June 21, 2015

Tomorrow Oscar and I head back to Ubud and the last leg of our time here begins. It is hard to believe the end is in sight!

This is really about catching you up on what we have been doing post-retreat. On the Saturday following the retreat, we left Ubud for a small series of islands off the coast of Lombok, a close neighbour of Bali. We left the hotel at 7am. It bears noting that I have seen more sunrises in Bali than possibility throughout the rest of my life combined. Perhaps in part because of the time change, the fact that I am in the Southern Hemisphere (it could be!), the almost exactly 12 hours of daylight and mostly outdoor living or some combination of all, but I am actually following the yogic ideal of early to bed and early to rise

Given our early departure, we caught an early boat to Gili Trawagan. Our boat had a small engine issue just before taking off that delayed our departure by about an hour. The great thing about holidays is that these things so don’t matter. And I was happier it happened while we were on the dock then when we were at sea.

The boat trip took about an hour and a half and stopped at Lombok to drop off other passengers. We continued on to Gili T, one of three small islands clustered off the north coast of Lombok.
The Gili islands have only been formally settled for about 60 years and there are no cars on the island. We were met at the ferry by a young man from our hotel and escorted to the cart and pony (literally) that would take us and our luggage to the hotel. The ponies for the most part seem enthusiastic and well taken care of, which was reassuring. Certainly they are well used!

Oscar and I then spent several days on the beach, exploring the island and taking an unplanned walk around the island perimeter. It is about 7kms and I don’t recommend flip flops as an appropriate footwear choice. Still my feet and I survived and I have noted not to trust Oscar’s sense of distance. He had biked around the island the previous day and thought when we were near the end of the small town, we were about half-way around. Hmmm…. Not exactly! :)

Gili is beautiful with turquoise water and vistas of both Lombok (close) and Bali in the distance. Swimming is impacted by coral reefs, so we could only swim at high tide which was first thing in the morning. Luckily it was warm enough that I was happy hopping in the water right away. Oscar and I both saw sea turtles,which are present in the area and sighting is supposed to bring a long life.

Gili T, however, has a much different feel than Bali and that combined with a beach party vibe in the town, meant it didn’t have the special sense I found in Ubud. I had gone, hearing that the hotel where we stayed might be a good yoga retreat and I think there are better options in Bali itself.

We had an uneventful trip back to Bali and a lovely drive from the east coast where the boat landed to the north side. Our driver was excellent on the small winding roads that literally followed a snake trail up and down the mountain. We stopped at a beautiful temple on the side of a crater lake in the middle of the country. The altitude was high enough that I was feeling chilled. And yes, knowing me, you might take that with a grain of salt but for what’s it’s worth, the driver was also cold :)

The North coast of Bali had black sand beaches and is less discovered by the tourist crowd than the popular southern areas. It has the only Buddhist temple in Bali with a large number of Buddhist from all over Bali and other nearby countries for courses. The temple is beautiful. Interestingly, it has been strongly influenced by the Hindu religion and carvings there look like ones we saw at Hindu temples. There are also local hot springs from an active volcano in the central mountains. Even though it is very warm, the hot springs are busy with people of all ages coming for the healing benefits of the waters.
This area is also well-known for its wild dolphins so Oscar and I got up at 5:30am (see what I mean about the sunrises!) to catch a boat for go looking for dolphins. I often expect to be the only boat in the water, and each time I am a bit shocked that there are other people doing the same thing.

Our boat picked us up from our beach and was a local wooden fishing boat which is just as wide as we are with balance beams off on each side. It was a little scary to head off into open water in what seemed like a precarious craft. However, it was surprisingly stable and after my initial worry, I completely forgot about it.

Again, however, there were some moments of engine trouble, but luckily the boatman got the motor going again. Whew! And we saw dolphins! It has been one of my dreams to see wild dolphins and this was the first time. They were close, surprisingly small and as fluid as the water they effortlessly moved through. Our boat was low enough and they came close enough that it felt like I could easily reach out and touch them. This was not literally true but I had that feeling sense. The dolphins were as beautiful, graceful and full of Shakti (the creative, fluid, enlivening force of nature) as I had imagined. The memory of this moment will stay held in my heart – as will much of my time here.

And now we prepare to leave this shore and return to Ubud. From there we will do some day trips, shop and spend some time in a spa (one of the must-do things when in Bali so we hear) before the long flight home.
I look forward to seeing you all soon!

PS – more photos in a separate Facebook post