Culture and Cocks of Bali

Today is culture day!

Unfortunately, prior to arriving in Bali I had tried to book many tours; however it became evident that tours out here do not cater for the solo traveler. Most tours told me I had to pay for two people in order to cover the costs, as all tours are private and cost the same regardless of how many people attend. There are no group tours like I did in Thailand it would seem.

Luckily, EJ & Luke are in Ubud at the same time and Luke, being a man after my own heart, had an itinerary in place and had already booked a tour for him and his beautiful new wife. I asked if I could join them seeing as I was having difficulty booking my own, and sure enough EJ enquired and got me booked in on their day of culture.

The day started with a visit to a Batik hand craft centre where we saw locals creating beautiful clothing by hand. Unfortunately, EJ wasn’t feeling very well so had to leave almost immediately.

Luke and I then headed off without her to a Barong Dance. The Barong dance is the classic battle story of good (The Barong) against evil (The evil witch Rangda). Barongs are figures in Balinese tradition and come in many forms. The most common one is like a baroque, Chinese lion, with big eyes and clacking jaws. It is one of the most sacred masks in Bali,

usually played by two strong men in costume. The most interesting part is at the end of the performance, some male dancers get into a trance condition and start stabbing themselves with a sharp "Kris" (knife), a traditional weapon to illustrate their immortality.

We then visited a local home and its temple. Out here, most families have their own temple on the home grounds. Some are grand, some are modest depending on the family wealth. This one was quite modest.

Ej text us at this point explaining she was feeling better, so we picked her up and then headed for The Goa Gajah Temple. Goa Gajah, or Elephant Cave as it is more commonly known, was built in the 9th century, and served as a sanctuary and place of meditation. At the façade of the cave is a relief of various menacing creatures and demons carved right into the rock at the cave entrance. The primary figure carved is thought to be an elephant, hence the nickname Elephant Cave. Inside the cave is a small room with a shrine at each end, and then along the inner walls on either side are crevices for people to sit and meditate. The surrounding grounds are more impressive than the cave itself if I am honest. Lilly ponds, waterfalls and beautiful gardens. Stunning. My only negative is the tour guide was eager to crack on as we had a lot to cover, so I was limited for photo time and could have quite easily stayed there longer. I had this problem in Thailand too; Rush rush rush and not enough photo time :(

After this, we headed to a stunning restaurant next to a rice field called the Coy something, which had little huts on stilts, positioned over a long clear pool filled with Coy Carp. We dined here for an hour and tried various foods which I forgot to note the names of. Lunch was divine! We could have quite easily sat there all day, but we had an agenda to fulfill and so onward we must press.

Our next stops were the Batuan Temple, Tirta Empul Tampaksiring (also known as the Bali holy spring water temple), and Ubud Palace. The Batuan Temple is a beautiful ancient temple from the 10th Century, and has a very

detailed architecture design. It is so detailed it makes you wonder how long it took them to make this!

Ubud Palace and its temple, Puri Saren Agung, are located in the heart of Ubud. The compound was mostly built after the 1917 earthquake and surprisingly, the local royal family still live here. We squeezed so much in on this day, and the temples / palace had such architectural similarities that I can’t actually remember which place was which, nor what order we visited, so I do apologise for not being able to go into much more detail at this stage as I will need to check my photos and go onto google to ascertain which photos were taken where! All I do know is, all were beautiful in their own right, all had spiritual and religious elements and the architecture and scenery was to die for!

Tirta Empul Tampaksiring is a very active and attractive temple built around a bubbling spring. Pura Tirta Empul is an interesting place to observe Hindu devotees purifying themselves by means of ritual bathing from natural springs. It is especially recommended to visit on a full moon day, which has special significance in the local religion.

Our last stop was the Tegalalang Rice Terrace, however on route we spotted a huge gathering with tarpaulin on the road side. When we asked the tour guide what was going on he explained it was a cock fight. Now cockfighting and gambling is illegal here, but like most laws, people break them and still do it. As we passed we asked if we could go check it out. After all, it’s not the usual tourist thing to do and I am always up for a spot of random spontaneity. So, we pulled up on the side of the road, jumped out and headed for, what could only be described as a rubbish heap. This clearly was NOT for tourist. For starters, we were the only white people there and EJ and I were the only women other than 2 local women serving food. We attracted a lot of attention as the locals clearly were not used to seeing westerners there, but they took it on the shoulder and realised we were just curious. This was REAL Bali!

