Day 8 - a Lazy day on Gili Air

Most people that know me will think of me as fairly adventurous with all my mud races, marathon running and travelling, but one thing that I struggle with a fair amount is boats - I'm not scared of them, in fact my parents used to own a barge for many years and I even remember falling in a few times as a child.  However in recent years I seem to suffer from terrible seasickness - on ferries to Norway and Sweden I was violently sick after just a coupl of hours, on a catamaran in Mallorca I brought up my entire breakfast (and let me tell you there are far better things to see for a second time than chorizo and goats cheese!) and even on a small crossing I feel a bit uneasy.  I guess now I'm more worried about being sick which makes it worse.

So Anna wanted to go snorkeling and see some sea turtles, I'd loved to have given it a go, but I was nervous and also feeling pretty uncomfortable after about 17 mossie bites, so she was going to join an organised tour of the 3 islands at 9.30am coming back at 3pm and I was going to chill out and read etc. 

Unfortunately the boat went without her!  We had a wander around the island looking for alternatives, but the best option seemed to be one of the guys back at Segar Villages taking her on the private boat for a couple off hours for the equivalent of about £25.  Once we'd decided that we did a bit more chilling out back at the same place as we'd done the previous day, ate some lunch and then Anna went off at about 2 pm and so I took advantage of the opportunity to have a decent shower and then let my hair dry before I got too hot and had to put it up again!

Anna loved her trip and saw 7 sea turtles as well as even better fish than we had seen on the beach.  She got showered and changed and we went off for a drink - happy hour margarita - at Paridiso bar - very loud pumping music which seemed incongruous with the calm feel across the island in general.  

We moved on and went back to Chill out Bungalows, hopped onto a beach hut bench and had another lovely meal.  We went for another pizza which we shared and then I had the Lombok Salad again with some cheesy chips.

I went to bed feeling quite relaxed, although still itchy from the mossie bites!

(Some interesting messages below on restaurants that I saw on Gili)

Bali 3.2 - Walking through rice fields, catching up with friends and Luxury Spa

I didn't end up sleeping until approx 2am, and I'd had an idea that I might go to Yoga  and doing an early morning class, instead I decided to wake up naturally and was awake about 8.30am.  We had breakfast brought to our balcony at The Swan Inn Omelette for me (with lots of Garlic!) and pineapple pancake for Anna with some fresh fruit and coffee - really tasty!

We then went for a little walk around Ubud so that Anna could get her bearings - first all the way down Monkey Forest Road going past the actual Monkey Forest and then onto Hanoman and back around onto Monkey Forest Road an up past the palace.  Rachel had given us some excellent directions to her house - about 3K from The Swan Inn.  My favourite part of the directions was "past the bamboo house and you get to a little garden with a goat - you need to go down the stairs here and cross the stream"  We wandered through some gorgeous rice fields before finding Rachel's house - impressed that we found it first time!

Rachel is in a different house to the last time I came when she was still living with her In-laws and the house is much closer to Ubud for her.  It's the same slightly scary Balinese traditions with hard stone floors and steps which I'm amazed at the agility both Kiran and Maya were able to navigate.  Maya has just the same character now that she's nearly 4, as the last time I saw her when she was 2 - bright, cheeky and mischievous with a devilish sense of humour, but unlike last time when she was shunning speaking any English (whilst understanding every word!) she was babbling away sounding great and with no hint of a Balinese accent.  

Kiran is now 2 and still has a lovely baby face, but is definitely a little boy in behaviour and loved playing with the cars.  He is talking too, but his English has a hint of a Balinese accent - it's really fascinating how they are developing and I'm so jealous of how amazing their linguistic capabilities will be.  Kiran was lovely and when Maya spilled my cup of Bali coffee (just the grounds) he cleared it up with a cloth!

Kiran and Maya liked their clothes that I'd brought with me as presents from both my Mum and me and put them on straight away.  We got to meet Rosie and Robbie rabbit who are tiny and very cute.  

