Change of plans, and I end up riding on the back of a motorcycle! | Travel Adventure [SE E12]

[two up and overloaded] Unfortunately, Borobudur, the temple itself was going to be closed  to all tours because it was a Monday. Yeah.   Yeah we had to go to the temple itself. There's no way.   So we decided that we would just hang out an extra day. Yes, we changed our plans completely.   I like cats and I like coffee.  Can't say I like poop so much...

It doesn't taste of fecal matter,  which is the best part of waking up. [Borobudur is Closed] Hey everyone, nice to have you here. We are Tim,  and Marisa Notier. I ride in the front. And I'm in   the rear. We travel the world and we pack too much  gear. Oh all the places we'll go! Through rain and  

through sleet and through mud and through snow. Oh all the things we'll see! We've been to a   country or two. Or three! Oh all the fun we've  had! To have you along would make us real glad. So give us a like and hit subscribe  to join us along our epic ride.

This episode is dedicated to our "Join the Journey" Patrons. Join for as little as $1 a month! See link in the description below. Hey everybody! Welcome back to another  episode of Two Up and Overloaded.   If you're just joining us for the first  time, I'm Marisa Notier. And I'm Tim Notier.  

And we ride two up on a motorcycle all  over the world. In this part of the world,   in Indonesia, we have chosen a Bajaj Pulsar  220. And it has taken us across Java to this   incredible place that has the largest  Buddhist site in the world, Borobudur. Borobudur is this crowning temple on top of  a hill. And I don't know if any of   you watch the Great British Baking Show, but  it kind of looks like marzipan, like if they   were to make a cake, a Borobudur cake, I think it  would be very fitting. I think that's just right.   And we were very excited to go see this magical  wonder. But a couple things happened prior to us  

seeing this wonderful sight. So we woke up in  the morning in this town where we had stayed   for Tim's birthday. And we were in these  little cabin construction things. [Kebumen - Indonesia] So we came back here to our  favorite little place in this area.  And... wow! Tim's got quite the breakfast  on his plate. Check this out.

[Southeast Asia Journey - Day 23] Good morning! So today we are on our last  little leg before the site of Borobudur.   It should only be a two hour ride today, so  we're looking forward to that, to being able   to relax in the countryside around Borobudur  this afternoon. It looks stunning in pictures,   so we'll see what it's like when  we get there. Should be beautiful.

[Urbanview Villa : -7.6804˙ South 109.6627˙ East] We had a very short ride that day to the town, the little village  that surrounds the site of Borobudur. [Balaboedoer - Indonesia] Marisa had looked up a place to possibly  stay, it was called a "homestay." Yeah.   And we get off of the main road,  and we're climbing up through   this beautiful scenery. There's mountains  in the distance, and there's rice fields.

So we arrived at this place. And this wonderful  gentleman named Fendi... I call him "Friendy."   Yes! Who we were going to become good  friends with, he came out and was like,   "Yes, you can stay here." It was a really  really great price, and it was so peaceful   and so beautiful, we immediately were like,  "Yes, this is the place for us." So we found this amazing place, it's called a  homestay online. And it is like a hotel, but...  

[Griya Harja Homestay : -7.6275˙ South 110.2004˙ East] ...very simple. But it's so beautiful and quiet here.   I want to show you around this  property. There's some goats. Yes! So I've learned, and I have to look it up to make  sure it's true, but that bananas are from this   region. [It's true!] Here's a bunch of great examples of  banana trees. Everyone has their own list of the seven   wonders of the world, and I have my own personal  list that is way more than seven. And Borobudur  

has been on this list for forever for me. I just  knew I would love to go there one day. And here   we are finding ourselves on the island of Java in  Indonesia, and I'm like, "Well, we cannot leave   this place until we see Borobudur." Fendi offered  a little tour package of the following day to see   a sunrise from an overlook of some mountains in  the distance. And then there were a couple more   temples, because Borobudor didn't open until like  8:00 something. Well it opened at 6:30, but   Borobudur used to have a sunrise tour, but it has since  been closed off to that ever since the pandemic.  

