Fasnacht - Part Deux

So Sunday night as I am lying on the sofa nursing my cold, I get a text message from my cousin Alex. "Good evening! Are u better? Ready to pick it up again tomorrow at 4:45am?" Well unbeknownst to me, the festivities were about to continue early Monday morning.

So at the ungodly hour of 4:15am I walked down into the old town in my old man costume and met up with a Swiss guard, a alp wanderer and a frog. Me and my three bodyguards walked the town, drank lots of holdrio (to keep warm, of course), tracked down the Vikingers, danced and sang. There was lots of carousing and taking part in the revelry going on that morning.

At about 10am, I excused myself, bought something to eat and headed back up to the house for a nap. After a good sleep, I was told the festivities would continue at around 8pm that night. I looked out the window and saw the dismal weather - rainy and cold. It was too much for me to motivate an appearance so I told my bodyguards to go on without me.

Tuesday afternoon I headed to town in civilian clothing to take some pictures and watch the children's parade and some more bands. The weather was pristine and the crowds were in good form. I got myself some holdrio and meandered through town, getting hit with confetti along the way. I watched the children's parade, where young and old were dressed in fantastic costumes and going through town on floats. By the famous water tower bridge I saw fantastic costumes and a concert by a Swiss band who actually brought their alp horns. Quite an amazing sight with the river, the water tower and the mountains in the background! However my main objective was to hunt down the Vikingers and watch their afternoon performance. After searching them out all through the town I finally found them and watched their sensational performance.

After a while it was time to head back home so I could get into costume again. So once I donned my old man costume I made my way back to town to meet up with my cousin Pia and her daughters Jeaninne and Michele. We watched the Monsterkonzert, which is where all the bands parade through town playing their music. Sort of the big send off for the carnival. After the parade we met up with my cousin Alex, the alp wanderer and the frog again. It basically turned into a family reunion of sorts, where we collectively drank lots of holdrio and stalked the Vikingers the rest of the night. We watched the last Vikinger show at about 2am and I finally called it a night after the show. What a way to finish off fasnacht!

Ubud, Bali - Part 1

After some sad goodbyes on Sunday; Karen, Sheila and I ventured up to Ubud for what else, but of course more spa treatment! When I read about Ubud I knew I wanted to come up here, it is the heart of the artistic community in Bali. Karen found us a boutique hotel and spa called Taman Rahasia. The resort was small and intimate, sort of like a jungle paradise. We booked a crazy six hour package. Karen booked hers over a two day period since she was going back to Hong Kong on Monday but Sheila and I decided to take the six hour session in one shot. It was called "A Day of Sheer Indulgence", one would think that I have had enough indulgence but hell, why not go for a little more? The package included a body scrub, a massage, a soak in a flower petal filled tub, lunch, a facial, a manicure and a pedicure. All for under $75US! Who could resist that?

After our blissful spa experience Karen went back to Hong Kong and Sheila and I went to go look for a place to stay. As lovely as Taman Rahasia was, $90US per night was a little out of our budget for an extended stay. After a couple of attempts at various places we came to Sania's Homestay, where we got a lovely room for $25US per night. Sania's was a small hotel within a family compound, we essentially walked through their outdoor living room and past the family dog and bird every time we walked in or out of the hotel. This hotel felt like we were in a temple with ornate doors and terraces all over. We stayed at Sania's until Thursday doing a lot of hanging out around Ubud.


Sheila believes I have perfected the art of just hanging out. Essentially sitting around in cafes or on terraces chatting about this and that for hours at a time. We took in a couple of yoga classes, one of which was in Japanese! Stephanie you should have been with us! Sheila and I also found a great foot reflexology spot where we luxuriated in having our feet massaged. Heaven. We had some interesting moments at a particular internet cafe, we did some shopping down Jalan Hanoman where lots of men constantly offered transport. I don't know if most of the tourists take taxis in Ubud but we were happy to navigate the broken sidewalks and walk.

In addition to the constant assault of transport drivers, one regularly receives offers to see traditional dance shows. One night Sheila and I went to one of the temples to watch the Kecak performance. Kecak features a large choir of men wearing sarongs and flowers behind their ears (which is not viewed in any way as effeminate in Bali). The men chant "chak-a-chak" and it is remarkable how they layer their voices. In addition to the men chanting, beautiful and graceful Legong dancers also perform. The performance closed with a fire dance, where a mound of old coconuts is drenched in gasoline, lit on fire and a barefoot man in a horse costume kicks the burning coconuts around, much to the annoyance of his keepers. Imagine a child jumping into autumn leaves after his parents finished raking them into a huge pile. Take note that in all of this we were less than 20 feet from the action. Quite amazing we were not subjected to signing waivers and there were no announcements warning us not to try this at home!

Paradise - Le Meridien Bali

I have found paradise and it's in Bali.

I woke up on Thursday morning, after countless hours of flying and general traveling, to the sound of birds and frogs and geckos and the smells of frangipani and incense floating through the air. Le Meridien is where I started my journey in Bali. Le Meridien is quite the posh golf resort, which I was able to organize for free due to lots and lots of hotel points from years of travel for work. Quite the bonus.

Anyway, I began a busy schedule of lounging on my balcony, lounging at the pool, lounging over breakfast, well you get the over all picture. The view from my room was quite spectacular and I woke up every morning hearing the waves crashing on the shore. For my surfer friends, the swells looked quite perfect but there was a lot of rock and any attempts at surfing would have resulted in a mangled body instead.

So I decided to discover the spa instead. Over the course of the next four days I was scrubbed with salt and spices, wrapped in seaweed (which was something like being a giant sushi roll), I was bathed in cinnamon, cloves, lemongrass and ginger and was massaged within an inch of my life. Talk about taking the edge off of any travel stress! My brain pretty much dissolved into something akin to oatmeal.

One of the best things I discovered was the "bale". Which is a traditional Balinese structure in which anything from sleeping to cooking is done. Most traditional Balinese homes essentially consist of a compound with various bales. At Le Meridien, the bale is for lounging or getting a massage. Heaven on earth, truly.

I watched some traditional musicians and dancers and at one point took part in one of the Balinese dances, not as easy as it looks and no I don't have any pictures and I hope none of the other hotel guests do either.

After spending lots of time doing nothing at all, Sunday I was off to my surfing and yoga retreat. I will tell you all about it in the next post as I have to hurry back to the villa from the internet cafe for reflexology and massage. Ha ha ha what a life!

Note - thanks very much to everyone who has been reading and sending comments and heartfelt emails. Hope you all enjoy reading about my journey as much as I enjoy telling you all about it.