So much can happen in just a few days and it seems that the closer our departure the more we want to fit into our time here.
But....even the best laid plans can change and that is exactly what happened on the 5th when our plan for massage went awry in deference to the fact that Barb was suffering from a fall she'd taken the day before during a torrential rainstorm. On the day of the fall....she wasn't too bad but overnight (as often happens) things started to seize up and by morning she could hardly move! She managed to make her way over here (with help) and as soon as Pasek got one look at her he began the underground communication that resulted in an amazing adventure for all of us!
To complicate things just a little....it was Galungan Day and so all Balinese are very busy with family and ceremonies but.....given their desire to help they shifted their plans, moved their ceremony/prayer times from afternoon to morning and so by afternoon Agung (from across the road), Pasek (our host), Barb, Lynda, and I were ensconced in Agung's car and headed east to see a balian (traditional healer) who specializes in broken bones. Now, we didn't think Barb had any broken ribs but she sure had something wrong with her rib section!
The drive shouldn't have taken much more than 1/2 hour but with all the traffic (due to Galungan) it was well over an hour before we left the main road and headed into a little village where we wound our way through the merry makers, the cars parked askew, and the motor bikes that were everywhere! Eventually we arrived at our destination.....a small dirt road that headed off into the jungle. We left our car and set out on foot to make the final 15 minute trek of our journey. As we moved further and further into the forest and the lane became more and more narrow I know I'm not the only one who had fleeting thoughts of "where the hell are we going?!" The final leg of our walk took us off the main path and onto an even smaller one that veered left and up a small hill. At the top of that hill we popped out at the family compound of the balian. As Agung had predicted we found the balian out working in his garden so we were invited to sit and wait in the family "living room". Living rooms here are outside the house....they are a large covered patio where everyone sits on the floor. Within seconds of our arrival another family arrived with their injured son in tow and just a few minutes after that another family with a young woman in need of attention. We could see the young mans injuries as there was blood (and they told us that he'd had a motorbike accident) but we had no idea what the problem for the young woman was. Obviously this balian does more than broken bones! While we were waiting Agung told us a story about how he'd brought his 26 year old son to see this balian when he suffered a broken leg. Agung had had to carry his adult son on his back up the trail we'd just walked to get him here! Gads! Now I feel really ashamed at my chagrin about making the little hike! Agung is not a big man....I cannot imagine how he would have done it! But at the same time, I can. That is just what they do...whatever needs to be done. Agung is likely 50'ish but looks older. He works every day in the rice fields (and that is HARD work!) and then he drives taxi every evening. It's like Pasek....working working working all the time. Pasek works at so many places and then when he does go home to his village he works on stuff there like carving that door that he's been working on for years! The Balinese are traditionally very hard working people and although I suspect that is being challenged by the younger generation (just like the rest of the world)...hard work is still very much a part of their daily practice. But I digress so back to the story.....shortly the Balian came in from the garden donned his sarong and went into his family temple (on the property right beside the house). Through all this not a word was said....somehow he knew we were first there though...perhaps his wife who had greeted us and gotten him from the garden had told him the white folks were first or maybe balian's just know stuff like that! After a few minutes of waiting for him to return from his prayers/blessings in the temple he came out and walked right over to where Barb was sitting. He got down on the floor behind her (all Balinese men are able to sit cross legged on the floor regardless of their age!) and asked her to lift her shirt and drop her skirt through sign language. Yep....it is all right out in the open here.....no modesty or privacy allowed! Barb wasn't in any shape to argue though and so she exposed her mid section at which time he took a large Q-Tip that I think had been dipped in holy water from the temple and drew a series of signs on her middle back. From there he went to work and dove in with both hands. He poked and massaged and prodded and adjusted and poked and massaged and adjusted again. Exactly 8 1/2 minutes later he was done and she was like a new woman. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I never would have believed it! Just a few minutes before she'd hardly been able to move and now she was moving and bending and smiling and yes....it was like she'd been given a new lease on life. Now don't get me wrong....she still had some pain but it was now a dull pain versus the sharp breath catching agonizing pain she'd had before he started his work. The Balian gave Barb's "prescription" to Pasek and we were off back down the path in the direction of our car. This time it was a much quicker trip as Barb was able to walk normally.....it was like a miracle! You may be wondering about payment for this service....well.....you cannot pay a balian directly. What you do is give him offerings (which Pasek had provided) and you can put whatever you can afford into that offering. Pasek had suggested perhaps 100,000 ($10) but Barb was happy to double that to 200,000 IDR and my guess is that the balian and his family would have been happy to receive that gift. Barb's prescription was: a special type of leaf, some onion, some Arak (illegal moonshine), and some softened rice all ground together into a paste that she was to apply topically to the area for the next two days. Agung knew where the special leaf grew (in front of a temple and although you're not normally supposed to take leaves or flowers from temple grounds it is okay to do so when it is for medicine) so on the way home we stopped at that temple so Pasek could collect a handful of the leaves. Somehow Pasek and Agung also knew where to find some of the moonshine and so within a few minutes of getting back to the car we were stopping in front of a little corner store. Pasek went inside and a minute later came out with a plastic water bottle half filled with "water". I took one whiff of that "water" and was surprised it wasn't eating right through the plastic of the bottle! Once we were home Pasek went to work on soaking the rice, gathering the rest of the ingredients, and grinding it all into a fine paste in his traditional mortar and pestle. That night Barb was tucked into bed with one side of her covered in a sweet smelling green paste and feeling better than she'd felt in a couple of days! She'd be flying home (30 hour trip) in the morning so this reprieve was very much appreciated!
Bottom line...what an adventure and a memory for all of us! We are sorry that Barb had to go through the pain but boy oh boy am I ever glad that I got to see a real traditional balian in action! Thanks Barb! :-)
Now that we're down to our last few days here we've become really intentional about fitting in those things that we really want to do 'just one more time.' Yesterday it was a trip to the Pyramids of Chi for another round of sound healing and it was without a doubt my favourite of the three times I've been there! There were just 4 of us in the pyramid for the session and this time we were in the smaller of the two pyramids (the pyramid of the moon). The two Ketut's brought us on the back of their bikes so we got a nice long ride out of it too. (I am going to miss hopping on the back of those bikes sooooo much!). Lynda and I enjoyed a fantastic lunch in the gorgeous restaurant that looks out over the pyramids and within minutes of our arrival the skies opened up and a torrential rain beat down. There is a massive overhang on the restaurant and so we were able to enjoy the rain from the safety of being far enough under the roof that we didn't get wet at all. There is something wonderful about being able to be out in the rain without getting wet. :-). By the time 3:00 rolled around and it was time to go into our sound healing session the rain had stopped and so we were able to walk out to the pyramids without getting wet. The skies were still overcast and so the pyramids against that dark backdrop looked even more impressive. It's kind of like the panjars that everyone puts up for Galungan....they're amazing to see any day but when they're set against a dark sky they're just soooo much more dramatic.....their colours and tones are all just sooooo much more striking and the overall effect they create is just that much more dramatic. But again I digress so back to the pyramid. Our session was being led by the same girl who led it when we were there for our first introduction to sound healing (on Valentines Day in February) when we also participated in an international exercise of collective consciousness for world healing. That sound healing was good...really really good but it was also a pyramid full of people whereas this time there was just the four of us! The next time I attended was with Barb and Alison and that session was led by the man of the couple who own the pyramids (Paul and Lynn). As Paul was away visiting family in Australia...the session was assigned to the same girl who did it in Feb. She is originally from Newfoundland and more recently from the west coast of Canada. She's been living here in Ubud for the past 5 months and is due to go home about the same time as Lynda and I are. Who knows....maybe our paths will cross again on the other side of the world. I think her name is Sendan but regardless....she did an amazing job. First she led us in a relaxation meditation, then she moved on to the gongs. From there it was a combination of drumming, chanting, singing, a rain stick, and more gongs. We were washed by the vibrations of all of the instruments, cleansed by the sweet grass she burned, and all of the water in our bodies was realigned to be at one with the universe. Now I know that sounds pretty "hippy" but I gotta tell you that this hippy shit felt pretty damn good! :-). To top it all off.....just as Sendan finished her final sounds for our session the gods took over and in perfect synchronicity the thunder crashed right over the top of the pyramid. We could literally feel the vibration of the storm and the electricity that it brought with it. There were two more massive claps of thunder as the gods finished our sound healing session with a bang. I couldn't help but think of the belief that surrounds Galungan....for these 10 days (until Kuningan) it is believed that the gods descend to the earth to do what they do and for the triumph of good over evil to be celebrated. If this thunder wasn't evidence of their visit to earth....I don't know what is! We had to get a taxi back to town as it was too late to call the Ketut's back to pick us up (they'd already have left for school in Sanur). By the time we got home we were so mellow.....we had no interest in going out at all. So.....a couple of hours later and as a pre-emptive strike at staving off hunger before it hit.....I picked up some sushi take out from Icip Icip (across the road from our lane) and we had a little picnic on our patio. Great way to end another great day!
Today has been pretty relaxed too. Lynda picked up a couple more little things she's certain she'll be able to fit into her suitcase somewhere and I caught another back of the bike ride with Ketut down to the Salt Therapy place for one final session there. Again, it was 45 minutes of bliss. Relaxing music in a darkened room that is lined with salt and salt lamps. A mist of salt is sprayed into the very cool room so you can breathe it deep into your lungs and hold it there to help cure whatever might ail you. I have no idea if there is any actual benefit but it makes a lot of sense when I think about it and regardless.....it is so great to just sit in that VERY COOL room when everywhere else is smoking hot and humid. Ahhhhhhhhhh............
After my salt session Ketut came back to pick me up and we were off to Coco Mart where I was able to pick up a couple little bottles of Arak (local whiskey) to take home as gifts for my kids. I have absolutely no idea where I'm going to fit it in but.....hopefully by stuffing a little more into my bag somehow it will magically result in nothing breaking. Well....at least that's the story I'm going to go with as I cross my fingers and my toes. LOL. :-)
Today, Lynda and I also walked up to Verona Spa (overlooks the rice fields) to make an appointment for tomorrow. We've both decided on the Bliss Spa package which basically means that we will be pampered from head to toe for a little more than four hours. We were able to both get appointments for 1:00 pm and I for one can hardly wait! The package we both chose includes: a four hand massage, an herbal body scrub, a flower petal bath in a soaker tub, a facial, a hair cream treatment, a pedicure, a manicure, and oh ya....did I mention a four hand massage? :-). This will be my second time for a four hand so I know the treat we are in for. I'm pretty positive that will be all we'll be able to do tomorrow because by the time they've finished treating us like royalty we'll be lucky to just make it back to our respective beds! Oh ya.....the final price on this spa pkg is way over our usual limit but heh....it is our last one so what the hell.....we will spring for the $52....it is a full four hours with multiple therapists after all.
The day after that will be the 11th....our last full day here and so it is likely that day will consist of little more than final packing and laundry pick up and farewells. However, if we get everything finished and if the weather cooperates.....I'm pretty sure that is another full moon Kecak performance at ARMA and seeing as Lynda missed out on seeing it when I went to the last one with Barb and Alison....that might be a perfect way to say good bye to Bali on our final night here.
As I type this we are sitting in another restaurant we've never been in before. This one is called Lamak and it is located right on the corner of Monkey Forest and the little lane we take to go down to Cendana where we avail ourselves of their saltwater infinity pool that overlooks rice fields. Seriously, we've been in a different restaurant every day (and lots of days see us in more than one) and I can count on my fingers the number of times we've doubled up with repeat visits. The statistic is that there are more than 500 restaurants here in Ubud and I have no doubt that is the truth. The other thing I have no doubt of is that they're all very very good! Prices have ranged from $1/entree to where we are right now which has prices comparable to what we'd pay at home (maybe even a little more than what we'd pay at home) and everything in between. The common denominator is that they're all exceptional and 99% of the time we hear ourselves saying that we want to return to "this one".
And on that note....I think I'll draw this post to a close and it is very likely that this will be my final post as I can't imagine I'm going to have any more time between now and departure and on top of that I've already told you pretty much everything we're going to do so there wouldn't be anything to tell either. :-)
So.....till the next trip......this is L & L signing off......
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
April 4, 2017
I am so angry with myself for leaving it so long between posts! Soooo much has happened in the past couple of weeks and I'm afraid so much will be missed in this blog as a result. I've learned over the years that when I'm travelling I rely on these blog posts to help me recall (years later) some of the amazing adventures we have along the journeys we've been fortunate to take.
Thank heavens we have a bit of a calendar here in the room that I can refer back to so I will be able to capture some of the highlights but....at the same time I know that much will be missed and stay a memory in Bali forever....perhaps that is what is meant to be though as "there are no coincidences".
Since last writing I know we went back to the english school, Prima Santi one night. This time there were three of us though and so the kids had "extra" practice as a result. In addition, Barb had picked up a few things in Canada for us to take to the school so we were laden down with pencils, stickers, and books to leave with the kids. Once again, we were a hit!
One amazing day was spent on a tour to the east with Pasek and his wife Nyoman joining Barb, Lynda, and I (along with driver Jati of course). It was Nyoman's FIRST time to any of the places we'd be visiting and when you consider that all of this is easily within a one day drive....and that Nyoman is well into her forties....it's hard to believe. We stopped at the seaside in Candidasa for lunch where we dined at a place right on the beach. Honestly I'm not sure....but it might have been her first time to the beach too! It's hard to imagine what she must have been thinking as we made our way through the day...everything would have been new for her but she simply took it all in stride as though she'd done it before a million times.
We also visited two water palaces on our tour to the east. Both were breathtaking and we all enjoyed walking around the gardens that surround those former royal residences. For me the highlight of the day was our stop at Tenganan, a traditional village where we spent a fair bit of time. I'd been wanting to go there to see the "honey man" for quite a while as I'd heard that he had both sour honey and sweet honey and guess what....we found him and yes he did have both of those versions of honey! The sour honey comes from tiny bees so small that they look like little black flies, not much bigger than a mosquito. Those little bees don't sting but they do fly in your ears and up your nose and in your eyes if you mess with their hive so even though they won't sting you...they sure can keep people away from their hive if they want to. The sour honey is like nothing I've ever tasted before. It is actually SOUR! Delicious but sour! We enjoyed our visit with the honey man so much! He welcomed us into his home where we met his mom and his brother and his brother's wife. We got to look into his grandmas house (where she was resting on her bed) and we got to see all the animals and gardens and hives and hives of bees. His bees provide him with sour honey, mango honey (mango blossoms when they're in season) and coffee honey (coffee blossoms when in season). The coffee honey is very dark and actually has a distinct coffee flavour. The mango honey is the colour of normal honey and you can taste a hint of mango beneath the sweet of the honey flavour. Soooo interesting! In addition to the honey production, several of the family also make baskets in the traditional way so we got to see how that is done, the vines they use to make them, the smoking process to cure and colour the baskets, and oh yes....we even made a purchase or two (or three).
Another event that took place since I last wrote is the Bali Spirit Festival and although we didn't take in many of the activities attached to that event we sure did notice the influx of Spirit Festival types in town for it! One thing we did do though was attend the final evening entertainment at ARMA where the One World One Stage acts performed. For me it was an exciting moment as I got to see Xavier Rudd live and the venue was perfect for him and his music. The magic that man makes with a didgeridoo is simply that.....magic! That night was March 26th and so for me I will now always think of March 26th as the anniversary of the night that I chose to celebrate my decision to come to Bali by seeing Xavier Rudd in Ubud.
The Spirit Festival attracts quite an "interesting" mix of people. All ages and likely all walks of life but the common denominator is that everyone is marching to the beat of their own drum! Lots of beads and feathers and glitter and skin....it was kind of like I imagine it would have been to have attended a mini version of Woodstock without all the mud and the drugs. The folks at the Spirit Festival don't need any drugs....they're kind of flying high all on their own. :-)
Speaking of flying high....I LOVE the back of the bike and over the past couple of weeks have had two more trips through the rice fields on the back of a bike. The first time was with Alison and the next time with Barb. Both times we went with Ketut 1 and Ketut 2, stopped at Sari Organik for lunch and made a fun day of it. On the trip with Alison it was fun to see Ketut 2 have his first trip through the rice field too! Yes....just as Nyoman had never been to the east...Ketut had never been past Sari Organik and into the rice fields! AND....both Ketut's had never been into Monkey Forest. I know it's bad that it took us more than four months to go into the forest but at least we've been in there. Now I can even boast that I did it twice as the only way Ketut 2 would go in is if he was with a visitor so I sucked it up...bought another ticket and ventured back into the land of those flea infested little thieves! No....they're still not my favourite animal....even after two visits into their forest!
But back to the back of a bike.....it is so wonderful to feel the breeze blowing past. As the "queen of sweat" I'm always dripping wet and so having a breeze is a real treat! Coming along the roads after we came out of the rice fields yesterday was even more special because so many of the panjars (sp?) are already up for Galungan Day tomorrow. Those panjars are soooo beautiful....magnificent in fact as they sway over the streets in front of every property. Every home (on the entire island) will have them up by tonight so I'm going to make arrangements with Ketut for another bike tour of panjars for day after tomorrow when he's back from his village. The panjars will be a couple days old by then and so not "as fresh" but they'll still be magnificent. He's gong to take me out by the rice terraces where you can see them more clearly away from the buildings of the city. It will take us about 20-30 minutes to get out there and the same to come back so it will be a fun day trip!
A couple of other memorable moments from the past week or two have been times that I've actually managed to get cold! The first came when we visited a salt therapy spa. They keep the salt room quite cold....so cold in fact that Lynda needed two blankets and Barb needed one tucked all round them. I on the other hand just lay there in my shirt sleeves loving every blessed minute of the frigid air! Oh ya...and breathing in the salt was pretty awesome too. :-). The other "chilly" day was when we visited the spa at Tjampuan Resort. They have natural hot and cold springs as well as sauna and steam rooms you can use. We paid our money and while the rest of the girls enjoyed the saunas etc I pretty much just LOVED my time in the cold pool. I sunk myself down to my neck and just stayed there for as long as I could. The final outcomes was that I was actually cool and not sweating for more than an hour afterward! Loved Loved Loved that!!!
