Ubud, Bali

daily offering at the family temple of our accommodation

We spent the week in Ubud. Ubud is beautiful. I mean that literally. The streets in Ubud are beautiful, the compounds in Ubud are beautiful, the people in Ubud are beautiful, the food in Ubud is beautiful and the natural surroundings in Ubud are beautiful. The Balinese in general appear to worship beauty and it's awfully nice to be surrounded by such experts for a week.

Sometimes I wonder whether we're making good use of our world trip. We met a lovely married vegetarian couple called Matt and Aimee in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia (where else?) and when I read their blog it seems that they're seeing so many more places and doing so many more things. We prefer to set up camp in one place and explore from there. We did the same in Ubud. We knew we'd have 8 days here, so we thought it was key to find a nice place to call home for the week. Ubud is a little bit more expensive than, say, Padangbai, so we didn't have any luxuries like AC or a swimming pool, but we can't complain - we found a bungalow in the back of a family compound called Artini Cottages I.


street entrance to the compound



our bungalow

What I didn't like very much about Ubud was the HEAT! I'm not sure whether it was actually hotter in Ubud than elsewhere on Bali or whether I just wasn't used to the humidity anymore after all those weeks spent at the beach, but it was dreadful. It makes me long for the dry heat of the Outback like you wouldn't believe (though I fear that I might regret saying this later).


our bed

One other thing that I loved about our accommodation was Brownie. I'm not sure who Brownie belongs to because he just seems to appear out of nowhere, but I LOVE him!!! I want to adopt him and take him home and give him a bath and a brush and walk him down the street! Besides the practical issues, Brownie, of course, isn't mine to take - he has a home here on Bali. But on a certain level I'm so certain that in some past life he used to be my son or something.





In Ubud I freed up some time to take a couple of yoga classes at the Yoga Barn. The Yoga Barn is probably the most beautiful (there's that word again!) yoga studio I've ever seen. It's situated in a rice field and surrounded by palm trees. The studio is quite literally a barn. I had my yoga classes upstairs and instead of glass windows there were just a couple of wooden beams so you were surrounded by rice fields and palm trees and plants and flowers from all sides. It was lovely, but with the AC missing, it was also HOT, which made every class feel like a Bikram Yoga class (and NOT in a good way either).

I bought a card for 5 yoga classes. I started on Tuesday with Ying Yang Yoga. This class was challenging, but even after 4 months I could feel that the Bikram Yoga classses that I took in Utrecht had left me strong (I guess he's onto something, that Bikram). The next day, however, I took a Slow Flow class which was just awful. I was clearly out of shape after travelling for 3 months and my body still ached from Yin Yang Yoga and I couldn't hold a single pose. It was after this class that I realized someone had stolen my expensive limited edition Havaianas. In retrospect, I'm fine. The people at the Yoga Barn felt horrible and reimbursed me so that I was able to buy a new pair of Havaianas (not the same kind, though, them being limited edition and all). But at the time I was so enraged I could've slapped someone. If your personal possessions aren't even safe amongst a couple of fellow yogis on one of the most peaceful places on earth, then what?! Moreover, the flip-flops weren't just flip-flops to me - I bought them especially for our world trip as a treat to myself for making the trip possible through sheer will and determination. But what can you do? Now I've grown used to my new Havaianas and peace has returned once more.

The next day I took my very first meditation class. I've experienced with meditation a couple of times, but it's quite hard and you really need a teacher. I took a Tibetan Bowl Meditation class, which was interesting. It's hard to explain, but let me try. My fellow yogis and I were rubbing ourselves with mosquito repellent and trying to get comfortable in a lotus pose (which, by the way, isn't comfortable at all), while a young man who looked exactly like the young Dalai Lama from Seven Years in Tibet unwrapped a collection of, what I assume to be, Tibetan bowls. He said some prayers and told us to do as we wished during the meditation, but without making noise or disturbing the others. I looked at the clock. It was 8 PM. The meditation class was supposed to last for a full hour. I was getting a bit scared - how the hell was I supposed to sit still for 3600 seconds?! Suddenly everyone lay on their backs and I followed. The teacher told us to put our heads towards him so as to hear the Tibetan bowls best and so we did. He also told us that we could get up and leave 'once the meditation was finished' and I remember thinking to myself: how am I supposed to know when it's finished?! I tried to be calm. I placed myself in shivasana (also known as corpse pose) and vowed not to move until the end of the meditation. And guess what? I didn't. But it was difficult. At first I suffered from what Elizabeth Gilbert calls a 'monkey mind' in Eat, Pray, Love. My mind kept swinging from one thought to the next and it was wearing me down. I tried to focus on my breathing and also used the 'ham sa' ('I am THAT') mantra (also stolen from Eat, Pray, Love - maybe you're starting to see a pattern here). Also, I kept feeling the mosquitos feasting on me and BOY is it difficult not to move when you're being bitten and it itches, but I remained still. After what seemed like forever, I notice that I'm having a lot of difficulty breathing. In fact, I'm constantly out of breath. This makes no sense, for I've been lying on this yoga mat for a while now. And then, suddenly, I see an image in my head that's both crystal clear and plain weird: there is a sumo wrestler sitting on my chest. Is this why I've been out of breath? Moreover, there is writing on his massive legs. On his right leg, placed on my left arm, in big, black capital letters, is the word FEAR. On his left leg, placed on my right arm, in even bigger letters, is the word FAILURE. Suddenly I notice that my arms hurt like hell. Especially my right arm is starting to burn. Then, out of nowhere it seems, I turn my head to the left and I just KNOW that the meditation is over. I open my eyes and sit up. I remain seated for a little while longer before making my way out of the room in the darkness. As my eyes get used to the dark, I notice that except for one other person who's still seated, I'm the last person to leave the room. I look at the clock. It's exactly 9.30 PM. I've been lying still for 90 minutes.