No, ever since the parkour guy. Oh, the parkour guy!  Yeah, he did a bunch of parkour around the temple   of Borobudur, like on the site of the temple.  Jerk stuff. Yeah, it is jerk stuff.   Off of all the old stones and everything. And  it went viral, and unfortunately because of that   video, legend has it, they have since closed off  the temple itself to anyone except tours. Yeah.  So you have to join a tour, there is no sunrise  tour anymore, and the first one usually starts   around 8:00 to 9:00 in the morning. So we knew we  had some time in the morning to do something else.   Yeah, and we we like sunrises. And we like sunrises of  a view of an amazing temple. So we took our friend  

Fendi up on his deal. Part of this deal is that we  were going to ride on motorcycles that are not our   motorcycle. So two little tiny motorcycles. Little  Scooters. And we're going to ride on the back with  Fendi and his friend. Okay, we're doing something a  little bit different today. We're jumping on other   people's motorcycles to go visit these two other  temples, see the sunrise from a specific location,   and then we're going to head to Borobudur.  Tim was going to ride two up, which is awesome! Ok, after the Mendut Temple and Pawon Temple, you  go directly to Borodbudur? Yes, please. Ok. All right, so it's a little dark because the  sun hasn't risen yet. But we are headed to  

a hilltop. It seems to be a very well  worn, paved path that many people take.   So this is definitely on the tourist trail.  Since we no longer can watch the sunrise from   Borobudur itself, I think this is what a lot of  people have been doing in the past few years. The sunrise was beautiful and you could  see Borobudur in the distance. Yeah.  

So the sun is rising, there's bats hovering all  over the place, there's birds, there's people from   all over the world here to watch this sunrise.  There's two giant mountains in the distance,   one of which looks like it could be the Volcano Merapi.  There's a wisp of smoke kind of coming off of it.   So I do know that it's currently erupting. That  could be it (Merapi). We also think we might spot  

some of the little temple spires of Borobudur.  Everybody's pointing their cameras over here, and I'm   like, "What's over there?" And you see this little  temple top. And you're like, "Oh, that's it!"   It really is like a hill amongst all the other  hills, but it's man-made. It's really incredible. And the sun has risen. And while we were there, we met another  couple, and we really hit it off with them.   They were so awesome.

But they told us that unfortunately Borobudur,  the temple itself was going to be closed to   all tours because it was a Monday. Yeah. Which  was news to us. Yeah, we didn't realize that.   We have flexibility though. So we said, "Well we got to go." Yeah, we had to go to the temple itself.   There's no way. There's no way. So we decided  that we would just hang out an extra day.   Yes, we changed our plans completely. And Fendi and  his friend were on it. They were like, "Ok,  

you want to go to Borobudur tomorrow? We have so many amazing things that  you can do right here in the village. In fact,   there's two other temples that you can visit.  And so we were like, "Yes, let's do that!" So the first temple that we  went to was Candi Mendut.  It was still really early in the morning,   and it was so beautiful with the sun golden  streaming on this gorgeous temple.

[Candi Mendut - Indonesia] You know, since Borobudur is the largest Buddhist  temple in the world, these little smaller ones   usually get overlooked. But I am so impressed by  the carvings and the artwork done on this temple.   This was our first really big temple that we were  seeing, and we were one of the only people there.  It was just magical in that morning. So Mendut  Temple here, as you can see behind me, it dates   back to 824 C.E. It is so old. Obviously,  it's been restored to what it is today.   Over here on the grounds you can see some of the  rubble that is probably what it looked like before   the restorations. But that is extremely old. And  it's so beautiful how many of these carvings have  

been preserved. And it was built by the Shailendra  king, the old Buddhist King from the 9th century. After the temple, we walked back towards the bikes,  and there's a little Buddhist monastery right there.   And they're like, "Yeah, go in and  check that out." And it was free! [Mendut Monastery : -7.6053˙ South 110.2295˙ East] [Buddhism is the world's fourth largest religion with about 520 million followers globally.]

