An expensive load of bull•shit – or should I say, cat•poo?

Towards the end of my stay in Bali Adriana and I went to visit Ubud. About an hour away from the beach and into the forest, this town had a different vibe: still touristy, but more oriented to culture and the arts, with plenty of choice for yoga devotees and spiritual retreats.

We walked in the Sacred Monkey Forest alongside dozens of crab-eating macaques, wary of their mischievous behaviour – they ran and played amongst themselves in groups and sometimes they stole people’s water bottles, or jumped over someone’s shoulder and opened their backpacks to take what they could and run away with it.

We drove past terraced rice fields and visited a coffee farm where we learned about the process – and had a taste – of the famous kopi luwak coffee. At the end of the day, after a compulsory massage session (this is a must when you’re in Bali, or so I was told) I went online to find out more about this very expensive product, which I didn’t find particularly special or tastier than a good regular coffee.

Kopi luwak is easily described as coffee made from wild cat poo. The civet, a catlike animal from Southeast Asia, eats the cherries and partially digests the beans. What comes at the end of the digestive process is a mix of shit and coffee beans that have been enriched by the fermentation that occurred inside the animal’s intestine. This mix goes through further steps to get to the final product – washing, drying, pounding to remove the skin, sorting and roasting. Apart from web pages that promote this ‘amazing’ product, which sells in some sites at AUD$330 per bag of 350g, I found articles that delved into the grim reality of the industry behind it: poor hygiene practices, animal cruelty on so many fronts, lack of control over what is genuine and what isn’t. Then I found this under the “Taste” subtitle of a Wikipedia article on the subject:

“Some critics claim more generally that kopi luwak is simply bad
coffee, purchased for novelty rather than taste”.

That summed it up for me. A great deal of damage being done in the name of novelty and of course, money ⁽¹⁾.

I had one more day in Canggu beach to relax in good company and cold beer in the scorching sun. Then a special farewell dinner with my friend as this would be our last catch up – at least for a while. She had an adventure of her own to come over the next few months: more of Bali, then Spain and the Camino de Santiago.

Max managed to sneak into my air-conditioned room to hide away from the heat. I didn’t blame him. But nice as he was, he couldn’t stay: he’d wake me up in the middle of the night to let him out. Not happening, mate.

My day started at 5am the next morning and was filled with long hours of travel in transition to my next destination: a hidden corner in the north east of India.

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⁽¹⁾ further reading on kopi luwak in the following websites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160429-kopi-luwak-captive-civet-coffee-Indonesia/ 
http://world.time.com/2013/10/02/the-worlds-most-expensive-coffee-is-a-cruel-cynical-scam/