Surf Goddess Retreat - Part 2

On Monday our day started like every other; yoga, breakfast and surfing. After a morning of hard work we were off to the ultimate field trip. An afternoon of spa treatments at Prana Spa, a tremendously gorgeous place which has an Indian sort of theme. It was impossible not to feel like an exotic princess at this place! It almost felt like being in another country.

We started off in the hot and cold plunge pools in the middle of a gorgeous courtyard. The plunge pools are two small pools that consist of really hot water in one pool and really cold water in the other pool. As one could imagine, there was a whole lot of shrieking and giggling going on. After the pools, we were off to these lush and gorgeous massage rooms, where we were massaged and scrubbed. One of the loveliest things about Balinese massage is that the spas place a bowl of water filled with flowers under the massage table - this way you have something to look at besides the floor or your massage therapists feet. Really a nice touch. In our haze of spa bliss, we managed to get back to the villa for a nice quiet evening.

The following day after the usual fabulous schedule of yoga and surfing, we went off in the great (now) tradition of searching out more spa treatments. Karen introduced us to what is known as the cream bath. (Collective aaahhhh!) So us six girls changed into these toga like dresses and proceeded to the hair washing stations, and yes, got our hair washed. After the hair washing we went on to have our hair and scalps massaged with hair conditioner for the next 45 minutes. I don't know why we don't have this in the USA, it works wonders for humidity crazy hair!

As everyone can gather, going to the spa is a big part of the trip, it's cheap and with the rigors of learning to surf and yogaing, it becomes quite the indispensable luxury.

Us girls did not do much in the way of going out at night as yoga or surfing with a hangover are not a whole lot of fun. However we did go out for sunset cocktails on Wednesday night at the ultra fabulous Ku De Ta. Ku De Ta is a swanky hip bar and restaurant on the beach (could be mistaken for Los Angeles or Miami in fact). So we had a couple of drinks and watched an amazing sunset. An incredible way to end another amazing day.

Surf Goddess Retreat - Part 1

A funny thing about Bali. I once, many many years ago developed a fascination for Balinese art and decided I wanted to visit Indonesia. Time went on, years flew past and Bali went out of my head. So one day this summer in New York, I was busy researching my traveling to Asia. I was looking for some sort of yoga retreat and I come across this link for Surf Goddess Retreat in Bali. The retreat consisted of daily yoga and surfing instruction for small groups of women. It sounded luxurious, invigorating and restorative. What a great way to start off traveling in Asia, I thought. So I booked it.

Sunday I checked out of Le Meridien and made my way to Seminyak for the retreat. My God, it was more than I could ever have dreamed. I struggle to put into words what I experienced in the last week and you better believe it is going to take more than one post.

First off I arrived at this gated door and when it opened I saw nothing but an aquamarine pool and a lovely lush garden. From the pool, pipes up a voice and says "Hi! I'm Kim!!". Funny enough, Kim lives in New York too and ended up being my roommate for the week.
Aside from trying to cut off my leg with a miniature saw in the middle of the night, she is a totally fantastic person with a gift for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Kim also has sunglasses bigger than Bono's. See photo


Moving right along and jokes aside, Kim and I met Chelsea, who did the phenomenal job of organizing the this week for us, and chattered away until the other girls arrived. We met Karen, Sheila, Stephanie and Anne - all wonderful women who we would share the next week with. We also met Melinda, who works with Chelsea, and would become our surfing big sister over the next week.

We shared the first of many wonderful home cooked meals together and after dinner, Karen says she is going for a massage and anyone is welcome to come along. Now I'm not one to skip out on a spa treatment, so off we went. A word about Karen, she is a fantastic, vibrant Australian woman whose goal in life is to attempt to overdose on spa treatments! I had secretly decided I wanted to try to get a treatment a day or at least several times a week, I mean at under $20 per massage in Bali, why not? And now I met Karen, my spa guru - could things work out any better??

The next morning we were up for yoga class by the pool with the lovely Susan, who is full of humor and gracious humanity, qualities sometimes lacking in yoga teachers ( I have to be honest and say that my current teachers are just that, so it was nice to feel at home).

After a great yoga class and a fabulous breakfast we were off to Rip Curl Surf School in Blue Ocean Beach, where we began the first of many lessons filled with great instruction and tons of fun. Somehow I personally find it easy to burst out laughing if I catch a wave or I get dumped and fall off, which still happens quite a bit. Suppose its got to do with being with tremendous people and being i a beautiful place.

As the days went on we pushed our sore muscles through yoga classes and surfing lessons and invariably ended our days with either a massage or reflexology. Not a bad life huh?

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.

Getting to Bali

Monday morning on about 2 hours sleep, I departed Miami at 7 am for Atlanta. I then flew from Atlanta to Los Angeles, where I had a 5 hour layover and lunch with some friends. At 5pm LA time, I got on board my EVA Airways flight to Taipei. EVA has this "upgraded" economy class where you get a business class seat and economy service for about $200 more than you pay for a coach trip, let me tell you for a 14 hour flight it was well worth it. Sitting in coach for more than 8 hours is really no fun at all.