It was so serene! It was very beautiful. So although Indonesia is predominantly Muslim,  there is a large congregation of Buddhists here,   including this gorgeous Buddhist monastery  that is right here next to Candi Mendut.    And it is such a peaceful, lovely place.  I'm... Oh my goodness. Look at this. I'm absolutely in love with this place.   I mean we're going to show you footage,  we're going to show you the pictures,   but nothing can really replicate the  feeling of just being in that monastery. So after walking around, breathing in the  fresh air, absorbing in the enlightenment   of past and present Buddhas, we got back on the  motorcycles, and we went to a second temple. Yes.

So this is Candi Pawon. And that was the smaller of the two  we had seen, but it was still very nice. Yeah, Pawon, Candi Pawon. Candi means "temple,"  I'm not sure what Pawon means. Beautiful...  

It was beautiful. It was smaller than the first  one that we saw, but it was still gorgeous.   All those reliefs that they have on the  side of the temples, the details of them,   and the ancientness of this. These structures  came from the 800's. Really really cool. We were again escorted across the  street by Fendi and his friend-y,   And there was one of those places, and most of  you may have probably heard of it. I've heard of it.  

I had no idea it was in that part of the world.  But it's the part of the world where there's   that cat thing that eats coffee beans and poops  it out. And some dude was like, "Oh, I bet this   would be a good roast," and then made coffee out  of it. And now it's like a worldwide phenomenon.   It's the most expensive coffee in the world  is this cat poop coffee. And there happened to be  

the Indonesian version of Starbucks across  the street from this little temple we were at.   Yeah! So this one, the animal, the civet cat we call  luwak, they live in the jungle. It's about thirty   kilometers from here. They eat the coffee berry,  the best one, because the bean cannot digest.   So fermentation in the stomach, and they poop like this one. So that's poop? Feces? Yeah.

They have a good enzyme   to reduce the acid and caffeine. So for luwak coffee,  low acid and low caffeine. Totally different from the normal coffee. Really! And not only did they have the coffee  there... But they had the little coffee  

creature dude. They had the coffee creature dude,  that's right. It is called a civet in English,   they call them luwaks. They look like raccoons.  Yeah, I'm not sure where the cat thing comes from,   because it doesn't seem like a cat to me. It  seems like some sort of canine type of maybe   weasel or raccoon creature. I like cats and I  like coffee. I can't say I like poop so much... 

So here we're roasting inside. It's  about 18 to 20 minutes. We control the temperature   until 210˙ degrees Celsius,.They have the refined  ones, and then they have the not refined ones,   which are poop. But they don't look like like poop  like you ate a Snickers bar and what happens   12 hours later. It looks like a Payday bar post  production, right out of factory. You open the  

wrapper, bam! It's just nuts and caramel. But the  caramel is not caramel. But I would've eaten it.   It looked good. They peel the skin manually  by hand like this one. So the green is good   but the yellow is not good? Both are good, but  this with skin. Oh, tricky, tricky. Must we rip it again for the peeling. Oh, so much work.  Yes, that's why this coffee most expensive coffee   in the world. Yes it is. And then we went into  the restaurant, and she asked if I wanted some,. 

Of course I do. Marisa eats fried crickets and  weird things all the time, but I'll drink the   cat poop coffee. And you get this tiny little  cup with an even tinier little handle. Yeah. It's not bad. Yeah? It's good. It  doesn't taste of fecal matter, which is  

the best part of waking up. Yeah, I  drank it. And it wasn't bad.   I'm used to... Bad? Was it good, was it amazing? Well it didn't taste like crap, which is good.   Yeah, amazing might be a stretch, and bad  is definitely not what it was. But I've been  