We went down to a nice restaurant with a good play area for the kids that kept Kiran and Maya busy for most of the time that we were eating.   Anna and me both had Tuna with vegetables, but we both think it was actually swordfish!  It was tasty and I had another soup - have had a few this holiday already - developed a taste for sour and hot seafood soups!

We wandered back up the road after poor Maya was separated from a Hello Kitty toy microphone from the restaurant and then walked back through the rice fields to Ubud and went on the hunt for a suitable spa for a massage.  Anna had a picture in her mind of the sort of luxury spa experience she was looking for and so after a few trips, leaflets and examining of treatment rooms we settled on the extremely luxurious Dala Spa.  In Ubud you can get a full hour of massage for approx 70,000 rupiah which is the equivalent of about £3.61.  Dala Spa was a little different of 450,000 for an hour so more like £23.18 - about 6 times as expensive, but in comparison to the last massage I had in the UK of an hour for £50 still extremely affordable for the average British tourist purse.

So you're probably wondering - was Dala Spa 6 times as good/luxurious and I have to say it was the *most* plush spa experience that I've had and I have tried out a couple of different places both for treats to myself and hen weekends etc.

First of all we sat in a wooden classic looking reception area and were served a cool ginger and lemony tea with a cold towel.  We got to choose from 5 different massage oils - I went for a lavender based one.  

We were then shown into the "Marigold" room and then taken straight into the "Ylang Ylang" room which was a bit confusing, but the room was beautiful and the whole place as we walked down the stairs smelt a strange combination of clean, eucalyptus mixed with the general Balinese incense smell that you get all over the place which hits you with a cool air in contrast to the humidity upstairs.

Both Anna and me were treated in the same room - I had gone for 90 minute massage selecting "strong" on the pre-treatment questionnaire for my pressure and Anna had gone for 30 minute body scrub and a 60 minute massage.  We changed into the paper knickers (lovely!) and sarongs and were shown the safe to put our belongings - although we didn't feel that it was necessary.  

We first of all had our feet washed in a wooden bowl of water to which the therapists stared intently at us whilst telling us what they were adding to the bowl - lime, ginger and then lemon grass - it felt at one and the same time decadent and a bit wasteful - you could have made a lovely Thai soup with the ingredients!  We had a quick foot scrub and then lay down on the really comfy treatment beds.  My massage was commenced by the therapist sounding a bell/sound bowl (useful I knew that when I heard Anna's I still had a further 60 minutes to enjoy!)

The massage was very good, but I was so tired that I definitely drifted off into some sort of subconsciousness several times so may not have been fully aware of it all - although I did really enjoy it and was incredibly relaxed at the end of it.  I definitely woke myself up at least 3 times snoring (my nose blocked after lying face down for 45 minutes!) so poor Anna had to cope with my snoring as background music mixed in with the "classic" that we had chosen on our questionnaires.

At the end of the treatment they sounded the bell again and we sat up and slowly got dressed again and sat back down in the reception area and had some warm tea and a cinnamon biscuit.  We settled the bill - a bit weird as they produced the card machine with just a prompt for my pin - I declined as I wanted to check the amount that I was paying first!

We sleepily and very calmly wondered back up Monkey Forest Road and stumbled into Dian Restaurant for dinner and sampled some Brem which is a local rice wine and then I had some more seafood soup and some Cap Cay - Chinese style vegetables with chicken served with rice.  We went for a quick drink at XL Shisha Lounge which was busy, noisy and had football on TV screens and live music and wasn't compatible with our very relaxed states and so we went back to the hotel and organised our flights to Lombok and worked out what we needed to do to get to Gili Air - still debating either public ferry or private charter boat! 

A screenshot of my favourite question about travelling to Gili Air!

On the walk back we booked a cooking class for the following morning at 9am at Bumi Bali.

We'd stopped off in a supermarket earlier in the day to pick up a drink and I'd spotted one of my favourite things about Bali - Mangosteens and so for equivalent to about £1.50 I'd bought 5 and put them in a plastic bag to take home - thank goodness for the bag as when I took them out of the bag on my bed about 50 ants came out with them too!  The fruit was fine, but I had to shake my sheets outside to get rid of the unwelcome passengers!  

