Advertisement
Published: June 18th 2018
We definitely want to stay longer in Munduk Moding! It’s a beautiful place to relax in but also offers a range of activities. Yesterday, Saturday, we trekked to two nearby waterfalls with a hotel guide. After setting off down the road through the village, we soon turned off onto a narrow concrete path just wide enough for a motorbike, which led into terraces cultivated with a huge range of different trees and plants, and tiny villages with homes hidden amid the trees, clinging to the slopes. Everywhere here is steep! The farmers grow a mix of crops together to maintain soil fertility – orange trees with carrots, cabbages with chilli plants and coffee trees and so on. Every now and then we had to step to one side as a pair of brothers made their way back and forth on their motorbikes carrying sacks of clove tree branches up to the main road.
They grow both Robusta and Arabica coffee here. Generally Arabica is grown at higher elevations that Robusta. Arabica has bigger cherries on a smaller tree, and is more expensive than the Robusta. The most expensive coffee of all is the luwak coffee, made from beans that have
been eaten and then excreted by civet cats. This apparently adds a fruity flavour! The resort is at about 4000 feet elevation so it’s pleasantly cool in the morning, further helped by being mostly in shade from the trees. We descended steadily for a couple of hours, increasingly starting to wonder how long the return journey back uphill would take. We were rewarded by the sight of first one pretty waterfall and then a much bigger beautiful waterfall tumbling down a sheer cliff. Our guide then announced that we did not need to walk back after all. A hotel car was waiting for us on the main, a mere five minutes uphill. Luxury!
We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon, reading by the pool and having a massage. Once more we were the only people not taking endless selfies by the pool....
Today we started with a 6.45am bird watching walk around the plantation. It’s a beautiful, peaceful time of day. We see a woodpecker and a kingfisher, but mostly lots of bulbuls who settle in an African Tulip tree full of red flowers, to eat. After a leisurely breakfast we take a guided tour of the coffe plantation, including
seeing how they dry the beans, strip off the outer layers and roast them. Then.... relax!
It's our last day in Indonesia. At last we can see far enough into the distance to see Mount Ijen and two other volcanoes to the west of us. We breakfast, chat to the assistant manager, and we think by now every member of the lovely staff must have asked us if we have enjoyed our stay and if there is anything they can do to improve their hotel.
We had initially been told we could leave at 11.00am for our 4.30pm flight. However over the weekend, the drivers had been taking nearly five hours to reach the airport so the manager having consulted the drivers has advised we should leave at 9.00am. Seems a bit early but you never know, he assures us, it’s the end of Ramadan and it's also a Balinese holiday period.
Off we go, and with it being early we get some lovely vistas across the island. And Gunung Agung is clear of cloud for once! It is not active at the moment, having had its big eruption that closed Denpasar airport back in October 2017.
The cars and tour buses are heading north as we head south. However the traffic is not too bad for us. We make good time until we hit the dreadful urban sprall that is Greater Kuta/Denpasar when it grinds largely to a halt. Strip malls, eateries, lots of burnt tourists on scooters and lots of local on scooters. Grim! Not our sort of place at all, certainly not somewhere we would want to stay.
It takes about an hour to reach the airport, so the journey has taken just over three hours. So only 4.5 hours till the flight leaves, and 1.5 hours till check in opens. Settling down with a Coke, we finish off our blog.......
Scroll down for more photos.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.054s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 30; dbt: 0.027s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Gunung Agung
There are so many volcanoes in Indonesia that it is a lottery whether they are resting or smoking...a bit like holiday makers in Bali around a swimming pool. Nice pic!