Yoga and Tension Release Massage

I think that I'm still a bit jetlagged as I was up until past 2 am this morning again, so when the alarm went for breakfast it was all a bit startling!  

I had decided yesterday that I was going to go to Yoga today as the only exercise I've done all holiday other than this is to walk around in the hot weather slowly and throw Maya (12kg) around in a swimming pool.  So after breakfast I got into my yoga gear and walked down to Yoga Barn with plenty of time to spare.  I wasn't 100% sure whether I needed to book or not, so I just showed up and it was all totally fine. The Yoga Studio is based down a few steps past the cafe and is in really lovely surroundings - there were even a couple of very relaxed looking cats.  All the facilities were lovely - showers, toilets were clean and fresh and the staff were all extremely helpful and polite.

The class itself was lovely.  You walk upstairs to the studio which has a covered roof, but open sides to lovely views of the jungle.  Some of the reviews on tripadvisor mentioned that there was some building work going on which was distracting and this is true, but genuinely I didn't notice any noise (including the school nearby) about 5 minutes into the class.  I went to the Intro to Yoga class which was taught by Eva.  I've got about 6 years yoga experience from going in the UK, but I've not been for a while and so I thought it best to go for an intro class initially.  It was an hour and a half long and whilst wasn't massively challenging in terms of postures based on what I've done previously, it really was a good introduction to Yoga for people who are new to it and there was plenty of space so you didn't feel squashed up next to strangers.  The equipment is great too - loads of very good quality yoga mats, cushions, blankets, straps and blocks.  Eva was an engaging and warm instructor, she kept the pace of the class at a good level for everyone and included a great warm up and a lovely ending section with relaxation.  I will be back tomorrow hopefully for the community yoga free session and hope to squeeze in another before I leave on Tuesday.

I headed back to my hotel briefly for a change and shower and then went to go and complete my relaxation day with a lovely massage at Sang Spa.  I opted for this spa as they were rated well on Trip Adviser and also didn't have loads of people trying to entice me in with leaflets.  I opted for the 45 minute tension release massage: 

Let our therapist melt all tension away with a 45 minute deep pressure massage on your back, neck shoulder, and your hands. A totally pampering and revamping back indulgence.

Again I hope to be back as it was 45 minutes of antidote to sitting at a PC all day every day for 12 hours plus.  I didn't fall asleep, but at one point I think I was in an almost hypnotic trance.  It was very good.  And all for 100000 rupiah - or £6!

I wandered down to get some lunch from Juice Ja which included a very cleansing juice and a lovely Americano coffee and then Nasi Campur for lunch.  I wrote 6 postcards - which seems silly after the amount of blogging that I've done, but it's still nice to receive a postcard through the mail when all you normally get are offers on broadband or credit cards or if you are lucky a cash for gold envelope!  Now all that I need to do is work out how to post them!  I saw this in the toilets at Juice Ja and it reminded me that I liked it and Dr Seuss was a wise man.

I emailed the batik people yesterday, but hadn't heard back so walked down to the place which was near Juice Ja and eventually stumbled into a shop who told me to go through past some houses and I spoke to a 10 year old boy who translated for him mum and got me to book in by writing my name in a book, it does look good though so I'm booked onto do Batik class on Saturday and will watch the fire dance either on the same day or on Sunday evening.

I walked back and popped into a couple of shops as I really am not well equipped with suitable clothes for Ubud and bought a lightweight dress for c£22 and a green t-shirt with a cat print on it.  The woman tried to con me when I was buying the t shirt by only giving me 5000 rupiah change when it was 50000 due!  I managed to get the right change back though!

Rachel came over at about 6.30pm when I was skyping Coddy who then showed Rachel (and Kiran) Pocky and Marla.  (We took Pocky to live with us when Rach went "travelling" in 2008 - I guess she's ours now! Mwahahah)  We walked down to Bali Buddha which was a big effort for Rach as it was about 20 mins walk and she'd forgotten that she'd left the baby carrier for Kiran at home!       We managed to get there ok and had some tasty juice (mine was Orange, Pineapple, Carrot and Basil) and I ordered Bakso and a curry as I didn't realise quite how big the portions would be and quite how much my appetite has reduced.  Kiran slept all the way through dinner so we had plenty of time to chat and catch up.

So I'm now catch up with my blog in Arts Kafe again, but will need to be early to bed as "Bagi" is picking me up at 7am for my Bali Bike tour - a bit scared of just how hot I'm going to get, will be coating myself in sun cream to avoid massive burns!

Day tripping, temples, photo opportunities and tourist prices!

So again another blog entry to first be written out on WordPad as the internets aren't quite working at XL Shisha Lounge - I can log on with my Iphone and Blackberry, but not the Netbook - weird!

So today I didn't nap - hooray!  Probably a good idea too as I couldn't sleep until 2.30 am last night and ended up watching Horrible Bosses which was...erm...horrible really.  It lacked any particularly interesting twists, and likable characters and probably the only redeeming feature was realising that Colin Farrell had been playing a particularly despicable character and looked nothing like his normal attractive self.

