Temple House at Green Village
Where to begin... Here I, Grayson Tashiro, am with Kerai Watanabe an advanced ELA specialist and, Enzo Watanabe, a gray belt in jujitsu. Enzo says " Exquisite arcateture with a beautiful view and excellent food." I say " Super cool design, a very cold personal pool, and very enjoyable. Also the bamboo that the tree house was made of was fascinating. The bamboo took over 4 years to grow and they needed to treat it so that the bugs stay away. " As for Kerai, he says " It was just insane, the architecture and diesign of this building. The work put into making this treehouse is incredible. practically everything was made from bamboo. The couches, the chairs, the tables, the beds, and the house itself."
--Grayson, Kerai, Enzo
Waterfall
Our driver recommended a waterfall " hike " to us. When we arrived we walked down a small trail and got our tickets to head down to the waterfall. After a A LOT of flights of stairs we found the waterfall. We first walked to a trickle of water running down a rock wall, where at the bottom sat a rhinoceros beetle ( shown in Kerai's hand below). We explored the waterfalls some more then went up some stairs to find a cave. We were expecting specking some super spooky big cave, but it was only like 8 feel long and kind of boring. After walking through a small river and going in the fresh water pool we ended our journey with some delicious gelato.
--Grayson, Kerai, Enzo, Poppy
Balinese Traditional house
Our guide, Dewa, took us to a traditional Balanise House today. Our host, Hema, walked us through the garden first. She pointed out all the plants and how they are used: jackfruit, snake fruit, avocado, pineapple, durian, coffee trees. She showed us the houses, north, south, east and west designated for different members of an extended family. The kids and Jeff learned to play the Rindik - a bamboo xylophone with a surprisingly deep and soothing sound. We leaned to make offerings of flowers in palm baskets left as blessings each morning. We learned about different roots and their healing properties (lemongrass, turmeric, ginseng) before doing a tea and coffee tasting. The fanciest coffee was made by processing the poop of the Lusaka, a weasily animal who runs wild, eats coffee beans, poops them and they are collected for cleaning, grinding and filtering. Delicious. Tiny boxes housed black bees that do not sting but make a special local honey. To top it off, on our way out, Jeff and Trae sipped a vertility drink made of fermented crocodile penis and seahorses. The tourist behind them bought a whole liter of the stuff after disclosing that he just got married 4 days earlier, and all the guides had a shared laugh, impressed and shocked at his purchase. It was a learners delight. - Kim
Rice terrace and villa
Our day ended with a trip to the rice terraces and settling in at a most beautiful villa. The rice grows out of the water in stalks, is dried, ground to shell the casings and sifted before eating. One place turned their rice terrace into an absurd amusement park of sorts with tourists renting flowy dresses and screaming from giant swings as they posed for instragram photos. A bit of a nature buzz kill but interesting nonetheless!
We were all ready for the quiet of the outdoor villa. The kids swam until the sun set and the frogs and bats came out. Tonight a neighboring temple held a Hindu ceremony where song and prayer could be heard from our terrace and neighbors walked trails to make offerings.
soo pretty😆 -alexa