On the day before Nyepi we hired a driver to take us on an Ogoh Ogoh tour of the surrounding area and what a fun day that was. We got to see all of the village ogoh ogoh's that we'd otherwise never have seen. Ogoh Ogoh is a monster (very scary) meant to attract the evil spirits during noisy day (day before Nyepi). At the end of noisy day those monsters are destroyed (often burned) taking the bad spirits with them. During the evening of noisy day all of the ogoh ogoh's in every village (or city) are gathered for a parade and there is lots of noise to attract the evil spirits as they march down the road with throngs of people on both sides. Each ogoh ogoh is carried by many many Balinese men (or sometimes youth). The largest of the ogoh ogoh's will need at least 50 men to carry it! The next day, Nyepi (silent day) is the first day of the Balinese new year. Everyone on the entire island is required to stay indoors and to be quiet. The intention is that everyone will reflect on the coming year and their role in it. Giving thanks is also part of the process. Bali is a culture that is rich in showing regular appreciation through their offerings and ceremonies. Alison and Barb were able to come to Lynda and my place during Nyepi as we all live down the same little alley so no one had to go onto the road to get here. No one is allowed on the road and we found that out in no uncertain terms when we thought we could just go and peek out onto Monkey Forest after dark. We wanted to see what it would look like to have no lights and no cars and no people in a place that is usually alive with busyness. But....just as we started toward the road from the front of Barbs place....a 5 cell flashlight shone into our eyes as the cultural police spied us sneaking in the direction of the road. They told us to go back....no one was allowed out and so like the good girls we are....we did what we were told! Yikes! Go figure....just at the exact moment as we were going to look the police just happened to be at the exact spot where we were going to look from! DAMN!
Somewhere in all of this we also had to say good bye to Alison as she headed back to England, we had a pizza night with Jati and the two Ketut's, we had dinner with Angela at Sage, and we visited Tirta Empul for a traditional water blessing at the holy waters of that sacred place. Once we arrived at Terta Empul (holy water) just after dawn we donned sarongs, made our prayers/intentions, climbed in (there are three waist deep pools -with fish), and completed the traditional cleansing process under 15 of the holy spring spouts (11 in the first pool, 2 in the second, and 2 in the third). The early morning start (5:30) meant that we were almost the only people there which made the experience even more special! Believe it or not...our water blessing was so special that the earth moved while we were in the pools! Yes, another earthquake during our time here...I think it was 6.2 but no damage we've heard about. Afterward we Changed into dry clothes, located a shop that sold dresses and food (yep...you read that right-it was an interesting combination of product for sale but we needed breakfast!), Afterward it was off to Jati's home in Kintamani where we all got to cuddle a new baby -his nephew- 17 days old). From there we were off to lunch at d'Alas where the views were stunning and the food was pretty great too. Final stop on this 11 hour tour day was the elephant cave which lived up to its reputation for being something worth seeing (even if I had to climb up 81 stairs to get back to the parking lot!).
Another tour day was when Barb and I headed north and west so she could see the Holy Tree. It was another great adventure and made all the more fun as Ketut 1 and Ketut 2 were along for the ride too....and of course Jati was our fearless leader/driver. It was a 16 hour day but we covered a lot of ground! It was especially fun for me as I was the only person in the car who'd ever seen this part of Bali...even Jati had never been to some of these places before! We saw the sunrise over the volcano, we survived torrential rains in the mountains, we lunched at a magnificent viewpoint restaurant, we stopped at the temple by the lake where we were the only people there, we visited an ancient temple overlooking the ocean that even I'd never been to before, and we supped on seafood along the south coast. In addition, we all enjoyed a full day of laughter and 100% english as both Ketut and Ketut are focused on honing their skills. It is almost impossible to remember that Ketut 1 had almost NO english when we arrived in November. Now he is able to carry on a full conversation about almost any subject! In fact, the other night we took the boys for their first ever movie experience (to Paradiso) and Ketut was able to understand almost everything in the movie! He has worked hard to get to where he is and we both (Lynda and I) feel pretty darn proud of his accomplishment as we know we've helped him get to where he is today.
This past week also saw the arrival of another friend from Canada. Alison Grittner arrived the other day and her timing was perfect as she was able to join Barb, Jati and I as we headed off to see high priestess Ida again for another water blessing. I really wanted to see her one more time before I leave (and that is just days away now) and it was a first for both Barb and Alison so they were anxious to come along too. Once again, the experience with Ida was very special and I am incredibly grateful to have been able to have it. To make it even more special Jati took us via the bamboo forest this time so we got to see the beauty that is driving through the shade of a forest made up entirely of bamboo trees.
Tomorrow is Galungan Day.....another very special day that comes around just once every 6 months (210 days). Galungan is a day that celebrates the balance of life and the triumph of good over evil. The circle of life (eternity symbolized by a circle), the trinity (symbolized by a triangle) and the four quadrants (symbolized by a cross and the swastika) are shapes that make their way into the ceremonial panjars that line the roads for this auspicious celebration. The panjars are LONG LONG bamboo poles that have a curved top that hangs over into the street. The pole is decorated from base to tip and every bit of the decoration on it has some symbolic meaning and offering. For this lay person....I can just say that I've never seen anything so beautiful! .....and on that note.....I'm going to call it a night.
Till next time,
L & L
Thank heavens we have a bit of a calendar here in the room that I can refer back to so I will be able to capture some of the highlights but....at the same time I know that much will be missed and stay a memory in Bali forever....perhaps that is what is meant to be though as "there are no coincidences".
Since last writing I know we went back to the english school, Prima Santi one night. This time there were three of us though and so the kids had "extra" practice as a result. In addition, Barb had picked up a few things in Canada for us to take to the school so we were laden down with pencils, stickers, and books to leave with the kids. Once again, we were a hit!
One amazing day was spent on a tour to the east with Pasek and his wife Nyoman joining Barb, Lynda, and I (along with driver Jati of course). It was Nyoman's FIRST time to any of the places we'd be visiting and when you consider that all of this is easily within a one day drive....and that Nyoman is well into her forties....it's hard to believe. We stopped at the seaside in Candidasa for lunch where we dined at a place right on the beach. Honestly I'm not sure....but it might have been her first time to the beach too! It's hard to imagine what she must have been thinking as we made our way through the day...everything would have been new for her but she simply took it all in stride as though she'd done it before a million times.
We also visited two water palaces on our tour to the east. Both were breathtaking and we all enjoyed walking around the gardens that surround those former royal residences. For me the highlight of the day was our stop at Tenganan, a traditional village where we spent a fair bit of time. I'd been wanting to go there to see the "honey man" for quite a while as I'd heard that he had both sour honey and sweet honey and guess what....we found him and yes he did have both of those versions of honey! The sour honey comes from tiny bees so small that they look like little black flies, not much bigger than a mosquito. Those little bees don't sting but they do fly in your ears and up your nose and in your eyes if you mess with their hive so even though they won't sting you...they sure can keep people away from their hive if they want to. The sour honey is like nothing I've ever tasted before. It is actually SOUR! Delicious but sour! We enjoyed our visit with the honey man so much! He welcomed us into his home where we met his mom and his brother and his brother's wife. We got to look into his grandmas house (where she was resting on her bed) and we got to see all the animals and gardens and hives and hives of bees. His bees provide him with sour honey, mango honey (mango blossoms when they're in season) and coffee honey (coffee blossoms when in season). The coffee honey is very dark and actually has a distinct coffee flavour. The mango honey is the colour of normal honey and you can taste a hint of mango beneath the sweet of the honey flavour. Soooo interesting! In addition to the honey production, several of the family also make baskets in the traditional way so we got to see how that is done, the vines they use to make them, the smoking process to cure and colour the baskets, and oh yes....we even made a purchase or two (or three).
Another event that took place since I last wrote is the Bali Spirit Festival and although we didn't take in many of the activities attached to that event we sure did notice the influx of Spirit Festival types in town for it! One thing we did do though was attend the final evening entertainment at ARMA where the One World One Stage acts performed. For me it was an exciting moment as I got to see Xavier Rudd live and the venue was perfect for him and his music. The magic that man makes with a didgeridoo is simply that.....magic! That night was March 26th and so for me I will now always think of March 26th as the anniversary of the night that I chose to celebrate my decision to come to Bali by seeing Xavier Rudd in Ubud.
The Spirit Festival attracts quite an "interesting" mix of people. All ages and likely all walks of life but the common denominator is that everyone is marching to the beat of their own drum! Lots of beads and feathers and glitter and skin....it was kind of like I imagine it would have been to have attended a mini version of Woodstock without all the mud and the drugs. The folks at the Spirit Festival don't need any drugs....they're kind of flying high all on their own. :-)
Speaking of flying high....I LOVE the back of the bike and over the past couple of weeks have had two more trips through the rice fields on the back of a bike. The first time was with Alison and the next time with Barb. Both times we went with Ketut 1 and Ketut 2, stopped at Sari Organik for lunch and made a fun day of it. On the trip with Alison it was fun to see Ketut 2 have his first trip through the rice field too! Yes....just as Nyoman had never been to the east...Ketut had never been past Sari Organik and into the rice fields! AND....both Ketut's had never been into Monkey Forest. I know it's bad that it took us more than four months to go into the forest but at least we've been in there. Now I can even boast that I did it twice as the only way Ketut 2 would go in is if he was with a visitor so I sucked it up...bought another ticket and ventured back into the land of those flea infested little thieves! No....they're still not my favourite animal....even after two visits into their forest!
But back to the back of a bike.....it is so wonderful to feel the breeze blowing past. As the "queen of sweat" I'm always dripping wet and so having a breeze is a real treat! Coming along the roads after we came out of the rice fields yesterday was even more special because so many of the panjars (sp?) are already up for Galungan Day tomorrow. Those panjars are soooo beautiful....magnificent in fact as they sway over the streets in front of every property. Every home (on the entire island) will have them up by tonight so I'm going to make arrangements with Ketut for another bike tour of panjars for day after tomorrow when he's back from his village. The panjars will be a couple days old by then and so not "as fresh" but they'll still be magnificent. He's gong to take me out by the rice terraces where you can see them more clearly away from the buildings of the city. It will take us about 20-30 minutes to get out there and the same to come back so it will be a fun day trip!
A couple of other memorable moments from the past week or two have been times that I've actually managed to get cold! The first came when we visited a salt therapy spa. They keep the salt room quite cold....so cold in fact that Lynda needed two blankets and Barb needed one tucked all round them. I on the other hand just lay there in my shirt sleeves loving every blessed minute of the frigid air! Oh ya...and breathing in the salt was pretty awesome too. :-). The other "chilly" day was when we visited the spa at Tjampuan Resort. They have natural hot and cold springs as well as sauna and steam rooms you can use. We paid our money and while the rest of the girls enjoyed the saunas etc I pretty much just LOVED my time in the cold pool. I sunk myself down to my neck and just stayed there for as long as I could. The final outcomes was that I was actually cool and not sweating for more than an hour afterward! Loved Loved Loved that!!!
On the day before Nyepi we hired a driver to take us on an Ogoh Ogoh tour of the surrounding area and what a fun day that was. We got to see all of the village ogoh ogoh's that we'd otherwise never have seen. Ogoh Ogoh is a monster (very scary) meant to attract the evil spirits during noisy day (day before Nyepi). At the end of noisy day those monsters are destroyed (often burned) taking the bad spirits with them. During the evening of noisy day all of the ogoh ogoh's in every village (or city) are gathered for a parade and there is lots of noise to attract the evil spirits as they march down the road with throngs of people on both sides. Each ogoh ogoh is carried by many many Balinese men (or sometimes youth). The largest of the ogoh ogoh's will need at least 50 men to carry it! The next day, Nyepi (silent day) is the first day of the Balinese new year. Everyone on the entire island is required to stay indoors and to be quiet. The intention is that everyone will reflect on the coming year and their role in it. Giving thanks is also part of the process. Bali is a culture that is rich in showing regular appreciation through their offerings and ceremonies. Alison and Barb were able to come to Lynda and my place during Nyepi as we all live down the same little alley so no one had to go onto the road to get here. No one is allowed on the road and we found that out in no uncertain terms when we thought we could just go and peek out onto Monkey Forest after dark. We wanted to see what it would look like to have no lights and no cars and no people in a place that is usually alive with busyness. But....just as we started toward the road from the front of Barbs place....a 5 cell flashlight shone into our eyes as the cultural police spied us sneaking in the direction of the road. They told us to go back....no one was allowed out and so like the good girls we are....we did what we were told! Yikes! Go figure....just at the exact moment as we were going to look the police just happened to be at the exact spot where we were going to look from! DAMN!
Somewhere in all of this we also had to say good bye to Alison as she headed back to England, we had a pizza night with Jati and the two Ketut's, we had dinner with Angela at Sage, and we visited Tirta Empul for a traditional water blessing at the holy waters of that sacred place. Once we arrived at Terta Empul (holy water) just after dawn we donned sarongs, made our prayers/intentions, climbed in (there are three waist deep pools -with fish), and completed the traditional cleansing process under 15 of the holy spring spouts (11 in the first pool, 2 in the second, and 2 in the third). The early morning start (5:30) meant that we were almost the only people there which made the experience even more special! Believe it or not...our water blessing was so special that the earth moved while we were in the pools! Yes, another earthquake during our time here...I think it was 6.2 but no damage we've heard about. Afterward we Changed into dry clothes, located a shop that sold dresses and food (yep...you read that right-it was an interesting combination of product for sale but we needed breakfast!), Afterward it was off to Jati's home in Kintamani where we all got to cuddle a new baby -his nephew- 17 days old). From there we were off to lunch at d'Alas where the views were stunning and the food was pretty great too. Final stop on this 11 hour tour day was the elephant cave which lived up to its reputation for being something worth seeing (even if I had to climb up 81 stairs to get back to the parking lot!).
Another tour day was when Barb and I headed north and west so she could see the Holy Tree. It was another great adventure and made all the more fun as Ketut 1 and Ketut 2 were along for the ride too....and of course Jati was our fearless leader/driver. It was a 16 hour day but we covered a lot of ground! It was especially fun for me as I was the only person in the car who'd ever seen this part of Bali...even Jati had never been to some of these places before! We saw the sunrise over the volcano, we survived torrential rains in the mountains, we lunched at a magnificent viewpoint restaurant, we stopped at the temple by the lake where we were the only people there, we visited an ancient temple overlooking the ocean that even I'd never been to before, and we supped on seafood along the south coast. In addition, we all enjoyed a full day of laughter and 100% english as both Ketut and Ketut are focused on honing their skills. It is almost impossible to remember that Ketut 1 had almost NO english when we arrived in November. Now he is able to carry on a full conversation about almost any subject! In fact, the other night we took the boys for their first ever movie experience (to Paradiso) and Ketut was able to understand almost everything in the movie! He has worked hard to get to where he is and we both (Lynda and I) feel pretty darn proud of his accomplishment as we know we've helped him get to where he is today.
This past week also saw the arrival of another friend from Canada. Alison Grittner arrived the other day and her timing was perfect as she was able to join Barb, Jati and I as we headed off to see high priestess Ida again for another water blessing. I really wanted to see her one more time before I leave (and that is just days away now) and it was a first for both Barb and Alison so they were anxious to come along too. Once again, the experience with Ida was very special and I am incredibly grateful to have been able to have it. To make it even more special Jati took us via the bamboo forest this time so we got to see the beauty that is driving through the shade of a forest made up entirely of bamboo trees.
Tomorrow is Galungan Day.....another very special day that comes around just once every 6 months (210 days). Galungan is a day that celebrates the balance of life and the triumph of good over evil. The circle of life (eternity symbolized by a circle), the trinity (symbolized by a triangle) and the four quadrants (symbolized by a cross and the swastika) are shapes that make their way into the ceremonial panjars that line the roads for this auspicious celebration. The panjars are LONG LONG bamboo poles that have a curved top that hangs over into the street. The pole is decorated from base to tip and every bit of the decoration on it has some symbolic meaning and offering. For this lay person....I can just say that I've never seen anything so beautiful! .....and on that note.....I'm going to call it a night.
Till next time,
L & L
Sunday, March 19, 2017
March 20, 2017
Three bright yellow butterflies are dancing around the garden in front of me as I sit down to type this. There is another white one that is trying to get in on the action but the three yellow guys are pretty focused on sticking together. There are none of the huge black ones at the moment but I'm sure it won't be long till they make an appearance too. This garden is a butterfly heaven! I've just come out of an hour long energy healing session with Wayan and I feel AMAZING! Pasek is in the kitchen making my breakfast and all is right with my world. :-)
The last time I posted I'd just made arrangements for a crystal sound healing session. We spent almost 3 hours with AwaHoshi at her home here in Ubud (right across Monkey Forest Road from where we live). What an amazing experience it was! It started with her introducing us to the concept of crystals, a little about her personal (and work) history, and then we moved on to introducing ourselves with an explanation of where we get our love from. There were ten of us in total (including AwaHoshi and her assistant). At the same time as everyone was talking we all chose two cards....one from each of two different decks. Mine were Actualization and the other was card number 13. The Actualization (angel) card was all about the time being now to move to action on my goals. No matter what my dream I had only to set my intention and seize the day in pursuit of that goal. The picture on card 13 looked like either a glass of wine or a crown to me but the description that went along with that card was pretty powerful. It said that I am meant to be an influencer and that my psychic powers are aligned with my intuition so by trusting my intuition I will be in a powerful position as I move further in the direction of my destiny. Both were powerful cards for me as was the overall crystal sound experience.
Once the talking was finished we moved on to 10 minutes of group chanting. Our chant was designed to incite healing and the story behind the sanskrit words is about two horses who bring the sunrise and the sunset and there was something about honey in there too. Not sure if it was the colour of the horses or the shades of the sun at either end of it's day's journey but there was honey in there for sure. After the chanting it was time for the sound healing so we all lay down on our mats on her patio. I was at the edge of the patio so could see a mango tree reaching out to touch the railing beside me. There were birds singing and the breeze was blowing over us....it was the perfect setting for the music of the bowls that would soon follow.
