Trekking in Bali

Yesterday was such a big day that I had to divide the blog in two part. After the blessing I return to my hotel to change clothes to go trekking. I didn’t really have the right shoes for trekking, my puma running shoes are not exactly fit for this type of exercise.
Sang Made parks the car along the road and then we walk down a winding road, and cut into a field. The trek was for hours and not too long after the beginning of the hike I am already starting to my hypoglycemia resurface.I have not had any crisis since I have here, but this is the first time I didn’t have a real breakfast. Throughout the walk we go over rice fields, go up rice paddies, up the mountain and down the valley numerous time. I am happy my guide knows where he is going, because I have lost all sense of directions by now! The trek is even more enjoyable with Sang Made’s knowledge of his jungle. This surprises me, from a man. Right at the beginning, we saw something rare, a giant lizard, which diets consist of rotting dead animals. It is an easy animal to catch, all they do is put food in a bamboo log and cover one end only, the lizard will go into the bamboo, but cannot back up as it only has the ability to go forward. I saw clove tree, tapioca, coffee and also learn the difference in coffee, I had no idea there was a female coffee bean and a male coffee bean, the male is the high prize one for its size. Sang Made explained to me, that here, there is people collecting the excrement of the fox who eats the coffee beans, he likes the red pulp around the coffee bean, and the coffee bean is intact in the stool. They roast the beans. It sells for $3 a cup. I had heard of this very expensive coffee, but from the monkey’s excrement. We saw some fox poop, but it was a different kind of bean. I guess they have different fox here, as they have to climb on the tree, It is more a shrub than a tree. We saw yellow cacao and red cacao (chocolate). He showed me a flower used in cooking to make a type of Sambal, the flower smells very gingery, it is beautiful and very aromatic. He explained the irrigation system for the rice fields, very clever system. I saw the tree that produces Rambutan, the fruit that I go crazy for, the Durian tree, Papaya, Guava, Breadfruit. On the path was that big spider that I have been trying to photograph, but for some unknown reason, in my lens it disappears. To my horror, he takes the spider with his bare hands and let it scrawl on his face. You have to understand, the spider is as big as my hand! It lets the creepy crawling go all over him, he gave me the opportunity to shoot incredible photos, but I begged him to stop I couldn’t take it anymore. Big spiders like that are making me nervous, he says she is inoffensive if you don’t hurt her. We saw the unlucky cow, as they call it here. The cow is always tied underneath a roof and tied to the bamboo structure, the cow never gets to eat in the field. He says they are very well treated, but their purpose is to be sold for beef, and I must say, in the tropics usually when you see cows, they are so thin, you can see their bone structure, every cow I saw as plenty of fat and meat. They bring fresh grass every day. Everything here as a purpose, the grass comes from the weed they pull out of the rice fields. They often take the cow out for a shower and some massage. That’s right, the unlucky cow get’s a spa treatment once in awhile.
They really have everything they need to survive here in the nature. As I started to get really week, he said that we were really close to the place we were stopping for fresh coconut. When we arrive at these peoples house, you can tell they live with very little. Sang Made took me to their backyard, and we went to harvest some snake skin fruits. The fruit grows at the bottom of this shrub, but the shrub is guarding its fruits very well, the leaves are similar to palm tree and full of thorn, and not the same thorn as our rose bushes, big long spike of nearly 4 inches. The fruit is also full of tiny spikes, you rub something on the fruit and it takes the spikes of. I have not taste anything close to this fruit, it is kind of a cross between a pear and an apples, but without the juice. It is dry and chalky, I can tell this fruit is not going to recurred my hypoglycemia crisis, so I ask if they have bananas for sale, and thankfully they did. While I sitting in their compounds, I am wondering where are those coconut we are suppose to eat? Then the old man put his boots on and we follow him. Is he going to climb the palm tree? Yes, he will get us the coconut. I can’t believe, this man older than me, and does not an inch of fat! He chooses a tree with some coconut ripe, therefore the yellow ones. This tree is straight up in the air, a complete vertical ascension for him. I don’t excel at judging distances, but I would say for sure above 40 feet. Then he climbs down with the coconut, holding the stem in his mouth. Only when I had the coconut in my hand that I realize how heavy this must off been in his mouth. Than Sang Made cut a slit of the skin that he uses to make a funnel so we can drink directly from the coconut shell. There is so much water between the both of us, we can’t finish it all. Than he cut the shell in half, I was really surprise to learn that here they never eat the hairy coconut, they only use the hairy kind to make coconut oil. They eat the meat of the yellow coconut. The meat is half the thickness and very different than the hairy coconut. It is a bit slimy and less flavorful, but very nourishing, I feel better already. The lady was very proud to make me a cup of coffee, from her own beans in the back yard that she harvested, roasted and then crushed. I must say, the most flavourful coffee I ever had, without any bitterness or astringency. I was able to drink the strong glass she made me, without milk or sugar and it was truly