Ubud and its Flowers

30 Nov – Arrive in Bali midday (from London with Malaysian Airlines). From a rainy England, to an incredibly scorching hot mid-day Bali. I had my long winter boots on, as I had no room in my bag for them!  Moz in his taxi, picked me up from the airport and took me through the busy traffic to Ubud. Where he was the driver for the White Lotus Oasis, where I was booked in.  It was a lovely room, with flowers on the pillow, (flowers are placed with care everywhere in Bali). I went to sleep early. Sandeh came down to greet me, the lady whom runs the bnb.  This is the reason I ended up in Ubud. In that, before coming to Bali, I had googled; yoga and Bali, to see what came up, and it had brought me to her link.  I didn’t know anything about Ubud before coming.  On the plane, I sat beside a woman whom knew Sandeh, a small world, yes.

Dec 1  – yoga at 10.30am, free at White Lotus on the 3rd floor, in a lovely enclosed rooftop. But I nearly fainted as it was so hot and I was still jetlagged I guess. And a massage treatment at 3 pm.  I went out for dinner with Sandeh that night at fantastic restaurant across the road, I went there a lot, they did amazing tempeh.  Savannah Moon it is called.

Dec 2 – Meditation day, there was a course led by Sandeh at the White Lotus, on the top floor, a day course, it was really good. I went out for dinner afterwards, with some of the others on the course, it was amazing food. (Bali is really all about delicious food).  Sandeh had learnt from Osho, lots of releasing/dance.

Dec 3th, I was aware on that day that there were 3 stars lining up at Giza. I went back for more Yoga at 10 am, on the rooftop at White Lotus. There are two rooms available for rent at White Lotus. It is a lovely place to stay and I met the women from the other room, Raine, whom was from South Africa.

That week, we went to see Ketut Liyer, the medicine man and traditional healer. At his family compound, where there is a raised terrace and it is open. You wait your turn, and watch as he treats other people. Went on the back of a motorbike with Raine, on Sandeh’s recommendation. For a treatment with this man, whom was very wise when it comes to healing. Ketut had a long stick, which he put exactly on my foot at a pressure point and I felt a huge pain came through! He said ‘connected’ and ‘electric’ when scanning my body system, checking before treatment, as I sat in front of him. Then when I was lying down on mat for further treatment, He kept saying “You know what you have to do don’t you”… I said Yes, yes… but really I have no idea, or maybe I do. I understand better now what he might have been referring to. He had a great presence and it felt good to be around him. He did a kind of sequence over the ovaries and stomach. He said other things I didn’t quite understand at the time, it was very quick. I felt a lot better afterwards. He is the healer whom is in the book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’. He passed over in 2016. Rest in Peace.

Raine and I went for a walk to an organic café not far from where we were staying. A beautiful walk through the rain forest and rice fields, really nice.  It poured with rain when we had our lunch, and looked very beautiful landing in the ponds, and then stopped when we left.  

Dec 5 – I left White Lotus to move down the street to another place, as I had only booked in for a certain amount of nights, found a nice place for the last two nights. This place had a pool too. During this time I also had a healing massage with local man ‘Hands’, whom Sandeh had recommended. He was a real healer. And also on the 5^th I had a body exfoliate, the first time I had ever had one of these, you leave with the feeling that a lot of stuff has been scrubbed off! I visited the Monkey Temple too.

When in Bali, whilst on the internet, I happened upon a map by Robert Coon, that described the Rainbow Serpent lines – male and female, around the earth. http://www.earthchakras.org 

It felt ground breaking to find this map, as I had read earlier that Glastonbury may be the heart chakra and Uluru, the solar plexus.  I had booked this trip to go to these places for that reason, but I had no knowledge that Bali was significant, and was one of the two points on the earth where the male and female lines crossed. It seems I was following the female line – that also dipped under New Zealand. I had just been to Glastonbury and was on route to Uluru. So I researched the holy places and temples in Bali, on these lines, and I booked a day trip. The trip included the places of Tirta Empal and the Besakih Temples.

I also lost my credit card, as I had left it in a machine/visa on this day. (The machine there gives the cash first, and then the card). And I couldn’t find my back up card for some reason. But I had no time to get stressed. I had booked the Temple tour earlier, and already paid for it.  And this was the most important thing for me, to get to that tour.

6 December – The Day trip – The driver to us took us first stop to Goa Temple (I didn’t go into this one). We were each to wear a sarong as this was custom to cover up when entering temples.

Pura Tirta Empal 

Then to Tirta Empal – which means holy spring in Indonesian. It is a Hindu Balinese water temple where people go for purification. Many were bathing in the waters of the Spring when we were there. I drunk the Spring waters from here, I was the only one, the others didn’t, bathed my legs and filled up my water bottle. Where Balinese Hindus go for ritual purification.

Then to a place that grew and made coffee, cacao, vanilla, ginger, mmm (we got to try samples of them) Then to to a lookout of Mt Ubur, to view the Sacred Mountain, this mountain has a real presence.

Besakih Temples

Then to the Mother Temples – Besakih, the energy there was intense. There was one spot where I felt the energy was very heavy. I brought my crystals with me, and they were a part of it, in that they helped me in these spots – there was one spot near the base – where I walked around in a circle motion a lot – and stood there for a long time, before I felt it shifted or moved, it was at lower ground level.

Then to Lunch – it rained a lot, whilst at lunch, it looked beautiful, looking out over the rice paddy fields and then when we left the rain cleared. Was the way for this trip the rain cleared at the right times. I did not eat there, as I had the credit card situation, which meant I had no lunch, I fasted. Didn’t matter, I was happy.  I meditated there.

Khunkan Temple

Then to last temple, Khunkan, which had quite a different energy, very peaceful. Even though Dutch Immigrants in 1908 came in with their guns and took over the Balinese place there. The Balinese people are very resilient.  The sun came out just as we entered the temple.

Then I was dropped off later and said goodbye to everyone, then hallelujah, I found my back up card and it gave me some cash. I went to say goodbye to Sandeh and to let her know that I had found it, as she had been worried and in wonderment that I wasn’t stressed. Met two German guys at a restaurant up the road where I celebrated with a honey, lemon and ginger tea.

That night I dined again at Savannah moon, after fasting on this day, it was nice, the family knew me well by this time.

I packed my bags until late & didn’t sleep much, waking every hour, as I knew I was to be up early. Then ready to go at 4.15 am and picked up at 5am with Rudi, a local Balinese man. On his motorbike, me and my bags, as through narrow streets, then in his car and on to Denpasser Airport. Upon leaving Bali, I was feeling great warmth inside, that I had been given from the people and place, it was now flowering inside of me.

The trip to Bali really was an incredible experience. I was smiling more for it.
Dec 7, depart Bali 9am, for a flight to Perth, Australia, to visit my sister Sarah and her family.