Rice, anyone?

The main staple here is rice.  We have eaten rice prepared in many different ways: steamed, fried, pressed into crackers, etc.  One favorite is the popular Indonesian dish Nasi Goreng which is often served with chicken satay.  But, we hadn’t actually seen any rice fields yet.  So off we went to explore the rice terraces and what better way than by bicycle! 

“Bali Bike-Baik” tours started with a little lesson on how coffee is produced.  They took us to an organic coffee plantation that still processes coffee by hand.  They let us try 2 types of coffee (Bali coffee and ginseng coffee), two teas (lemongrass and ginseng) and hot cocoa made from pure cocoa.  We were also offered a cup (for purchase - 30,000 rp.) of Kopi Luwak.  This coffee has been processed by a civet (locally known as a luwak), an animal which reminded me of a ferret.  The luwak, being very particular, eats only the best coffee berries.  Once digested the luwak excretes the beans.  (Yes, you read that correctly.  The ferret-like animal poops out coffee beans.)  The excrement is then collected, and cleaned we were told, before being made into a rather expensive Indonesian delicacy.  I declined as I am not a coffee drinker.  Chris, however, was just being a weany.

Colby liked all, but the Bali coffee.  It has a bitter taste.  The cocoa was amazing and I actually liked the ginseng coffee.  Chris informed that my pleasure with the ginseng coffee was probably due to the pure cream and the brown sugar it had been prepared with!

 

   

Following the caffeine sampling, we had breakfast overlooking Mount Batur (Gugung Batur).  We learned while dining (to Chris’s morbid amusement) that a tourist fell almost 500 feet into the mouth of this active volcano a few months ago and died.  I quickly inquired about how close we were about to go to this veritable precipice of death.  Fortunately, this distance was as close as we were going to get to the volcano.

The cycling part of the tour took us through 24 km of rice fields from Mt. Batur gently down hill back to Ubud.  There was almost no pedaling! Colby loved it and had a great time talking to his new friend Tim from Singapore.  Don’t they look cute in their little helmets!

The views were stunning as we tripped through rice fields in all stages - growing fields, harvested fields, and newly planted.

The rice is found at the top of these very tall stalks of grass.

We learned that plowing and planting the fields is for those with a Y chromosome, and harvesting the rice is left to the women of the village.

It is then transported by whatever means available.  I am continually impressed by what Indonesians are able to successfully carry on a motorbike.

Once harvested, it is laid out on burlap sacs in the road to dry.  Once dry something mysterious happens and the brown outside shell is removed revealing the white rice inside.  (This part was lost to me as I was lagging behind taking this photo!)

Okay...now for a little business.  I recently learned that it was rather cumbersome to leave a comment.  I have fixed the blog so that you should be able to speak your piece without registering.  So don’t hold back!