I also thought I'd be brave and try mung bean juice - interesting flavour and texture!

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!

Shopping and coffee drinking Ubud style

It's easy to forget sometimes as you are walking around Ubud just how pretty everything is as there is so much beauty everywhere.  A simple shop will have a beautiful floral decoration outside or a pile of offerings carefully crafted with many coloured flowers displayed.  Even the shops have their wares presented beautifully - all brightly coloured items either clashing in a very attractive way, or clothes arranged as per the colours of the rainbow.  I feel very fortunate to be able to enjoy this as I've yet to come across another British tourist - Dutch, German, Australian and American yes, but no Brits at all - where are they all?

Rachel came by after breakfast and we went out for a wander looking in some of the funky shops and also stopping off for a few coffees and drinks along the way.  First of all we went to Tutmak Coffee Shop where Rach had breakfast and I had a couple of iced coffees and a lemongrass and ginger drink and Kiran had....a very long nap on the comfy cushions.  

We then wandered past Hibiscus Bar which isn't a bar anymore and is actually a cushion shop

If your image of Ubud streets is purely based on Eat Pray Love, you'll be amazed at how much more chaotic everything is - there are *loads* of motorbikes everywhere, loads of offerings all over the place including the floor, random dogs and lots of people offering Taxis and in a way that makes it sound dirty "Nice massage very good price".  Here is a typical picture of the street

I like the chaos and the noise and the random blend of smells - rubbish and litter, incense, spicy cooking, a different blend of incense, and the general smell of tropical vegetation.  

There is loads of art everywhere in Ubud which is really interesting to look at - here is Rachel outside an art shop along with some slightly more random examples!  She's also wearing a slightly different baby carrier - Kiran seemed very comfortable and did quite a lot of sleeping whilst we were walking around.

We walked around a few more shops including a very plush shop with awesome, but very expensive children's clothes - it had some bird boxes outside.

Then it was off to Bar Luna for lunch which had some comfy cushions which helpfully were transformed into a soft baby prison for Kiran to stop him crawling off and falling onto the floor!

And of course we needed dessert so we stopped for some very reasonable sorbet at an icecream shop about £1 per scoop.  Rachel (and Kiran!) had passionfruit sorbet and I had lime sorbet.

We walked back in a circuit and past BAWA which is a sort of RSPCA equivalent.  Rachel adopted her cat Queenie from them, but she told me a rather worrying story where she reported a dog that had lots of puppies, and then another litter and they came to take photos of it and then instead of taking it away, came back and dropped off some more puppies for it to be a surrogate mother to!

We then walked past Monkey Forest and saw a couple that had "escaped" (Rachel is a bit immune to them as she sees them a lot - they probably seem a bit like squirrels to her!)

After all the walking around we were all hot and bothered so decided to go back to the hotel to cool off with a dip in the pool.  It was also a chance to give Kiran his first swimming lesson!  Maya apparently howled the first time she was in a swimming pool, but Kiran loved it!  He splashed around, smiling and laughing and even splashed other people in the pool!

So here is what I managed to spend some money on in the course of our shopping trip:  A lovely dress/long top and some aromatherapy spray - very refreshing in such a hot climate.

So Rachel then was picked up about 4.30pm and I went for a nap and then headed back to Bar Luna for dinner - apparently it's supposed to be a fairly social place for travelers  but at the moment, I'm the only one here and have been since the 4 people telling stories of getting drunk in Bankok and dropped off at a police station by a taxi driver left about 30 mins ago...I have to say though, I am enjoying my own company for a change and it's nice to be able to slow down and enjoy just doing very simple things like eating and drinking - slowly....  Bar Luna is famous for "literary" stuff and they do readings etc and so their menu is peppered with references to literature and so it's only right that for my dinner I had a "Graham Greene Salad" (I didn't even eat the bread - I'd be a rake if I lived here permanently!