The Terrific3 travel blog

First off, I apologize for the lack of photos on this blog. As no things come easy in Bali, nor does the ability to buy extra GB for media on WordPress.com even though I’ve been trying for several days and written them. I’m still trying.

Last night’s sleep was in the right direction of better so I was happy. The room I slept in was cold (ironically too cold and I had to turn down and off the fan at night) and both kids slept well. We awoke to a nice sunset over the rice paddies and no real plan for the day.

At 7am, our breakfast was delivered and at 715am, Sudi, a nanny I’ve hired for some days through a local agency, showed up early for her 730 shift. It was her first day with us so I really wanted to give kids the time to warm up and see how things went. Z took to her right away and brought out some games and they started playing. Well enough that I started thinking about how to heal myself today. I’ve been feeling vulnerable—scammed coming into the country, sick for several days, then met with many unexpected tasks to fit when we arrived yesterday, eating kinda crappy not delicious and not very nutritive food for days (due to illness, hotel food, and kids only wanting pizza/pasta forcing me to eat at places I usually wouldn’t), and not enough movement due to illness. When I got here yesterday, I quickly realized I would need to be inventive about exercise too. There’s just not going to be an easy place for me to run outside here for reasons I’ll describe below. So feeling vulnerable, I decided this morning to figure out how to prioritize movement and maybe food for me. I had been eyeing the yoga barn studio as it’s a 15 minute walk from our villa and asked S if he wanted to stay or come with me. He even agreed to do yoga but we decided on him bringing his kindle in case he wasn’t allowed. We ran the plan by Sudi and Z and then quickly got our stuff and left to try to get to the studio by 830am.

This morning is when S and I got to experience some more of the real hustle and bustle of Ubud. I’m still truly to put my finger on the pulse of what feels energetically like a very complicated city with a very sorted past: Ubud is unapologetically overwhelming, overbearing, too much in every sense—too many people, too much noise, too many scents, too many cars and scooters sharing the streets (and the sidewalks), too many large man-size potholes in the sidewalk that otherwise has some very crooked brick work scattered amongst straight parts—while at the same time being alluring inviting—intricately carved art works in storefronts, colorful batiks, statues of Hindu gods, restaurants full of delicious looking food, people ready to great you with smiles, gorgeous rice paddy terraces glistening and reflecting sunsets., These two sides are diametrically opposed yet sewn into the same cloth with the same color thread, wed to each other like yin and Yang. At any moment when we were walking outside, we felt like we may be swallowed up by the sidewalk or hit by a motorbike that decided to ride on the sidewalk, yet once I entered that 830am Yoga Barn class, I felt like my soul was in the right way place.

Yoga Barn was a great experience. They don’t take kids under 15. I registered for the 830am class at 826 am and then ran across the way to get S settled in a cafe, bought him a drink and left him cash to buy himself a snack. I was glad Z wasn’t there as the two of them together wouldn’t caused chaos but S alone was perfectly fine and happy. Finally we were each getting what we were needing, even though I felt guilty about leaving Z. After 1.5 hours of yoga, I decided to give the vegan cafe a try. Unfortunately it was a long line and an hour before I got my food (brown rice, steamed vegetables, chickpeas, lemon tahini dressing—finally my kind of food!) but it was well worth it. I picked up some goodies for Z and we made our way home, stopping at The Birthday Shop, where we met Nova (the owner) and ordered a custom cake for S for his bday this weekend. She was lovely and told me she opened the store 18 years ago when she came to Bali as there wasn’t such a place, and she wanted to deliver a personalized experience for her clients. She said that in Bali, there is not very much that is personalized and customized—people just tell you to just go get whatever—and that bothered her. I felt these words struck some chord of truth in my energetic experience here so far, and are starting to unravel the complex mystery of Bali. It’ll take me a bit more to get there, but I appreciate you traveling along.

We got home, I made the kids spaghetti for lunch and then took them on a “short” walk (should never have said that) to find a same day laundry place (we failed, so gave our stuff to 2 day laundry on our block, then found another place 5 minutes up the road. Oh well) and to book a spa massage for S’s bday. He was very specific what kind of place he wanted, and I wanted a reservation so we could all get in. We found the place, it met his expectations (a bit fancier than your usual street massage place, but AC is good here, and still only $23 for a 90 minute massage). Along our walk we discovered numerous amazing looking restaurants with great ambience, and food that both my kids and I would appreciate, so S and I started stopping and exploring menus while Z whined it was too hot. This seems to be a frequent thing with him since Thailand—he seems less able to tolerate any kind of walking or biking in the heat (but give the kid a soccer ball and he doesn’t care about the temperature). I promised him ice cream, though that only minimally helped the whining. The kids got too used to taking taxis in chiang mai, and now they ask for them here, but we are staying more central with the expectation of being closer and walking.

Either way, they just played chess, are swimming, and we will have dinner later. Tomorrow we do a cycling tour in the morning and I asked Sudi to come back in the afternoon so I could go back to yoga. Trying to find my space here in this complicated universe called Bali…