Bali by Sepeda.

Today, on my final "free" day in Ubud, I booked a cycling tour of the countryside and some small villages. Earlier in the week, I was a little bit apprehensive about booking two tours back to back because I've been so tired and the thought of rest seemed so appealing, but I am so glad that I ignored that desire, because YOLO. Also, what an incredible tour to end on.

This is an outlook of a rice paddy we stopped to admire while the skies were still filled with the morning's v. heavy rain.

First, we headed to breakfast, which was at the top of a cliffside overlooking Mt. Batur and Lake Batur. The weather was overcast, but as we ate, the clouds began to clear and like all of the vistas here, it was lovely.

The view from breakfast: Mt. Batur and its crater lake. 

Then we went to a coffee plantation. Our tour guide company had several large tours today, but I was with just one guide and a young couple (if I had to guess, they were probably 24-25 years old), who live in Australia, but who are from South Africa and New Zealand originally. This was their first trip anywhere abroad and they were fun and excited about literally everything. Actually, the happy-go-luckiness of Simon reminded me a lot of Ben, and thus I liked them immediately. It was particularly great because with a smaller group made of people excited about everything, we got to linger longer and Win took us down "secret" paths, alleys, and streets that the larger group avoided.

Anyway, at the coffee plantation, we learned about how to make coffee generally, but specifically about how to make Luwak, which is coffee make from civet dung. (Civets are nocturnal carnivorous wild cats, basically. They're also adorable.) Civets eat the coffee beans, their digestive systems naturally ferment the beans, making them less bitter, and then humans collect the poop, sift it, and collect, clean, and roast the civet-eaten coffee beans. Then we were given a tray of a bunch of samples of beverages to sample, the fancy Luwak being available only for purchase. Simon, who doesn't even like coffee, was like, "well, we have to try some. let's split it, when will you have a chance to drink poop coffee again?" Fair point. So, we did. It was actually sort of amazing.

All of the beverages we tried! Not shown: civet poop coffee. 

Then we drove for a little bit longer before getting on our bikes and riding and stopping for about three hours. Maybe more? Idk. Time. Who cares.

The first stop, Win (our guide) wanted to show us this "spider habitat." He studied biology at uni and as a result, really, really loves spiders and frogs. "No, no, no, come here darling, I teach you to play with the spiders. They don't bite." Sisca was horrified by this and I was just mostly concerned that Win was blinded by his love for these venomous monsters. Regardless, I allowed a giant one to crawl over my hand for about six seconds before freaking out, and promptly returning it. Sisca also finally acquiesced to peer pressure after Win retrieved a much smaller one for her to handle. 

Because this is the best picture to demonstrate the SIZE of the spider beast.

Ugh, those are my hands. And my id bracelet, useful for when I end up dead due to
the spider's retaliation against being handled by tourists. 

This picture, I hope, shows just one place of many that was littered
with these giant spiders (you may have to zoom in to fully appreciate). 

I would like to note that hours later, at lunch, Win disclosed that should one of those spiders have bitten any of us, "you'd be lucky to be in the hospital for just six days! But it's okay. We're friends, the spiders and me, and I tell them not to hurt you and they listen!"

Alright, Hagrid. Alright.

Anyway. We stopped along the way to admire the landscape, give some water to some of the women working in the fields and Simon and Sisca had candy (or lollies, as apparently, they call it in Australia) to give to all of the children we passed.

A good example of our ride. Yes, I'm wearing a helmet. And sunscreen.

At one point, we walked onto the middle of a rice farm and just stood and took in the vastness of the landscape.
We also gave some "cold" water to the women working in the field. 

This is a different type of spider that Win really wanted to show us.
He thinks she's prettier. I opt to not play with her. I regret nothing.

We stopped at a Balinese compound and learned the inner "rules" (for lack of a better word) re: family compounds in traditional Balinese culture. According to Win, women are to be "the foundation" and men to be "the protector." Then, essentially, there are roles to play and everyone plays them. The youngest son, from what I can tell, has the most prescribed life and is born on the family compound and destined to take over it and live there until he dies, wherein his youngest son will be tasked with cremating his body and taking over the family compound and so on.

We also stopped at this sacred tree, called (I think) Batu Bulan. It's roots grew from its branches--sort of like mangroves, only without being adjacent to the ocean--and the local people clipped them back because once the tree re-roots itself, the newer trees kill the older one. In other words, the mother dies for her children and thus, it's a sacred tree. Or something. Anyway, it was super cool. And difficult to articulate how large it was. They think that this particular tree was about 500 years old.

I'm in the tree! Tbh, the only thing missing is Rosa wearing the same shirt. #bestraceshirtEVER

From inside the tree. It doesn't do a great job of capturing how big and impressive it was, but it's my best attempt.

The tree was cool. 

Simon and Sisca being overtaken by children who desperately want candy. 

The best part of it all was really just riding through mostly unoccupied streets, admiring the mountains in the backgrounds, the terraced farmland in the foreground, and all of the people in between.

A different field; a different woman farming it. 

Eventually we rode to lunch, which again, was delicious and the overlook was a giant valley that stretched forever. Win had lots of opinions about everything, basically, and at lunch thought he'd tell the three of us that we "should never get into politics" and that "women--no place for elected politicians--Brianna, darling, you're not a politician for America are you?" "No, Win, I am not." "Good, good, a pretty and smart girl, you stay out of politics." After acknowledging that I do, in fact, work for the American government, I decided it best to leave out the fact that I threw a stupendous Super Tuesday party before I left, that I love voting more than almost anything, that in fact, I have very seriously considered running for office numerous times in my life, that there are few things that will make me happier than electing Hillary Clinton as our next president, and that a lack of diversity in politics is bad for everyone, and instead just smiled and said, "yes, just be the foundation."

The view from our lunch table.

Well it's Sunday night now, which means I have twenty-five hours of class and five days left. It also means that it's Sunday morning to you, so Happy Easter.