Well today was certainly a busier day than most! Our whole day was planned by Carol who invited us to join a group called the explorers, who every 3 weeks go on a new adventure together. This weeks adventure was great, we got to visit a coconut sugar and a sea salt plantation.
We are very committed, so we went to the gym before getting picked up at 9 AM to start our travels to the sugar plantation. After an hour drive we finally got there and trekked down a dirt road to make our way to the village where they produce the coconut sugar.
When we got to the village we met a sweet couple who are the makers of this life changing sugar. The husband is 58 years of age and still to this day climbs 10 massive coconut trees every day. And the wife takes the husbands gathered coconut tree sap to boil it for 6 hours then manually divides it into 1/4 kilo coconut shells. After the division, the sugar gets hard and once it cools down its ready to be popped out of the coconut shell and brought to the market to be sold.
Just the fact that this couple is doing all this work for a fraction of what we make in the western world for half the amount of work is mind boggling to me. This man is almost 60 years old, is ripped to sh!t and is climbing these trees like it's easier than a walk in the park. Next time you think rice makes you fat, take a good look at the below picture because this man eats it for breakie, lunch and dinner.
After we got to taste and buy some coconut sugar from the fresh batch, we walked back to the van to be brought over to the sea salt plantation. Once we got to the ocean it was quite the sight to see. First, there was big beautiful waves crashing in which I always find super fascinating and second, there was a dozen guys trying to pull a boat out of the water while getting knocked around by those same waves.
This beach wasn't a regular sandy beach it consisted of volcanic sand, which is way cooler...clearly! We walked over to a little family owned factory where a 68 year old man walks over to the ocean with his buckets hanging off of his back, walks it back up and sprays it all over ther ground. Then once the sun and volcanic sand drys it up, the wife rakes it and fills a basket which ends up being carried over to the hut on her head.
Once in the hut they work together to make the salt crystals which takes like 5000 different processes... Then voila! Salt! It's pretty crazy to think that all that work goes into making something as simple as salt and sugar. For things that you use often and are so easily accessible to you, it's rare to actually get to see where and how it was made.
All in all it was a great day and we learnt lots, all of this was made possible because of Carol at Villa Lebah! After our adventures we all had a late lunch at a little local Warung then we drove an hour back to Ubud. When we got back we hung out, did a bit of yoga then had dinner at a vegan restaurant in town. After dinner we zoomed back to the house on our bikes and packed it in early as always!
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Lameeeeeeeee but oh so awesome relaxing day. I just adore days where we really get up to nothing, just spending time with my pretty lady and enjoying each other's company. There isn't much I'd rather do, than to chill, have a good conversation and stuff my face with food all day.
This is pretty much what we did so it was a good day. We went to the gym this morning as per usual, we worked on deadlift and pull ups today. After the gym Edi dropped us off at Seeds Of Life raw restaurant where Vee and I had some Bali Dragon Fruit Bowls that hit the spot just right.
After breakie we walked back to the Villa to meet with Carol then we made a little trip over to the grocery store to grab a few things. Quick in and out of the store and before we knew it we were back at the house and after a bit of relaxing it was time to eat again! Booyahh!
Vee and I went to our favourite restaurant Cheapie (Dewa Warung, we call it cheapie because the real name is too much of a tongue twister and the food is cheap so, cheapie it is!) to have our usual salads and tempeh sate.
While sitting at our table Vee over heard a conversation at the table next to us and apparently a guy was asked how old he was and his answer was a bit strange to say the least. She tried to recount it to me after but it went a little like this? The guys said that his actual real human age is 29 and then something about him going in a time machine when he was 4 and then she missed the last part. Then he finished off by saying to the other dude that it's a pretty interesting story, how it all happened. We got a little giggle out of it so it was all good.
After lunch we biked around a bit and went to Earth Cafe to grab some organic veggies to cook up for dinner. These bikes are saving us big time - we get places in no time now, it's great. After our mini daily grocery shop made our way home to chill and do some yoga.
Carol bought a rice cooker today so I cooked our rice noodles in there and made all of us a nice noodle, veggie and tempeh dish for din din. After a good conversation between the three of us and our bellies full we cleaned up and headed to bed! It's 8 pm after all... Serious sleep gainz happening over here at Villa Lebah.
A bientot,
Janelle Brine
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