Breakfast was a Jaffle - basically a banana and honey toasted sandwich with fruit salad again.  Rachel, Made and Kiran came and picked me up at 9 am and Made was our driver for the day.  We went up towards Kintamani and found that a lot of tourist viewpoint places are now charging tourists just to drive past!  We first of all took the opportunity to take pictures of the lovely rice terraces which really are beautiful.

We then stopped so Rachel could grab some breakfast whilst we enjoyed the view over Mount Batur  What I particularly enjoyed was that you could see a piece of green forest surrounded by black ash from when the last eruption had occurred and wiped out the vegetation around it.  

Tourist prices are very different - we paid nearly £2 each for a very basic coffee and Rachel had a banana pancake for about £2.50 - in Ubud this would cost around half this.  Made however as our "driver" went into a special room and got buffet breakfast for free for bringing us there!

We stopped off on the way to buy some fruit from a really pretty fruit stall.  Rachel let Made do the negotiation to get a better price and bought some mangosteens - which look like tiny aubergines, but when peeled reveal something that looks almost like a peeled bulb of garlic and tastes a bit like Mango.  I really like them.  I also got to try something that looked a bit like a date on the outside, but almost like a passion fruit on the inside and tasted like plum.  Neither Made or Rachel knew what it was called!  A very sweet little girl was also trying to sell us a basket in between hiding behind the fruit.

Made then drove us to the Holy Water temple - Tirta Empul - Tampak Siring Temple and I put on the sarong that I'd brought with me from home that I'd worn to Rachel's wedding in 2009 and Rachel lent me a sash.  The temple was really beautiful and the water comes from a volcanic spring and you can see the water bubbling up through the bottom of one of the very clear pools.   There are several springs which you get into and pray at each spring before moving onto the next.  You can get right in, but even though I had a change of clothes it did seem like it would be a bit of a hassle, so I opted for dipping my hand in and splashing water on my face.  We got accosted around the temple by some excitable Malaysian ladies who were desperate to have their photo taken with us...or rather Kiran!  On the way out it was quite sad as you have to walk through an area of shops and there are loads!  Rachel could hear that they were shouting out prices to the Indonesian tourists in front of us of 5000 rupiah (c35p) and then "one dollar" to us!  Rachel bought a nice hat for Maya to make up for her staying at home.  I felt almost guilty for not buying anything as everyone was trying very hard and they had obviously spent time in building up their wares for sale.

We then to grab some lunch at a place that one of Made's friends had recommended and said did some Thai food.  It didn't do Thai food and whilst I had a good set meal with a soup starter, Nasi Campur main and banana fritters with ice cream and gorgeous caramel sauce, it was pretty expensive - 165000 rupiah and Rachel was very disappointed with her soup that was tiny and 35000.  Madea again went to the "drivers" area and probably had a much better feed than we did!  I did like my main course and my dessert was particularly tasty!

We then went back to the house and I got to see Rachel's office and the new kitchen.   I didn't get to meet her cat Queenie though which was sad as she's been missing for a few days - but she did come back tonight hooray!  Rachel then dug out the wedding video which I'd not seen and was interesting.  It brought back lots of memories from the first time that I visited including Coddy's awful Abe Lincoln style beard and me before contact lenses!   

Rachel put Kiran in the Halloween pumpkin sleepsuit that I'd bought for him and we took some lovely posed photos of him next to a pumpkin that she'd picked up earlier on our trip.

Made then dropped me off at my hotel and I got a well needed shower before working out that I can Skype Coddy from an app on my IPhone - he showed me the cats and I showed him around my hotel room and I decided on my next venue for dinner - XL Shisha Lounge.  A trip adviser review complimented it on having "lots of Pillows" what more could I want!

I have also planned out a bit more what I'm doing for the next 5 days I'm here (can't believe that it's going so fast!  Tomorrow I'm going to do a Yoga class at The Yoga Barn - I'm going for the beginners class as I don't trust myself to know what I'm doing otherwise even though I've been doing yoga for about 6 years!  The class will be 110000 rupiah - about £6/7.  I'm then going to have a massage somewhere good.  

Then I hope to go to the Kecak fire dancing display at 7.30pm.  On Friday I will be doing a bike tour Banyan Tree Bike Tours - which I'm a bit worried about as I sweat so horribly here just walking around that I'm going to be soaking wet by doing any physical exertion!  Hopefully it will be ok - Rachel reckons it should be mostly downhill.  

Then I'm trying to get booked onto a Batik class - from I Nyoman Suradnya - hopefully Rachel will let me pay for her to come too as a thank you for being my personalised tour guide/chaperone. I am then keen to go back to Tjampuan with Rachel for a spa day - maybe we could fit it in on the same day as Batik?  Other than that what else do I want to do?  More shopping, maybe a day at the beach?  So much to fit in and so little time left!  I might just have to come back again very soon!