Bali

So here I am in Bali, more specifically, Ubud, a new-age Yoga and spirituality hub which has really gained in popularity in the last 15 years or so. We’re in the middle of a 3 month experiment “snow-birding”, being away from the cold, snowy New England Winters. It’s going pretty well so far.

We booked a place through AirBnB. The owner met us at the airport, at night. The bungalow is great. It has 2 of our requirements for travelling – suitable wifi & a kitchen. We still work while travelling so good wifi is key. A kitchen allows up to shop locally for food and cook healthy meals. We picked the place 3 or 4 months ago not knowing anything about the area. The bonus here: there’s a really well respected Yoga studio right next door to our place – Intuitive Flow Yoga. We go to Yoga almost every day. The teachers are great. We’ve also been filming a lot of Yoga classes right at our bungalow. The bungalow has an 8 foot wide “farmer’s porch” wrapping around 2 sides. It’s a lovely place. All for around $25 a night. And that bathroom and shower. Wow.

The center, or downtown of Ubud, is a 15 minute walk. It’s a busy area, full of tourism’s 4 T’s – Temples, T-Shirts, Taxis and Touts. The touts are polite and laid back here. It’s busy with traffic, exhaust fumes and well, tourists. An article popped up on my news feed yesterday that said 600,000 tourists come to Bali every year. After short stroll through the center and we quickly realized we really lucked out with the place we picked to stay for the next 16 nights. So far we’ve mostly managed to stay up in our little neck of the woods, or better described as the jungle area & rice fields, called Penestanan. It’s quiet and peaceful. We’ve avoided the tourist stuff for the most part. After being in 12+ countries over the past few years I’ve found that the more we can settle into a neighborhood a  over a period of time, the more we can get to know the locals, and thus more interesting – off the beaten path, secret stuff to do and see. The tourist stuff can get old pretty quickly. The weather is hot and humid with the temps in the 80’s every day, with a “feel-like” temperature in the 90’s.

It’s rainy season now but we’ve had only had about 30 minutes of rain the entire 2 weeks. Climate change is real. It was one thing people all over the world brought up with us in conversation over and over again. Rainy seasons are not predictable any more and sometimes don’t come at all. What used to be consistent rainfall for months on end has all of a sudden disappeared. Temperatures are hotter than ever in some places.

We’re in a quiet area, on a little hill. There are tiny little concrete paths and alleys that we walk down every day, to Yoga classes, to rice fields, to the grocery store, ATM, cafes, etc. It’s like a maze that lends itself to exploring. We’ve been here a week already and the place has really grown on me. It’s an easy and comfortable place to be. We wandered around looking at villas to rent if we decide to return. We’ve checked out facilities for Yoga retreats.

During one walk we passed by an artist’s shop tucked into one of the narrow concrete footpaths. I popped in and introduced myself. Balinese people are really friendly and happy. He showed me his work, a Balinese style of painting called “young artist”. He showed me photos of himself when he was younger, he’s 75 now and appears in great shape and good health. I pulled my phone out and showed him a photo of a Balinese painting that we have in our home. It one of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, arts, and music.

I was gifted the painting by a client when we oped the Yoga studio in 2007. She had purchased it in Bali, in the 70’s I believe. I asked the artist about it. He said it was traditional Balinese art. Not popular now.

About a week into our stay we decided to rent a scooter (Honda 125?) for the day ($5). We rode around Ubud and checked out Goa Gajah, a small temple complex housing and old cave. The scooter allowed us to get away from the busy tourist areas. Pretty quickly we found ourselves on back roads winding through small villages, rice fields, and mountain views.

When we returned to our bungalow we reserved the scooter for 5 days. Every day we cruise our way out of town and up mountain roads, through jungles, rice fields, small villages and more. The further and higher you go the cooler it gets and the views become even more amazing. We had coffee on the ridge of a volcano looking down into the caldera lake.

