Pearl Farm and more

Yesterday we woke up early to be on the road by 8:15am to make the 4 hour drive up to Northern Bali to visit a Pearl Farm.

The drive was unbelievable - - well from what I remember I fell asleep for awhile and woke up when we arrived at a small market; I bargained for awhile on 2 painting that I really liked. They are large black and white paintings. Everywhere here you will see black and white as that is like their ying and yang. It balances, protects and make things harmonious. They are awesome!

Anyway the scenery on the drive was incredible, we were up on the top of a mountain (not sure how high) but we were looking down on the towns below. On our left was a large lake and many trees, on our right there was several rice fields; terraced perfectly. I am not sure the pictures will give justice to how beautiful it is here.

When we made it to the Pearl Farm we started with a tour; basically they showed us the process from creation of an oyster to 4 years later when they harvest the pearls. It is such an interesting process and definitely gave me a totally different appreciation for pearls. Basically they put a male and female oyster together in a small box type thing and wait for them to make a baby..hopefully I don't need to explain that to you all : )

After the larvae (baby) is made it starts to develop the different parts and they hand feed the larvae algae they produce there at the factory. When the lady was explaining the development of the baby oyster she was saying that it had an eye..Linda then ask "only 1 eye" It kind of reminded me of a combination between the beautiful nail skit on youtube and giving someone the stint eye. It was really funny!

It takes about 45 days until the baby oyster is ready to go out to the salt water. They stay in the Ocean for about 2 years and then they will add the irritant to the oyster; usually a round bead. On a side note, I never knew that jewelry made with Mother of Pearl is actually the inside of an oyster shell. Also the color of the inside of the shell will let you know what color the pearl will be once it has developed. Anyway after the irritant is added they will put the oyster back in the ocean for another 2 years and then they will harvest or take the pearls out. This particular company never hurts the oyster and they use all the parts. We got to see all steps of the process. It was crazy!

Then we drove back to Sanur; along the way we stop at one of Mr. Patra's friends houses. It was this really old Chinese man that was like a psychic or at least that is what Mr. Patra said. We didn't get any readings or anything but he was very cool. We left from there and when we got back (another 4 hours of driving) we went to dinner and then bed.

This morning we woke up early again and headed out to Kuta for some sightseeing. On the way we stopped at a shop that was selling traditional Papua artifacts. Linda and I were literally looking through cob webs and bugs and spiders to find different things. Linda was really excited for all that she found. I, of course, pointed out this really cool thing that I thought was like a wood vase or something. I called Linda over for her to explain to me that what I liked was actually used as a penis cover...ha ha I have such good taste.

Linda also had a great experience with the bathroom there; from what I understand even Mr. Patra apologized for how bad it was...Linda also shared with me that she had been sharing the back seat of the car with a cockroach all day.

When we were in Kuta we drove past the site of the bombing. It has been interesting to hear about the bombing here; the way the media made it sound was that it was a terrorist thing against western tourism. No one here believes that was the reason; and surprisingly there were only a few Americans killed and more Indonesian people than any other country. Obviously, I still think it is awful but I was surprise at the difference in reasoning.

We stopped at the beach at Kuta - it was really beautiful with huge waves and I am can definitely understand why surfers like to visit here. After that we headed to Sukiwati market and walked around. We did a little more shopping after and then headed back to the hotel.

Now, we are confirming our arrangements for Hong Kong and then off to dinner and bed. Talk to you all later...

D