AwaHoshi is masterful with the bowls and she had several lined up for that afternoons session. There were at least a dozen bowls of varying sizes and colours. Each bowl had its own tone and she had several different tools she used to play the bowls. Each tool adjusted the sound of whatever bowl it was used on. As the sound of the bowls began to envelope and resonate through each of us we quietly or silently cited our respective intentions. Those unique intentions would act as a "filter" for the sound to travel through thereby customizing the crystal energy for each of us. Now I know this may sound a little over the top for most of you but honestly....something really did happen and whether it's all in our heads or measurable scientific fact....either way is fine by me. :-). The premise is that our bodies are made up of 75% water and the sound of the crystals (just like the gongs in the pyramid) affects that water in our bodies. By setting a positive intention as the sound is travelling to and through us the water part of us is altered to be aligned with our intention. Quantum physics may not be for everyone but for me....it makes a lot of sense and the added bonus is that it feels really good too! :-)
By the end of my time on AwaHoshi's patio I left feeling empowered to move to action and in my book....that alone was worth the 350,000 IDR ($35) I'd paid! As we were leaving the crystal healing AwaHoshi explained that it was important that each of us go home and either soak in a salt water bath or at the very least shower and rub salt on our bodies paying particular attention to our joints and the inside of our wrists. For those of us who didn't have salt in our rooms she had a big bag of salt we could take from and so....I walked home with a handful of salt and a smile on my face.
Salt scrubbed, Showered, and re-dressed we were off to dinner at Bale Udung (tables over the lake) and once again....we had another wonderful meal. Whether its the good food or the great company....every meal we've had there has been memorable. By the time we got home that night we were all ready to fall into bed!
Yesterday Lynda and Barb set off on motor bikes (Barb was pretty nervous but she did it and lived to tell the tale) to go to yoga. Unfortunately the yoga studio was completely full and so they decided to skip yoga and walk instead. The day previous Lynda had been one of two in her class and so finding an overfull class this day was a shock! Perhaps the reason for so many more people is that the spirit festival starts this week so there are lots of new people in town for it. Lynda and Barb's walk took them along some rice fields, past Sedona Spa, and then down to a hotel that Lynda had visited a few days earlier. That hotel has a spa down a loooonnnng flight of stairs that "must be seen to be believed". I'm going to have to make the hike down to it as Lynda wouldn't even let Barb show us her photos as it's worth seeing it without knowing just what you'll find there. Soon.....but we've said "soon" for so many things and as we move closer and closer to departure the time frames are getting tighter and tighter!
While Lynda and Barb were off exploring that spa Alison and I had a nice leisurely walk in town. We spent a little time enjoying the latest work done to the ogoh ogoh at the soccer field. There are now two of them sitting there waiting for the day before Nyepi and from the look of them they're completely finished. They are soooo impressive and we're all getting very excited to see the parade of ogoh ogohs the evening before silent day. Alison and I also found a fantastic new place to have lunch yesterday....Alison was wanting to try some raw food and Soma was the place that could fill that bill. We had a fantastic meal! Not all of mine was raw but everything was delicious and organic plant based food is their focus so in addition to delicious it was also healthy. :-). By the time we wandered back home it was almost 5 pm and before much time had passed our patio had become the gathering place. Lynda and Barb were here first, then Alison and I joined them. A few minutes later Ketut and Pasek stopped by. Then Jati wandered in and sat down. Next it was Julie on her way home from a Texas style chili cook off...yep....it was fast becoming a party! Soon enough though the hunger struck again (it had been a few hours since lunch after all) and so Lynda, Barb, Alison, Jati, and I were off and headed in the direction of Who's Who where Jati's friend Rihanna (from Tazmania) joined us for dinner. It was another wonderful meal! There is no shortage of amazing places to eat here! Again....by the time we got home everyone was ready to fall into bed. And.....for the first time in a very very long time I had to set my alarm as I'd made an appointment with Wayan (a balian and energy healer) to come to my room at 8 a.m.
After a short night....I think I was worried I wouldn't hear the alarm.....I was up and ready for my session with Wayan. Lynda headed out to have breakfast with Barb. The two Ketut's and Pasek's son, Made, were off to the police station in search of criminal record checks that they need to have for the cruise ship course they're taking. I waited on my patio.....not knowing what this energy healing would look like and excited to experience it for the first time.
Ketut arrived and started by explaining exactly what he would do. He told me he would poke between my toes and that if it hurt to just wait till it stopped. He told me he would touch me at my chakra points and that if anything felt hot or cold to not worry....it would pass. He told me that afterward I might feel a little light-headed and that if my mind had felt full before it would be as though all my thoughts had vanished. And now that I'm sitting here after the fact I would say that I feel incredibly relaxed and very very grateful for the experience.
After Wayan had described the process he went in to bless my room. That blessing took about 10 minutes and consisted of putting out offerings, lighting incense (6 sticks), a holy water blessing (water sprinkled using a flower), and a lot of prayers. Next he turned the blessing to me. First he sprinkled me (top of head) with holy water via that same flower, then he dripped water from the flower into my cupped hands which I had to drink (3 times), then there were three more times of water into my hands via the flower that I washed over the top of my head. After that I sat on the end of the bed and he held the incense under each of my hands and then each of my feet. Next he drew invisible symbols on the backs of each of my hands and the top of each of my feet with his finger. He then explained that the symbols were representative of the earth, a symbol that stands for whatever god you believe in and three more than represent Vishnu, shiwa, and Brama, (water, fire, and air I think it was).
Once that was all complete he had me lay on the bed and he began with the pinching between the toes of the right foot. Nothing at the first one but at the second there was a definite pain. He held that and used his energy to my benefit until it began to subside at which time he moved to the back of my right knee. He poked a couple of spots before he hit the one that caused me pain which again he held until it began to subside. Then he moved on to my left foot. This time it was the third toe that caused me to hit the roof. Seriously, this was 10X more painful than the other foot had been! He held it for a very long time before he moved to the back of my left knee where the digging around for a painful spot began. Once he was finished with my feet and the back of my knees he moved on to holding both my feet at the same time as he was chanting and even though I'm NEVER cold....my feet felt cold in his hands! His hands were so warm! He held on to my feet for quite a long time (at least 5 minutes) before moving on to my knees where there was a repeat with the chanting and laying of hands for another 5 minutes or so. From there he was on to my belly which is where I had the most amazing experience. I could feel nerves twitching down just the right side of my body for much of the time that he was on my belly and for part of the time I could clearly see light! My eyes were closed and it felt like someone was shining a flashlight in front of my closed eyes. (But before you say it....both his hands were on my belly and there was no one else in the room). I could seriously feel the energy pulsing from his hands.....even though the entire experience was really good....this was my favourite part. From my belly he moved up to my chest and then up to my throat. After that it was between my eyebrows and then to the top of my head. He stayed on the top of my head for what seemed like a really long time too and the top of my head was the most pressure I'd felt at any of the stops.
Once he was finished on my head...he was all done and checked how I was feeling. I felt GREAT! I asked him what that had been between my toes on my left foot though and he replied that it was my circulation that was blocked. Interestingly, I do have problems with circulation. I asked him if the next time I get restless legs if I could pinch between those toes and it would go away...he said I could but that he wasn't just pinching...he was sending his energy too. And so of course....pinching my toes alone likely would not do it. For anyone who has ever suffered from RLS you'll understand when I say that I might give it a try anyway just in case it helps a little. :-)
So here it is....almost noon and I'm getting hungry again so it must almost be time to go in search of some lunch. Lynda left a few minutes ago for some pool time at Cendana. Barb is reading her book on her patio. Alison is at a cooking class and I'm going to head in to do my Monday yoga/tai chi routine. By the time I'm finished that it will be 1:00 when I'm scheduled to meet Barb. We're going to head up to Cendana too so we can sit overlooking the rice fields and have some lunch after which we're heading for a reflexology appointment. Hopefully Alison will be back in time to join us at Cendana too. Doubtful that she will want any lunch though as I'm pretty certain they will have eaten all the food they cooked in their class! I am sure though that she will want to join Barb and I for reflexology though as she is a fan of that self-care practice!
Who knows what tonight will bring.....you'll have to read the next post to find out about the rest of our day..... till next time,
L & L
The last time I posted I'd just made arrangements for a crystal sound healing session. We spent almost 3 hours with AwaHoshi at her home here in Ubud (right across Monkey Forest Road from where we live). What an amazing experience it was! It started with her introducing us to the concept of crystals, a little about her personal (and work) history, and then we moved on to introducing ourselves with an explanation of where we get our love from. There were ten of us in total (including AwaHoshi and her assistant). At the same time as everyone was talking we all chose two cards....one from each of two different decks. Mine were Actualization and the other was card number 13. The Actualization (angel) card was all about the time being now to move to action on my goals. No matter what my dream I had only to set my intention and seize the day in pursuit of that goal. The picture on card 13 looked like either a glass of wine or a crown to me but the description that went along with that card was pretty powerful. It said that I am meant to be an influencer and that my psychic powers are aligned with my intuition so by trusting my intuition I will be in a powerful position as I move further in the direction of my destiny. Both were powerful cards for me as was the overall crystal sound experience.
Once the talking was finished we moved on to 10 minutes of group chanting. Our chant was designed to incite healing and the story behind the sanskrit words is about two horses who bring the sunrise and the sunset and there was something about honey in there too. Not sure if it was the colour of the horses or the shades of the sun at either end of it's day's journey but there was honey in there for sure. After the chanting it was time for the sound healing so we all lay down on our mats on her patio. I was at the edge of the patio so could see a mango tree reaching out to touch the railing beside me. There were birds singing and the breeze was blowing over us....it was the perfect setting for the music of the bowls that would soon follow.
AwaHoshi is masterful with the bowls and she had several lined up for that afternoons session. There were at least a dozen bowls of varying sizes and colours. Each bowl had its own tone and she had several different tools she used to play the bowls. Each tool adjusted the sound of whatever bowl it was used on. As the sound of the bowls began to envelope and resonate through each of us we quietly or silently cited our respective intentions. Those unique intentions would act as a "filter" for the sound to travel through thereby customizing the crystal energy for each of us. Now I know this may sound a little over the top for most of you but honestly....something really did happen and whether it's all in our heads or measurable scientific fact....either way is fine by me. :-). The premise is that our bodies are made up of 75% water and the sound of the crystals (just like the gongs in the pyramid) affects that water in our bodies. By setting a positive intention as the sound is travelling to and through us the water part of us is altered to be aligned with our intention. Quantum physics may not be for everyone but for me....it makes a lot of sense and the added bonus is that it feels really good too! :-)
By the end of my time on AwaHoshi's patio I left feeling empowered to move to action and in my book....that alone was worth the 350,000 IDR ($35) I'd paid! As we were leaving the crystal healing AwaHoshi explained that it was important that each of us go home and either soak in a salt water bath or at the very least shower and rub salt on our bodies paying particular attention to our joints and the inside of our wrists. For those of us who didn't have salt in our rooms she had a big bag of salt we could take from and so....I walked home with a handful of salt and a smile on my face.
Salt scrubbed, Showered, and re-dressed we were off to dinner at Bale Udung (tables over the lake) and once again....we had another wonderful meal. Whether its the good food or the great company....every meal we've had there has been memorable. By the time we got home that night we were all ready to fall into bed!
Yesterday Lynda and Barb set off on motor bikes (Barb was pretty nervous but she did it and lived to tell the tale) to go to yoga. Unfortunately the yoga studio was completely full and so they decided to skip yoga and walk instead. The day previous Lynda had been one of two in her class and so finding an overfull class this day was a shock! Perhaps the reason for so many more people is that the spirit festival starts this week so there are lots of new people in town for it. Lynda and Barb's walk took them along some rice fields, past Sedona Spa, and then down to a hotel that Lynda had visited a few days earlier. That hotel has a spa down a loooonnnng flight of stairs that "must be seen to be believed". I'm going to have to make the hike down to it as Lynda wouldn't even let Barb show us her photos as it's worth seeing it without knowing just what you'll find there. Soon.....but we've said "soon" for so many things and as we move closer and closer to departure the time frames are getting tighter and tighter!
While Lynda and Barb were off exploring that spa Alison and I had a nice leisurely walk in town. We spent a little time enjoying the latest work done to the ogoh ogoh at the soccer field. There are now two of them sitting there waiting for the day before Nyepi and from the look of them they're completely finished. They are soooo impressive and we're all getting very excited to see the parade of ogoh ogohs the evening before silent day. Alison and I also found a fantastic new place to have lunch yesterday....Alison was wanting to try some raw food and Soma was the place that could fill that bill. We had a fantastic meal! Not all of mine was raw but everything was delicious and organic plant based food is their focus so in addition to delicious it was also healthy. :-). By the time we wandered back home it was almost 5 pm and before much time had passed our patio had become the gathering place. Lynda and Barb were here first, then Alison and I joined them. A few minutes later Ketut and Pasek stopped by. Then Jati wandered in and sat down. Next it was Julie on her way home from a Texas style chili cook off...yep....it was fast becoming a party! Soon enough though the hunger struck again (it had been a few hours since lunch after all) and so Lynda, Barb, Alison, Jati, and I were off and headed in the direction of Who's Who where Jati's friend Rihanna (from Tazmania) joined us for dinner. It was another wonderful meal! There is no shortage of amazing places to eat here! Again....by the time we got home everyone was ready to fall into bed. And.....for the first time in a very very long time I had to set my alarm as I'd made an appointment with Wayan (a balian and energy healer) to come to my room at 8 a.m.
After a short night....I think I was worried I wouldn't hear the alarm.....I was up and ready for my session with Wayan. Lynda headed out to have breakfast with Barb. The two Ketut's and Pasek's son, Made, were off to the police station in search of criminal record checks that they need to have for the cruise ship course they're taking. I waited on my patio.....not knowing what this energy healing would look like and excited to experience it for the first time.
Ketut arrived and started by explaining exactly what he would do. He told me he would poke between my toes and that if it hurt to just wait till it stopped. He told me he would touch me at my chakra points and that if anything felt hot or cold to not worry....it would pass. He told me that afterward I might feel a little light-headed and that if my mind had felt full before it would be as though all my thoughts had vanished. And now that I'm sitting here after the fact I would say that I feel incredibly relaxed and very very grateful for the experience.
After Wayan had described the process he went in to bless my room. That blessing took about 10 minutes and consisted of putting out offerings, lighting incense (6 sticks), a holy water blessing (water sprinkled using a flower), and a lot of prayers. Next he turned the blessing to me. First he sprinkled me (top of head) with holy water via that same flower, then he dripped water from the flower into my cupped hands which I had to drink (3 times), then there were three more times of water into my hands via the flower that I washed over the top of my head. After that I sat on the end of the bed and he held the incense under each of my hands and then each of my feet. Next he drew invisible symbols on the backs of each of my hands and the top of each of my feet with his finger. He then explained that the symbols were representative of the earth, a symbol that stands for whatever god you believe in and three more than represent Vishnu, shiwa, and Brama, (water, fire, and air I think it was).
Once that was all complete he had me lay on the bed and he began with the pinching between the toes of the right foot. Nothing at the first one but at the second there was a definite pain. He held that and used his energy to my benefit until it began to subside at which time he moved to the back of my right knee. He poked a couple of spots before he hit the one that caused me pain which again he held until it began to subside. Then he moved on to my left foot. This time it was the third toe that caused me to hit the roof. Seriously, this was 10X more painful than the other foot had been! He held it for a very long time before he moved to the back of my left knee where the digging around for a painful spot began. Once he was finished with my feet and the back of my knees he moved on to holding both my feet at the same time as he was chanting and even though I'm NEVER cold....my feet felt cold in his hands! His hands were so warm! He held on to my feet for quite a long time (at least 5 minutes) before moving on to my knees where there was a repeat with the chanting and laying of hands for another 5 minutes or so. From there he was on to my belly which is where I had the most amazing experience. I could feel nerves twitching down just the right side of my body for much of the time that he was on my belly and for part of the time I could clearly see light! My eyes were closed and it felt like someone was shining a flashlight in front of my closed eyes. (But before you say it....both his hands were on my belly and there was no one else in the room). I could seriously feel the energy pulsing from his hands.....even though the entire experience was really good....this was my favourite part. From my belly he moved up to my chest and then up to my throat. After that it was between my eyebrows and then to the top of my head. He stayed on the top of my head for what seemed like a really long time too and the top of my head was the most pressure I'd felt at any of the stops.
Once he was finished on my head...he was all done and checked how I was feeling. I felt GREAT! I asked him what that had been between my toes on my left foot though and he replied that it was my circulation that was blocked. Interestingly, I do have problems with circulation. I asked him if the next time I get restless legs if I could pinch between those toes and it would go away...he said I could but that he wasn't just pinching...he was sending his energy too. And so of course....pinching my toes alone likely would not do it. For anyone who has ever suffered from RLS you'll understand when I say that I might give it a try anyway just in case it helps a little. :-)
So here it is....almost noon and I'm getting hungry again so it must almost be time to go in search of some lunch. Lynda left a few minutes ago for some pool time at Cendana. Barb is reading her book on her patio. Alison is at a cooking class and I'm going to head in to do my Monday yoga/tai chi routine. By the time I'm finished that it will be 1:00 when I'm scheduled to meet Barb. We're going to head up to Cendana too so we can sit overlooking the rice fields and have some lunch after which we're heading for a reflexology appointment. Hopefully Alison will be back in time to join us at Cendana too. Doubtful that she will want any lunch though as I'm pretty certain they will have eaten all the food they cooked in their class! I am sure though that she will want to join Barb and I for reflexology though as she is a fan of that self-care practice!
Who knows what tonight will bring.....you'll have to read the next post to find out about the rest of our day..... till next time,
L & L
Thursday, March 16, 2017
March 17, 2017
WOW! Time is really flying by now! We are down to just 3 1/2 weeks till we leave this beautiful island. It always amazes me how it is that once you pass the 1/2 way mark of a block of time, the second half seems to go that much faster than the first 1/2 did...and by the time you get down to the final days they seriously fly by! Oh well, won't think too much about the fact that we're moving quickly toward final days and focus on the fact that we still have more time here than most people have as their total visit.
During the past 10 days we've been focused on making sure some of the things we want to visit or revisit are getting accomplished so we've become a little more intentional about putting an agenda together to make sure we don't miss too many of our "gotta do that while we're here" list.
