Bali-Day 2.3

As promised Bali 2.3 is a continuation of our second day at the Bamboo cottages. We were lucky to have Puta's cousin take us on a tour of the village of Sudaji. The village is spread over quite a large area. The cottages are down in what I think of as the main part of the village.  Our "trek" (and I call it a trek because that makes me think that it was more of a walk.)  Bob and I differ on our interpretation of our excursion...so I will stick with trek.

The village is in an area which is good for growing all sorts of fruit and spice trees.  In fact, this area is known for the tree nurseries for clove trees and durian trees...the first tree we saw was a clove tree.

 At the end of the branch there is a little cluster of pointed green fruits.  These are the cloves.  The bunch is picked green and laid out to dry.  There is no smell at all to the fruit which makes me wonder how someone originally hit upon the idea of drying them.  The are dried on a mat in the sun...of course.

 These smelled delicious!  They will dry to black before they are ground or packaged whole..."our" familiar spice.

Of course there are many coconut trees - both yellow and green coconut.  The trees are massive and I feel that the people who climb them to get the fruit are very brave.

 On the left is yellow coconut and on the right is green coconut.

Everywhere there are hibiscus plants. Most look like the one we had at home (which never bloomed).  They seem to be wild, but we also saw many hedges of hibiscus. In a future post you will read about a lady who makes hibiscus tea...so stay tuned...

There are also many banana trees.  The bananas here are much smaller than the ones we are used to, and they have a different kind of tang (the only way to describe the different taste) and are very delicious.  This is a small banana tree...we saw many larger.

 You can see a small bunch of bananas on the centre tree on the left hand side.  The banana leaves are also used for a variety of things, but especially as plates and wraps for food.

The next fruit tree we saw was a "jack fruit" which is a very odd shape and covered with spikes, so I wonder who first said "let's pick that ugly spiky fruit there and see how it tastes.

 The brown lumps on the tree are the fruit.

Through the trees at the side of the road it was possible to see the rice fields and also a "nursery" of clove trees.  They are covered by black cloth to protect them from the sun, just as ginseng is protected in Canada.

From this point the road took a turn up, and we started climbing up the side of the hill.  Though the path was really only wide enough for one vehicle, we were passed by motorcycles on a pretty regular basis.  All along were houses and groups of houses and small stores selling drinks, snacks and other necessities.  As we climbed we were able to see more and more of the rice fields below.

The path took us past wild cacao, wild coffee and other wild fruit which I forget the name of...

 A cacao plant with no fruit.

 Coffee plant with fruit and flowers.

 Fruit whose name I forget, hanging in long clumps in the tree.

 Same fruit close up.

In gardens we saw papaya. 

There was also a wild fruit...another one of those ugly brown (though not spiky) fruits, called snakeskin fruit...

 Almost impossible to see at the base of the plant...brown balls...another fruit mystery...

Along the way we saw the occasional poinsettia plants...

 A nice spot of colour in a sea of green.

We finally reached the "top" and there was a temple!

The view was amazing!

The trail in the woods...motorcycles also travel on this...

It was nice that all along our two hour trek there were houses, and people...lots and lots of friendly people. Everyone asked where we were from and the children all said "hello!"

 The "road" ( one of the nicer sections) and a house as we headed "down."  The route was a loop, so we didn't backtrack at all.

On this side of the village there is bridge construction.  A bad flood washed the bridge away a couple of years ago, and the bamboo replacement bridge needs replacing, so they are building a big sturdy bridge.  Don't let the presence of large equipment fool you...most of this work is being done by hand.

After our village trek it was wonderful to come home to a specially cooked Balinese meal...seriously, I could get used to this lifestyle.