Indiana Catboy and the Temple of Coffee
Jun. 3rd, 2024 01:17 pmChilled out morning. Yesterday was a little hectic so we had a chilled out morning by the pool. Then booked the rest of the week's excursions. I'm a little worried we might be a bit busy now. I don't think we'll have a lot more pool-time. But I want to visit Ubud. We both want to go on the "night safari". ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
flickums is really keen on spending a day snorkelling around shipwrecks and another day being a ghoul.
Visited the Cheshire Cat Café. Not its actual name. Just a café with a Disney Cheshire cat outside. But they sell Blue tea, so flickums insisted we try it. Flickums doesn't drink tea though so I was obliged to drink it,
So this evening's activity was a temple tour and fire dance, With an unscheduled side order to a coffee shop.
The driver/guide had a wealth of information. Wasn't sure how to take this at first. It seemed a little like Grampa Simpson's rambles, but I actually warmed to him quite quickly. He mentioned Kopi Luwak - coffee beans that have been through a mongoose and is apparently extremely expensive in other countries (although from research he was talking about wild coffee bean prices rather than farmed), but just around £2 here. I was intrigued. He said he knows a place. So we went to this shop that was essentially a coffee showroom. they talked briefly about the plants used, and they then gave us a tasting platter of 15 different coffees and the option to buy a cup of Kopi Luwak.
I wasn't a fan. It tasted like mongoose poop.
Still, the avocado coffee was quite nice so I bought a pack of that. And they had some intriguing looking chocolate.
Next stop was Uluwatu temple. Our guide picked up a stick - apparently very important for dealing with monkeys. Monkeys are, by all accounts, thieving bastards and will steal phones, hats and especially glasses, if given half a chance. They manage to get away with it by being kinda cute. We did see some monkey-chewed glasses and we saw a monkey playing with some recently stolen sunnies. Flickums warmed to our guide after he heroically fended off the monkeys
Uluwatu means corner of the cliff. This is a very large Hindu clifftop temple. We were warned in the information to wear long trousers and cover our shoulders but the do provide sarongs for visitors who aren't aware of the rule. The temple itself is really quite impressive - and has some lovely views across the sea.
The evening was wrapped up with a Kecak fire dance show. a play that involved lots of people chanting "takataka" and apparently involved a princess being kidnapped by a demon that had disguised itself as a deer to lure the prince away, There was a money involved somehow as well. Yeah... Didn't really follow it, even though I had a plot summary. It was entertaining in its way, but the seats were really uncomfortable and I was pretty glad when it's over. Glad we saw it but mainly so I can say I've had the experience.
The local insect population seems to have taken a liking to me. I am very bitten.
flickums is really keen on spending a day snorkelling around shipwrecks and another day being a ghoul.Visited the Cheshire Cat Café. Not its actual name. Just a café with a Disney Cheshire cat outside. But they sell Blue tea, so flickums insisted we try it. Flickums doesn't drink tea though so I was obliged to drink it,
So this evening's activity was a temple tour and fire dance, With an unscheduled side order to a coffee shop.
The driver/guide had a wealth of information. Wasn't sure how to take this at first. It seemed a little like Grampa Simpson's rambles, but I actually warmed to him quite quickly. He mentioned Kopi Luwak - coffee beans that have been through a mongoose and is apparently extremely expensive in other countries (although from research he was talking about wild coffee bean prices rather than farmed), but just around £2 here. I was intrigued. He said he knows a place. So we went to this shop that was essentially a coffee showroom. they talked briefly about the plants used, and they then gave us a tasting platter of 15 different coffees and the option to buy a cup of Kopi Luwak.
I wasn't a fan. It tasted like mongoose poop.
Still, the avocado coffee was quite nice so I bought a pack of that. And they had some intriguing looking chocolate.
Next stop was Uluwatu temple. Our guide picked up a stick - apparently very important for dealing with monkeys. Monkeys are, by all accounts, thieving bastards and will steal phones, hats and especially glasses, if given half a chance. They manage to get away with it by being kinda cute. We did see some monkey-chewed glasses and we saw a monkey playing with some recently stolen sunnies. Flickums warmed to our guide after he heroically fended off the monkeys
Uluwatu means corner of the cliff. This is a very large Hindu clifftop temple. We were warned in the information to wear long trousers and cover our shoulders but the do provide sarongs for visitors who aren't aware of the rule. The temple itself is really quite impressive - and has some lovely views across the sea.
The evening was wrapped up with a Kecak fire dance show. a play that involved lots of people chanting "takataka" and apparently involved a princess being kidnapped by a demon that had disguised itself as a deer to lure the prince away, There was a money involved somehow as well. Yeah... Didn't really follow it, even though I had a plot summary. It was entertaining in its way, but the seats were really uncomfortable and I was pretty glad when it's over. Glad we saw it but mainly so I can say I've had the experience.
The local insect population seems to have taken a liking to me. I am very bitten.
