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!

Surf Goddess Retreat - Part 3

On Thursday we had a rest from surfing and went on a cultural tour. We met Joachim, who runs a small tour company, at his family's hotel and stables. Quite the gorgeous place where one can arrange for horse rides in the rice paddies or on the beach. Anyway so our tour began in an air conditioned van (a good thing because Bali is very hot!) and we drove to the region of Tabanan. We were graciously welcomed by the King of Tabanan, Rai Girigunadhi, at his 17Th century palace,where we were invited to join him for iced tea, a snack and a chat. Rai Girigunadhi used to work for the national department of tourism. The country of Indonesia is not ruled by the monarchy from a political sense. We sat with the King and heard his fantastic stories about his travels and trips to California and Hawaii.

After our visit with the King, Joachim turned us over to Yani, a charming local Balinese man, who would be our guide for the rest of the day. One of the most amazing things about Yani is that he speaks Swiss German, not formal German, but the dialect I grew up speaking! Here I am traipsing through Bali, speaking Schweizer Deutch with a Balinese dude!! Amazing and hilarious all at the same time.

Yani and our driver took us further into the hills. As it was full moon, we encountered numerous religious celebrations and processions.
The men, women and children were all in their "Sunday best".

After a bit of a drive through the countryside, we stopped for lunch in a forest clearing close to a little village. The farmer, whose land we were on, prepared a most delicious meal of Balinese food for us. It was amazing to be in such a serene place surrounded by such a variety of fauna and flora. My sister has become an expert in the way of tropical fruit, so I snapped about a million pictures of the local agriculture! All the girls know about her proficiency with exotic fruit so the running joke of the day from Sheila was, "Let's call Carmen, I bet she knows what this is!" It was funny! We even had jackfruit for dessert, which Stephanie pointed out, tastes exactly like Juicy Fruit gum!

After a lovely rest in the bale after lunch, we packed back in the van and drove on. We stopped at the top of a most amazing hill with a tremendous view of the volcano and hiked down the hill through the rice paddies. The steepness of the rice paddies is amazing, its unbelievable to think about the millions of farmers around the world who trek up and down hills to cultivate rice. We crossed paths with a random German tourist, some farmers and some cows. We took tons of pictures and had lots of laughs. Yani truly was a great guide with a stellar sense of humor.

At the bottom of the hill we came to a temple. I am not sure which god or goddess the temple was for but it was spectacular. We covered ourselves with sarongs and entered the temple, where it was just us and a priest. After a look around, we were permitted to join Yani and the priest in prayer and received blessings (like I DON'T already have enough!). I definitely want to learn more about Balinese Hinduism, their rituals are so sacred and so beautiful. Indonesia is comprised of many many islands, all of which are mostly Muslim. Bali is the only island in Indonesia that is predominantly Hindu. After our time at the temple we headed back to our villa in Seminyak and were treated to a class of restorative yoga.

The next few days we continued to surf, do yoga and get our daily spa treatments.

I went on this trip to work on my surfing ability and my yoga practice, but I came away with so much more than that. I came away with the experience of a lifetime that I was blessed to share with five fantastic women. I thank them all - Anne for her grace and calm, Stephanie for her unfailing generosity, Kim for her enthusiasm and chats, Sheila for her beautiful, hearty laugh and Karen for her openness and guidance. Many blessings to you all! Also a million blessings to Chelsea, Melinda and Susan for cultivating the sisterhood!

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!