#  >  > Travellers Tales in Thailand and Asia >  >  > Indonesia Forum >  >  Bali trip & Mongoose poo coffee

## rawlins

I took a short holiday to Bali recently with the missus, sprog and my parents in tow because :

 - I needed a visa run due to being between 1 year visas and only having a 30 day stamp on returning to Thailand from work.

 - I had been promising the missus for about 3 years that I would take her there.

 - my old folks were over for a month and the holiday would do for their Christmas present.

 - I was drunk and merry sat at a computer one day with a credit card in my pocket.


So flights were booked from Bangkok with Air Asia and accommodation was 5 nights at the Padma Resort in Legian. 

3 days were spent relaxing around the resort and Legian which left 1 day for cramming in some sights of the island.


One of the pool bars at the resort:





We hired a driver for the day trip which consisted of the Zoo, lunch at the volcano,  scenic rice terrace stops, Monkey Forest and an agrotourism stop where you could try the mongoose shit coffee...   (And a couple more tourist trap stops at a silk batik place and silver crafting place which aren't really worth a mention as they were just shops where the driver would probably get a knock back from if they managed to sell anything to us).


The volcano - great views from the lunch stop. It was pissing down on the way up but was clear near the top:




The agrotourism stop was a nice scenic walkaround showing many of the different products that are grown in the area but the highlight had to be the 'Kopi Luwak' which is basically coffee made from beans that have been eaten, partially digested and then shat out by a mongoose.


This thing eats the coffee beans:



A day or 2 later they re-appear like this:



Then the beans are extracted, cleaned and roasted up:



'Trouble and strife' and the sprog roasting the beans in the old style way:



A cup of Luwak can be bought for about 50,000 rupiah (about 200 baht) and samples of other local teas and coffees are given free of charge:



My uncultured tongue couldn't really tell much of a difference between the standard coffee and the mongoose shit variety but because it is expensive I managed to convince myself that it tasted better. 

Here is the kind of review it gets by coffee critics though:
*"The aroma was rich and strong, and the coffee was incredibly full  bodied, almost syrupy. It was thick, with a hint of chocolate, and  lingered on the tongue with a long, clean aftertaste."*


This is the view you get while sipping your coffee:




We finished the day off with a stop at Monkey Forest. Here you get the chance to have cute little monkeys climb up you and perch on your head and generally maul you as you try to enjoy a nice walk around the forest and temple ruins. My old folks decided to sit this bit out as they had taken my advice and not bothered to get any rabies injections for Bali.

My daughter wasn't phased at all when one jumped out of nowhere onto her head but insisted on keeping the towel on her head after that just in case...



One of the buggers actually did put its teeth around my arm as I tried to coax it off the head of the missus but luckily didn't break the skin.

I now think these cute little monkeys should all be shot at this stage:



 :Smile:

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## jizzybloke

looks good mate, glad your little one enjoyed it.

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## rawlins

^ Cheers Jizz... 


I know where I first heard of this coffee now. It was talked about in 'The Bucket List' movie...




> [_Carter hands Edward an article about Kopi Luwak, Edward's favorite coffee_]  
> *Carter Chambers*: Read it.  
> *Edward Cole*: [_reading_] Kopi Luwak is the world's most expensive  coffee. Though for some, it falls under the category of "too good to be  true." In the Sumatran village, where the beans are grown, lives a breed  of wild tree cat. These cats eat the beans, digest them and then...  defecate.  
> [_pauses_]  
> *Edward Cole*: The villagers then collect and process the stools. It is the combination  of the beans and the gastric juices of the tree cat that give Kopi  Luwac...  
> [_Carter starts laughing_]  
> *Edward Cole*: ...its unique flavor... and aroma. You're shitting me!  
> *Carter Chambers*: [_laughing_] Cats beat me to it!  
> [_Carter and Edward both laugh hysterically_]

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## Loy Toy

That poolside bar looks great mate.

Did you old man enjoy himself?

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## rawlins

^ He did and as usual, tried to enjoy himself too much... but that story is probably best not told on here.    :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):

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## worgeordie

Thats Civet shit coffee ,not mongoose,hope its
well roasted !!
regards Worgeordie

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## jizzybloke

:rofl:  say hello to your old man for me when you speak to him mate.

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## rawlins

^^ Yeah, but 'mongoose shit' sounded better. And I doubt the coffee would taste much different having passed through a civet or a mongoose. 

From Wiki:



> Civets have a broadly cat-like general appearance, though the muzzle is extended and often pointed, rather like an otter or a *mongoose*.

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## harrybarracuda

> * It was thick, with a hint of chocolate, and  lingered on the tongue with a long, clean aftertaste."*


That was the mongoose shit, not the coffee.

