Enjoy Bali’s sea views and pamper your skin at an ultra-premium bird’s nest tourism factory

By MOOK Scenic Spots Editorial Team

Upon arrival at the bird’s nest factory in Nusa Dua, visitors are first given a wireless headset connected to a factory guide, ensuring clear audio explanations as they move around the facility. The tour begins with a model swiftlet house, where display cases showcase various types of bird’s nest samples. The guide explains how traditional nest harvesting methods not only damage the ecosystem but also affect yield and quality. They then introduce scientific swiftlet farming techniques, demonstrating how factors like temperature, humidity, light, sound, scent, and location are controlled to attract swiftlets to build nests in eco-friendly, man-made houses. Modern farming and harvesting methods significantly improve the quality of bird’s nests compared to wild cave nests. The guide may also play recordings of swiftlet mating calls in the model house for visitors to hear.

Next, visitors observe the cleaning and processing procedures—the most critical steps in ensuring bird’s nest quality. The key to confirming that bird’s nests are free from bleach or preservatives lies in the “washing and feather-picking” process. Visitors can see female workers in white dust-proof suits and masks, focused on meticulously cleaning the nests through large glass windows. The guide explains how unethical practices, such as adding bleach, preservatives, or glue to increase weight, occur at this stage, as well as the national standards requiring zero chemical residues in inspected bird’s nests.

The tour then proceeds to a transparent, fully isolated, dust-free, low-temperature automated production line. Through a 26-meter-long glass wall, visitors can observe a row of machinery forming an automated production line. First, measured portions of bird’s nests are placed in test tubes for preparation. Once the machines complete the bottle-washing and drying processes, workers on the production line handle the nest-filling step. The filled bird’s nests are then injected with rock sugar syrup via a fully automated high-pressure pump. After air is extracted to seal the nests in a vacuum, the products are inspected by an automated vacuum testing machine to ensure intact vacuum sealing. They are then sent to a high-pressure sterilization autoclave for high-temperature sterile processing, followed by natural cooling. Finally, the manufacturing date is printed, and automatic labeling equipment completes the packaging.

Many assume canned foods can be stored for years due to added preservatives, but in reality, it’s because of sterilization equipment like autoclaves. The factory’s concentrated ready-to-eat bird’s nests, produced using vacuum high-temperature high-pressure sterilization technology, are claimed to be an exclusive Indonesian technique—shelf-stable at room temperature for two years unopened. Finally, visitors can choose to sample rock sugar bird’s nest in the VIP lounge at an additional cost. Souvenir shops near the exit offer local products for purchase.