A week ago a friend from Canada arrived and so our twosome has become a threesome and we continue to find lots of fun and laughter along our Balinese journey. It is also fun for Lynda and I to see Bali for the first time again through Barb's eyes. I went with Jati to the airport to pick Barb up last Thursday and as much as that may not sound like a lot....it takes pretty much a whole day to do that. You have to assume it will take a good two hours each way (her plane arrived in the afternoon so both ways were during busy traffic times) and then you have to leave enough time for the "just in case" factor too. Our drive down to Denpasar was busy but uneventful. It was also HOT so Barb arrived to some smoking hot afternoon temperatures with humidity hovering around 90%. Jati and I had lunch at the airport while we were waiting for her plane to arrive and I gotta tell you the airport here might be even worse than the airport at home as far as prices in their little cafeteria goes! Here it seems even more obscene though as everywhere else is soooo affordable that when you're paying airport prices it hurts just that much more! I think our lunch cost a little more than $30 CAD. (I'm trying to put it out of my memory which is why I say "think"). The thing I'd like to capture here is what it felt like to be one of the masses waiting to greet arriving flights. OMG there are a lot of people and almost all of them are drivers so the experience is like no other that I've had in airports where I'm there to pick someone up. This time we were all crowded up against the rail. Everyone had signs with peoples names on them and many of them use a selfie stick to get their sign our in front of the crowd so their guest can find them. Every time another group of people come through the doors from immigration everyone pushes a little bit further forward in the hope that their person is in that group. We waited for quite a long time for Barb as there were several planes landed at the same time which caused a bit of a backlog at immigration for her. In the end it was all good, we found her.....or she found us.....it can be described either way and we were off to retrieve the car and begin the journey home. Jati, sweet guy that he is, had stopped on our way into the airport to purchase a frangiapani (plumeria) lei for me to give Barb at arrival. As a result our car smelled lovely and sweet with the scent of those flowers accompanying us all the way home.
In addition to Barb's arrival here there has been another arrival this week too. Lynda's son Mitch and his wife Viri welcomed their baby boy into the world on the 13th too. It was an arrival that had quite a few delays though and so from Friday night when things started happening for them until Tuesday night when he finally made his grand entrance Lynda stayed very close to home and her computer. Even though you know there is nothing you can do even if you were closer to the action....being on the other side of the world is really really far from the front line! All's well that ends well though and Lynda is excited and happy to know that grandchild number 5 is a healthy and thriving little boy whose mom and dad are settling into their new roles with the same rapidity as everyone whose ever been there will be familiar with.
While Lynda was actively engaged in waiting to welcome the addition to her family, Barb, Alison, and I managed to keep ourselves busy. Alison is from England and is a guest at Julie's house. She is here for 3 weeks and so our threesome is often a foursome or if Julie is also available we're 5 or even more when other friends are available to join us. Being here for so long we've really enjoyed getting to know many of the people we've met. Some of them are Balinese, others are expats living in Bali, and many are visitors to this beautiful place just like us. The difference between us and most of the other visitors is that we have 5 months here so we're almost like a hybrid....1/2 tourist 1/2 expat.
One of the things that Barb, Alison, and I did this past week was to go for another chocolate massage at Sedona Spa. It was a first for both of them and once again....the experience was "delicious". I resisted tasting my chocolate again this time (I don't want to ruin the sensory experience with the memory of the bitterness that comes when you taste raw chocolate) and I gotta tell you....this whole business of getting an hour long massage followed by warm liquid chocolate being rubbed all over you and then getting wrapped up like a baby so the chocolate can work its magic....all followed by a flower petal bath in a massive copper tub where you sip on ginger tea and nibble on fresh fruit....is some kind of wonderful! Even after the chocolate is gone and I'd left the spa....I could still smell the chocolate and remember the warm stickiness of it as I marinated in my little cocoon. :-). Barb and Alison also loved their massages but for some reason they ended up in rooms that didn't have the fantastic massive copper tubs so lesson learned...next time we will be sure to stipulate that we want the rooms with copper tubs!
Another thing the three of us did was to attend the Kecak performance at ARMA (Art museum) during the full moon. It was so different from the other kecak performances I've seen (first at temple on Jl. Hanoman and then at Uluwatu). This one was FULL of fire and was an artistic interpretation of the story of two monkey kings (brothers) who get into battle with one another (which is a different story than the traditional kecak follows). As much as I loved the kecak at the temple, this one at ARMA that only happens during the full moon and the dark moon was fantastic.
That same day the three of us had also visited the Pyramids of Chi for another fantastic sound healing session. It was a March special they had on where for 300,000 ($30) I could have 90 minute sound healing in the pyramid as well as a fantastic lunch in the restaurant. I LOVED it once again!
The five of us (Lynda, Barb, Alison, Julie, and I) have also gone to a couple of different venues for films. The first night we saw a series of 7 short films and I must admit that the short films in Bali are no easier to interpret than the short films in Canada often are! On the upside...we sure all had something to talk about and isn't that one of the intentions behind art...to give the audience cause to think and hopefully discuss? So...on that level I guess those short films were pretty successful. :-). The next one we saw was AMAZING! It is called Tana and is set on an island in Vanuatu. It is based on a true story and is a real life Romeo and Juliet who's story helped change the cultural traditions of their people. This movie I highly recommend...it was a 10/10 for the story, for the acting, and for the scenery.
Another thing that Barb and I did the other day (with Lynda as our official videographer) was to go to the fish spa again....it was Barbs first time and honestly it was as much fun for me this second time as it was for the first! Along with our fish spa we enjoyed some of their kombucha (which is my new favourite thing and I am excited to get home to make some of my own). In fact, today, I hopped on the back of Ketut's bike to zip over to the fish spa again so I could pick up a couple bottles of the stuff they make there so I could have it in my fridge here. Kombucha is fermented tea and it is supposed to be very good for you so in addition to tasting good and quenching thirst....it's a benefit too.
I love this hopping on the back of a bike business here! It is so wonderful to feel the wind whipping past on these hot days. Yes....that means I'm not wearing a helmet and I know that's kind of crazy but I also know that we're not going very fast (governed by traffic most of the time). Equally as crazy is that we just wear flip flops and shorts and bare arms. On the upside, the drivers (all Balinese) are masterful riders! As I've said in other posts, they begin learning even before they can walk as the bike is the form of transport for the family and often the little kids are standing at the front of the bike with their face peeking over the handle bars. Definitely they're driving the bike themselves (maybe with an older sibling on the back) by the time they're able to reach the footrest (around 10) and licensed to drive full time at about 15.
Lynda and I continue to keep up with the self-care routines we've built here which we both feel really good about. Lynda missed a couple of yoga sessions while waiting for baby and so she is making up for it the rest of this week. In fact, I think she might even be doing two classes this afternoon! I'm still doing my every morning short yoga session (in the room) and then 3 times/week I do another routine that is a little longer in the afternoons and it has become such a habit now that I actually kind of look forward to it. So the plan is to keep it up once I'm back home too. I've been really intentional about making sure it is something that is sustainable and enjoyable in support of that plan for maintenance so I'm feeling good about my plan and my progress! This week Barb and Alison also joined me for my reflexology treatment and they both found so much value in it that Alison is back for another treatment already today!
Yesterday I had a long hot walk to pick up our passports for the final time from our agent Komang at Bali Buddha (where she sits every afternoon from 2-5). It seems weird to think that this is our final visa extension! When we arrived in November thinking about getting extensions for the entire time seemed like a lot but now that we're at the end of it...it was a breeze. $65 each every month and we're good to go. :-). This extension takes us to the 15th of April and since our plane tix are for the 12th we're good even if there was some extraordinary delay.
Last night Lynda and I went over to Julie's house (just a couple of doors away from us) as I'd made a plan to do a "class" with two of her staff (Gede and the new Ketut). She'd purchased some syrups and a bottle of vodka and I'd promised to help the boys learn to make a couple of cocktails (and some mocktails too) so that when Julie has friends over she can offer them something other than the usual fresh fruit juices. Our cocktail party set out in Julie's garden by her jacuzzi was a huge hit and I had loads of fun with the boys in the kitchen. They had a cocktail shaker and it was fun for them doing a little dance as they shook their booty in time to the mixing of the drink. :-). In the end we came up with 2 mocktails (sunrise and berry surprise without the vodka) and 4 cocktails (sunrise: 1 vodka, oj, grenadine; chocolate martini: 2 vodka, chocolate, well shaken; berry surprise: 1 vodka, strawberry syrup, cranberry juice; and one other than I can't remember the name of. It was 1 vodka, strawberry syrup, coconut syrup, shaken together and topped off with some soda water to add a little sparkle. We learned during out "invention time" that the syrups are soooo sweet and so by the second drink we'd mastered our amounts and by the end you'd never know that we were using syrups vs different kinds of liqueurs. All in all the evening was a great success and this morning Gede stopped by to say hi (he was just off to his village for 2 full days of ceremonies for his aunt who recently passed away). Julie also messaged to ask if we can do it again before we leave....so lots of evidence that fun was had by all.
Lynda received a couple of emails yesterday from the kids at the school we visited a month ago. They were wondering if we might be able to come visit them again. Ironically, we had been having that very conversation! Barb brought us a bunch of stuff (books, pencils, and stickers) that we want to take to the school so Lynda is now working on setting up another time for us to visit them before we leave Bali. Yes.....more evidence that the time is drawing short!
I've just finished making arrangements for four of us (Julie, Barb, Alison, and I) to visit a woman (AwaHoshi) who offers sessions of sound healing with crystal bowls. My sister has a crystal bowl and I LOVE it so I'm certain that this session will be amazing! That session will be tomorrow afternoon and afterward Lynda will join us for dinner. Our plan is that we'll all go back to Bale Udung (the restaurant where the tables are set over a lake and the koi fish come round for you to feed them after dinner)
What else is new this week? Well, the ogoh ogoh's are getting nearer completion all the time. Its just 10 days till the big parades that precede Nyepi (silent day) and the excitement surrounding the massive ogoh ogohs that are being constructed in every village and community centre is building. They're pretty much finished now.....just a few finishing touches. The one that is just up the street from us in the soccer field is massive. It is also incredibly well done and very very impressive. I honestly cannot imagine what it will be like to see them all gathered for the start of the parade on the late afternoon of the 27th. This will truly be a sight to remember I am sure! As well, we continue to discover new sights and places to eat....there is a seemingly endless supply of those two things here. I actually don't know what it would be like to just be here in Bali for a few days (like most people). They miss out on so much! We continue to feel overwhelmingly grateful for all of the time we've been able to spend here and at the same time will be ready to head for home in April. Until then though...there is lots more planned and there will be surprises along the way too I'm sure. So till next time.....
L & L
During the past 10 days we've been focused on making sure some of the things we want to visit or revisit are getting accomplished so we've become a little more intentional about putting an agenda together to make sure we don't miss too many of our "gotta do that while we're here" list.
A week ago a friend from Canada arrived and so our twosome has become a threesome and we continue to find lots of fun and laughter along our Balinese journey. It is also fun for Lynda and I to see Bali for the first time again through Barb's eyes. I went with Jati to the airport to pick Barb up last Thursday and as much as that may not sound like a lot....it takes pretty much a whole day to do that. You have to assume it will take a good two hours each way (her plane arrived in the afternoon so both ways were during busy traffic times) and then you have to leave enough time for the "just in case" factor too. Our drive down to Denpasar was busy but uneventful. It was also HOT so Barb arrived to some smoking hot afternoon temperatures with humidity hovering around 90%. Jati and I had lunch at the airport while we were waiting for her plane to arrive and I gotta tell you the airport here might be even worse than the airport at home as far as prices in their little cafeteria goes! Here it seems even more obscene though as everywhere else is soooo affordable that when you're paying airport prices it hurts just that much more! I think our lunch cost a little more than $30 CAD. (I'm trying to put it out of my memory which is why I say "think"). The thing I'd like to capture here is what it felt like to be one of the masses waiting to greet arriving flights. OMG there are a lot of people and almost all of them are drivers so the experience is like no other that I've had in airports where I'm there to pick someone up. This time we were all crowded up against the rail. Everyone had signs with peoples names on them and many of them use a selfie stick to get their sign our in front of the crowd so their guest can find them. Every time another group of people come through the doors from immigration everyone pushes a little bit further forward in the hope that their person is in that group. We waited for quite a long time for Barb as there were several planes landed at the same time which caused a bit of a backlog at immigration for her. In the end it was all good, we found her.....or she found us.....it can be described either way and we were off to retrieve the car and begin the journey home. Jati, sweet guy that he is, had stopped on our way into the airport to purchase a frangiapani (plumeria) lei for me to give Barb at arrival. As a result our car smelled lovely and sweet with the scent of those flowers accompanying us all the way home.
In addition to Barb's arrival here there has been another arrival this week too. Lynda's son Mitch and his wife Viri welcomed their baby boy into the world on the 13th too. It was an arrival that had quite a few delays though and so from Friday night when things started happening for them until Tuesday night when he finally made his grand entrance Lynda stayed very close to home and her computer. Even though you know there is nothing you can do even if you were closer to the action....being on the other side of the world is really really far from the front line! All's well that ends well though and Lynda is excited and happy to know that grandchild number 5 is a healthy and thriving little boy whose mom and dad are settling into their new roles with the same rapidity as everyone whose ever been there will be familiar with.
While Lynda was actively engaged in waiting to welcome the addition to her family, Barb, Alison, and I managed to keep ourselves busy. Alison is from England and is a guest at Julie's house. She is here for 3 weeks and so our threesome is often a foursome or if Julie is also available we're 5 or even more when other friends are available to join us. Being here for so long we've really enjoyed getting to know many of the people we've met. Some of them are Balinese, others are expats living in Bali, and many are visitors to this beautiful place just like us. The difference between us and most of the other visitors is that we have 5 months here so we're almost like a hybrid....1/2 tourist 1/2 expat.
One of the things that Barb, Alison, and I did this past week was to go for another chocolate massage at Sedona Spa. It was a first for both of them and once again....the experience was "delicious". I resisted tasting my chocolate again this time (I don't want to ruin the sensory experience with the memory of the bitterness that comes when you taste raw chocolate) and I gotta tell you....this whole business of getting an hour long massage followed by warm liquid chocolate being rubbed all over you and then getting wrapped up like a baby so the chocolate can work its magic....all followed by a flower petal bath in a massive copper tub where you sip on ginger tea and nibble on fresh fruit....is some kind of wonderful! Even after the chocolate is gone and I'd left the spa....I could still smell the chocolate and remember the warm stickiness of it as I marinated in my little cocoon. :-). Barb and Alison also loved their massages but for some reason they ended up in rooms that didn't have the fantastic massive copper tubs so lesson learned...next time we will be sure to stipulate that we want the rooms with copper tubs!
Another thing the three of us did was to attend the Kecak performance at ARMA (Art museum) during the full moon. It was so different from the other kecak performances I've seen (first at temple on Jl. Hanoman and then at Uluwatu). This one was FULL of fire and was an artistic interpretation of the story of two monkey kings (brothers) who get into battle with one another (which is a different story than the traditional kecak follows). As much as I loved the kecak at the temple, this one at ARMA that only happens during the full moon and the dark moon was fantastic.
That same day the three of us had also visited the Pyramids of Chi for another fantastic sound healing session. It was a March special they had on where for 300,000 ($30) I could have 90 minute sound healing in the pyramid as well as a fantastic lunch in the restaurant. I LOVED it once again!
The five of us (Lynda, Barb, Alison, Julie, and I) have also gone to a couple of different venues for films. The first night we saw a series of 7 short films and I must admit that the short films in Bali are no easier to interpret than the short films in Canada often are! On the upside...we sure all had something to talk about and isn't that one of the intentions behind art...to give the audience cause to think and hopefully discuss? So...on that level I guess those short films were pretty successful. :-). The next one we saw was AMAZING! It is called Tana and is set on an island in Vanuatu. It is based on a true story and is a real life Romeo and Juliet who's story helped change the cultural traditions of their people. This movie I highly recommend...it was a 10/10 for the story, for the acting, and for the scenery.
Another thing that Barb and I did the other day (with Lynda as our official videographer) was to go to the fish spa again....it was Barbs first time and honestly it was as much fun for me this second time as it was for the first! Along with our fish spa we enjoyed some of their kombucha (which is my new favourite thing and I am excited to get home to make some of my own). In fact, today, I hopped on the back of Ketut's bike to zip over to the fish spa again so I could pick up a couple bottles of the stuff they make there so I could have it in my fridge here. Kombucha is fermented tea and it is supposed to be very good for you so in addition to tasting good and quenching thirst....it's a benefit too.
I love this hopping on the back of a bike business here! It is so wonderful to feel the wind whipping past on these hot days. Yes....that means I'm not wearing a helmet and I know that's kind of crazy but I also know that we're not going very fast (governed by traffic most of the time). Equally as crazy is that we just wear flip flops and shorts and bare arms. On the upside, the drivers (all Balinese) are masterful riders! As I've said in other posts, they begin learning even before they can walk as the bike is the form of transport for the family and often the little kids are standing at the front of the bike with their face peeking over the handle bars. Definitely they're driving the bike themselves (maybe with an older sibling on the back) by the time they're able to reach the footrest (around 10) and licensed to drive full time at about 15.
Lynda and I continue to keep up with the self-care routines we've built here which we both feel really good about. Lynda missed a couple of yoga sessions while waiting for baby and so she is making up for it the rest of this week. In fact, I think she might even be doing two classes this afternoon! I'm still doing my every morning short yoga session (in the room) and then 3 times/week I do another routine that is a little longer in the afternoons and it has become such a habit now that I actually kind of look forward to it. So the plan is to keep it up once I'm back home too. I've been really intentional about making sure it is something that is sustainable and enjoyable in support of that plan for maintenance so I'm feeling good about my plan and my progress! This week Barb and Alison also joined me for my reflexology treatment and they both found so much value in it that Alison is back for another treatment already today!
Yesterday I had a long hot walk to pick up our passports for the final time from our agent Komang at Bali Buddha (where she sits every afternoon from 2-5). It seems weird to think that this is our final visa extension! When we arrived in November thinking about getting extensions for the entire time seemed like a lot but now that we're at the end of it...it was a breeze. $65 each every month and we're good to go. :-). This extension takes us to the 15th of April and since our plane tix are for the 12th we're good even if there was some extraordinary delay.
