local life
Climbing for Palm Sugar in Bebandem
Bebandem, Karangasem 3 hours 8+ (guests do not climb)
I Nengah climbs twice a day, every day. You meet him at the first round and stay for the boiling shed.
East Bali is too dry for the terraces visitors expect, so its households live off palm. You walk out at dawn as I Nengah collects the night's sap, watch the bamboo containers come down, then spend the morning at the boiling shed as the sap reduces to gula Bali. You leave with a block, and with a fair idea of what a day of tapping is worth.
The story behind the experience
Two climbs, no days off
A tapped palm must be visited morning and evening or the flow stops and the cut sours. There is no weekend in tapping, which is why the households take turns.
How this scores
Cultural respect
Visitor-friendly
What to bring
- · Closed shoes
- · Water
- · Cash for palm sugar
What not to do
- · Ask to climb the palm
- · Stand under a tapper at work
Your host
Meet I Nengah
Lontar palm tapper, Bebandem · Bebandem, Karangasem
I Nengah climbs twice a day, every day, and boils the sap down the same afternoon. He also sits on his banjar's ritual committee, which is why he can tell you plainly which days in Bungaya are closed to visitors.