Bali, Indonesia. Before visiting, I pictured its white-sand beaches as a haven for honeymooners and a hotspot for surfers.
While that’s true of the island’s southern end, there are also quieter areas where you can escape the crowds of sunscreen-slathered tourists.
This is what I set out to explore. Ubud—the cultural heart of Bali and a crossroads for traditional art, dance, and music—was the perfect place to start.
Going Local on Tour
Life moves at a different pace in the foothills of Gianyar Regency, nestled between rice paddies. I wanted to immerse myself in it.
I’m usually skeptical of tours claiming to show the “real” Bali, but when a well-traveled friend recommended the Bali EcoCycle Tour, I decided to give it a shot.
It sounded too good to be true—”throngs of Balinese children” lining country roads, calling out greetings and asking for high-fives—but the experience was everything promised and more.
We started with banana pancakes and black rice pudding, overlooking a crater lake that reflected an active volcano.
We swung like monkeys from massive Banyan trees and hiked through rice paddies to meet a cow so adorable we swore off beef on the spot.
We were welcomed into a Balinese compound, where women made traditional crafts and danced Gangnam-style with local kids to an old-school radio.
Small offerings—piles of petals in bamboo boats—lined the streets and doorsteps of Ubud. These daily rituals aim to appease the gods and ward off demons.
In the compound, we also learned about Balinese Hinduism—a unique part of the island’s identity, especially compared to the rest of Muslim-majority Indonesia.
An Introduction to Kopi Luwak
One highlight of the tour was sampling Kopi Luwak—one of the world’s rarest and most expensive coffees.
“Kopi” is Indonesian for coffee, and “Luwak” refers to the Asian palm civet native to the archipelago islands of Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi.
The beans used in this coffee take an unusual journey before they’re roasted and brewed.
Our guide introduced us to the civet—the cat-like creature responsible for the process. These animals eat ripe coffee cherries, digest the pulp, and excrete the beans.
Those beans are then cleaned, fermented, dried, roasted, and ground to make the legendary Kopi Luwak—often dubbed “cat-poo-chino.”
Legend says that during Dutch colonial times, local workers were forbidden from picking beans for personal use. So someone got resourceful and discovered the civet’s droppings as a workaround.
Because only a small amount of beans can be harvested this way, Kopi Luwak became a luxury item, selling for up to $180 per pound.
The civet’s digestive enzymes are said to impart a syrupy, full-bodied flavor with an earthy complexity that coffee lovers treasure.
There are even artificial versions that chemically mimic the fermentation process to replicate the flavor—though purists insist nothing compares to the real deal.
U.S. food and drink critic Chris Rubin once described it this way: “The aroma is rich and strong, and the coffee is incredibly full-bodied, almost syrupy. It’s thick with a hint of chocolate and lingers on the tongue with a long, clean aftertaste.”
Sampling Local Kopi Culture
Despite feeling slightly queasy at the thought of coffee that came from a civet’s rear end, I decided to give it a try.
A woman in traditional dress prepared a boiling setup and poured me a thick, aromatic cup of this famous brew.
I braced myself for something funky, but the flavor was surprisingly mild—in a good way.
I didn’t experience chocolatey swirls or divine revelation, but it was perfectly drinkable. Worth it for the story alone!
That said, my future coffee orders will stick to cream and sugar—hold the digestive enzymes.
About the Author
Katie Foote is a doctoral student who explores the world every chance she gets. When she’s not satisfying her wanderlust, she enjoys swimming, cooking international dishes, practicing yoga, and trying new things.
She lives by Mark Twain’s words: “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do… Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Follow her adventures on her blog, Gypsy Soul Itchy Feete.
