(a view from our 3rd floor yoga space!)(the house we live in!!!)
bali is so beautiful. that is really the essence. yesterday we walked all the way into town from our absoultely gorgeous home...down the "duck path", a little trail that winds it's way through and between the rice paddies, past balinese artists with little shops full of their intricate balinese art, "where you from?" "where you going?", sweet conversations, a balinese man weeding his rice field, calling us up the hill so that he can climb a tall coconut tree and pick us a fresh one and cut it open for a dollar and talk to him while we drink it. we stopped off at a all-organic farm restaurant in the middle of the rice paddies and had lunch while the darkest storm clouds i've ever seen came towards us, and were sheltered from the rain while eating heirloom organic red rice and fresh picked salad with avocado and homemade pineapple wine....as we walked back after a couple of hours in ubud, the sun set and the clouds were brilliantly highlighted in pink all around. carson turned me around on the spot so i could soak into the 360 degree view of green green green everywhere, terraced rice fields, palm trees holding coconuts, little grass huts for mid-day shade.
the day before was nyepi, the balinese new year (it's 1930 everyone!), a day of silence and staying home and not using any lights at night. it was such a good day, we slept in and just spent time with each other at home. we are living in such a great house with other people, chloe our friend who invited us to bali, and margot and jesse from santa cruz, and doug from canada, and made who is the caretaker of the house, and a couple of other men who also care for the property. we have long breakfasts together every morning of black sticky rice with coconut and palm sugar, or local vanilla yogurt and bali buddha granola, or fried eggs and fresh rye bread toast. really, the food here is as great as we've had on our trip, healthy and fresh, both balinese and western-inspired alike.
(i haven't written in a week, there's so much to say, and this is a sticky keyboard). back to nyepi...that night we all climbed the spiral staircase to the top floor, one of my favorite rooms i've ever been in, a large yoga/dance space with wooden floors and a tall beamed cieling, and watched the lightening bugs blink on and off over the rice fields for hours.
we have met SUCH great people here too, a full community, of new visitors and people who come here every year, and people who live here anyways. one of my favorites is faith, a friend of chloe's...when we met, we both realized we had gone to heartwood at different times, an instant bond! we also love alexandra from argentina, and timshel from british columbia. we took a motorbike trip up through little villages to one of the volcanoes with jesse and chloe, and went to a hotspring down below. we also drove through a village there and had a tour of a temple by a local man who came to chat with us. the night before nyepi was a huge affair in every village here in bali, the locals spend a few days before building big scary monster- like creatures that they hoist up on bamboo platforms and parade through the streets the night before new years. in ubud was a large gathering, at least 20 of these colorfully-handcrafted creatures being carried all around, (the cutest was a big "tom" cat and "jerry" mouse that the men and boys spun around and acted out a fight between, all the way down the street!) live gong cymbal balinese music parade bands following their "ogo-ogo" sculpture, fireworks displays to scare off the spirits (the idea of nyepi is to have a day of inaction so the spirits won't notice anyone here on the island and will just float on past...even the airport closes that day, everything is closed and quiet).
carson just got his head shaved! the last time was in december in chiang mai. i feel so overwhelmed as to what to write about, there's much to share! we have attended a traditional balinese dance and gamelan performance, ridden our motorbike up and down our winding narrow road past temples and little villages, watched beautifully-dressed balinese woman prepare and leave their handwoven flower and rice and incense offerings to all the gateways of the temples, three times a day i think...there are also these offerings everywhere, on the street in special places, outside our gate to our home, fresh red hibiscus flowers placed on all the stone ganesh and spirit statues in our yard...the attention to art and beauty here is amazing, so many artisans: wood carvers, silver smiths, painters, builders, tailors and clothes makers, bread bakers, food cookers, flower offerings, color, green green green like i said. it usually rains once a day but it's warm and hard rain and passes quite quickly. we're here at the tail end of the rainy season.
the bali spirit festival starts in a few days and we're looking forward to it! 4 days of yoga/dance/music/meditation workshops, with concerts in the night time! hopefully we can volunteer half day/attend workshops the other half of the day. we are also looking for another place to rent in afew days, as our room will (sadly) be occupied by another visitor soon. the ninth house is such a special place, my favorite of our trip i think (along with nicola's in italy), but i'm sure we'll find another great place to stay. so much beauty everywhere.
there's so much more i could write, perhaps next time it will flow better when i have a keyboard that isn't so difficult to type on! we'll post some more pictures next time too. i hope everyone is doing well! we're flying back to the US in less than a month now, can you believe it?! the days are going by faster and faster now.
much love!
melissa
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