Munene, the journey...

Woke up at 7am, and began preparing my bags to check out of the cottage. Once, I had breakfast, I joined the rest of the team to Bali Hot Springs. name says it all fried plantain and ice cream! awesome Mt Batur in the background, an infinity pool The journey there was beautiful as usual. But even more beautiful was Lake Batur from up close, with Mt. Batur in the background. It was amazingly beautiful. The spring pool was really cool. There were elephants spewing hot water. The pool was really warm and nice, and relaxing. Taryn, Andrea and I had 3hours of relaxing pool time, while Julie and Annisah had massages and spa treatments. Later, we bade Bali goodbye as we flew to Manado in North Sulawesi. We stayed at Aryaduts Hotel for the night, in preparation to leave for Bunaken the following day.

Vermiculture in progress We left for Chakra's house at 10am. Chakra has a house close to Permana Cottage. He told us stories of his experiences, and his inventions. He was once chased by people in Aceh after he made them a stove. We met this guy he calls Tarzan that was apparently raised by dogs in the forest. Tarzan can listen to honey bees and know whether they are agitated or not. Tarzan made us some honey bee salad. He makes use of what he calls 'appropriate technology' Built a kiln/oven which dries rice in 1 hour. (superdryer) Customized a diesel engine to use hydrogen for doing portable rice mills Moves from village to village and mills rice for the farmers: 100k of unmilled rice produces 65kg of brown rice and 45kg of white rice Permaculture: using wastes from one food process to feed into another process Using smoke from burnt rice husks to smoke bamboo which helps to preserve Using ashes from the bu...

We visited a temple where people go to wash their bodies and cleanse themselves, and pray for prosperity, good fortune and success in their exams (students) Hello there: guard at the entrance to the temple SPP crowd before going into the fountain The spring had many fountains for different things: for success, to heal disease, prevent nightmares etc. there were 2 fountains which are used for cleansing corpses, and are not to be used for normal washing. We had a good lunch, and I ordered pork ribs and French fries - best pork ribs I have had. We then visited another temple which had a huge gong that was used in the olden days for celebrations. Origins of it are a part of a moon fell and then someone peed on it or something… After walking around on the streets in the evening trying to find swimwear for people, we decided to get dinner. Dinner was with the usual crowd (Renuka, Wardah, Jackson, Annisah, Taryn, Andrea and I), at a new place down our street. I had...

We went to a couple of temples and the famous UNESCO world heritage site in Jatiluwih.  Beautiful terraces at Jatiluwih, part of UNESCO World Heritage Site Wiwik, who was part of getting the rice terraces of Bali to become a world heritage site, and her students, took us through some of the concepts of water temples: The first temple we went to was a disease temple. It was a supporting temple for the main temple. Its purpose is to cleanse people of illnesses. Legend has it that a king who was sick was healed after getting some water from the area. It was then built to help the surrounding communities get healing A priest will take people through the healing process We went to the main water temple built on the base of the mountain to help farmers not have to go up the mountain to perform rituals We washed our hands, spat out water three times, washed face three times, and the head. This is a sign of giving th...

The day began with a 7.30am breakfast, and at 8.45am, we left the cottage to see rice fields and subaks. Our host for the day was Prof. Widaya and Dr. Sedana (from Dwijendra University). We met at a subak, and they explained to us some of the features of the subak system: Tak tak: the allocation of water between farms. It consists of blocking water from the main drainage canal to a field for a specific time period. The water is termed as borrowed from the downstream farmers Tak taks also determine how much each farmer contributes to the subak for communal ceremonies, rituals etc. Subak heads: elected every 5 years; he is an unsalaried official who helps coordinate a subak Its contact with government, private millers market, nonprofits etc. Water allocation during meetings Conflict resolution about water allocation Rituals, and inter-subak coordination Calendar: Balinese have multiple calendars: religious, mark...

I'm rooming with Noah in Bali. Roomie: Noah The morning began officially at 8.45am after taking coffee. I joined the rest of the team to leave for a tour of some parts of Bali. We drove and drove and drove, up the hills, down the valleys, into sharp corners and narrow passages. Most of the ride was uphill. At the lobby of Permana Cottage is Ganesha, the god with the head of an elephant At the summit of our drive, we were able to see Mt. Batur. Unfortunately, due to cloudy conditions, the (in)famous Agung mountain was not visible from our vantage. We had guides who took us around some farms and some highlights are as follows: Various tastes of coffee A meme about Luwak coffee Visited a coffee farm where   the highlight of the production is Luwak coffee i.e. coffee produced from the poop of a mongoose. The mongoose feeds on ripe (red) coffee beans, and the beans pass through its system with...

We spent most of new year's eve in transit. We left Ibis Styles Hotel at 10.30am, got to Jakarta international airport, got our tickets to Denpasar (in Bali) and left for Bali about 2.30pm (about 30mins late due to air traffic density at the airport) In transit at Jakarta Airport domestic departures; after check-in on the way to Denpasar Photobombed by Tom Hilde and Tom Jones We arrived in Denpasar around 7pm, where we met with Sunday who had arranged our transportation to Ubud. It took us the next hour and a half weaving through ever narrowing roadways towards Ubud, which is our home for the next six days. The driving in Bali immediately reminded me of Nairobi. Traffic wasn’t too bad, but driving a car involved checking both sides of the mirror because scooters, mopeds and motorbikes weave in and out of lanes at breakneck speed, with little warning or caution. Further, while passing huge vehicles like buses and lorries, our drive honked twice to let the other car know...