different. That’s what a coffee should taste like, so good that nothing needs to be added to it. Ten they invite me to see her kitchen, she is making coconut oil. I have been wanting to do this since I am here. Now, I am not sure I could handle doing this in a Balinese kitchen. She stands in her tiny dark kitchen, full of soot everywhere, so it is even darker than normal, she stands beside the fire to stir the hot pot and don’t mind the heat on her feet. I can help asking, I am so confuse about the coconut, I need to understand clearly. So Sang Made went to get an older coconut to explain. It is the same kind of coconut as we just had fresh of the tree, with the small axe, he starts to chop the skin away. He opens the shell and it is full of hairy fiber, he keeps peeling that off and finally gets to the small shell, as we know in North American the hairy coconut. Him too, did not understand at first when tourist would ask him to have hairy coconut what they meant, since here they don’t eat the senior citizen of the coconuts! Until he figured it out, we get coconut all peeled off its protective hairy fiber because it cost too much for shipping. They use the fiber as combustible fuel for their stove. They let the fiber dry in the sun and uses as needed it. No more confusion, it is the same nut, they eat the one that is not fully ripe and drink the water of that one. The older the coconut is the less water it contains and the thicker the meat is. They only use the meat for culinary purpose. They say the older meat is not as healthy as the slimy one. But I am glad I finally understand everything about the coconut now! We return to our trekking, I give the lady 50 000 rupies, which is around $5 for her bananas and fresh snake skin fruits, so took the money out of my hand like if she was afraid I would change my mind, she probably as not seen the color of this bill in a long time. It is a lot of money for them. They have a very simple lifestyle with the bare minimum. Thankfully, coconut is very nutritious, it saved my life, there is no way I would off been able to walk some two more hours without food. This is not your average walk, but hard work, going up steep hills in this kind of humidity is not an easy task. You also need to be agile, jumping over streams, walking on the edge of the rice paddies, sometime no wider than 4 or 6 inches. Every person you meet here, as their teeth dark brown, if they have any, also from chewing the same preparation the priest has to chew every day. At the end, I am really starting to get weak, it is near two o’clock and I haven’t had lunch. The last couple hundred meters, are at least on a paved road. My heels are killing me, I am not sure my knees will last and I have a pretty bad sunburn on my shoulder, face and legs. This was the toughest work out I had to do in a long time, and I taught my Pilates teacher was tough with me! This kind of humidity leaves you, gasping for oxygen. I am sure if I had any toxins left in my body, I have sweat it out today. Sang Made is so thoughtful, when we arrived at the car he pull out of his cooler, fresh clod face towels, infused with essential oils, this could not be more welcome, it is just as good as a cold shower. The towels were kept in his cooler over ice. This made me feel better instantly! Than we stop at a restaurant in his village that does not have a menu, the only serve one dish, which they are famous for, miles around. The restaurant is in a beautiful compound, and this is the fourth generation operating this restaurant. I was given a tour of the kitchen, which was really cool to see, still the traditional cooking with the dirty kitchen but on a bigger scale. They had already prepare the food for tomorrow. Huge pots of everything, they go through a lot of food here. Huge baskets of turmeric, hot peppers, shallots. The dish consist of rice cooked with many ingredients, chicken, a boiled egg, marinated in some kind of liquid, giving the egg a yellow brownish color and a tastier taste. Served with the traditional snake beans salad. It was very tasty. I am learning so much with my guide, he has been working with tourist for over 12 years, since he finished high school, so his English is impeccable, and I have no difficulty understanding what he is saying, as he learned English very young. He also help me understand the banana world! There is more bananas than we know back home. Many trees in the jungle have bananas, but they don’t eat those, they harvest the big nice green leaves, that everyone uses for lining plates and dishes, it is also the same kind used to cooked fish in it. We saw an entire load of the leaves all ready to be sold to the hotels and restaurant; everything was neat and so interesting to see. Even the rope around the pile of neatly fold banana leaves, are made from palm trees. That type of tree is called stones banana, bearing such a name due to its big hard seeds in the middle of the banana. No one eat this kind. There is also another kind of banana, used only for offerings. There is a type of banana here than is green, the inside reveal in sweet and ripe banana, Some green banana are only for cooking, you recognize them by their square shape.
It is close to 4 o’clock and all I can think of is to go for a nap. I am exhausted; this was a big day, worth every penny. I was very fortunate to do site seeing alone, without twenty tourists behind me, you learn so much that way and you can go at your pace. If we were with a group, I would say another hour would off been need it to wait for the people that are in worse shape than me! Sang Made was also in charge of bird watching tours for Alila Ubud, a five star resort, near where I am staying. I was nice to be with someone that can point to the birds and show me in the book what kind it is. The birds here have unique calls and signing. This was a day that will stay with me a long time.