Isn't that WILD?!

The next day I had the most amazing yoga class I've ever had. It was my favorite kind of yoga, Hatha Yoga, and the teacher was the exact right mix between kindness and pushiness, but I think that the class went so well because my mind (not my body) felt stronger after that meditaton class. I've grown infatuated with meditation and truly believe that yoga without meditation is kind of missing the point. I can't wait to start taking more meditation classes back home. On Saturday I took my last yoga class, an Early Bird Yoga that started at 7 AM. I feel rejuvenated by all this yoga!



The yoga, then, makes up for all the food. Besides yoga we haven't done much but eat and read. There are numerous nice places to eat in Ubud, but we circled a collection of our five favorite places: (1) Kafe (which serves what I lovingly call 'pretentious healthy vegetarian and vegan food'), (2) Bali Buddha (ditto), (3) Taco Casa 'n Grill (Mexican), (4) Pizza Bagus (Italian) and Three Monkeys (expensive Italian). I don't remember it all exactly, but there were a lot of smoothies involved.







On that note, one day we went to Wayan's for her famous multivitamin lunch special, which is, indeed, delicious. There we met Wayan and her daughter Tutti in their shop in northern Ubud.







I've also met Ketut Liyer at his house in southern Ubud. A palm reading by this traditional Balinese medicine man cost as much as one night at our accommodation, but it's Ketut Liyer (did I mention that I'm a huge Elizabeth Gilbert fan?)! He says all the obligatory things, like "I'm very happy to meet you" and "see you later, alligator" and, frankly, I didn't believe a word he told me, but he told me that I'm very pretty (Ketut, PLEASE!) and very lucky (obviously NOT judging by my luck in South East Asia during the last three months). I will live to be 100 years old (let's hope not for the sake of my three children and God knows how many grandchildren). I will be rich (HA! I knew that English degree was good for something!). Now it becomes interesting. Whatever I decide to do with my life, I will be successful (I've no idea what to do with the rest of my life, but I guess it's nice to hear that whenever I do decide on something, it will be good). I will marry only once and stay married for the rest of my life (again, good to know). When it comes to my future children, the man actually has to get his glasses because he 'can't see' (perhaps he senses my dread concerning morning sickness and this little thing called childbirth). He looks and tells me I will have two children. No, three. Alright then. He ends by saying that Jochem is a good man and then asks me why am I not married yet?! For this I look at Jochem, who quickly looks away. And that was it.







On Saturday we decided that it was becoming increasingly ridiculous that all we did in Ubud was eat, so after we hugged some puppies at the Bali Animal Welfare Association (BAWA), we made our way to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sactuary. Here I read all the instructions on how to deal with the monkeys and I walk in feeling quite confident about knowing how to handle these animals. We sit down to watch the monkeys and after a mere five minutes one particular male specimen goes for my purse. I read the signs and didn't bring any food or drinks into the sanctuary, so why this guy is going for my Body Shop mirror is beyond me (frankly, I find it a little rude). Now, I swear to you that I did NOTHING to upset the monkey, although I might have flinched when he was going for my most-prized possession (my SPF 15 lip balm), but in a matter of seconds this rugrat is looking at me, showing its teeth, and then sinking said teeth into my upper right arm, and I'm just like: 'Well, I guess we need to see another doctor.' Judging by my Facebook account there was a bit of a scare and I'm sorry about that. Please don't be alarmed - measures have been taken, wounds have been obsessively cleaned and rebooster rabies shots have been given.



Sunday was our last day in Ubud and we rented a scooter and saw some of the area surrounding Ubud. We had lunch amidst the rice paddies while observing a pack of wild ducks in a nearby rice field, who were constantly, while quacking loudly, moving from one side of the field to the other. It was like watching a debate in British parliament. That day we saw five different Hindu temples (one from the comfort of our scooter) and my favorite was definitely Gunung Kawi, which is a group of shrines cut into stone cliffs. To get there, you first need to make your way to the town of Tampaksiring, which is infested with vicious dogs who will not only bark and growl at you but actually follow you and your scooter while you make a desperate attempt at escape. You need to park your scooter, walk to the entrance, buy a tickets, put on a sash, walk down (and afterwards: up) a steep stairway and then sprinkle yourself with holy water before entering the ancient site at the Pakrisan River Valley, but it's well worth the trouble. The site is being considered for UNESCO World Heritage status, so there you go.


Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave)


Yeh Pulu


Gunung Kawi


Jochem calls this my G.I. Jungle outfit.


Gunung Kawi

And that's about it, folks. After a week in Ubud, a month in Indonesia and three months in South East Asia, we are 1/3 into our world trip and we fly to Australia tonight. But let's not get ahead of ourselves - let's have some breakfast burritos at Kafe first.

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!