 :Smile:

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## aging one

Nice mate, I love Bali each and every time I go. Great you could take everybody and show them a nice time. Padma resort is right at the beach right?

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## boatboy

If you dont want rat shit coffee you can always get this version where they have I assume a stainless steel civets gullet in a lab

A whole lot cheaper as well



> Viet-Coffee :: Coffee ground :: Traditional Vietnamese Coffee Blends :: Legendee 500g ground
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ...or indeed involved at all!
> 
> French colonists, realising that conditions were ideal for coffee cultivation, first planted coffee in the South Central Highlands region of Vietnam. The coffee also proved popular with a local resident: the common palm civet (Paradoxurus Hermaphoditus), a weasel-like animal, which quickly developed a taste for the sweet, fleshy outer layers of the coffee 'cherries' - the fruit of the coffee bush.
> 
> ...

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## aging one

great website if you take the time to click it. Gives a nice insight.

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## The Fresh Prince

Eating coffee beans now. Should be ready some time tomorrow. :Smile:

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## kingwilly

I've stayed at Padma Resort before, well priced and pretty decent hotel.

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## rawlins

> Nice mate, I love Bali each and every time I go. Great you could take everybody and show them a nice time. Padma resort is right at the beach right?


The hotel is on the beach but it doesn't have any exclusive area of it... Went onto the beach a couple of times at sunset for a couple of beers. Was OK but could have done with a regular clean up.





> Eating coffee beans now. Should be ready some time tomorrow.


There has got to be a market for human poop coffee. Think I would prefer my beans to have passed through a nice looking girl rather than say,  a hairy arsed fisherman though. Might approach all the Go-Go owners with a business plan when I get back . I could even collect the beans myself until the idea took off and I could afford staff.

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## withnallstoke

> There has got to be a market for human poop coffee. Think I would prefer my beans to have passed through a nice looking girl rather than say, a hairy arsed fisherman though.


If the coffee is washed down with liberal amounts of lau kau, do you reckon it would produce a pleasant coffee liqueur?

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## rawlins

^ Not sure but you would certainly be able to set the beans alight without needing to add them to a glass of sambuca. They might be nice to suck on like some sort of alcoholic lozenge. Look forward to your findings.

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## withnallstoke

> Look forward to your findings.


Just nipping out for the beans.
Will let you know.

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## rawlins

^ Don't forget to give them a light rinse before trying the lozenge idea.

And don't let those pesky Thais know what you are up to. Otherwise 7-11 will be stocking bags of the stuff before you have even managed to pass your first trial lot.

I think we should use female prisons when we go into mass production - need a controlled environment.

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## Cujo

> We finished the day off with a stop at Monkey Forest. Here you get the chance to have cute little monkeys climb up you and perch on your head and generally maul you as you try to enjoy a nice walk around the forest and temple ruins. My old folks decided to sit this bit out as they had taken my advice and not bothered to get any rabies injections for Bali.
> 
> My daughter wasn't phased at all when one jumped out of nowhere onto her head but insisted on keeping the towel on her head after that just in case...
> 
> 
> 
> One of the buggers actually did put its teeth around my arm as I tried to coax it off the head of the missus but luckily didn't break the skin.
> 
> I now think these cute little monkeys should all be shot at this stage:


I fucking hate monkeys.

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## Cujo

> ^ Not sure but you would certainly be able to set the beans alight without needing to add them to a glass of sambuca. They might be nice to suck on like some sort of alcoholic lozenge. Look forward to your findings.


My russian mate used to do that, put 3 coffee beans in a shot glass of sambuca,  set it alight then chew the coffee beans up with the sambuca and swallow  it together. Gave a numb taste in the mouth.
Never been a fan of setting fire to drinks myself, all you're doing is  burning off the alcohol and I can't see the point in that.

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## withnallstoke

> Eating coffee beans now. Should be ready some time tomorrow


Any news?

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## Happy Dave

> Eating coffee beans now. Should be ready some time tomorrow.


  Be careful, i tried that, but had to drink a bottle of palm oil to get them past the piles

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## TizMe

Looks like you need to learn from this monkey then.  :Smile: 

A man walked into a bar with his pet monkey.

The bartender said, "You can't bring that monkey in here!" The man replied, "Don't worry, he won't cause any trouble."

Within seconds the monkey jumped on the pool table and swallowed the cue ball. The bartender yelled, "Hey, he just ate my cue ball. No one can play pool anymore! Get out!" So the monkey and the man left.

The man left but came back one week later with his monkey. He apologized to the bartender and promised no more trouble. The bartender let him and the monkey stay.

Later that night, the monkey walked over to a bowl of grapes, put one in his ass, and then ate it. The bartender said, "That's disgusting! Why did he do that!"

The man said, "Since he swallowed the cue ball, he sizes everything up before he eats it."

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