So after all that flying, watching movies, sleeping and reading (this is the benefit of serious long haul flights - you have time to do tons of things, I found it very handy on business trips and I was not subjected to deciding "do I sleep or do I work?") I finally arrived in Taipei. I had a 10 hour layover so I booked into the transit hotel. Call me chicken but I'm not about to camp out in an airport I have never been when traveling alone. Anyway, so Taipei airport is like a serious luxury shopping mall. You have Prada stores, Hermes stores, more duty free perfume stores than you can count, liquor stores where you get a lounge chair and a free taste, relaxation rooms with massage chair loungers, free internet and I could go on and on and on. Incidentally, you can also get on an airplane and fly all over the world.

A very surreal place, especially at 10pm where the stores are still open but there are virtually no passengers around. Except for me, of course, looking like a corny American with a backpack, jeans, sneakers, hoodie and my ipod. (God I feel so weird looking like that. I have been traveling since I was in the womb due to having parents in the airline industry, so I have always been used to traveling looking somewhat put together. Very strange.)

I finally went back to my hotel and got some sleep as the next morning I had another 4.5 hours to fly to Bali.

The next morning, I got up, got my Starbucks (no tacky American comments, please!) and headed to my gate. Once again, I had the super economy class. For my friends in the airline industry, the seats were in the nose of a B747 (which is the best airplane ever made as far as I am concerned), and the service was on par, if not better to the premium classes on a number of other international carriers I have flown. EVA was really a pleasure to fly. We flew over the Philippines and Borneo and finally made it to Bali.

To get through immigration was 1.5 hours, no joke. Somewhat like arriving in Johannesburg in the morning when ALL the other flights arrive, the place was jammed and the lines were not moving. My hotel was supposed to send a taxi or something but apparently we had a communication breakdown and I ended up bargaining with a pseudo taxi driver to get me to my hotel.

My driver complained endlessly about the traffic, which according to him was bad because everyone was coming over from Java for the Ramadan holiday, and they just CAN'T drive. Interesting, wherever in the world you go I think locals complain about others coming to their cities and messing up the traffic. It was quite a drive, there are hundreds of mopeds or scooters on the road. You see whole families on them and the little kids are quite amazing. Very cute in their tiny helmets and sitting between their parents legs. I can't imagine too many American kids behaving this well. We drove past rice paddies and little towns on 2 lane winding roads. I finally got to my hotel after sunset so I did not really get to take in that much. Suffice it to say that what I did see left me suitably impressed.... but more about that in the next post!

Miami

It's 1am and after the last 6 days in Miami, I'm as ready to go as I'm going to be for the next 2 months in Asia.

To rewind a bit (since I have been called a slacker for not updating the blog....) Tuesday I had my first attempt at surfing in South Beach with my friend Rob, who is thankfully an infinitely patient man. Yeah, it was pretty bad - Rob was very kind to blame the conditions but it is clear I have years of practice to do. So after hours of being in the sun and paddling my heart out, we met Kiki (one of my best friends and Rob's wife) for dinner - we had a craving for pulled pork, so off we went for bbq (braai for you in SA) again.

Thursday morning I was up and off to the beach again, this time I was supposed to have another surfing lesson but it fell through. So I said to myself, "What the hell, I'm just gonna rent a board and go for it." Thanks to Victor (my quasi brother in law), I was sent to see the guys at South Beach Dive and Surf Center. So I walk in and ask to rent a board, no problem but had I checked the conditions? Toby and Anthony check the conditions and tell me it's really not worth it, pretty cool right? I end up hanging out at this shop for 2 hours, cracking up, hearing crazy stories about half pipes in back yards and bands playing on roofs, getting advice on where to go in Thailand and just having a good time all around. I even "sponsored" the day's surf report. Kiki & Rob were able to record it for me and once I figure out how to post it I will - it's really funny.

Friday I did lots of running around but quite frankly I can't remember what I did except for having dinner with my sister, Carmen, and Victor. We went to an AMAZING Indian restaurant in Coconut Grove, and Carmen did indeed have the best dish of all of us - I think she was quite lucky that we did not fight her for all her butter chicken.

Saturday the frantic shopping "for the trip" and laundry phase commenced. Thankfully I had decided to have a barbecue at my family's home for my closest friends and among them was my friend Kiki, who had agreed to help me pack. This woman helped me pack my car 7 and a half years ago when I moved to Washington DC. Imagine if you will, all my possessions are strewn all over the driveway and I'm crying telling her "I'm never going to fit all this stuff!" Anyone who knows Kiki, knows she has a special gift when it comes to organizing. My stuff got packed and I even had a clear view through the back window of the car! So Kiki and Rob showed up early and we approached my room, which literally looked like a tornado struck. Kiki, being the trouper she is says "Oh man, this is awesome! This is gonna be fun!" And she meant it too (however she did later confess she did have her misgivings about getting everything to fit in 1 rolling duffel bag and a carry on backpack).