Last night Lynda and I went over to Julie's house (just a couple of doors away from us) as I'd made a plan to do a "class" with two of her staff (Gede and the new Ketut). She'd purchased some syrups and a bottle of vodka and I'd promised to help the boys learn to make a couple of cocktails (and some mocktails too) so that when Julie has friends over she can offer them something other than the usual fresh fruit juices. Our cocktail party set out in Julie's garden by her jacuzzi was a huge hit and I had loads of fun with the boys in the kitchen. They had a cocktail shaker and it was fun for them doing a little dance as they shook their booty in time to the mixing of the drink. :-). In the end we came up with 2 mocktails (sunrise and berry surprise without the vodka) and 4 cocktails (sunrise: 1 vodka, oj, grenadine; chocolate martini: 2 vodka, chocolate, well shaken; berry surprise: 1 vodka, strawberry syrup, cranberry juice; and one other than I can't remember the name of. It was 1 vodka, strawberry syrup, coconut syrup, shaken together and topped off with some soda water to add a little sparkle. We learned during out "invention time" that the syrups are soooo sweet and so by the second drink we'd mastered our amounts and by the end you'd never know that we were using syrups vs different kinds of liqueurs. All in all the evening was a great success and this morning Gede stopped by to say hi (he was just off to his village for 2 full days of ceremonies for his aunt who recently passed away). Julie also messaged to ask if we can do it again before we leave....so lots of evidence that fun was had by all.
Lynda received a couple of emails yesterday from the kids at the school we visited a month ago. They were wondering if we might be able to come visit them again. Ironically, we had been having that very conversation! Barb brought us a bunch of stuff (books, pencils, and stickers) that we want to take to the school so Lynda is now working on setting up another time for us to visit them before we leave Bali. Yes.....more evidence that the time is drawing short!
I've just finished making arrangements for four of us (Julie, Barb, Alison, and I) to visit a woman (AwaHoshi) who offers sessions of sound healing with crystal bowls. My sister has a crystal bowl and I LOVE it so I'm certain that this session will be amazing! That session will be tomorrow afternoon and afterward Lynda will join us for dinner. Our plan is that we'll all go back to Bale Udung (the restaurant where the tables are set over a lake and the koi fish come round for you to feed them after dinner)
What else is new this week? Well, the ogoh ogoh's are getting nearer completion all the time. Its just 10 days till the big parades that precede Nyepi (silent day) and the excitement surrounding the massive ogoh ogohs that are being constructed in every village and community centre is building. They're pretty much finished now.....just a few finishing touches. The one that is just up the street from us in the soccer field is massive. It is also incredibly well done and very very impressive. I honestly cannot imagine what it will be like to see them all gathered for the start of the parade on the late afternoon of the 27th. This will truly be a sight to remember I am sure! As well, we continue to discover new sights and places to eat....there is a seemingly endless supply of those two things here. I actually don't know what it would be like to just be here in Bali for a few days (like most people). They miss out on so much! We continue to feel overwhelmingly grateful for all of the time we've been able to spend here and at the same time will be ready to head for home in April. Until then though...there is lots more planned and there will be surprises along the way too I'm sure. So till next time.....
L & L
Monday, March 6, 2017
March 7, 2017
Surprise Surprise! It's just two days since my last blog post and here I am again. Not that there is a whole lot to tell but decided to surprise those of you who are religious in following along with us as well as kill a little time as we sit in a lovely little bistro on Jl Raya (the main street that Monkey Forest and Hanoman and Bisma all T onto.). Jalan Raya is also the street that the palace is on (right at the top of Jl Monkey Forest)
Yesterday was Monday for us and so we both had our respective yoga routines (Lynda at Intuitive Flow and me in the room with my youtube teachers). As soon as I finished my yoga and tai chi I was off to my reflexology appointment with Sujita. I've been seeing him weekly since November (with the exception of the times we've been away from Ubud) and I really look forward to my time with him. After my hour appointment with Sujita ($10) I headed for Verona Spa where I was booked in for my hour long four hand massage. ($25) This was my first time having a four hand massage (ie: two therapists working in tandem). It was GREAT...but then how could it not be?! One therapist works on the top half and the other on the bottom. Yep....I can see myself going back for another one of those! :-). By the time I walked back to our place Lynda was home and showered and ready for dinner. Both of us were beat from our busy day (yes....this is a busy day in Ubudian life) so we just went across the street to a little warung that offers good food, is really close, and where the most expensive thing on the menu is $5.
This morning was pretty leisurely for me but Lynda was up and out for an early walk so she stopped for a big breakfast at Maha (a local place that has excellent food). Actually Maha is owned by the same person who owns Mingle, Allison. Allison is the woman we met at Mingle and subsequently arranged the vespa tour we went with. You might have seen her in my vespa videos as she was in the sidecar right in front of me.
While Lynda was off wandering the streets and chowing down on some yummy poached eggs I slept in a little and then did my morning routine of stretching. I've figured out that if I put it on (its on youtube) almost before I get out of bed....I can actually keep up with doing it every day! After that it was shower, a little laundry and as soon as I popped my head out of my door Ketut was ready and waiting to make my breakfast. Lynda arrived back at about the same time as did Julie so it was a bit of a party on the patio this morning.
Julie had printed off our return plane tickets for us as we didn't want to take a chance on getting to the airport on April 12th only to be told that we'd need them. They're different from the original ones we had when we left home as we changed our return dates once we got into the visa extension business. Speaking of which....we're due to meet with Komang again some time this week to give her our passports one final time. We are currently good until March 16th so our next 30 day extension will take us past our departure date of April 12th.
After Julie left Lynda and I satisfied our addiction with a game of contract rummy and before I knew it Ketut was waiting for me as I'd made arrangements to catch a ride on the back of his bike over to Jl Bisma where I had an appointment with a hairdresser for a cut. It has been more than 4 months since I've had a cut and I felt way overdue!
Adi from TriNadi Salon and Spa was my stylist and I think he did a pretty decent job. If nothing else...I have a LOT less hair, had a shampoo, and a great head and shoulder massage as part of the service. Oh ya....the total bill was $7. :-)
Lynda and I had made arrangements to meet at the Daily Baguette, which is where I am now. For lunch I had a bottle of fresh coconut water, a piece of frittata (which was delicious- haven't had much in the way of potatoes here so it was a real treat) and some quinoa salad that was so good I plan to bring the leftovers home for my fridge! Lynda's lunch was much more interesting though as she opted for a chocolate and almond croissant and iced coffee!
So here we sit....me giving you a little update on our day so far and she spending a little time with Jack Reacher (the hero of her current novel). We'll enjoy the breeze and the view from our vantage here across from the Museum Puri Lukisan (modern Balinese arts) for a few more minutes before we select something yummy from the bakery to take back to Julie as she is busily directing the guys who are installing her new hot tub this afternoon. Yes....she is getting a hot tub in Bali! I can imagine that it will be nice in the evenings and I'm sure her guests will enjoy the opportunity to have use of that too.
So till next time.....
L & L
Yesterday was Monday for us and so we both had our respective yoga routines (Lynda at Intuitive Flow and me in the room with my youtube teachers). As soon as I finished my yoga and tai chi I was off to my reflexology appointment with Sujita. I've been seeing him weekly since November (with the exception of the times we've been away from Ubud) and I really look forward to my time with him. After my hour appointment with Sujita ($10) I headed for Verona Spa where I was booked in for my hour long four hand massage. ($25) This was my first time having a four hand massage (ie: two therapists working in tandem). It was GREAT...but then how could it not be?! One therapist works on the top half and the other on the bottom. Yep....I can see myself going back for another one of those! :-). By the time I walked back to our place Lynda was home and showered and ready for dinner. Both of us were beat from our busy day (yes....this is a busy day in Ubudian life) so we just went across the street to a little warung that offers good food, is really close, and where the most expensive thing on the menu is $5.
This morning was pretty leisurely for me but Lynda was up and out for an early walk so she stopped for a big breakfast at Maha (a local place that has excellent food). Actually Maha is owned by the same person who owns Mingle, Allison. Allison is the woman we met at Mingle and subsequently arranged the vespa tour we went with. You might have seen her in my vespa videos as she was in the sidecar right in front of me.
While Lynda was off wandering the streets and chowing down on some yummy poached eggs I slept in a little and then did my morning routine of stretching. I've figured out that if I put it on (its on youtube) almost before I get out of bed....I can actually keep up with doing it every day! After that it was shower, a little laundry and as soon as I popped my head out of my door Ketut was ready and waiting to make my breakfast. Lynda arrived back at about the same time as did Julie so it was a bit of a party on the patio this morning.
Julie had printed off our return plane tickets for us as we didn't want to take a chance on getting to the airport on April 12th only to be told that we'd need them. They're different from the original ones we had when we left home as we changed our return dates once we got into the visa extension business. Speaking of which....we're due to meet with Komang again some time this week to give her our passports one final time. We are currently good until March 16th so our next 30 day extension will take us past our departure date of April 12th.
After Julie left Lynda and I satisfied our addiction with a game of contract rummy and before I knew it Ketut was waiting for me as I'd made arrangements to catch a ride on the back of his bike over to Jl Bisma where I had an appointment with a hairdresser for a cut. It has been more than 4 months since I've had a cut and I felt way overdue!
Adi from TriNadi Salon and Spa was my stylist and I think he did a pretty decent job. If nothing else...I have a LOT less hair, had a shampoo, and a great head and shoulder massage as part of the service. Oh ya....the total bill was $7. :-)
Lynda and I had made arrangements to meet at the Daily Baguette, which is where I am now. For lunch I had a bottle of fresh coconut water, a piece of frittata (which was delicious- haven't had much in the way of potatoes here so it was a real treat) and some quinoa salad that was so good I plan to bring the leftovers home for my fridge! Lynda's lunch was much more interesting though as she opted for a chocolate and almond croissant and iced coffee!
So here we sit....me giving you a little update on our day so far and she spending a little time with Jack Reacher (the hero of her current novel). We'll enjoy the breeze and the view from our vantage here across from the Museum Puri Lukisan (modern Balinese arts) for a few more minutes before we select something yummy from the bakery to take back to Julie as she is busily directing the guys who are installing her new hot tub this afternoon. Yes....she is getting a hot tub in Bali! I can imagine that it will be nice in the evenings and I'm sure her guests will enjoy the opportunity to have use of that too.
So till next time.....
L & L
Sunday, March 5, 2017
March 5, 2017
Am sitting here with the scent of cempaka wafting up around my head. Cempaka is the type of blossom Lynda and I where each given after our private prayer time at the temple of the high priestess Ida yesterday. The blossom is placed behind your ear (along with several others that have been part of the prayer process) but the cempaka (pronounced chempaka) is the only one that I kept. The fragrance of it is so sweet and every time I move my head or a bit of breeze comes along I'm surrounded by the scent again.
I'd better back up a little and start by explaining just how it was that we came to be attending a water purification blessing with Bali's youngest and only female high priestess. My friend Jessika had been to Ida once before and wanted to see her for another blessing prior to her departure (which was today) so....it didn't take Lynda and I long to decide that we'd like to join Jessika and Angela.
Jati drove the four of us to the town of Bangli, a very traditional area of Bali about 30 minutes from Ubud. That is where Ida's family compound and temple is located. Her story is amazing on its own and I encourage you to google her if you'd like to know more but what I will tell you is that usually high priests are born into that role. In the case of Ida, she was selected by the spirits rather than her lineage. She comes from humble beginnings and her role as high priestess today puts her into an incredibly exclusive group. Add to that the fact that she is female and young and you have an incredible anomaly.
We arrived at Ida's family compound, which is where her temple is, well in advance of the 11:30 time that had been set aside for blessings that day. We donned our sarongs (required) as well as a sash around our middle. That sash is an important part of Balinese spiritual practice as it separates the top from the bottom and there is all kinds of symbolism attached to that practice.
We hung around the courtyard in front of Ida's house (there were about 20 of us in total) until she emerged and when she did she explained that first she would bless the water and then when we heard her ring the bell we were invited to join her in meditation until it was time for the water purification blessings to occur.
Her initial blessing of the water (to make it holy) consisted of her chanting and praying from her platform where she was seated facing away from us and toward the vessels and utensils that would be part of her blessings. This chanting and praying took at least 30 minutes and as much as it was amazing to have a front row seat to all of this I also couldn't help but wonder how it was that her feet didn't fall asleep! She was kneeling and sitting on top of her feet the entire time. I can't sit with my legs crossed let alone under me for much more than a couple of minutes!
After the water blessing we heard the bell ring which indicated that the meditation was about to begin. I thought that perhaps it would be a single chime of the bell but no....that bell rang non stop, and in perfect rhythm, for the next 45 minutes! It was a smallish bell that she held in and rang with her left hand and as much as I couldn't figure out how she was able to sit on her feet for that long neither could I figure out how she could ring that bell in perfect time for a full 45 minutes never missing or doubling up on a ring tone. As well, the entire time she was ringing the bell with her left hand she was doing a host of other things with her right. The sound of the bell was hypnotic and in no time it felt like I could feel the bell ringing inside of me. My body wasn't moving much but I could feel it moving ever so slightly in perfect time with that bell! I know it sounds a bit weird but honestly...it felt very very good. All of us (in the "audience) were seated on a raised platform very near the front of Ida's higher platform. Her platform was about 5 feet high and ours was about 3 feet off the ground. Everyone participated in the meditation until the bell stopped which was the sign that the water purification blessings were about to begin.
Once the bell had stopped, she had finished blessing the water, and the meditation was over she turned around to face us but all the while she was still sitting on her feet! Granted, she did have a round cushion that she was sitting on but still.....there was a long way to go before she'd be able to move and already she'd been sitting like that for at least 90 minutes.
Once she had turned to face us she put on a second holy apron and her assistants began to take their positions. A high priest (or priestess) has many assistants as they're not allowed to do much of anything for themselves once they're ordained. For example, Ida can never go into her own kitchen as she is not allowed to cook anything. Her clothes can not be worn by another - ever! She even has to have her own toilet that no one else can use. During ceremonies Ida has helpers to refill her water vessels, other priests to assist with prayers in the temple, and many many others who look after putting out the offerings before and during the process. Everyone knows their role and it runs like clockwork without a hitch. For them to have this role with the high priestess is an honour and part of what they are called to do in their culture/faith.
The first people up for their water purification was a Balinese family of five. As is the case with most traditional Balinese practices (like balian healings or ceremonies), everyone present is witness to everything that goes on. Initially the five of them lined up, two in front and three in the back. Ida pours holy water over them from silver pots that are continually refilled by one of her assistants. The first pot of water was shared between all of them but within a short time the focus of her blessing began to fall to one of the men. He was doused in pot after pot of water and instructed to stamp his feet and to let whatever he felt out. When he was finished and sent off to the temple behind the priestess for private prayer time with the priests back there, Ida turned her attention to the young woman that was part of their family. This young woman's experience through the blessing actually moved me to tears. I could feel her anguish (I can think of no other word to describe it) as she released her emotions during her purification/blessing. Ida keeps the water coming and all the while she is chanting in a tone that is almost other-worldly. Eventually the young woman's blessing was finished and she too moved to the back temple. Then came the rest of the family and they all had their blessing standing side by side. Once finished they moved to the back temple too.
Next up, Ida called Lynda and I to come forward. We'd both just watched the process but neither of us really knew what to expect. Ida instructed us to close our eyes and to let out whatever we were feeling throughout the purification process. She began to chant and pour the water over us, each in turn. Just when I thought it was finished it would start all over again. I could feel a host of emotions raging through me. I stamped my feet and heard Ida's instruction to wash my head, face and body with the water as she poured it over me. Honestly there were a couple of moments where I didn't know if I'd be able to breathe and I'm pretty sure I breathed in some of that water but by the end of it all when Ida was finished with both Lynda and I, I heard very clearly her instruction to now go forth into the world and spread peace and harmony wherever we go. She then invited us to go into her temple for a private prayer and it was there that her two assistant priests helped Lynda and I go through the motions of what to do and how to do it and what flowers and grasses to put behind our ears and who eventually...gave us each a cempaka blossom to wear behind our ear for the rest of the day. Just when we thought we were finished and that it was time to get up off the ground where we were seated in our soaking wet sarongs....one of the priests took a pinch of partially cooked rice and pressed it onto the centre of each of our foreheads. This rice (and the flowers behind our ears) is a symbol of acknowledgement that we've made our prayers today. The idea is to leave it all there until it falls off on its own. Interestingly....it lasts a very long time. My rice eventually fell off when I was wiping sweat from my brow about 45 minutes later in the market as we were waiting for our lunch to be cooked. My flowers were still there when we arrived home a couple hours later.
So there I was in the market, wearing soaking wet clothes because I neglected to bring another pair of pants (foolishly I thought the sarong would keep my pants dry enough). Soaking wet clothes, rice pasted onto my forehead, flowers and grass behind my ears....yep.....must have looked quite the sight! LOL! Interestingly, no one seemed to notice anything odd about any of us. Lynda, Jessika and Angela also had flowers and rice. They however, had known to bring a complete change of clothes so they were dry!
Anyway, lunch in the market was great and I am hopeful that I will have another opportunity to see the high priestess one more time before heading for home in 5 weeks.
Yes.....we are just 5 weeks away from our return date now. It seems impossible to believe but we've moved from measuring our time in months to counting it down in weeks. The next and final stage will be when we move to days!
The feeling of lightness and gratitude that we felt from our water blessing stayed with all four of us right through dinner as we toasted Jessika on her last night in Bali. We'd decided that we'd celebrate our visit to Ida as well as our time together by going for dinner at a fantastic Italian place, Il Gardin, and it didn't disappoint! Dinner was fantastic, the company was incredible and the four of us continued to revel in the good fortune of our lives.
Today I decided to continue the theme and went to see a Chakra healer. Again, it was an incredible experience. I will say here that I am feeling very proud of myself for honouring my commitment to be really intentional about my self-care during my time here in Bali. I have done, and will continue to do, exactly whatever it is that I feel moved to do that day. From a tarot reading and sound healing in a pyramid to reflexology and massage topped off by regular exercise, great food, a water purification and now chakra healing....I'm feeling really good about the whole business!
But back to my Chakra healing. It took almost 90 minutes and the fee was 150,000 ($15). I won't go into detail about the healing but I will tell you that my chakras are all healthy and I don't think I've ever felt so relaxed! On the way home from my chakra healing today I felt so good that I stopped in to make two appointments for tomorrow. An hour of reflexology at 3 (which is right after my yoga and tai chi times) and then an hour of 4 hand massage at 4:30. Yep...by this time tomorrow night it is very likely that I will fall into bed a very happy girl!
