount Batur Guide Collective takes it upon themselves to keep the area clean by designating the first of every month as the official “clean-up day”. Each guide was given a red plastic bag to pick up trash from the trail at the beginning of our hike, and as we headed toward the parking lot, we passed three bemos full of volunteers from the Batur Village on their way up the mountain to collect litter.

 

June 1st – Clean-Up Day on Mt. Batur

On the way back to the city, our driver took us through Ubud where we briefly stopped at the Tegalalang Rice Fields (unfortunately, not the season to be filled with water), then on to the main street to soak in the local atmosphere. Sure, it’s cuter than Kuta, but it’s still a busy street full of shops and taxi drivers constantly asking where you going. Everyone seems to stay in Ubud when they visit Bali, but the faux-hippi commercialism just doesn’t speak to us.

Tegalalong Rice Fields, ready for harvest

 

Walking through main street Ubud

 

A quiet side-street in Ubud

Our final stop was not on our original itinerary as Igor was afraid it would be a tourist trap. The Monkey Forest in Ubud is a tourist trap, but it’s a delightful one! Once again I must state: we love petting zoos. Any attraction that lets us interact with animals is time well spent. We spent a good two hours walking through the extensive grounds, fed bananas to the monkeys, and took a bazillion pictures.

 

An awesome visit to the Monkey Forest in Ubud

 

So many cute faces…and large genitalia (guess which one of us took that picture)

  

Even without the monkeys this place was cool – the giant fig tree and stone bridge were breathtaking

 

Buying bananas to feed the (greedy) monkeys – that 50,000 IDR went fast!

  

Igor trying to ration his second bunch of bananas after monkeys stole the first. Gone in 60 seconds.

On way out of the forest, we passed through a path that was less crowded with tourists. The monkeys in this park of the park didn’t even need bananas as a bribe to jump on us – they were just plain curious!

 

Who’s on my back? Oh, a monkey.

 

Monkeys looking for stuff to steal – luckily we read the warning at the entrance and made sure all water bottles, snack bars, sunscreen, etc. were safely zipped inside the backpack.

 

A little monkey with a couple of boots

We got back to Kuta around 1PM – given the early start we already felt we had a full day, so we relaxed in the AC and took advantage of the respectably fast internet. Around sunset, we headed off to the Kuta beach boardwalk to have dinner at the Boardwalk Restaurant, which had pretty good reviews on TripAdvisor. Turns out someone was having a wedding reception in the restaurant, but it was still open to diners, so we had a lovely dinner (good reviews are well-deserved), and even got to watch the fire dance performance booked for the wedding party.

 

Semi-wedding crashing at the Boardwalk Restaurant in Bali

Day 63: Bali – Mengwei / Coffee Plantation

We arrived at the Denpasar Airport around 2AM, and bleary-eyed wandered out of customs and into the Arrivals area where we were immediately accosted by a couple dozen taxi drivers all screaming to find out where we were going and insist they had the best “Special Price”. We had specifically chosen a hotel within walking distance of the airport so we wouldn’t have to worry about haggling in the middle of the night, and followed some Indonesian travelers who were making their way along the airport fence to the ojek parking lot. Using Igor’s cell phone, we finally figured out that our hotel was on the other side of a really dodgy dark alley. We woke up a few street dogs (who were not super friendly to two strangers walking around deserted streets in the middle of the night) but finally found our way to the hotel. We checked in and crashed.

We gained an hour and a half with the time zone change, so we were able to get a decent rest and still have time to start exploring Bali. We started out on foot, walking through the streets of Tuban & Kuta. For anyone who has seen Eat, Pray, Love, let me tell you that movie was NOT filmed in Kuta. Kuta is the Big City of Bali, where you go to do all your essential shopping (cell phone SIM card, sunblock, Western-style clothing, WINE); not where you go to find peace and tranquility. The pace did calm down a bit once we hit the beach, but it was so incredibly hot (even at 10AM!) that we soon left to find shelter in a fan-cooled restaurant for an early lunch.

 

Wedding set-up on Kuta Beach, and our first taste of Indonesian cuisine at Warung Damar

After lunch, we started looking for a driver so we could escape the city and try to find the natural and cultural beauties that Bali is famous for. We haggled one guy down to 400,000 IDR (about USD$30) to drive us around Bali for a half-day, and took off for the Pura Taman Ayun in Mengwei – a temple that has a reputation for having beautiful grounds and less crowded with tourists. As we were driving the hour and a half outside the city, we noticed large rain clouds starting to gather. We reached the temple, paid our entrance fee and just as we started to circle the inner section where we could see devotees performing religious ceremonies, the sky opened up and we were caught in a tropical downpour.

  

Taman Ayun Temple – the statues seem to be warning us of the ominous clouds

 

Multi-tiered towers within the inner sanctum of Pura Taman Ayun – the higher the pagoda, the more holy & closer to heaven

 

RAIN

At first we hid under some trees, hoping the rain would quickly pass. No dice. So we ran under a pavilion where we tried patiently to wait out the storm. Nope, nope, nope. Rain wasn’t going to stop. We finally caved and looked up the weather forecast (which we totally should have done first thing in the morning, before shopping in the sun and shelling out $30 for a taxi) – RAIN FOR THE REST OF THE DAY. BOO. We took a few more wet pictures of the temple before giving up and running back to our taxi driver.

 

The temple gates and water garden of Pura Taman Ayun – wetter than usual

We had planned to visit the Tanah Lot temple next for the sunset, but didn’t really see the point with the weather. Our taxi driver suggested we visit a nearby coffee plantation, and as Lindsay thought a warm cup of coffee would be really nice after getting drenched, we agreed. He took us to the Sari Amerta Coffee Shop near Tanah Lot, where we got a complimentary tasting of 12 various teas, coffees and hot chocolates. We also discovered that they sold the infamous Luwak coffee – made from pre-digested coffee beans (AKA poop) from the Asian civiet (a type of jungle cat) for 50,000 IDR/cup (about USD$3.75). Given that this is supposed to be the rarest and most expensive coffee in the world, it seemed like such a bargain so we decided to try it. Guys, if something sounds too good to true, it usually is. Neither of us could tell the difference between the poo coffee and regular Balinese coffee (which is tasty – don’t get me wrong!). While we have no qualms about paying $3.75 for the tasting experience, after looking up Luwak coffee production after the fact and finding out how rampant animal abuse is in the production of (cheap) Luwak coffee, we now wish we had called it quits before the 13th cup.

 

A short tour where our guide explains how Luwak coffee (from wild collected beans) is made. Kinda left out the part where civet farms keep the animals in cages. Apparently you can’t even trust “cage-free” labels in Indonesia. For more info, check out change.org: Cut the Crap

 

Luwak Coffee vs. Balinese Coffee. COULD NOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE. Balinese Coffee is delicious – no need to make animals suffer for a cup of joe.

 

I would still highly recommend visiting a coffee plantation in Bali – especially if it’s raining – the unique teas and flavored cocoas are totally worth it! But if animal welfare is important to you, make a point of not buying the Luwak Coffee and tell you tour guide why. Wish we had known better.

 

Huge variety of tea for sale. We were informed that Ginseng was an aphrodisiac. Igor claimed it just tasted really good.

We headed back to our hotel in Tuban for an early night, after making plans with our driver for the next day.

  

Dinner at MozzarElla – one of the few restaurants in Tuban – and falling in love with all the fruit juices in Bali