Epic Bali Adventure / EFRT Epsiode 24

This week's video is about our amazing trip to Bali, Indonesia. We left from Adelaide, Australia, flew over the entire continent up to the Indian Ocean, crossed that and landed in Denpasar, Bali. After going through customs and picking up our baggage we met our guide, Ariyani, who had a van waiting for us to take us up to Hubud, which is in the central part of Bali. If you've ever driven in Indonesia, the roads can be pretty hectic. There's actually more motorcycles on the road than cars and they seem to be whipping in from all over the place. After the one hour drive up there, you know, you're a little bit stressed out from the drive and then we got to the Jempuan Hotel. We got out of the van, walked into their courtyard and it went from hectic and horns beeping and everything to just tranquility, peace and quiet and we knew we had it right. The next day we woke up early to meet our guide who would take us on our first trip to the Taman Ayun Temple. It was really fun getting to learn about their many different uses for coconuts and how to break them open. This is for the next generation, for seeding. It was also interesting to learn about all the different products and byproducts that came out of one coconut. We had everything from shavings, coconut shavings, to coconut oil, coconut milk, coconut water. Those are very versatile fruits. Yes, the shells, they actually cut them in half and turn them into traditional bowls. They use every little bit of the coconut. After learning how to make some of those products, we got to then enjoy those products that they turned into these delicious cakes and snacks and it was a lot of fun and they were absolutely delicious. Coconut sugar is actually another byproduct so they sweeten their cakes with that with that coconut sugar. It was amazing and it was delicious. After that we got to go out to the farm where they grow rice. They had a field of rice paddies but first we had to hike through another river valley and when we got to the to the rice area there was the flooded fields that needed to be planted so the first step was to get the cattle driven plows hooked up and then we got a chance to ride on those. Once that is done then we got up to our knees in mud. They handed us a bundle of rice plants and then we had to take three or so at a time and plant them and we'd do them spacing about a foot apart and the goal was to get as fast as possible because these local farmers plant acres and acres and acres of these things and they got to really move. So it took us a while to get used to it but after a while we got pretty good. Not nearly as good as the locals. Man when we we watched them working after a little while we couldn't believe how efficient and fast they were. They just would do row after row after row perfectly evenly spaced. Practice makes perfect. So just that whole exercise though getting up to our knees in mud and just getting out in the field gave us a new appreciation for rice. Next time we ate the next time we ate a bowl of rice we really understood the work and the labor that goes into producing it. After an amazing time farming we got to cool down with some coconut juice that they got for us and we got to learn how to climb palm trees how they did. As well as eating what was the fruit the passion passion fruit which is right off of the tree right off of the trees. Man they have a lot of stuff growing there that you can just pick right off the trees and eat it's pretty pretty amazing. The next day we went to see the mother temple this is probably the largest temple and the oldest in the entire country but in order to go there we thought it would be more appropriate if we were wearing the local traditional wear. They wear sarongs I think they're called it's like a robe that you wear and a special hat and you'll see in the video some of the clothing that we got to wear that day and it really made us feel like a part of the scene there and feel like a local. So the first step was to go and see how the clothing and the fabrics are made by hand there which in itself was an incredible experience. The amount of work that goes into weaving these cloths these clothes together and then the detail that goes into painting every single little design it's just absolute unbelievable artistry and it was fun to watch them watch them make it. So we also felt like in order to contribute a little bit back to the town and to the townspeople there it'd be nice to to purchase these clothes and and that would help the local economy a little bit and we could leave the place a little better than when we found it. To the temple however our guide Ariane wanted to let us experience a traditional dance. It's more than just a dance it's almost like a play they tell historical stories it was incredibly different from what we're used to but it was incredibly interesting and educational. After watching the traditional dance we then headed up to the mother temple. Now it's about a thousand feet up Mount Agung which is a stratovolcano and the highest point in Bali. Next we headed to the Kerdagosa hall of justice and museum. Another crop that's grown in Bali is coffee. We love coffee. Some of the world's finest and most expensive coffee comes from there it's called kopi luak coffee. What makes it so special is that it's the beans are collected and eaten by the mongoose. The theory is that they know the best beans just through this their senses of smell and so on and when they find the most finest beans they eat them digest them and then the farmers collect the beans out of their poop. So it goes through their entire system and then they wash them off and then they process them the way they would normally with coffee. We got a chance to be part of that whole process. We got to roast the beans and grind them and then eventually have our own cup of coffee. It was pretty good. Yeah it was delicious. One of my favorite things was sitting in the jungle overlooking the rice paddies sampling all the different types of coffees and teas. My favorite coffee was coconut coffee. That's the same. Mine was