Time to go back to Bali, another option is to go to the Gili islands, but I’ve personally had so much sun & I fancy some forest. So we embark on the boat back to Sanur port & from there we head to Ubud, the paradise for yoguis & vegans.
We stay at Manuaba Inn, easy to find on booking.com, like most of them. We pay 180K, including breakfast, between the two of us, a bargain. It’s centric but quiet & the owner is sweet & enchanting, as all the inhabitants of this beautiful place. Again it is like living in a temple.
After having something to eat we go, under the fiery sun, to the Yoga Barn, one of the main reasons we are here.
It is the yoga paradise par excellence, immerse in green gardens with five spacious & wonderful shalas where they offer classes of yoga & meditation at all hours.
There’s the chance to book all types of holistic treatments, a bit expensive though.
The café offers a space to work, eat healthy & vegan, all blended in a zen atmosphere that makes me want to live here.
The Barn is my main source of joy these days, the heat makes any activity more difficult, that is why I like to go early in the morning or in the evening, followed by a massage in Angelo’s Store where they sell natural products & Siwi, the BEST masseuse I’ve tried in this side of the globe, works, this is her number +62 813 3765 8495.
A very rainy morning we meet up with young Ismael, a follower who had contacted with me. The three of us head to see the Ubud Palace located in the center of the city.
A city packed with scooters that stock up at these “gas stations”. They recommend us to use ubudian transport so we do support the local economy.
Close by is the Saraswati temple, a magical place with a lake that makes it even more special.
Under the rain we move fast, the sun finally shines & gives us a rest to enter the Monkey Forrest, a must visit.
There a great population of monkeys live.They camp as they please in the temple & on some visitors.
There is a small cemetery where a few corpses are buried waiting to be cremated, as it is custom here in Bali. When a family cannot afford the cremation they wait till a few members have passed away to cremate them all together.
We leave the forest quite hungry & a bit wet after another downpour, so we stop at Elixir Café, where they offer vegan, generous & delicious dishes.
Ismael & I want to do the night hike to Mt. Batur, the volcano, so we book a tour in one of the local stands for 325K. Whilst we chat to this lovely couple from Chile a gentleman asks us kindly to move, he is taking a picture, I turn around after a while & see him meditating in front of the tripod; someone had told me some people do it in front of their food or menu, waiting for an answer from the univers I guess, it’s part of the charm of the place.
Near by there is also Watan’s home, Julia Roberts’ guru in “Eat, pray, love”
Time to go, they pick us up from home at two in the morning, in less than two hours we arrive to the “camp base” where they serve us breakfast & allocate us a tour guide, you can’t go up without one, that’s why it’s worth booking a tour. Along with two couples from Indianapolis, two guides & the torches they provide (although it’s a good idea to bring your own headlamp) we head up in the dark. Other groups are taking many breaks, but us (them because they are young & I because my mind is well trained by Crossfit Entreno Cruzado) ask the guides not to stop anymore, like champions!
With no more breaks we reach the top of Mt. Batur when slowly, the sun rises.
From there we enter the crater, where vapour is coming from, I freak out, I have never been into an active volcano before, it’s amazing.
We walk on the edge to find another way down, & we enjoy a double spectacle.
Once back in Ubud we meet Virginia in Kafe to have a nice cold drink. The streets of Ubud are full of lovely restaurants, cafes & shops, you’ll also find many yogis & some other enlighten ones, as Hector calls them, they are really sweet.
As well as god Arjuna, nicknamed “Balinese Sagittarius” by Ismael in the center of a roundabout.
Cute decorations are also on the menu.
If you like souvenirs you can visit the big tourist market & be prepared to bargain, we don’t think it’s that cheap & there’s more “of the same”, but it’s good fun & picturesque.
On our last night we go for dinner to Atman Kafe as a farewell, delicious food in a cute place with no plastic.
Bali, another life, another master, like the book by Brian Weiss “Many lives many masters” where this psiquiatrist based in Miami tells us in a shape of a very entertainig novel, cases of how his patients, under a regression therapy, remember passed lives & heal. In a mixture of romance & spirituality he sends us a message to awaken awareness, & shares how this therapy & the discovery of these pasts lives change his vision forever.