It's been one of those days when I've had to make notes, otherwise I'd forget half of what I've seen and done. It's been a full day, hampered for a few hours by torrential rain.
General impression: very clean, friendly and courteous people, women often wearing sarongs and the men traditional head coverings. The traffic keeps in line, not like the Cambodian dodge 'em dance. Our van has a horn that sounds like a chirping bird.
In the early morning I saw ladies putting offerings on the ground and waving their hands over them - sometimes they were a simple leaf and at other times a mixture of leaves and flowers. Our guide is more of a driver than a guide so I didn't get any explanation other than it's a prayer. At times I asked him about the enormous tableaux along the street or on traffic islands. They were obviously to do with the Hindu religion. At one point he said, "You will have to read about Bali history." Everywhere we went we saw temples and they were generally Hindu. We did visit one of them and had to wear a sarong. There are small shrines all over the place; all of them have a cloth wrapper around the base - mostly a black and white cotton check but sometimes a bright brocade.
Sometimes I thought the tour was slightly inappropriate for the group of ordinary Cambodians with whom I was travelling. We went to see how they make batik and then silver work; these are always a part of the driver's route and often they get commission if people buy something - we didn't. We went on to the lovely Tegenungan waterfall, which we viewed from high up and far away. People walked down to the base of the falls but our group said they were too tired - it was 11am.
The group seems to be terrified about Indonesian food so we see a lot of Chinese food. With being the only non Cambodian I relax while the meal discussion goes on and on. So far the food's been good but at some point I may rebel if anyone mentions Chinese.
I'm told the main group of tourists comes from China with Australians a close second. The young Australians are very slim but the older ones seem to be suffering from the Aussie spread. There are tattoo parlours all over the place and so many tourists have very little space left on their skin for another tattoo. Their art work must cost as much as a minor masterpiece.
In the pouring rain we arrived at the Luwak Coffee plantation. The environment was beautiful with so much greenery, footpaths, terraces etc but, with the heavy rain, it was pointless doing any walking. Instead we were given samples of all the coffee and tea products they have for sale. They include chocolate coffee, coconut coffee, coffee with ginger, ginseng etc. - one "coffee" was an aquamarine colour. There were a number of flavoured teas too. Five of us were brave enough to try Civet coffee. This is one of those strange coffees created with the help of an animal. The civet (which to me looks and smells like a large ferret) loves eating the berries and the seeds pass through its system without being damaged. These berries are used to make a cup of coffee at $5 a time. I thought of buying some but I decided $50 for a 500 gram bag was a bit excessive. All I can say is that it tasted like coffee.
Because of the rain we decided not to go to the rice terraces but to return to the hotel. Then some bright spark mentioned shopping and, whoopee, off we went to an enormous warehouse type of place. Silly me was expecting a local market with stalls. The five women in the group were the leaders of the pack. Everything was very reasonable so they went overboard buying things for themselves and encouraging the men to buy something too.
Our entire route seemed to be one long strip mall of tourist type shops. I've never seen so many statues of stone and wood - I never did see anyone buying one. As we drove along, one of the group started to regal the others, in a very loud voice. It got on my nerves a bit as everyone was in hysterics and I hadn't a clue what he was on about. I should have brought my ear plugs. I can't even complain because I knew I'd be in for a Khmer experience. The other 11 people are all related so it was like a family outing for them. At one point I was given an English lesson. I don't know how it happened but the verb "to lure" came up so my Khmer friend explained to me what it meant, with various sentences to illustrate the meaning, plus other words I could use instead of lure. He did a good job.
Cambodians love fruit. In fact, we set off in the morning with bags of fruit which we ate on the way. Someone mentioned a fruit market so off we went. Again, I expected a "market" but we ended up in an enormous Carrefour supermarket. The clever company owners had us walk through the tourist section before we reached the fruit so naturally more shopping was done. I couldn't be bothered so I read a wall of funny statements printed on wood. One said, "If you want breakfast in bed then sleep in the kitchen."
The topic of dinner came up and guess what! "Is there a Chinese restaurant nearby?" Again, I have no complaints about the meal; it was a fitting end to a long day. All day I've been wondering where the sea was. Here am I, on an island, and I haven't seen the water yet. Tomorrow I've been promised the sea so let's hope it doesn't rain. I'm told we can always go shopping if it does rain.