But what else have we been doing since I last wrote a little more than a week ago? Well..... we spent another day at that gorgeous pool we found at the Cendana Resort just up the street from where we live. We've also been keeping up with our respective yoga routines. Lynda adds 100 stairs to her 3 times weekly practice but I continue to prefer to do mine in the privacy and comfort of my own room. We're religious about our every morning stretching routine that I put on youtube almost before I even get out of bed and of course...we have to walk everywhere we go here so that keeps us moving too.
We continue to be spoiled beyond belief with dinner out every single night, laundry being done for us, room being cleaned, breakfast being made and served....and yes....even a driver any time we want to go anywhere further than our feet want to take us.
Lynda has finally accepted her role as princess and has shifted into changing the colour of her toenail polish just because she is tired of it...not because she needs a pedicure! And she hasn't even had her chocolate massage yet! Imagine what will happen to her once she engages in that decadent activity!?
In addition to all of this amazing self-care we've also been playing cards.....in fact we've played so many games of cards that we've actually worn out several decks! LOL...yes....have any of you ever worn out a deck of cards? Well, it is possible and we're living proof that it is! We've also read quite a few books. Every time we go into a new hotel lobby or restaurant we eyeball their shelves to see if they've got any decent books in english. So far we've been pretty lucky and have only had to buy about 4 or 5 books. In fact, Lynda was doing the happy dance this afternoon when she came across a Jack Reacher novel and I'm also looking forward to getting it from her when she is finished.
The other night we went to the show again. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before but Paradiso is a movie house where you sit on couches and can order dinner or drinks during the movie. We both love it there and since there was a good movie on....it didn't take much convincing to make the decision to go. We saw Warren Beatty's "Rules Don't Apply" about the later life of Howard Hughes. Don't know if it was so enjoyable because we haven't seen TV or much in the way of movies for quite a few months now or if it was really that good but we both enjoyed it very much.
So as you can see....life continues to be full for us here in Ubud. As much as we're still loving every day here, we are also both feeling like we will be ready to come home when the time comes. In Bali, there are no coincidences and so we are going to continue to roll with whatever presents itself to us over the coming weeks.
One of the things that will be presenting itself to us in just a couple days is a friend from home. Barb will be arriving here on the 9th, the same day that the king of Saudi is scheduled to depart. I am going to go to the airport with Jati to pick her up and neither of us are looking forward to the craziness that might go along with his departure. We can't find out what time he is scheduled to leave so we've got our fingers and toes all crossed that it is early the morning of the 9th in which case they'll be all gone from the airport area by the time we get there for her early afternoon arrival. How do we know it will be crazy you wonder? Well....the fact that he's bringing 1500 staff with him is one clue and then there is the fact that he has an escalator fit for the plane to bring him down to the tarmack at landing and takeoff. And of course there is the ever present high level security that will go along with a VIP of that rank. So yes....I'm pretty sure security will be heightened at every turn and the airport is likely going to be on high alert. But heh....it will be a new experience/adventure right?! :-)
With Barb here for a month it will be a great excuse to revisit some of our favourite spots so we plan to do exactly that. In fact we've started a list that seems to grow longer each day so we don't miss out on any of the great things we want to do while she is here. We've saved a couple of highlights for her visit as we didn't want to do them twice and one of them is the Monkey Forest itself so after living on Monkey Forest road all these months we're finally going to venture into the forest itself in the next week or so.
That's about it for this night so....until next time.....we'll continue to take big bites out of whatever Bali has to offer. :-)
L & L
I'd better back up a little and start by explaining just how it was that we came to be attending a water purification blessing with Bali's youngest and only female high priestess. My friend Jessika had been to Ida once before and wanted to see her for another blessing prior to her departure (which was today) so....it didn't take Lynda and I long to decide that we'd like to join Jessika and Angela.
Jati drove the four of us to the town of Bangli, a very traditional area of Bali about 30 minutes from Ubud. That is where Ida's family compound and temple is located. Her story is amazing on its own and I encourage you to google her if you'd like to know more but what I will tell you is that usually high priests are born into that role. In the case of Ida, she was selected by the spirits rather than her lineage. She comes from humble beginnings and her role as high priestess today puts her into an incredibly exclusive group. Add to that the fact that she is female and young and you have an incredible anomaly.
We arrived at Ida's family compound, which is where her temple is, well in advance of the 11:30 time that had been set aside for blessings that day. We donned our sarongs (required) as well as a sash around our middle. That sash is an important part of Balinese spiritual practice as it separates the top from the bottom and there is all kinds of symbolism attached to that practice.
We hung around the courtyard in front of Ida's house (there were about 20 of us in total) until she emerged and when she did she explained that first she would bless the water and then when we heard her ring the bell we were invited to join her in meditation until it was time for the water purification blessings to occur.
Her initial blessing of the water (to make it holy) consisted of her chanting and praying from her platform where she was seated facing away from us and toward the vessels and utensils that would be part of her blessings. This chanting and praying took at least 30 minutes and as much as it was amazing to have a front row seat to all of this I also couldn't help but wonder how it was that her feet didn't fall asleep! She was kneeling and sitting on top of her feet the entire time. I can't sit with my legs crossed let alone under me for much more than a couple of minutes!
After the water blessing we heard the bell ring which indicated that the meditation was about to begin. I thought that perhaps it would be a single chime of the bell but no....that bell rang non stop, and in perfect rhythm, for the next 45 minutes! It was a smallish bell that she held in and rang with her left hand and as much as I couldn't figure out how she was able to sit on her feet for that long neither could I figure out how she could ring that bell in perfect time for a full 45 minutes never missing or doubling up on a ring tone. As well, the entire time she was ringing the bell with her left hand she was doing a host of other things with her right. The sound of the bell was hypnotic and in no time it felt like I could feel the bell ringing inside of me. My body wasn't moving much but I could feel it moving ever so slightly in perfect time with that bell! I know it sounds a bit weird but honestly...it felt very very good. All of us (in the "audience) were seated on a raised platform very near the front of Ida's higher platform. Her platform was about 5 feet high and ours was about 3 feet off the ground. Everyone participated in the meditation until the bell stopped which was the sign that the water purification blessings were about to begin.
Once the bell had stopped, she had finished blessing the water, and the meditation was over she turned around to face us but all the while she was still sitting on her feet! Granted, she did have a round cushion that she was sitting on but still.....there was a long way to go before she'd be able to move and already she'd been sitting like that for at least 90 minutes.
Once she had turned to face us she put on a second holy apron and her assistants began to take their positions. A high priest (or priestess) has many assistants as they're not allowed to do much of anything for themselves once they're ordained. For example, Ida can never go into her own kitchen as she is not allowed to cook anything. Her clothes can not be worn by another - ever! She even has to have her own toilet that no one else can use. During ceremonies Ida has helpers to refill her water vessels, other priests to assist with prayers in the temple, and many many others who look after putting out the offerings before and during the process. Everyone knows their role and it runs like clockwork without a hitch. For them to have this role with the high priestess is an honour and part of what they are called to do in their culture/faith.
The first people up for their water purification was a Balinese family of five. As is the case with most traditional Balinese practices (like balian healings or ceremonies), everyone present is witness to everything that goes on. Initially the five of them lined up, two in front and three in the back. Ida pours holy water over them from silver pots that are continually refilled by one of her assistants. The first pot of water was shared between all of them but within a short time the focus of her blessing began to fall to one of the men. He was doused in pot after pot of water and instructed to stamp his feet and to let whatever he felt out. When he was finished and sent off to the temple behind the priestess for private prayer time with the priests back there, Ida turned her attention to the young woman that was part of their family. This young woman's experience through the blessing actually moved me to tears. I could feel her anguish (I can think of no other word to describe it) as she released her emotions during her purification/blessing. Ida keeps the water coming and all the while she is chanting in a tone that is almost other-worldly. Eventually the young woman's blessing was finished and she too moved to the back temple. Then came the rest of the family and they all had their blessing standing side by side. Once finished they moved to the back temple too.
Next up, Ida called Lynda and I to come forward. We'd both just watched the process but neither of us really knew what to expect. Ida instructed us to close our eyes and to let out whatever we were feeling throughout the purification process. She began to chant and pour the water over us, each in turn. Just when I thought it was finished it would start all over again. I could feel a host of emotions raging through me. I stamped my feet and heard Ida's instruction to wash my head, face and body with the water as she poured it over me. Honestly there were a couple of moments where I didn't know if I'd be able to breathe and I'm pretty sure I breathed in some of that water but by the end of it all when Ida was finished with both Lynda and I, I heard very clearly her instruction to now go forth into the world and spread peace and harmony wherever we go. She then invited us to go into her temple for a private prayer and it was there that her two assistant priests helped Lynda and I go through the motions of what to do and how to do it and what flowers and grasses to put behind our ears and who eventually...gave us each a cempaka blossom to wear behind our ear for the rest of the day. Just when we thought we were finished and that it was time to get up off the ground where we were seated in our soaking wet sarongs....one of the priests took a pinch of partially cooked rice and pressed it onto the centre of each of our foreheads. This rice (and the flowers behind our ears) is a symbol of acknowledgement that we've made our prayers today. The idea is to leave it all there until it falls off on its own. Interestingly....it lasts a very long time. My rice eventually fell off when I was wiping sweat from my brow about 45 minutes later in the market as we were waiting for our lunch to be cooked. My flowers were still there when we arrived home a couple hours later.
So there I was in the market, wearing soaking wet clothes because I neglected to bring another pair of pants (foolishly I thought the sarong would keep my pants dry enough). Soaking wet clothes, rice pasted onto my forehead, flowers and grass behind my ears....yep.....must have looked quite the sight! LOL! Interestingly, no one seemed to notice anything odd about any of us. Lynda, Jessika and Angela also had flowers and rice. They however, had known to bring a complete change of clothes so they were dry!
Anyway, lunch in the market was great and I am hopeful that I will have another opportunity to see the high priestess one more time before heading for home in 5 weeks.
Yes.....we are just 5 weeks away from our return date now. It seems impossible to believe but we've moved from measuring our time in months to counting it down in weeks. The next and final stage will be when we move to days!
The feeling of lightness and gratitude that we felt from our water blessing stayed with all four of us right through dinner as we toasted Jessika on her last night in Bali. We'd decided that we'd celebrate our visit to Ida as well as our time together by going for dinner at a fantastic Italian place, Il Gardin, and it didn't disappoint! Dinner was fantastic, the company was incredible and the four of us continued to revel in the good fortune of our lives.
Today I decided to continue the theme and went to see a Chakra healer. Again, it was an incredible experience. I will say here that I am feeling very proud of myself for honouring my commitment to be really intentional about my self-care during my time here in Bali. I have done, and will continue to do, exactly whatever it is that I feel moved to do that day. From a tarot reading and sound healing in a pyramid to reflexology and massage topped off by regular exercise, great food, a water purification and now chakra healing....I'm feeling really good about the whole business!
But back to my Chakra healing. It took almost 90 minutes and the fee was 150,000 ($15). I won't go into detail about the healing but I will tell you that my chakras are all healthy and I don't think I've ever felt so relaxed! On the way home from my chakra healing today I felt so good that I stopped in to make two appointments for tomorrow. An hour of reflexology at 3 (which is right after my yoga and tai chi times) and then an hour of 4 hand massage at 4:30. Yep...by this time tomorrow night it is very likely that I will fall into bed a very happy girl!
But what else have we been doing since I last wrote a little more than a week ago? Well..... we spent another day at that gorgeous pool we found at the Cendana Resort just up the street from where we live. We've also been keeping up with our respective yoga routines. Lynda adds 100 stairs to her 3 times weekly practice but I continue to prefer to do mine in the privacy and comfort of my own room. We're religious about our every morning stretching routine that I put on youtube almost before I even get out of bed and of course...we have to walk everywhere we go here so that keeps us moving too.
We continue to be spoiled beyond belief with dinner out every single night, laundry being done for us, room being cleaned, breakfast being made and served....and yes....even a driver any time we want to go anywhere further than our feet want to take us.
Lynda has finally accepted her role as princess and has shifted into changing the colour of her toenail polish just because she is tired of it...not because she needs a pedicure! And she hasn't even had her chocolate massage yet! Imagine what will happen to her once she engages in that decadent activity!?
In addition to all of this amazing self-care we've also been playing cards.....in fact we've played so many games of cards that we've actually worn out several decks! LOL...yes....have any of you ever worn out a deck of cards? Well, it is possible and we're living proof that it is! We've also read quite a few books. Every time we go into a new hotel lobby or restaurant we eyeball their shelves to see if they've got any decent books in english. So far we've been pretty lucky and have only had to buy about 4 or 5 books. In fact, Lynda was doing the happy dance this afternoon when she came across a Jack Reacher novel and I'm also looking forward to getting it from her when she is finished.
The other night we went to the show again. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before but Paradiso is a movie house where you sit on couches and can order dinner or drinks during the movie. We both love it there and since there was a good movie on....it didn't take much convincing to make the decision to go. We saw Warren Beatty's "Rules Don't Apply" about the later life of Howard Hughes. Don't know if it was so enjoyable because we haven't seen TV or much in the way of movies for quite a few months now or if it was really that good but we both enjoyed it very much.
So as you can see....life continues to be full for us here in Ubud. As much as we're still loving every day here, we are also both feeling like we will be ready to come home when the time comes. In Bali, there are no coincidences and so we are going to continue to roll with whatever presents itself to us over the coming weeks.
One of the things that will be presenting itself to us in just a couple days is a friend from home. Barb will be arriving here on the 9th, the same day that the king of Saudi is scheduled to depart. I am going to go to the airport with Jati to pick her up and neither of us are looking forward to the craziness that might go along with his departure. We can't find out what time he is scheduled to leave so we've got our fingers and toes all crossed that it is early the morning of the 9th in which case they'll be all gone from the airport area by the time we get there for her early afternoon arrival. How do we know it will be crazy you wonder? Well....the fact that he's bringing 1500 staff with him is one clue and then there is the fact that he has an escalator fit for the plane to bring him down to the tarmack at landing and takeoff. And of course there is the ever present high level security that will go along with a VIP of that rank. So yes....I'm pretty sure security will be heightened at every turn and the airport is likely going to be on high alert. But heh....it will be a new experience/adventure right?! :-)
With Barb here for a month it will be a great excuse to revisit some of our favourite spots so we plan to do exactly that. In fact we've started a list that seems to grow longer each day so we don't miss out on any of the great things we want to do while she is here. We've saved a couple of highlights for her visit as we didn't want to do them twice and one of them is the Monkey Forest itself so after living on Monkey Forest road all these months we're finally going to venture into the forest itself in the next week or so.
That's about it for this night so....until next time.....we'll continue to take big bites out of whatever Bali has to offer. :-)
L & L
Saturday, February 25, 2017
February 25, 2017
Since last writing in this blog it seems a major focus has been rather spa-like and it is easy for me to keep to that theme as I had a honey and cucumber facial this afternoon and in fact we're still sitting at pool side here at Cendana Resort and Spa on Monkey Forest Road. We just discovered this place last night as it is set way back from the road and as of today....it is our new favourite place to go. We can even just walk here it is so close to where we live! Here we have a huge salt water infinity pool that borders on the rice fields so you gotta know that the view is none too shabby. We also have a restaurant and a spa where the staff seem to want to cater to our every whim. Maybe that is because we are the only people here! Well, at the moment we are sharing the property with one other woman but as long as she stays over on her side of the estate we've decided we'll let her stay. :-). Seriously, we've been here all day and up until about an hour ago we were the only people here. Although there was this one little old woman Lynda made friends with while I was off for my facial. The little old lady was wandering the rice fields with her stick trying to shoo away the many birds who are intent on robbing her of her rice. Lynda was helping her by clapping her hands from pool side which was all well and good until the little old lady decided that she would come over to Lynda with her hand outstretched in search of a little "payment" for being allowed to scare the birds in her field. LOL....I'm not actually certain that was why she wanted money but money was what she wanted and even after Lynda gave her a little she still kept coming back for more. Not sure if she is senile or not but she is definitely forgetful!
Enough about her.....I want to tell you what I can see right now so you can sort of 'be here' with us. Lynda and I are sitting up at a raised table at one end of the infinity pool. The rice fields are behind me and over my right shoulder. The sun is setting and I can feel it on my back. The colour of the almost ripe grains of rice are golden in the waning sunlight. The blades of the rice plant are a rich vibrant green made even richer by the shadows being cast by the fading day. The pool at my right side is coated with ripples as the breeze dances over the water and several little birds come to sit on the edge for a drink or to skim the surface as they cool off with a little dip of their belly in the crystal clear water. Behind the far end of the pool there is a huge hibiscus tree that is covered in bright red flowers. There is a Buddha statue featured atop a large rock at the far outside corner of the pool. There are three other statues that line the length of the pool on the other side. Each of them doubles as a fountain and they look pretty impressive as they stand guard along the edge that also has stairs leading into the water the entire length of the pool. A little bird just flew off the outdoor shower wall to my left. He was startled by Lynda when she walked back over here from our lounge chairs on the other side of the pool. A little gecko just chirped his opinion from overhead. I'm sitting under a bale (gazebo) and he is somewhere on the roof. Across the pool and beside our lounge chairs there is a two person swinging chair and beyond all of that I can see the gardens and the villas behind the gardens. To my left (beyond the outdoor shower) is the restaurant. Yes, it is nice and I really really like it!