Anyway, we finally did have the bbq and have a few well deserved beers.

Today, Sunday the final packing commenced, once again with the expert assistance of Kiki and after several hours of sorting through clothes, toiletries and any possible medication/first aid need we managed to get it done (well, Kiki did - I think I was a little shell shocked and did better with just taking instructions).

I'm off to Atlanta at 7am Monday morning, on to Los Angeles, then to Taipei and I finally get to Bali on Wednesday afternoon. So, in otherwords, don't expect any postings too soon!

Savannah, SC to Miami, FL

Monday morning I packed my bags, packed my car and headed towards Tybee Island off the coast of Savannah. Tybee Island is a barrier island which was originally inhabited by the Euchee Native American tribe. The Sea Islands, which Tybee is a part of, were eventually inhabited by the Spanish, by pirates and later the English.

Anyway, the reason for my visit was not to go for any sort of history lesson but rather to go kayaking. When I asked the bartenders at the Shrimp Factory in Savannah what would be nice to do, not too touristy and not too swamped with people, they suggested I go kayaking on Tybee Island.

The nice people at Sea Kayak Georgia organize 3 hour kayaking tours through the salt marshes and it looked like fun. Now, I am by no means any sort of outdoorsy athlete, actually I'm not any sort of athlete at ALL. The only time I have ever been kayaking was this summer with a friend, in a 2 person inflatable kayak, in a lake. Good luck to me! So I made it to Tybee, buckled on my lifevest, learned the basics about paddling and climbed into my single person yellow kayak. And no I don't have any pictures.

Our guides, Steve and Sharon, took our group of 12 through the marshes and over to Little Tybee Island. We saw lots of birds but really best of all were the dolphins that were playing about 10 yards from my kayak, they were so close that I could actually see their little ribs! Unfortunately I left my camera in the car for fear of dropping it in the water.

After 3 hours of paddling in the sun, I went to go check out the lighthouse, have some lunch and go for a swim in the ocean. At this point it was time to get on my way again and head for Miami.

So after a long drive down a dark and scary I95, I made it to my family's home at 1:30am. Door to door, my car and I drove 1,488 miles safely and speeding ticket free! On to the next part of this adventure!

Savannah

Today was a day I needed to get some sleep. I finally rolled out of my hotel, spurred by hunger, at about 12:30. I strolled along Bay Street and came to Vic's on the River. A good restaurant in a beautiful historic building. I had a lunch of a great Sauvignon Blanc, a salad, some serious biscuits and a pulled pork sandwich. Seriously, I'm in the South - how could I NOT have pulled pork??? After all those calories it was time to walk a little, however I needed caffeine first. I ended up randomly at the Olympia Cafe on River Street. I asked the guy for a coffee and if I could smoke outside (a vice I am working on). He asked me if I was from NY, to which I responded "How could you tell."

Sidebar - for those who know me, I don't think I sound like a New Yorker, in NY I have been asked if I am Canadian and when on the phone with South Africans, I have been asked if I am South African. A little weird but whatever it's all good.

Anyway, so the Greek proceeds to tell me he never smoked because he played soccer but it never bothered him. What bothers him are all the chemicals in everything and nuclear testing - I have to agree, I think he has a point. Then the Greek tells me "Go. Sit. Relax. Have baklava on the house." Normally I am not a fan of baklava but if you are ever in Savannah you have to try the one here - food of the Gods.

I sat outside drinking my coffee, eating (again) my baklava, smoking my cigarette and watching everyone walk by. It is both Octoberfest and Pirate Week so there were some interesting sights. Eventually I move on and hear this guy playing African drums, turns out he's from NY, plays in Central Park and does a lot of work with kids. Very cool guy and it was a lot of fun to watch him and this 6 year old musical prodigy go to work. You can check out Lenny on his website www.lennyhoops.com.


So I walk along with full intention to keep walking and I run across this saxophone player. The saxophone makes me think of the guys that play on the corners or in the subway stations in NYC, in a way nothing evokes the beauty of NYC like the sound that resonates from a sax. Hakim is originally from Memphis and is now based in Nashville. A very cool guy and by his own description, an old cat. He asked me what he could play for me. I asked for some blues, something soulful. Hakim delivered, he played a song called "The World is in an Uproar". I was hooked, so I sat in the sun with Hakim for a while, being his sole audience, talking about life and art and listening to him play. It was like everything slowed down when he played, people strolled and smiled and boats just glided past on the river. I got to request one more song before leaving, being in Georgia, I had to go for "Georgia On My Mind".

So I did not do much of the tourist thing here, I did not see any museums, do any trolley rides, see the house from "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" but I had a great day, saw some beautiful things, listened to amazing music and met great people, that's all that really matters anyway, right?