8:09 am - August 7, 2014 - sjcarlson

Central Balinese mountain coffee… So this is where some coffee comes from!

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We went on a mountain rainforest hike in Central Bali while staying at a mountain retreat near the ancient volcano, Agung Batukaru.There were probably 30 tourists in the whole area! Amazing.

A local collected coffee beans from coffee plants in the rainforest.

Coffee berries and coffee flowers.

Kopi Luwak (civet coffee) beans in the wild. A luwak/civic cat eats coffee berries from a coffee tree, digests them, then does you know what. These beans are then collected, treated many times, then made into very expensive coffee. Apparently the civet cat’s stomach enzymes do something to make the flavor amazing. These cats also apparently only eat the best. Anyway, on our jungle hike, we found these in the track. Kopi Luwak in the wild! It is apparently the most expensive coffee in the world, at $700 USD per kilogram (according to Wikipedia). I tried it. It just tasted like very strong coffee. Perhaps my taste just isn’t refined enough haha

Categories: Photography, Samples of Southeast Asia

11:05 am - August 5, 2014 - sjcarlson

Breakfast in Ubud, Bali

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Categories: Photography, Samples of Southeast Asia Tags: bali, relax, vacation

9:13 am - August 4, 2014 - sjcarlson

Hey writer friends, anyone need inspiration for writing a horror novel? Check out my pics from the Ten Courts of Hell, Haw Par Villa, Singapore (warning…these plastic figures actually look pretty gross)

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Haw Par Villa was constructed by the inventors of Tiger Balm as a place to teach traditional Chinese values. By the way, punishment for disobeying your elders in Yama, the third court of hell, lorded over by King Songdi? Heart cut out.

Also, there was this….

Categories: Expat in Singapore, Samples of Southeast Asia, Writing Tags: expat, Horror, photography, Singapore, writing

7:00 pm - August 3, 2014 - sjcarlson

Fishing in the moat around Angkor Wat

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Boys and men fishing from one of the two bridges that crosses that moat around the Angkor Wat temple complex. The square-shaped moat around the temple complex is 656 feet wide and has a perimeter of 3.4 miles. The bridges go through gates in the wall that also surrounds the complex, connecting to a causeway that runs directly to Angkor Wat.

A view of the moat and the side of the bridges, which run east-west.

Fishing from the bridge into the moat.

A boy on the bridge, one of the demon carvings looking down on him. The demon carvings run the length of one side of the bridge, it’s either gods or heroes on the other, I can’t remember which and I can’t find a website that says.