I am now laughing because Lynda has just come back to the table wearing her sweatshirt over her dress. I am still in my bathing suit! Nothing has changed....she gets cold and I don't. :-)
But enough about this gorgeous place we've spent the whole day at. Now I'll tell you where we spent the afternoon a couple of days ago. That time we were at Sedona Spa and although it wasn't as close (we had a couple of the boys drive us on the back of their bikes and then return to pick us up at the end of the day) the views were just as stunning. That spa was not attached to a hotel so no pool etc but boy oh boy....the spa was something else! Sedona was also adjacent to rice fields and each of their treatment rooms only has three walls so you feel as though you're getting your treatment right out in the fields! I can only imagine what the workers must think during harvest or planting times! Lynda had opted for a balinese massage with a herbal scrub. I went for the gusto and selected the chocolate massage. Lynda enjoyed her massage very much. I LOVED mine! Honestly, it was as though I'd been dipped in chocolate by the time my therapist was finished rubbing two bowls of warm molten locally sourced chocolate all over me. I smelled sooooo good! Once she had me completely coated in the candy goodness then she wrapped me in a cocoon that would allow the chocolate to "work its magic". I lay there in total bliss for about 10 minutes. All I could smell was chocolate and my room was open to the rice fields and the sun was shining and everything was right with the world! Once I was "unwrapped" it was quite a job to get all of the cacao off. Thankfully there is a shower right there in the room where I was able to scrub and rinse chocolate out of creases and folds I didn't even know I had. Just when I thought I was finished I'd find another spot I'd missed. I giggled through most of that shower as I thought what anyone who walked in on me might think! For both Lynda and I the "dessert" part of this treatment package was the flower petal bath they'd run for each of us in our respective treatment rooms. These huge copper tubs are perfectly formed to invite you to lay back and relax as you sip your fresh ginger tea and chow down on some fresh fruit. Oh ya....and the tub is right beside the rice fields so again...it's like you're right out in the open for all of this. Even for those of you who are thinking it might be a little too "out in the open"....honestly, you'd love it! Both Lynda and I are committed to going back to Sedona....she's eager to give the human chocolate fondue a try and there are other flavours on the menu that caught my eye too. :-)
The only down side I can say about all this relaxing spa time is that I've had a couple of nights where I can't really sleep.....maybe I'm getting too much rest during the days! On the upside of the downside though....the other morning after waking at 3:23 for the day it meant that I was up at the ungodly hour of 6:00 when the city just starts to come to life. So for that one day I was out on Monkey Forest even before most of the locals. In fact, I made it up to the market in time to be able to see the bustling event that place is at that time each and every day of the week. This is when all of the veggies and flowers and baskets for offerings are for sale to the locals. It is after most of them leave that all of the other "tourist" type stuff comes in to take their place. It was a hive of activity and I can tell you that I was the ONLY one that looked like me who was there at that time of the day!
So as you can see....really the spa theme is about all that we have to report in on this post. Other than that we've both been doing our regular intentional self-care with walks and yoga and treatments. Tomorrow I've got an appointment to have my tarot cards read and then we're meeting with a bunch of friends for dinner at Rhuma Roda for Indonesian smorg. Yummy!
Till next time,
L & L
Enough about her.....I want to tell you what I can see right now so you can sort of 'be here' with us. Lynda and I are sitting up at a raised table at one end of the infinity pool. The rice fields are behind me and over my right shoulder. The sun is setting and I can feel it on my back. The colour of the almost ripe grains of rice are golden in the waning sunlight. The blades of the rice plant are a rich vibrant green made even richer by the shadows being cast by the fading day. The pool at my right side is coated with ripples as the breeze dances over the water and several little birds come to sit on the edge for a drink or to skim the surface as they cool off with a little dip of their belly in the crystal clear water. Behind the far end of the pool there is a huge hibiscus tree that is covered in bright red flowers. There is a Buddha statue featured atop a large rock at the far outside corner of the pool. There are three other statues that line the length of the pool on the other side. Each of them doubles as a fountain and they look pretty impressive as they stand guard along the edge that also has stairs leading into the water the entire length of the pool. A little bird just flew off the outdoor shower wall to my left. He was startled by Lynda when she walked back over here from our lounge chairs on the other side of the pool. A little gecko just chirped his opinion from overhead. I'm sitting under a bale (gazebo) and he is somewhere on the roof. Across the pool and beside our lounge chairs there is a two person swinging chair and beyond all of that I can see the gardens and the villas behind the gardens. To my left (beyond the outdoor shower) is the restaurant. Yes, it is nice and I really really like it!
I am now laughing because Lynda has just come back to the table wearing her sweatshirt over her dress. I am still in my bathing suit! Nothing has changed....she gets cold and I don't. :-)
But enough about this gorgeous place we've spent the whole day at. Now I'll tell you where we spent the afternoon a couple of days ago. That time we were at Sedona Spa and although it wasn't as close (we had a couple of the boys drive us on the back of their bikes and then return to pick us up at the end of the day) the views were just as stunning. That spa was not attached to a hotel so no pool etc but boy oh boy....the spa was something else! Sedona was also adjacent to rice fields and each of their treatment rooms only has three walls so you feel as though you're getting your treatment right out in the fields! I can only imagine what the workers must think during harvest or planting times! Lynda had opted for a balinese massage with a herbal scrub. I went for the gusto and selected the chocolate massage. Lynda enjoyed her massage very much. I LOVED mine! Honestly, it was as though I'd been dipped in chocolate by the time my therapist was finished rubbing two bowls of warm molten locally sourced chocolate all over me. I smelled sooooo good! Once she had me completely coated in the candy goodness then she wrapped me in a cocoon that would allow the chocolate to "work its magic". I lay there in total bliss for about 10 minutes. All I could smell was chocolate and my room was open to the rice fields and the sun was shining and everything was right with the world! Once I was "unwrapped" it was quite a job to get all of the cacao off. Thankfully there is a shower right there in the room where I was able to scrub and rinse chocolate out of creases and folds I didn't even know I had. Just when I thought I was finished I'd find another spot I'd missed. I giggled through most of that shower as I thought what anyone who walked in on me might think! For both Lynda and I the "dessert" part of this treatment package was the flower petal bath they'd run for each of us in our respective treatment rooms. These huge copper tubs are perfectly formed to invite you to lay back and relax as you sip your fresh ginger tea and chow down on some fresh fruit. Oh ya....and the tub is right beside the rice fields so again...it's like you're right out in the open for all of this. Even for those of you who are thinking it might be a little too "out in the open"....honestly, you'd love it! Both Lynda and I are committed to going back to Sedona....she's eager to give the human chocolate fondue a try and there are other flavours on the menu that caught my eye too. :-)
The only down side I can say about all this relaxing spa time is that I've had a couple of nights where I can't really sleep.....maybe I'm getting too much rest during the days! On the upside of the downside though....the other morning after waking at 3:23 for the day it meant that I was up at the ungodly hour of 6:00 when the city just starts to come to life. So for that one day I was out on Monkey Forest even before most of the locals. In fact, I made it up to the market in time to be able to see the bustling event that place is at that time each and every day of the week. This is when all of the veggies and flowers and baskets for offerings are for sale to the locals. It is after most of them leave that all of the other "tourist" type stuff comes in to take their place. It was a hive of activity and I can tell you that I was the ONLY one that looked like me who was there at that time of the day!
So as you can see....really the spa theme is about all that we have to report in on this post. Other than that we've both been doing our regular intentional self-care with walks and yoga and treatments. Tomorrow I've got an appointment to have my tarot cards read and then we're meeting with a bunch of friends for dinner at Rhuma Roda for Indonesian smorg. Yummy!
Till next time,
L & L
Saturday, February 18, 2017
February 19, 2017
Yesterday was such a full day that both Lynda and I have decided to lay low today!
I mentioned that we'd stumbled into a vespa tour and there is more to that story so I'll start right at the beginning.
While we were sitting at Mingle the other night and I was catching up on the blog, Lynda was making new friends. In this case her new friend was Allison, originally from Australia and now resident of Ubud and owner of Mingle. Allison was sitting right behind us and the place was packed so it was easy to get into conversation with her. I mentioned to her that our friend Julie had recommended Mingle as a great place that had great drinks and based on our experience so far....she was right on the mark! Allison asked if I meant Julie Silvester and "yes....yes I did". Allison said that she had just moments before messaged Julie to cancel their vespa ride tomorrow as two people had backed out and within seconds Lynda and I decided that we'd like to take their place if that was a possibility. Allison said yes and that she'd message Julie right back to say we were back on again. Before she did that though...we agreed that it would be fun to surprise Julie so Allison didn't tell Julie it was us and we wouldn't tell Julie if we saw her. It would be a fun surprise!
The plan was for the four of us to meet at Mingle the following morning at 10:30 but Lynda and I decided that we'd go early and have breakfast there too. We didn't want to take a chance on bumping into Julie on the way to Mingle and ruining the surprise! So...we were ready to go just after 9 and as we were walking out of our yard....who should walk in but Julie! Aggghhhh....we told her we were off for breakfast and had to run and that we would catch up later. As soon as we were out of the yard and into the laneway we burst into laughter with the knowledge that we'd need to apologize for our rudeness when we saw her at Mingle at 10:30.
Sure enough, at 10:30 Julie appeared and almost immediately said, "are you the two delightful ladies Allison met here last night?" We replied that we were and then we apologized for our rude and hurried departure this morning. All three of us were still laughing when Allison arrived a few moments later. All the signs were lining up for it to be a great day!
We all climbed into Allison's vehicle to drive the 10 minutes or so to her house where the vespas are stored. Made (pronounced Maday) is her partner in the homestay she has at her place and he is also the leader of the Bali vespa scooter club. There are 5 vespas in total and they are all painted exactly the same. They are a kaleidoscope of colour and each of the bikes has a sidecar attached to it. It is these sidecars that we will be riding in! Made had made arrangements for 3 other drivers plus himself and so within moments of our arrival at Allison's we were settling into our sidecars and the boys were firing up their engines.
What a fun way to see the countryside. The wind whipping past, a little skull cap helmet on our heads, kids waving and calling out as we past by their homes and shops, and scenery that seemed to be even more beautiful from this vantage point. In truth, it was a little loud and the exhaust from the other bikes were the only negatives I can say....overall the trip was AMAZING and so much fun! The bike time was maybe about two hours and in addition we stopped at a little spot for coffee where Lynda and I even walked down into the rice paddies for some photos. Another stop was at an art museum/school where the master carver is Made Ada. This place was UNBELIEVABLE! You drive right into the belly of a giant concrete garuda (the mythical bird that was Vishnu's mode of transport). From there the three dimensional wood carvings continue to take your breath away the further into the building you go. Ironically, Lynda and I had just watched a documentary with Made Ada! The program was about the shift away from the traditional arts (like wood carving) by the younger generation. Once again, we were getting to meet the "guy" himself. The day before it had been Agung Rai, the man behind ARMA, and today it was Made Ada, a master carver considered by many to be Bali's best.
Once the vespa tour was over it was back to Allison's for a dip in her pool while Made cooked for us. He made a delicious meal of nasi goreng (fried rice), a squash and green bean curry, and a spicy omelette. Of course this amazing meal was topped off with a selection of fresh fruits. To make it even better....every single thing that was on the dinner table came from Made's garden right there on the property!
From there it was back to Mingle for an Affogato for dessert and if you've never had one of these before (like I hadn't) you might want to google it and make yourself one! It is actually pretty simple but takes fantastic! It is a scoop of vanilla ice cream served in a martini glass. Atop that ice cream is some hot espresso so you end up with a cool/warm contrast as you eat/drink it. As delicious as it was on it's own...I added a shot of Bailey's to mine and Lynda went for the Kahlua. Yes, it was the perfect finish to a great day.
By the time the Affogato was finished....so was I and so as luck would have it, Julie's shoe had just broken and she'd called Ketut (one of the guys who works at her place) to bring her another pair on his bike. When he arrived, I grabbed hold of him and hopped on the back of his bike to catch a ride home. The rest of the group was off to a food truck event but for me...the night was over!
Bottom line....great day.....and ever so thankful to have a day "off" today.
Till next time,
L & L
I mentioned that we'd stumbled into a vespa tour and there is more to that story so I'll start right at the beginning.
While we were sitting at Mingle the other night and I was catching up on the blog, Lynda was making new friends. In this case her new friend was Allison, originally from Australia and now resident of Ubud and owner of Mingle. Allison was sitting right behind us and the place was packed so it was easy to get into conversation with her. I mentioned to her that our friend Julie had recommended Mingle as a great place that had great drinks and based on our experience so far....she was right on the mark! Allison asked if I meant Julie Silvester and "yes....yes I did". Allison said that she had just moments before messaged Julie to cancel their vespa ride tomorrow as two people had backed out and within seconds Lynda and I decided that we'd like to take their place if that was a possibility. Allison said yes and that she'd message Julie right back to say we were back on again. Before she did that though...we agreed that it would be fun to surprise Julie so Allison didn't tell Julie it was us and we wouldn't tell Julie if we saw her. It would be a fun surprise!
The plan was for the four of us to meet at Mingle the following morning at 10:30 but Lynda and I decided that we'd go early and have breakfast there too. We didn't want to take a chance on bumping into Julie on the way to Mingle and ruining the surprise! So...we were ready to go just after 9 and as we were walking out of our yard....who should walk in but Julie! Aggghhhh....we told her we were off for breakfast and had to run and that we would catch up later. As soon as we were out of the yard and into the laneway we burst into laughter with the knowledge that we'd need to apologize for our rudeness when we saw her at Mingle at 10:30.
Sure enough, at 10:30 Julie appeared and almost immediately said, "are you the two delightful ladies Allison met here last night?" We replied that we were and then we apologized for our rude and hurried departure this morning. All three of us were still laughing when Allison arrived a few moments later. All the signs were lining up for it to be a great day!
We all climbed into Allison's vehicle to drive the 10 minutes or so to her house where the vespas are stored. Made (pronounced Maday) is her partner in the homestay she has at her place and he is also the leader of the Bali vespa scooter club. There are 5 vespas in total and they are all painted exactly the same. They are a kaleidoscope of colour and each of the bikes has a sidecar attached to it. It is these sidecars that we will be riding in! Made had made arrangements for 3 other drivers plus himself and so within moments of our arrival at Allison's we were settling into our sidecars and the boys were firing up their engines.
What a fun way to see the countryside. The wind whipping past, a little skull cap helmet on our heads, kids waving and calling out as we past by their homes and shops, and scenery that seemed to be even more beautiful from this vantage point. In truth, it was a little loud and the exhaust from the other bikes were the only negatives I can say....overall the trip was AMAZING and so much fun! The bike time was maybe about two hours and in addition we stopped at a little spot for coffee where Lynda and I even walked down into the rice paddies for some photos. Another stop was at an art museum/school where the master carver is Made Ada. This place was UNBELIEVABLE! You drive right into the belly of a giant concrete garuda (the mythical bird that was Vishnu's mode of transport). From there the three dimensional wood carvings continue to take your breath away the further into the building you go. Ironically, Lynda and I had just watched a documentary with Made Ada! The program was about the shift away from the traditional arts (like wood carving) by the younger generation. Once again, we were getting to meet the "guy" himself. The day before it had been Agung Rai, the man behind ARMA, and today it was Made Ada, a master carver considered by many to be Bali's best.
Once the vespa tour was over it was back to Allison's for a dip in her pool while Made cooked for us. He made a delicious meal of nasi goreng (fried rice), a squash and green bean curry, and a spicy omelette. Of course this amazing meal was topped off with a selection of fresh fruits. To make it even better....every single thing that was on the dinner table came from Made's garden right there on the property!
From there it was back to Mingle for an Affogato for dessert and if you've never had one of these before (like I hadn't) you might want to google it and make yourself one! It is actually pretty simple but takes fantastic! It is a scoop of vanilla ice cream served in a martini glass. Atop that ice cream is some hot espresso so you end up with a cool/warm contrast as you eat/drink it. As delicious as it was on it's own...I added a shot of Bailey's to mine and Lynda went for the Kahlua. Yes, it was the perfect finish to a great day.
By the time the Affogato was finished....so was I and so as luck would have it, Julie's shoe had just broken and she'd called Ketut (one of the guys who works at her place) to bring her another pair on his bike. When he arrived, I grabbed hold of him and hopped on the back of his bike to catch a ride home. The rest of the group was off to a food truck event but for me...the night was over!
Bottom line....great day.....and ever so thankful to have a day "off" today.
Till next time,
L & L
Friday, February 17, 2017
February 17, 2017
It seems that blogging has become a weekly activity versus a daily one!
Since arriving back in Ubud we've been busy! Right now we're taking the opportunity to get a little blogging done at the same time as we rest our weary bones in an oasis in the middle of Ubud. It is a large piece of property called ARMA (Agung Rai Museum of Art) that is home to beautiful tranquil gardens as well as gift shops, museums, restaurants, and accommodation. We've been walking for the past couple of hours so sitting here in the cool of the gardens listening to the sound of running water, song birds, and the distant hum of city life is really really nice! Our entrance into the park/museum (80,000/person) includes a hot or cold coffee/tea so when we're finished in here we'll be sitting down again to take advantage of that cold drink.
Since we last blogged we've attended a royal cremation, participated in a universal exercise in collective conciousness where the intention was to help heal the world, experienced our first ever sound healing - in a pyramid to boot! ....and volunteered at a nearby english school where our hearts were touched by their enthusiasm and reverence. We've had a party on the neighbours deck, a grilled corn and bintang party on our patio, had dinner out with friends, and I've also managed to fit a full day of work in too so....it's been a busy week!