the kopi luak. We actually bought some and brought it home. This is the luak coffee, arabica coffee and robusta and then the cocoa. So the cocoa, the after being grinded that's vanilla. A cup of coffee anyone? It's eaten by the mongoose. I think the theory behind it is they know the really good coffee beans so they eat them and then digest them and then cook them out and let them dry and after they dry them they shell the seeds. There's two shells on them to peel them. And then first they go in here and then they roast them. I hope I'm doing it. They're roasted then they pan them into a and then you drink it. So here's the end product. Ash pot. Expensive but I dare say delicious. The next day we had another big adventure in store. It started with a Balinese blessing. After that we went to a local restaurant where a chef was going to teach us how to cook Balinese food. It began with going into their organic garden and selecting fruits and vegetables and all the ingredients that we're going to work with to make this meal and then we got to work in the kitchen which in Bali they're usually an outdoor kitchen with charcoal fires and all kinds of traditional utensils. It was just a great experience chopping up the veg, learning how to put it all together and cook it and working with the meat the way they do pounding it into it almost like a paste and then putting it onto these skewers. How did you work with that? Yeah we put them onto skewers or on lemongrass. Which gives it even more flavor. Yeah it smelled amazing. Yeah the aromas were insanely delicious. The food was good. They use a lot of vegetables. It's almost a completely vegetarian diet. At least the meals that we participated in. So the whole experience was just incredibly fun and educational. Today we're learning how to cook Balinese food. I've got my traditional dress on. I'm wearing an apron and the kids as well and we're starting by working in the garden and picking vegetables for the meal and then we're going to go back to the kitchen and get a lesson in how to cook it. So it should be fun and educational and the food should be delicious by lunchtime when we eat it. What is that? Ginger. Ginger. Oh yeah. Right here Daniel's cooking some onions on coconut in coconut. The other day how they make coconut oil and we got a chance to work making it. So is that the one you picked up there? Yes fresh by a self-serving vegetable. Another fun Balinese adventure was getting up close and personal with the elephants. Next we went to the monkey forest. This is a area where there's a whole lot of monkeys. What was that like? I mean I had one crawling on my back and getting on my head. The first one I got on me stole my hat. After an action-packed week in Ubud we then drove through the mountains to the north coast of Bali, a place called Puri Suran Baruna. It was nice to see how things changed, how the landscape changed, the ocean was different and there was a lot of fishermen out there casting their nets. A really peaceful part of the island. After experiencing the north shore we then drove all the way to the east coast and spent a couple of days at the beautiful Rama Kandadasa. It's our last couple of days here in Bali. We really had an awesome time. Tonight we're staying at a place called the Rama Kandadasa. It's very remote and quiet and peaceful. Really enjoyed our time here. It's just been incredible and I recommend you come to Bali. After exploring a lot of the beautiful island of Bali we didn't want to miss the resort area which Bali is so famous for. So we headed down to an incredible resort called the Pan Pacific which was near Denpasar, right on the ocean. Big pools, wave pools, slides, water slides, delicious food, incredible rooms. What an awesome time. Eventually it was time to leave. We had met so many incredible people and had such a great experience in Bali. We headed to the Denpasar airport to await our flight but in the meantime the airline that we had arrived on from Australia, Tiger Air, could no longer fly into Bali. It was some issue they were having with the Indonesian government so we didn't have a ride home but our travel agent scrambled to find another flight and after some pretty decent delays we ended up on a plane and we flew into Australia. We landed up in Darwin which is at the very north part of Australia where we had another lengthy delay but it gave us a chance to get caught up on some sleep on the chairs waiting for our next flight which would take us across continent back to South Australia in Adelaide. Middle of a seven hour delay in Darwin, North Australia and people sleeping all over the place. This whole airline shutdown really caused a backlog and so we flew from one o'clock we left at one o'clock in the morning and arrived here at five o'clock local time so we lost two hours there somewhere and now we got to wait seven hours till we fly around noon and then it's like a five hour flight or something up to Adelaide so needless to say we're gonna be very tired even though we're catching a little bit of sleep here and there. All in all what an amazing trip to Bali guys did you enjoy this? Yeah it was amazing. I mean we'll keep those memories forever. It was not only relaxing but it was educational and really stretched our world view. You know our goal was to learn about other people because you can just get kind of a closed world view when you only stay in one place so going to other cultures learning about other religions it really opens your eyes and I think and I hope it makes you more of a compassionate person. That was our goal and I think that was the result of our amazing trip to Bali. We hope you enjoyed this week's video and we hope that you stay tuned by subscribing make sure you hit that subscribe button there's also a notify button it looks like a little bell if you click that whenever we post you're going to get a notification so you don't miss a single adventure and follow along as we travel together as a family working hard playing even harder and then caring for the people we meet and the places we visit and in the meantime we'll see you down the road.