Later in the week we scooted up to the ending point of the Campuhan ridge walk, a popular walk in nature which we hiked last week. There was a villa/resort called “Sunset Hill” that we had checked out on our walk. We were still interested in checking it out further, possibly for a retreat here with a group of friends and studio clients. While we were checking out the area on the scooter we stopped for a cold drink at a tiny shop that also had some nice bead work. As we were talking with the bead artist I showed her the photo of the painting asking if she knew anything about it. She did not, but suggested we try the place next door where her “uncle” had an art shop. Now “uncle” in Asia usually is a polite way of saying “kind, older, unrelated male.” Of course I walked over to the shop. Now remember we’re out in the middle of nowhere on a dead end street. The uncle greeted me with a huge smile and we talked quite a bit, in English, about his art. After a bit I pulled out my phone to show him the Saraswati painting. “Ah, yes” he replied, “Traditional, older Balinese style painting, called Keliki style, people are not so interested in this anymore. They want modern.” “But I do this” he said. “Come looking”.

He proceeded to show me a few dozen smaller pieces of this style he had done in the past. He explained the process. As I looked through the paintings one struck me. It was a image of Ganesha, the Hindu elephant-headed god. This one had his trunk curling to my left, just like the Ganesha statue that we have at the Yoga studio. It was beautifully detailed. I went and got Laurie and brought her into the shop and got her up to speed. We ended up buying 2 small paintings, the Ganesha, and a Lakshmi one. We headed back to the bead shop where we had our cold drink and ended up buying a bunch of neat bracelets.

The next day we hopped back on the scooter and rode to a tiny village called Keliki, about 15 minutes North. We didn’t find any artists or painting there, but the ride was amazing. About 5-10 minutes out of our area and it’s all rice fields, jungles, skinny, winding roads, no larger than sidewalks really. It was really cool explore, not knowing what was around the next bend.

Almost every day we walk down a new path, in a new direction, exploring the neighborhoods. We come across villas, rice fields, other travelers, some who like it so much they live here on a retirement visa. We see farmers harvesting crops, burning fields. We see lots of hardworking people building things. There’s so much here on this island you could spend a month exploring around and not get bored. Then there are other islands right near by, each with its own individual allure. The downside is it’s a really long plane flight – about 24 hours. Right now I’d come back here for a month, rent a scooter and circumnavigate the island, stopping where it felt right and stay the night.

2 weeks is a good amount of time to get a taste of Bali. There are 2 things you should be aware of. Lizards and coffee, specifically something called “Luwak” coffee. Let’s start with the Luwak coffee. From Wikipedia and me: “Luwak is a coffee that consists of partially digested coffee beans, which have been eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet (raccoon like creature). It is therefore also called civet coffee. The cherries are fermented as they pass through a civet’s intestines, and after being defecated with other fecal matter, they are collected.” Wiki leaves an important part out. After the coffee beans are “pooped out and collected” they brew coffee with it. And people pay a lot of money for it. And they drink it. They people, not the civets drink it. I couldn’t stop thinking about how this came to be. At some point in history someone was in a jungle, probably high or drunk, came across what looked like small tootsie rolls of coffee beans, and decided to boil some water and have themselves a coffee. I imagine it must have had some magical effect. That person then figured out the civet/raccoon was eating coffee beans, pooping them out pretty much undigested, and when brewed with boiling water, tasted OK. I am not making this up.

Lizards are the other thing you need to be aware of. Most of them are small, around 4 inches or so. They crawl around everywhere, even upside down on ceilings. They appear to be harmless, unless of course you’re an insect, then you’re dinner. They also poop everywhere, on your floor, on your desk, on your shelf. Their pooh is tiny, maybe 3/8 of an inch. I’m not aware that anybody is making coffee from their pooh. Perhaps it’s too much trouble. There are larger lizards but you’ll probably won’t see many of them. But you will here them. They are loud, creepy and they only makes sounds when it gets dark. Right when you’re getting ready to sleep.

Other than that Bali is wonderful. You can go to the beach, mountains, or jungles whenever you wish. You can do all kinds of tourist things. Or you sit in your bungalow and drink fresh coconut juice right from the shell. Fresh fruit is everywhere so smoothies are everywhere. People are really warm and friendly. I already want to come back.

Life is short. Explore while you can.  Be a stranger in a strange land. Talk to people. Make new friends. It’s fascinating.