......I'm back.....started this post while sitting in ARMA and now it is several hours later and we've moved on to Mingle where we are on our second "happy hour" special. :-). Delish! Honestly....there isn't a lot of drinking here but tonight looks like it might be a little different. My espresso martini was not short of booze and now my white russian is more booze than milk for sure! Lynda has moved onto a chocolate chili martini on the heels of her rum and lime drink so for those of you who have been drinking with her you will know that she is feeling no pain! LOL. :-)
Backtracking to the cremation ....what an amazing experience that was! The person who died was actually a white woman who had married into the Royal Family and lived on Java where she passed away a month ago and was mummified in preparation for the cremation. Usually when people die they are either buried (for up to a few years) or placed on top of the ground at a place where magically bodies don't smell or decompose. The reason they might have to wait for up to several years is because it is so expensive to have a cremation! The royal cremation we attended would have been many many thousands of dollars in expense and regular people can't afford that so they wait until there are many many people that can all be cremated at the same time and then everyone chips in to cover the costs. Anyway....the parade with the cremation started at the palace and so we walked up to the palace from our place. It was HOT HOT HOT and there were a LOT of people. I can't even begin to guess how many people there might have been. There were literally thousands and thousands of them all squished in to the street between the sidewalks on either side of the road. All of the cars had been told to stay away EXCEPT for a couple that hadn't gotten the message somehow. Those poor cars were either broken into and pushed out of the way OR if they couldn't break into them the cars were just scraped all along the side as the structure that the bull and the tower were atop of squished past them along the roadway. I actually took some video of one car that was dented and scraped all the way from back to front! Locals just said, "they shouldn't have left their car there. Everyone knows that they were supposed to move their cars for the cremation and so....too bad for them!" I can only imagine what the owner might have said when he/she returned to find their damaged vehicle. But back to the procession....we had managed to station ourselves in a great place along Jalan Rayan (the main road that goes from the palace to the temple where the cremation would take place). How do we know it was a great spot? Simple! it was because all of the family of the deceased came at the front of the parade and stood right with us! Yes...we were in the middle of the family section of the event! First down the road (after the women of the family and a whole bunch of other people) was the bull. The big black bull was HUGE and the reason it was a bull is because her family is of the bull caste. The bull was carried on a bamboo structure that was being carried by dozens of men. The bull was being ridden by a guy in a white shirt and black and gold sarong. All of the men who were dressed like that were also members of the royal family...in fact they were all princes. As well as the guy riding the bull there were others sitting on the base that the bull was standing on. The bull was so heavy that the men carrying it had to stop every fifty yards or so to rest for a bit. This made the parade take even longer than we thought it might! After the bull came the tower. The tower was sooooo tall! It was 9 tiers tall which is the tallest that the towers ever go. It was so tall that the city had to have electrical crews stationed at each power line to take the line down for the tower to pass and then put the line back up once it was through. The tower too was being carried by dozens of men....maybe even more than the bull as the tower was bigger and heavier I'm sure! The body was in a white coffin about 1/2 way up the tower and there were also several other princes riding on this structure. Again, the men carrying it had to rest every so often too. Along with the mayhem that you might imagine already as you read this...add to that the sound of men cheering as they encourage the carriers along their way and the sound of drums and other percussion instruments celebrating the life of the deceased and encouraging the crowds the entire way. Cleverly, we managed to get ahead of the procession by sneaking through the market and then we bounced back and forth between being in front and then behind the bull all the way to the temple. Once we finally reached the temple the body was moved (along with the coffin) from the tower to the bull and the body was removed from the coffin and placed into the bull's body. They had cut a chunk out of the bulls back to allow for this to happen. Then the high holy man placed a huge number of offerings into the bull with the body and blessed the body one final time. The family members were all there right beside the body about 30 feet in the air (on the side of the bull's platform) and finally...the fire was lit and eventually the whole bull erupted into flame and additional flame from a massive gas torch was added to the section where the body was to ensure it burned fully. This cremation is just one step in the process. This was to separate the body from the mind. Ten days later there will be another one to separate the mind from the spirit. Again we were reminded of how important ceremony is to the Balinese culture. We both felt so honoured to be able to witness this event. The only unfortunate part of the whole day was that so many tourists had climbed onto the stairs as soon as the body had been moved down from the tower. That felt so disrespectful to me and I was ashamed of the fact that they were treating the event as a spectator sport instead of the important ritual it was.
Lynda has been asking and asking if I've gotten to the burning bit yet as she sucks back another yummy drink. It is reminding me of another time a few years ago as we sat in an airport in Mexico, Chiapas I think it was. That time I was searching for cheap flights and she was drinking her drink and mine too! LOL. Good times! :-)
After we left the temple we popped into Bali Buddha where we met up with Komang who returned our passports to us. Passports were freshly stamped with a new visa date of March 16th so we're good for another month.
The next day was Valentines, Feb 14th and what a day that one was too! We thought that we'd been emotionally drained the day before at the cremation but no....the 14th was going to be an even bigger roller coaster ride!
Lynda and I hooked up with our friend from the Netherlands, Miranda, and the three of us shared a cab to the Pyramids of Chi where we had signed on to participate in a universal exercise of collective consciousness intended to nurture peace, love and harmony in the world. It was valentines day after all and with all the awful stuff that's been going on in the world it seemed like a really good thing to do and it was! About 30 of us gathered in one of the pyramids where we spent about 10 minutes of focused chanting and meditation in support of that peace and harmony. From there we shifted into a sound healing exercise. We each had our own mattress on the floor of the pyramid to lay on. We had little eye pillows to help us to relax even more and for the next hour and a half we lay there in total relaxation as gongs and didgeridoos and rain sticks and drums were used. Sometimes the sound was far away and other times it was right over us as they "washed" us in sound. At the end of the time we all had to admit that it was like nothing any of us had ever experienced and the only word we could think of was "drained". In fact, I would say I was even a bit dizzy walking back to the restaurant from the pyramid! I guess the science of it is that the sound waves affect the molecular structure of the fluid that is inside of our bodies which leaves us in a state of readiness to be "refilled" with stress free positive vibes. I know it sounds a bit hippyish but honestly it was very good and both Lynda and I plan to do it again before we leave here.
After a great lunch at the pyramids of chi we headed back to our home with just enough time to get ready to go to volunteer at an english school (about 25 mins away by car). The school is for kids aged 12-14 years and Lynda and I were the only show scheduled for the evening class from 6-8 pm. While there were moments that it felt a bit awkward (as no one would say anything - they were all to nervous and shy) overall it was AMAZING. At the end of the evening each of the kids came up to us and spontaneously put their forehead to the back of our hand. It was like nothing I've ever experienced and honestly as I type this I can feel the emotion welling up in me again. It was not because they were "supposed" to....it was just that they wanted to show their appreciation and respect to each of us. WOW! What a way to be "refilled" with good stuff after the sound healing emptied us out! We've both agreed that we will go back to the school next month before we head back to Canada. What a gift to be able to meet these wonderful kids!
The day following neither of us had any energy left and so it was a quiet day for both of us. Somewhere in there Lynda had a pedicure and I went to see my reflexology guy. Seeing as everyone works until about 10 pm....you can fit a lot of stuff into a day! :-). On Thursday I ended up working all day (had two proposals to complete) and that brings us to today which was another great day. Actually every day in Ubud is a great day and if I'm truthful about it....the longer I'm here the more I can see myself coming back here for a long time again.
Today we walked and walked. Lynda ordered a couple new tops and we stopped for coffee along the way. Eventually we made our way to ARMA which is where this post started. The thing that I haven't told you yet though is that while we were at ARMA wandering the amazing gardens that were the vision of a guy named Agung Rai....Lynda actually recognized Agung Rai from his photos in the guide book we had. There he was...just sitting in the gardens (having taken a break from pruning the shrubs and bushes). Yes, the founder/owner of this amazing place was there and he was working in the gardens! Of course, Lynda asked Agung if it was really him and from there a very interesting and inspirational conversation ensued. We are soooo LUCKY! And Lynda is soooo observant!
After leaving ARMA we tried to get into the salt therapy place but unfortunately it was closed so we'll have to go back another time to check it out. By then we were both pretty much done for and so we decided to hire a couple of bikes to give us a ride back up to the part of the city where we live. In fact, we decided we'd get them to take us all the way to the Paradiso movie theatre as there might be something worth seeing on and since you can have dinner there....we could kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately there was nothing we wanted to see at the show and so we set off on foot again. Wandering along we stumbled across Mingle (which is where we are now). Again....lucky girls that we are....we ended up sitting right beside the woman who owns the place and within minutes we'd agreed to go on a vespa tour with her tomorrow. Who knows just what that is going to look like but I gotta tell you...we're feeling pretty excited for another new adventure!
Now....I think I'd better sign off and get Lynda headed in the direction of home. Her eyes are currently at half mast and the drink she is currently working on is looking a little forlorn as she ignores it in favour of a bottle of water. :-). #balilife is GOOD....really really good. :-). Once again, we are so appreciative of having the opportunity to live here for this long as that has afforded us the opportunity to see Bali from a very different angle than most tourists get to witness.
Till next time,
L & L
P.s.
It has been such a busy week that I actually forgot to mention that we had an earthquake in there too! I'm not kidding! It only registered 4.6 but it shook our chairs (we were playing cards on the patio) and rattled the glass in the windows and left us feeling a bit like we do right now....like we've had one too many to drink! Another bali adventure chalked up....earthquake.....check!
L & L
Since arriving back in Ubud we've been busy! Right now we're taking the opportunity to get a little blogging done at the same time as we rest our weary bones in an oasis in the middle of Ubud. It is a large piece of property called ARMA (Agung Rai Museum of Art) that is home to beautiful tranquil gardens as well as gift shops, museums, restaurants, and accommodation. We've been walking for the past couple of hours so sitting here in the cool of the gardens listening to the sound of running water, song birds, and the distant hum of city life is really really nice! Our entrance into the park/museum (80,000/person) includes a hot or cold coffee/tea so when we're finished in here we'll be sitting down again to take advantage of that cold drink.
Since we last blogged we've attended a royal cremation, participated in a universal exercise in collective conciousness where the intention was to help heal the world, experienced our first ever sound healing - in a pyramid to boot! ....and volunteered at a nearby english school where our hearts were touched by their enthusiasm and reverence. We've had a party on the neighbours deck, a grilled corn and bintang party on our patio, had dinner out with friends, and I've also managed to fit a full day of work in too so....it's been a busy week!
......I'm back.....started this post while sitting in ARMA and now it is several hours later and we've moved on to Mingle where we are on our second "happy hour" special. :-). Delish! Honestly....there isn't a lot of drinking here but tonight looks like it might be a little different. My espresso martini was not short of booze and now my white russian is more booze than milk for sure! Lynda has moved onto a chocolate chili martini on the heels of her rum and lime drink so for those of you who have been drinking with her you will know that she is feeling no pain! LOL. :-)
Backtracking to the cremation ....what an amazing experience that was! The person who died was actually a white woman who had married into the Royal Family and lived on Java where she passed away a month ago and was mummified in preparation for the cremation. Usually when people die they are either buried (for up to a few years) or placed on top of the ground at a place where magically bodies don't smell or decompose. The reason they might have to wait for up to several years is because it is so expensive to have a cremation! The royal cremation we attended would have been many many thousands of dollars in expense and regular people can't afford that so they wait until there are many many people that can all be cremated at the same time and then everyone chips in to cover the costs. Anyway....the parade with the cremation started at the palace and so we walked up to the palace from our place. It was HOT HOT HOT and there were a LOT of people. I can't even begin to guess how many people there might have been. There were literally thousands and thousands of them all squished in to the street between the sidewalks on either side of the road. All of the cars had been told to stay away EXCEPT for a couple that hadn't gotten the message somehow. Those poor cars were either broken into and pushed out of the way OR if they couldn't break into them the cars were just scraped all along the side as the structure that the bull and the tower were atop of squished past them along the roadway. I actually took some video of one car that was dented and scraped all the way from back to front! Locals just said, "they shouldn't have left their car there. Everyone knows that they were supposed to move their cars for the cremation and so....too bad for them!" I can only imagine what the owner might have said when he/she returned to find their damaged vehicle. But back to the procession....we had managed to station ourselves in a great place along Jalan Rayan (the main road that goes from the palace to the temple where the cremation would take place). How do we know it was a great spot? Simple! it was because all of the family of the deceased came at the front of the parade and stood right with us! Yes...we were in the middle of the family section of the event! First down the road (after the women of the family and a whole bunch of other people) was the bull. The big black bull was HUGE and the reason it was a bull is because her family is of the bull caste. The bull was carried on a bamboo structure that was being carried by dozens of men. The bull was being ridden by a guy in a white shirt and black and gold sarong. All of the men who were dressed like that were also members of the royal family...in fact they were all princes. As well as the guy riding the bull there were others sitting on the base that the bull was standing on. The bull was so heavy that the men carrying it had to stop every fifty yards or so to rest for a bit. This made the parade take even longer than we thought it might! After the bull came the tower. The tower was sooooo tall! It was 9 tiers tall which is the tallest that the towers ever go. It was so tall that the city had to have electrical crews stationed at each power line to take the line down for the tower to pass and then put the line back up once it was through. The tower too was being carried by dozens of men....maybe even more than the bull as the tower was bigger and heavier I'm sure! The body was in a white coffin about 1/2 way up the tower and there were also several other princes riding on this structure. Again, the men carrying it had to rest every so often too. Along with the mayhem that you might imagine already as you read this...add to that the sound of men cheering as they encourage the carriers along their way and the sound of drums and other percussion instruments celebrating the life of the deceased and encouraging the crowds the entire way. Cleverly, we managed to get ahead of the procession by sneaking through the market and then we bounced back and forth between being in front and then behind the bull all the way to the temple. Once we finally reached the temple the body was moved (along with the coffin) from the tower to the bull and the body was removed from the coffin and placed into the bull's body. They had cut a chunk out of the bulls back to allow for this to happen. Then the high holy man placed a huge number of offerings into the bull with the body and blessed the body one final time. The family members were all there right beside the body about 30 feet in the air (on the side of the bull's platform) and finally...the fire was lit and eventually the whole bull erupted into flame and additional flame from a massive gas torch was added to the section where the body was to ensure it burned fully. This cremation is just one step in the process. This was to separate the body from the mind. Ten days later there will be another one to separate the mind from the spirit. Again we were reminded of how important ceremony is to the Balinese culture. We both felt so honoured to be able to witness this event. The only unfortunate part of the whole day was that so many tourists had climbed onto the stairs as soon as the body had been moved down from the tower. That felt so disrespectful to me and I was ashamed of the fact that they were treating the event as a spectator sport instead of the important ritual it was.
Lynda has been asking and asking if I've gotten to the burning bit yet as she sucks back another yummy drink. It is reminding me of another time a few years ago as we sat in an airport in Mexico, Chiapas I think it was. That time I was searching for cheap flights and she was drinking her drink and mine too! LOL. Good times! :-)
After we left the temple we popped into Bali Buddha where we met up with Komang who returned our passports to us. Passports were freshly stamped with a new visa date of March 16th so we're good for another month.
The next day was Valentines, Feb 14th and what a day that one was too! We thought that we'd been emotionally drained the day before at the cremation but no....the 14th was going to be an even bigger roller coaster ride!
Lynda and I hooked up with our friend from the Netherlands, Miranda, and the three of us shared a cab to the Pyramids of Chi where we had signed on to participate in a universal exercise of collective consciousness intended to nurture peace, love and harmony in the world. It was valentines day after all and with all the awful stuff that's been going on in the world it seemed like a really good thing to do and it was! About 30 of us gathered in one of the pyramids where we spent about 10 minutes of focused chanting and meditation in support of that peace and harmony. From there we shifted into a sound healing exercise. We each had our own mattress on the floor of the pyramid to lay on. We had little eye pillows to help us to relax even more and for the next hour and a half we lay there in total relaxation as gongs and didgeridoos and rain sticks and drums were used. Sometimes the sound was far away and other times it was right over us as they "washed" us in sound. At the end of the time we all had to admit that it was like nothing any of us had ever experienced and the only word we could think of was "drained". In fact, I would say I was even a bit dizzy walking back to the restaurant from the pyramid! I guess the science of it is that the sound waves affect the molecular structure of the fluid that is inside of our bodies which leaves us in a state of readiness to be "refilled" with stress free positive vibes. I know it sounds a bit hippyish but honestly it was very good and both Lynda and I plan to do it again before we leave here.
After a great lunch at the pyramids of chi we headed back to our home with just enough time to get ready to go to volunteer at an english school (about 25 mins away by car). The school is for kids aged 12-14 years and Lynda and I were the only show scheduled for the evening class from 6-8 pm. While there were moments that it felt a bit awkward (as no one would say anything - they were all to nervous and shy) overall it was AMAZING. At the end of the evening each of the kids came up to us and spontaneously put their forehead to the back of our hand. It was like nothing I've ever experienced and honestly as I type this I can feel the emotion welling up in me again. It was not because they were "supposed" to....it was just that they wanted to show their appreciation and respect to each of us. WOW! What a way to be "refilled" with good stuff after the sound healing emptied us out! We've both agreed that we will go back to the school next month before we head back to Canada. What a gift to be able to meet these wonderful kids!
The day following neither of us had any energy left and so it was a quiet day for both of us. Somewhere in there Lynda had a pedicure and I went to see my reflexology guy. Seeing as everyone works until about 10 pm....you can fit a lot of stuff into a day! :-). On Thursday I ended up working all day (had two proposals to complete) and that brings us to today which was another great day. Actually every day in Ubud is a great day and if I'm truthful about it....the longer I'm here the more I can see myself coming back here for a long time again.
Today we walked and walked. Lynda ordered a couple new tops and we stopped for coffee along the way. Eventually we made our way to ARMA which is where this post started. The thing that I haven't told you yet though is that while we were at ARMA wandering the amazing gardens that were the vision of a guy named Agung Rai....Lynda actually recognized Agung Rai from his photos in the guide book we had. There he was...just sitting in the gardens (having taken a break from pruning the shrubs and bushes). Yes, the founder/owner of this amazing place was there and he was working in the gardens! Of course, Lynda asked Agung if it was really him and from there a very interesting and inspirational conversation ensued. We are soooo LUCKY! And Lynda is soooo observant!
After leaving ARMA we tried to get into the salt therapy place but unfortunately it was closed so we'll have to go back another time to check it out. By then we were both pretty much done for and so we decided to hire a couple of bikes to give us a ride back up to the part of the city where we live. In fact, we decided we'd get them to take us all the way to the Paradiso movie theatre as there might be something worth seeing on and since you can have dinner there....we could kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately there was nothing we wanted to see at the show and so we set off on foot again. Wandering along we stumbled across Mingle (which is where we are now). Again....lucky girls that we are....we ended up sitting right beside the woman who owns the place and within minutes we'd agreed to go on a vespa tour with her tomorrow. Who knows just what that is going to look like but I gotta tell you...we're feeling pretty excited for another new adventure!
Now....I think I'd better sign off and get Lynda headed in the direction of home. Her eyes are currently at half mast and the drink she is currently working on is looking a little forlorn as she ignores it in favour of a bottle of water. :-). #balilife is GOOD....really really good. :-). Once again, we are so appreciative of having the opportunity to live here for this long as that has afforded us the opportunity to see Bali from a very different angle than most tourists get to witness.
Till next time,
L & L
P.s.
It has been such a busy week that I actually forgot to mention that we had an earthquake in there too! I'm not kidding! It only registered 4.6 but it shook our chairs (we were playing cards on the patio) and rattled the glass in the windows and left us feeling a bit like we do right now....like we've had one too many to drink! Another bali adventure chalked up....earthquake.....check!
L & L
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