Out of all the places I had been in Bali, I think the natural salt mining farm was the most interesting visit in my itinerary. The place was well-maintained, and it was unexpectedly impressive. I'm glad that I had included this in the trip, along with other places that even my driver had not been to. In fact, I felt like he had discovered a lot of things from this trip.
It was quite ironical, considering that he is living in Bali, but he has not explored much of Bali. Well, thanks to my sense of adventure and also the power of the Internet, which enabled me to do all the research that I wanted to do prior to the trip!
The first thing that I noticed about Kusamba beach is its black sand. I wanted to go barefooted at first but I had to abandon the idea right away. Walking on hot sand was like walking on hot coals - the sand was hot! Upon our arrival at Kusamba around noon, the lady at the farm was drying rice seeds on the beach.
I could see that the weather here was indeed favourable for salt mining, besides its close proximity to the sea. I bet it would only take 1hr to dry my washed clothes here.
And look what I've found here. These look like the place mats commonly placed on the dining table. They were left to dry too before they were to be sold in the market.
The lady, who seemed to be the only one around, brought us to the area where she mined the salt.
She said that salt water was left to dry for 2 to 3 days and the residue collected could be seen here. What amazed me the most is the salt - it is the whitest, purest salt I had ever seen. Under the sun, it seemed to be sparkling like crystals.
I circled to the small hut and saw more salt, along with containers filled with saltwater. I could not resist not buying salt from this place. The salt here looked so perfect!
After looking around, I went to the ocean to collect saltwater with this simple equipment.
It looked so easy when the lady carried the saltwater, so I decided to do the same thing. My shoulders were screaming from the weight the moment she transferred the load on me. It was so heavy! Imagine having to walk up and down across the sand to get to the hut. I wondered how the lady could do it. Despite her small frame, her shoulders were really tough and steady. It was quite embarrassing actually for me because I didn't last even 2 minutes.
The lady spilled some of the saltwater so it wouldn't be too heavy for me to carry.
This trip was educational and I loved discovering new things. Although my parents were quite puzzled as to why I would want to go to this place, it seemed that they too had enjoyed themselves by the time we set off to another place in my itinerary. Yahoo... I was glad that they had learnt something too.
Well, that's all I have this time. Until then, ciao.
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