Bali, Indonesia - Cat Cafe, Medicine Man, and Luwak Coffee
Jami and I arrived in Bali in the evening. The following day was going to be an exciting one that Jami has been looking forward to for months. We were going to see the famous medicine man, Tjokorda Rai. Eat, Pray, Love has been one of Jami's favorite books and once we knew we were going to be in Bali we had to go see a medicine man for ourselves.
Upon arriving to our Airbnb on the main strip of Monkey Forest Road we dropped off our stuff, our Airbnb host ask for our breakfast choices so that she would have them ready in the morning (we've been getting really lucky with our Airbnb choices!), and had a short walk to the street full of restaurants where we had dinner at Buddha Bar. They had the best (and cheap!) Thai food! Plus, there was some amazing live music while we were there.
Jami and I were so exhausted from the amount of effort that it took to finally arrive in Bali. We finally got a good night of sleep and when we woke up in the morning we had another amazing home cooked Indonesian breakfast. Then it was time to pack up and move to our suite with rice terrace views down the street where we would spend the next few days. We couldn't check in yet we dropped off our bags and went for a walk.
We had an afternoon appointment to go see Tjokorda Rai so we had some time in the morning to explore Ubud, the area of Bali where were staying. On our drive in from the airport we passed by a cat cafe that we joked about visiting. This morning when we were looking for a late breakfast (or early lunch) it turned out that the cat cafe had a pretty good menu. So we decided to fulfill another one of Jami's dreams and go have breakfast with a couple dozen cats. The food was actually pretty good and the cat's weren't so bad either. I loved photographing Jami having the time of her life!
Our driver to see Tjokorda Rai was running late to pick us up. Luckily it wasn't a big deal. We we're late for our appointment but we still didn't have to wait long at long to be seen by the medicine man. Jami was up first hoping that Tjokorda Rai would have the answer to all of her frequent headaches. As he began poking her head in search of any clues as to the cause, he came up with a lack of passion, which seemed fitting since the stress of everyday life was usually the cause of her headaches. He recommended a change toward a more fulfilling life. Although, his answer to that was for us to have a baby right away. When it was my turn he told me he was going to make me more fertile and to come back after we get married and have a baby! He recommended Omega 3s and Vitamin B for the both of us, we took a quick photo, and we were on our way.
On the way back to Ubud we made a quick stop to a Luwak Coffee Farm. I wasn't too sure about this. I saw signs on the side of the road for it. Apparently it's one of the most expensive coffees and its primarily in Indonesia. The Luwak animals (Asian Palm Civet) would eat the coffee cherries and then defecate the partially digested beans. Definitely a unique approach!