In the centre of the madness was a concrete amphitheater with a central stage, surrounded by wicker cages containing various breeds of Cocks. It was chaos! People were shouting and waving money around as they placed their bets, men played games and gambled on the filthy floor, flies swarmed the half sliced roasted hog that was being sold on top of the rubbish heap; all the while, on the central platform, several men weighed their cocks (snigger) in order to find an equal match for the fight - it was unbelievable. This is when I realised how naive I am. I didn’t have my glasses on so couldn’t see the detail, but I could see then men winding something around the cock’s legs. I asked the guide what they were doing and he explained they were tying knives to their feet for the fight! Knives!!! What the actual hell! That’s barbaric! I honestly thought a cock fight was just two birds scratching each other! Silly Sam. Oh and I forgot to mention, in order to get the bird riled up, the men would blow air up the cocks arses! Haha. Very strange but seemed to work. Then again, I think I’d be pissed off too if someone started blowing wind up my bottom! EJ looked mortified and was clearly very very very very uncomfortable. I half wanted to say let’s go, knowing how much she hated it, but I also half wanted to see what happened...
The cocks fought
One died.
The end.

It was a bit of an anti climax to be honest as the fight didn't last long...
What an experience though! Very glad we went, as it gave me an insight into the REAL Bali that the tourists don’t get to see. Flip side, it was sad to see death as a sport and thus shall never be able to hear a cock crow in the morning without thinking of this moment…

As soon as the cock died we upped sticks and headed back to the car. I don’t think I’ve ever seen EJ look more glad to leave somewhere!
Onwards to Tegalalang Rice Terrace we headed.

What a magnificent view!
Tegalalang Rice Terrace is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Bali, situated in Tegalalang Village, north of Ubud. It features an amazing rice terrace set into a cliff and is located 600m above sea level. Initially I was ok, but as we ascended the cliff my vertigo started to kick in. Not wanting to be a complete pansy I tried my best to keep up with the other two, but fears are irrational and I would find myself at points, while walking along the thin, unstable, crumbling pathways - frozen. I manged to do it though and just kept my eyes on the feet of the person in front of me. As soon as I lifted my gaze and could see how high we were going I would become so unstable and wobbly I thought I would fall. Eyes to the floor it was and I’ll have to take Luke and Ej’s word that the views were incredible!

We also visited a coffee plantation on route home, and learnt about the harvesting, curing and roasting processes. We got to sample different varieties of local coffee, which I soon realised was actually only one type of coffee variety and then blended with various spices, fruits, vanilla powders or cocoas to obtain a finished flavour profile. I'll admit, I felt like I was at work as we had various cups of flavoured coffee to sample and I felt like I was in a standard tasting session in the office. It was still nice to see the origins of coffee to be honest and actually see a coffee bean on a tree. Did you know coffee beans are actually white and turn black/brown when roasted? Now you do!

My line of work is food development and we often develop drinks for large high street coffee chains; so I am used to seeing the finished products rather than the early stages. They also had a civet cat which produces Kopi Luwak. Civet is a type of animal that eats the coffee beans and then poops them out. The poop is then 'harvested' and then roasted. Essentially, the curing process is removed, as this small animal cures the beans in it's intestines and poops them out ready to be roasted. Kopi Luwak is the name of the variety of coffee and is a very expensive type of coffee.
The view from the terrace balcony was breath taking.

In the evening I was supposed to meet up with a random Brazilian girl that I had met on an Ubud community Facebook group, who is also here alone. She had invited me to go to a dance workshop in the evening, however unfortunately our tour was so long I could not make the class in time. I suggested we meet for a drink instead after her class, but she text me that evening to explain she was exhausted and was just going to go to bed. So I headed out for dinner with Luke and EJ instead, to a cute small restaurant called Warung Pondok Madu. I highly recommend this restaurant. It’s nothing to look at really and is ideal for back packers as it is quite cheap, however the food was amazing! It was here that we three were natting away, when I looked up and saw a girl that looked awfully like the Brazilian girl I was supposed to meet. I shouted her name and sure enough it was her! What are the odds! She joined us for dinner and told us tales of her travels, and after dinner we all went our separate ways.

I ordered a cab on Uber (yes, Ubud has Uber!!) due to the location of my villa being on dark murder street, however, the taxi drivers kept cancelling when they saw I only wanted to go up the road. Financially not worth it for them I guess. After a while I decided I’d walk. I’d have to hail a cab on route or just brave the dark winding road and hope I don’t get eaten alive by stray dogs. The woman that owned the restaurant was having none of it though and told me she would not let me walk alone, so she called her husband and told him to give me a lift. On his mopped I hopped, leftover food in a takeaway box in one arm, as the other arm held tight around this skinny Balinese man. When he dropped me off he refused to accept any cash and just said make sure I spread the word about the restaurant.
So that’s what I’m doing.

People - please go to this restaurant if ever you are in Ubud:
Warung Pondok Madu, Peliatan, Ubud, Gianyar, Bali 80571, Indonesia.

After dinner I pretty much passed out as the day had been a very long one and I was now exhausted...