Visiting the Salt Farm on the island of Bali - August 2014

For those of you who always complain about the high humidity in Bali, you might want to consider coming during the month of July and August. The weather is nicer and less humid. Night time temperature is quite pleasant, my friend Titut calls it the cold season in Bali. Titut is a long time friend of mine who has been living and working as a travel agent in Bali for over 20 years. Her company arranges most of my domestic travels in Indonesia.

With her friend Dara, she took me for a road trip to Amed beach, another part of the island that's less visited. It is about 2 hours drive from the airport. Beautiful and secluded. Along the way, we visited a salt farm. Titut and Dara introduced me to the farmers. It didn't take long before I helped the farmers carry some sea water from the beach and brought it to the farm where we poured it into a long wooden basins made of coconut tree trunks. The tree trunk was cut lengthwise in halves and they carved out the center to make a long boat-like basin which they used to contain and to dry the sea water under the sun and to let it evaporate. Depending on how hot the day is, the residue (salt) may be collected the same day.