It’s our Kintamani tour day!! But first, breakfast! Jhon and Fizah ordered the Indonesian breakfast while I ordered the French breakfast which was way too sweet. I reminded myself to order their meal for my next breakfast.
Our tour guide and driver picked us up at 8am and our first stop was to watch a Barong Dance. Fizah and I were a little worried because many people scared us by saying, cannot speak while the show is on and it’s really scary. In reality, it is not. In fact, it was quite cool with random comedy in the middle of the show. Story line was interesting (with the help with written composition) and I think the end, the group of guys truly stabbed themselves with a “keris” while possessed. Yikes!
Oh, in between journeys our tour guide would “story-mory” with us about Balinese culture. He was super duper nice and informative. There was definitely no dull moment with him.
Next was to a Batik Village which was one of the spots I wanted to go. (Okay, actually all the places we were going are the places I wanted to go) We saw how the ladies did batik painting FROM SCRATCH and it’s not like your school batik design art project. Their designs are very detailed and it would take them months just to finish one cloth. My favourite type of batik design would be the stamped type, it has the most traditional design that us Malays are more familiar with.
But their hands free drawings are beautiful too although it is more inclined to modern artwork. I had wished to buy their stamped batik cloth but $25+ per metre is way beyond my budget. [$5 for 2m at Geylang, hokay?]
After that, we went to a silver minting village. These ladies are crazy awesome, they can combine minuscule silver balls into earrings and they can do this the whole day, every day. Maybe in 1 hour, my eyes would be like this (@_@)
Their jewellery and mantel pieces were beautiful, especially the silver & gold lined Arwana (which is my favourite fish btw) but yet again, we couldn’t afford to buy them. It was way beyond our budget and unfortunately the manager of the place was very unhappy with that and even complained to our tour guide.
-_-
Our last stop before heading to Kintamani, we went to a Painting village. All I can say is “WHOA!” I love art but I don’t have the talent to draw so I can truly appreciate the talent and skills these men has. Yet again there are many types of design from traditional (black and white) to modern.
I told Fizah, if we were really rich, our house would be really nice. Bali has great furniture, paintings and sculptures. The dedication and meticulous handy work is never missed in their work. This is also the time Jhon suffered his 1st cranky moment of the day. He was hungry but mainly frustrated because he wanted to buy at least one painting but it was beyond his budget.
We were already about to leave all cranky because Jhon wants a painting, I wanted to explore the place even more and Fizah wants to go to the toilet. But thanks to Fizah’s insistence to go to the toilet, everyone won!! While waiting, I managed to see the inner part of the place and someone quoted Jhon the painting he wanted at 20+% off! Well, guess who got his painting?
So we drove up and up and up and up and up (until our ears kept popping due to the latitude) to Kintamani. Even that trip was interesting because we were stopped TWICE by bad cops. We pity our incredible driver (who was aggressive, clearly experienced and nice) who had to pay the “road tax” but no worries, we were so satisfied with them that we gave a very big tip; more on that later.
I love the atmosphere at Kintamani; the air was fresh and it was cooling. No reason to be cranky from heat! We had our buffet lunch there and food was pretty alright. I would not say it’s fantastic but I guess we were too hungry to really care.
The ladies selling awful looking shirts were very aggressive and would not take no as an answer. In fact, they stalked us everywhere so we did what we do best, ignore and take pictures of the active volcano. Too bad it was cloudy so we barely get to see the volcano but we get to see clouds passing us by 100m away from us!!
Next, we went to a coffee plantation which is close to heaven for Jhon. I am not a fan of coffee because of the bitter taste but I can appreciate the aroma so I can’t wait to be engulfed by it. As soon as we entered the place, we smell a hint of poo. Yes, the poo from a civet. Most coffee lovers would know that the best coffee beans are mainly taken from the civet’s poop.
But as we enter deeper, we smell more of the coffee beans. Do you know there are male & female beans? And there is someone who would sort them out the whole day. Yikes! The things they have to do.
Their outdoor café is so calm & serene and we were served sample drinks. Jhon & Fizah ordered Luwak coffee which is actually the most expensive coffee in the world. Each drink has their acquired taste and tasted better with sugar (tawar melesey) but guess what?! As a non-coffee lover, I really enjoyed Ginseng Coffee! At the first sip, the Ginseng is mildly strong but after a few sips, you can barely smell and taste it and the coffee is not bitter at all. I love it so much that I bought coffee with Jhon & Fizah. hehe
We went souvenirs shopping soon after and boy the place was big. It was also the place I dropped my Levis sunglasses and one of the lens came out. -_- Luckily it was easily fixed. Click here for the souvenirs bought. I wanted to buy their awesome 3D kites but I was afraid I might squish them in my luggage. Ooh! Remember the peanuts that I raved about on the first day? Our tour guide offered to take me to a shop that sells them! I told you he is nice.
After that, we went to see Padi fields at Ubud. Our tour guide and driver were so nice that they say if we wish to stop anywhere to take pictures, just say so. These are the perks of having a private tour but of course we never really took advantage of it because we were lazy keep getting off and on the van. Hehe
I think this was the pivotal place throughout the entire tour. The air, scenery and even Indonesian traditional music that was conveniently played in the background by the locals made the entire ambience impressive. For once, we were speechless.
By this time, we were supposed to buy my peanuts but our generous tour guide offered us to watch a Kecak Dance which was near the shop we intended to go to. Jhon was hesitant because he had his 2nd cranky moment because well, he was getting hungry and tired.
For me and Fizah, we thought it is a great opportunity to go since our tour guide was willing to make a detour so we went. Jhon was not very thrilled because he was worried it was getting too late but our tour guide already reassured us that we have enough time. The show was interesting with the men going “CAK KECAK KECAK KECAK KECAK KECAK KECAK KECAK” 10000000000000x for 1 hour. Damn! Don’t they get thirsty? Storyline was great and a man walked and stomped on fire in the end. This was also the time I get my “special” souvenir from Bali. Check this link.
By this time, Jhon was already grouchy and I was thinking of cancelling my hunt for awesome peanuts but our tour guide was still very nice enough to make me happy even though I knew he and the driver has a cranky monster inside. That is why I think they are awesome!! Jhon for sure can’t be a tour guide. Haha
But hello! Fizah and I were hungry too but must not waste every opportunity right? Plus, we were nice enough because we were in and out of the place in 5-10 minutes. 3 cranky monsters Vs 2 ladies; better not take that chance so off we went looking for food.
Yeah, I don't know why I posted an unflattering picture of myself. Perhaps to show how tired I am? Food was pretty alright, but their fish sucks which made Jhon even crankier. -_- One thing for sure, their Tahu Telur & Chicken may look terrible in presentation but it did taste good. 1 hour later, we headed home. Too bad there was a MASSIVE JAM!!! I think it took us 2 hours to get back to our villa.
Our tour guide told us that it was a first time for him to spend this much time in a tour; maximum for him was 10 hours but we spent 15-16 hours together! But we had a nice time. I can say that we fully utilize the tour because he sidetracked with us plenty of times and it was all HIS idea and because of us, he technically over timed.
When we finally reached our villa, we were exhausted and can’t wait to clean up and sleep. I really hope our tour guide and driver had a nice time with us too. They better be, we gave them a very generous tip! We were THAT grateful.
We also quickly packed our stuff so that we can have ample time the next day to spend the rest of our money and slept like snoring monsters until the next morning.
To be continued…….
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