Today, our first full day in Munduk, the last stop on our three-location Bali tour, we headed out after breakfast for one of my favorite local hikes: to a waterfall a little more than a mile away. Our lead guide today, Ketut (known as Young Ketut to differentiate him from Old Ketut, from the same family) grew up steeped a the rich knowledge of herbs and their medicinal uses.
We began our hike touring the herb garden on the property of Puri Lumbung, our hotel, and learned about remedies for everything from diarrhea to constipation, kidney problems to breast cancer, toothaches and failing memory to mother’s milk that won’t let down.
Once we left the hotel grounds, we hiked on a trail that meandered up and down steps, from dirt pathways to stone, through backyards, on asphalt and stone, through forests of clove trees. On our right, a constant companion, was the lively music of a rollicking creek.
The path was narrow, so we hiked in a line, stopping frequently to learn how cloves are harvested, how each part of the clove plant is used, about the different varieties of rice and how long they take to grow, what a papaya tree looks like, and how to recognize nutmeg still in the husk.
Ketut was full of incredible knowledge about the natural herbal pharmacopeia local people rely on for their medicine. Every plant, it seemed had a practical use, except for the few he said we had to avoid—those were toxic and could irritate the skin.
At the end of our herbology walk was a great reward—the waterfall to revel in. Come join us on our hike and learn about the incredible riches a short hike in Bali can yield.
Crossing the bamboo bridge.
(Turn up your sound for this one.) This is a rice field alarm. In most rice fields in Bali, irrigation is shared by several farmers. This clacker reassures a farmer that water is flowing to his field. If the clacker goes silent, it’s lets him know that the channel for water needs to reopened or that something is blocking the flow.