Ubud is the place Sebastien and I decided to settle in for a little while, while we got reacquainted with each other. Ubud which was once a little village is now a bustling little town. It’s home to good restaurants, artisans, cool cafes and of course Yoga! We spent many an evening at cool wifi cafes listening to live music and working on our computers.
You may remember from the last blog it took a while for Seb and I to get back into the harmonious flow that is our relationship. In the mornings, I would guide him through my morning meditation and practice my yoga teaching by taking him through a yoga class I designed for him.
The transition phase was interesting because coming back together made us really aware of how we interact when we’re together and when we’re apart which is a great lesson unto itself.
This picture was taken on the street we stayed on called Monkey Forest road. This is the main street in Ubud where all the main shops and cafes are. There’s always some kind of sidewalk construction going on, and this particular morning, the women are moving baskets of dirt on their head!
This picture was taken outside of our Yoga haunt: The Yoga Barn This is a gorgeous yoga studio that offers a large variety of classes (Everything from yoga for tight white guys to Ecstatic Dance & Tibetan Bowl Mediation) and overlooks a beautiful rice field. I loved it here!
When I was in Thailand, I was fortunate to meet these girls who lived in Ubud for months working with San Francisco jewellery designers and literally wrote out a page of recommendations for me while I was in Bali. This was one of them: watching the traditional Kecak Fire Dance.
The synchronicity between the dancers, the chanting, the costumes was great to see. It is a close and intimate setting, in fact you can feel the heat from the fire on your face. Every seat is pretty much a front row seat.
The next day we went to the Monkey Forest. If you go to Ubud, and you love monkeys then it’s pretty mandatory that you go there. This place is hundreds of years old with temples, old statues and lots of walking areas.
The monkeys are super friendly if you have bananas. In fact they will even climb on top of you and dig into your pockets for them. But you have to be careful, we met a girl who had her sunglasses snatched right off of her face, and once a monkey has taken something from you its pretty difficult to retrieve it. My friend Day had half a bottle of Vodka stolen from him by a monkey. And after the monkey had grabbed it, it proceeded to imitate him and drink the rest! Cheeky monkey!
If they sit still long enough, they will also turn into stone. That’s what happened to the others.
I have such a soft spot for baby monkeys. The are the absolute cutest little creatures. They are so cuddly and adorable.
Love Love Love!
This is the Purnati Centre of the arts which is where the Bali Spirit festival is held. We were invited to go there because a friend of a friend teaches Poi Fire dance there. This particular Friday was the end of their course and they had invited Seb to come and DJ at their party.
So we rented a motorbike and went to check it out by day. They invited us to hang out at the pool when they went back to their afternoon class. This was amazing, the space was really beautiful and their pool was just a little nicer than the one at the place we’re staying. ( Who am I kidding?)
We met a lot of cool people who came from all over the world to participate in this one week course. Some stayed an extra week because they liked it so much. I was watching Nick and G teach, and they have such a talent for what they do. They make it look so easy!
In places where there’s no fire dance community ( like South Korea for example) people who really like it end up learning their skills from the internet. It’s really cool because not only can they further their skills , they also get a chance to experience what it feels like to be part of an alternative community.
This was at night, when everyone performed all their best tricks. We watched them dance for hours and you know it never got boring because each dancer brought with them a different dance style, and a different flow of movement. It was so beautiful, and we were so happy to have been basically the only people not part of the course to get to watch!
Uggghhh! One of my least favourite times while I was in Ubud. I was having gum issues again, I think mostly because of my incessant sweet tooth. I had gone to the dentist in Thailand and the pains had come back so I find myself back in the dental chair once again. Except this time it was really painful!
I basically ended up on an enclosed balcony on the porch of this ladies house. There was only one chair, and the light above would flicker on and off. There was no tube that you normally use to rinse your mouth, instead there was a little cup that sat under a tap that never stopped dripping.
I was pretty scared to go in there, but I really had no choice. But to her credit, my teeth are totally fine now. Thank god for anaesthetics and pain killers!
Oh and here’s me on my 30th birthday! We rented a car and drove out to this cute little beach town called Lovina. It only took Seb about 20 minutes to get comfortable enough to start honking his horn and making fun of other drivers. Oh those Quebecers!
Here I am having a glass of wine in a cafe that served yummy organic salads and breakfast foods. Sebastien spoiled me by taking me to the spa where I had a facial, full body massage and …. a vaginal steam! (It was the specialty of this Balinese spa, and I would have to say it was quite interesting… ) The next day we visited the beautiful outdoor hot springs. It was really magical when we were there, it started pouring rain with lightning and thunder showers. It was gorgeous and there were a lot of local people there just splashing around and having fun.
I’ve been trying to keep this blog as up to date as possible. But time keeps running ahead of me. Right now we are in the beautiful beaches of Gili, and Seb has been really sick and bed ridden which is probably what has allowed me to catch up as far as I have. We are flying into Singapore on the 12th of June because my Australian work holiday visa has yet to get approved.
For most Canadians, the application was an easy process, basically overnight approval. But I think because I applied from Bali, or because most things that are easy for people end of being more challenging for me …. I need to undergo a medical exam which involves going to a specific radiologist out of Denpassar for a chest x-ray, we needed a place to wait it out.
So why not Singapore? I met a guy in Vancouver before I left that made me promise him I would go there because that’s where he’s from. Beautiful food, beaches and people. Not the cheapest place in SE Asia to visit but definitely worth it.