drinking Folgers Instant Coffee for so long.  It was the best Indonesian coffee I had. Good.  But I've always wanted to try it. So I feel  very lucky that I've had cat poop coffee.   This was already turning out to be an awesome day,  but Fendi was not done yet. He was like, "Look,   I know this guy who makes tofu in his home. Would  you like to see the process?" My gut reaction was  

like, "No." Hard pass, soft pass, firm pass. Extra firm. Extra firm pass. But Marisa...   I wanted to see this. Yeah. So we got to this  guy's house, and it is such a cool production. In fact, making tofu is a lot simpler  than I thought. I thought you had to   ferment it for months and bury it under the  ground, or I don't know what was going on.   But basically they were taking the soy, which  was all from the United States. American soy.  I'm thinking it's Illinois soy. Illinois, where  we're from. So maybe, who knows. They grind it up,  

they boil it, then they strain off all of  the froth that had been boiled up to the top. The whole process is like a one-man show. It  is a one-man show. He's got two witch's brews,   if you will. These kettles, what  do they call them in The Witches? Cauldrons.   Cauldrons, I was never going to say that word. He's  siphoning one out all the water, and he's got this   big fishnet thing that is straining stuff. You  could tell that this was a lot of work involved.   For the one person who was doing it, it's  remarkable how much tofu one person could   make with the right resources. He made five stacks  at a time. Yes, so it would be five every hour,  

every two hours or so? Something like that.  Yeah, it's pretty amazing. And so they would   get pressed down, the water would drain out,  and eventually it would press to become tofu. So that was such an awesome experience. And then, the last thing we did on this incredible day in which Borobudur was closed was we went  and saw a place where they have beehives,   and they make their own honey. Yeah.

[Ashfa Honey Bee Farm : -7.6171˙ South 110.1971˙ East] It tastes like very sweet honey. It's very  good. It has a very distinct flavor. And he took the honeycomb, there's a name for  it. Yes. He took like the sleeve out   of the bee box. And yeah. You held it.  I was a bee-boy. You were a bee boy.  I was kicking with the bees bees. I am shocked that nobody was wearing any bee  apparel, and there was no smoker machine. He's  

like, "No, the bees are nice." I'm like, "Uh, I don't know..."  Yeah, it was a really excellent day overall.  And we didn't get to see our grand thing that we  had hoped and hoped for, but I'm glad that we took   the extra day. Me too! How cool was that? I'll  tell you what, in the next episode you'll get   to see Borobudur... Everything that was amazing.  In the next episode, we'll be going to Borobudur.  

Check it out, it's going to be so great. And I  hope you liked this episode. If you did, please   give us a big thumbs up, and hit the Subscribe  button below, and we'll be seeing you next time.  Stay safe everybody. Bye! Peace. One of those bees  really liked you. This is true. It wouldn't  

get off of you. Yeah, it got on me and I wanted it  off. And I was like, "All right dude, we've made   our friendship and our bond, But now you need to  go." This is like the scene from that movie...   Candyman. No. No? Kevin Costner,  wolves movie. He makes it go away.   Come on, it's one of your favorite movies.  Dancing with Wolves? Dancing with Wolves! What does that have to do with bees?   Because the bee was on me, and I said,  "Shoo, get out of here." And it was like, "No! I'm your friend." But this one place we went to... We  found a restaurant with a very interesting dish.

We didn't notice it at first, but two people were  on a romantic date, drinking out of this bone.   It's like a giant cow femur  basically that had been cut in half, and they   put a straw in it. It was like Lady and the Tramp,  and they're just staring at each other with love eyes, drinking out of this bone. Oh so gross! Drinking  the bone marrow. And they have a little knife,  

eating the things on the outside, then sucking  the inside. You know, I'm very happy   that there are people that are really into that.  This is true. Because it uses all the different   parts of the animal that we would normally  discard. And it's probably super healthy. Yeah.  And all the posters around this little restaurant  is everybody chugging on their bone marrow brew.  

And it was like, "How did we not notice that the  thing to get here is the bone marrow?" Yeah! Oh.

2023-08-11 07:39

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