2015/12 Travelogue Southeast Asia by Derek
Pura Taman Saraswati, Ubud, Bali
I did not have any food on my person. This monkey probably thought I did, as it promptly rushed towards and jumped on top of me, proceeding to rifle through my pockets. I ended up having to wash myself for a very long time to remove the smell.
Offerings to the gods at temple
Offerings are a morning ritual for the population of Bali, hoping for luck and fortune.
Bathing at Temple Tirta Empul, Bali
Tirta Empul is connected to a spring of holy water, which the nearby Hindu population uses for ritual purification. The water is dispensed through a series of spouts. Each spout is meant to purify one of a particular sin or ailment. There is a specific set of movements one goes through, washing the hand, then hair, then head of the person. As our guide explained, some of the fountains are not meant for living practitioners of the faith, as shown by him pointing at a tourist and telling us about how they were going to have nightmares because they washed themselves in the wrong spout.
Cat-poo-cino
Kopi luwak, or civet coffee, or, as our tour guide referred to it as, “Cat-poo-cino” is a type of coffee where the beans are fed to civets, picked out of their feces, then cleaned and roasted. In the particular plantation we visited, the coffee was composed out of Arabica beans, and was dark roasted in a large pan. Civet coffee is one of the most expensive types of coffee in the world. The sample given to us during our tour is shown in the above picture. The cup was half full of crushed beans. It did not taste any different than normal coffee, for me. As it turn out, the majority of people have a very negative opinion of civet coffee, claiming that it tastes quite bad. In the plantation, we also learned about the concept of “male” and “female” coffee. “Male” coffee means that the fruit containing the bean only contains one bean, as opposed to “female” coffee, which contains two.
One of the dry sections of the temple.
This is where we learned that our tour guide never eats lunch. Never. Aside from that, we got a great view of an active volcano.
The village was very fascinating,
Buddha Tooth Temple, Singapore
Location of one of the teeth the Buddha, and home of 100 statues of him.
Cloud Forest, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore
A photo of the “Cloud Mountain,” one of the many attractions in the Gardens by the Bay, the main tourist destination in Singapore, aside from the Hawker Centers. The Cloud Forest is heavily climate controlled, in order to replicate the mostly conditions in actual cloud forests. It, along with the Flower Dome, is intended to be a showcase of sustainable building technologies.
Boats in the water, boats on the roof.
The Hawker Centers were designed with cleanliness in mind, being an alternative to the unclean roadside street food carts that one can see in most other cities. This is not surprising, considering the fact that Singapore, in pursuit of cleanliness, banned the importation of chewing gum, and levied $700 fines for those who spit it onto the streets.
Independence Square, Kuala Lumpur
The square was once used as a cricket field until 1987, 30 years after the Malaysian Flag was raised there for the first time, and the Union Flag lowered. We also visited the National Mosque of Malaysia, where we had to wear purple robes while we wandered about looking at the architecture and the floor tiling. and the Islamic Museum, where we saw fine examples of Muslim art, such as a very large tapestry. We also saw scale replicas of other mosques around the world, such as the Great Mosque of Mecca, which contains the Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam.
See that statue? That’s the tallest statue in Malaysia, and the second tallest statue depicting a Hindu deity on Earth. The caves themselves have a large population of monkeys, who tend to gorge themselves on any dropped scraps of food nearby.