So, everyone that thought I was going to start the blog by mentioning how visiting Bali was an impulsive decision -Raise your hands!
Lol…Wrong!
It was a family holiday, hence there was a lot of homework. However the homework was done on Malaysia, Things went topsy-turvy a day before the trip and we ended up in Bali.
As I’ve been to Jakarta before on a solo mission, Bali would be no different I thought. But the aim as every family holiday goes was to keep the kids content. So we decided on going in the same lines as Krabi-
The Plan
- A beach resort(ON the beach). Now some might say why specify that it needs to be on the beach when you book a beach resort right? We learnt our lesson the hard way.
- Lots of pool time. Now that the little ones are learning how to swim, the pool was making it to the ‘Must have’ list.
- Plenty of snoozing and sleeping
- The freshest seafood – possible. This was imperative for me.
Beach Resort
So after a lot of research, trying to balance economic factor and keeping the happiness meter at its top, we went ahead to book a resort, which advertises itself to be a ‘beach resort’. Excellent-booked!On landing, a very friendly, smiling driver assists us in the car. On driving for about 20 mins, we see the Beach! Woo hoo…but hey wait, not only is it on the other side of an extremely busy road but it has a wall built all along the coast. One cannot really see the beach, except when you enter through one of the many little ‘breaks’ in the wall. Now hold on a second-this meant that the resort was on this other side of the main road? Disappointment smacked us on the face :(. It wasn’t a beach resort, it was Opposite the beach-resort.
The resort in itself was dainty and beautifully maintained. No complaints whatsoever. But having to hold our hearts in our hand every time we wanted to go to the beach with 2 little kids was starting to feel pointless.
So we decided to go on a day tour with a knowledgeable tour guide Kadex suggested by my friend. Not on the itinerary, I know, but it would be fun.
THE Luwak coffee
I have heard a lot about this particular coffee and wanted to try it while we were here, suggested the idea to Kadex and he was all up for it.
Kadex knew exactly where to stop for the famous Luwak coffee or the CAT-POOP-CINO as my wife calls it.
Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee and Luwak is the local name of the Asian palm civet in Sumatra. Kopi Luwak is the coffee that has been digested by an Asian palm civet. It eats the coffee cherries, which then goes through the digestive tract and fermentation occurs, and then they pass through the intestines and eventually comes out as poop. The coffee cherries are then picked out from poop dried, roasted etc… like how a normal coffee bean will be processed. YUMMM!
I was the brave warrior that went on the quest for Luwak coffee. My verdict –It didn’t taste any different to me. Honestly, I might not possess the fine palette required to savour it considering its one of the world’s most expensive coffee. By the way, an extensive video is on the way.
Tegenungan Waterfall
I am still wondering why so much hype for the coffee. In the meantime, we decided to visit Tegenungan waterfall. Yes! all the tourists go there so did we.
The waterfall is surrounded by lush green forest and had to go down over a hundred plus stairs to reach the base. It was all worth it at the end. As expected the whole of the falls was invaded by fellow tourists. I guess this must be an amazing spot to visit during the early hours.
To be continued …. Part 2
And in the meantime checkout a little teaser video