Ubud

The town of Ubud is quite different than Nusa Dua.  Where there we had sprawling beaches, and sparkling blue water, empty paths to stroll on, and restaurants that folded up shop by 9pm, here is a mini city that is bustling and busy, but yet I’m already recognizing people on the street.  We are staying in a guesthouse for $60/night, complete with salt water pools, views of the rice paddies, and breakfast every morning. 

We’ve gotten into the routine of waking up by 7 or so, doing some computer time as we drink our morning tea, then heading into town early for yoga or shopping.  It took me almost an hour and a half to walk to the studio the first day, so we’ve since decided to rent scooters.  I’m quite nervous about driving them.  Partly because I’ve never driven a scooter, partly because you’re supposed to drive on the left hand side of the road (though people seem to just mingle between both sides), and partly because I don’t know where I’m going to begin with.  And it's been raining every day so that adds to the fun.  This morning I had a grand start of it by running into the side of a rice paddie terrace.  Luckily not much more than my knee and ego got bruised.  The local guys had a good laugh and helped me to straighten back out again, and pull the grass off the bike.  Luckily I was headed to a Yin Yoga class that my friend Sarah was teaching, so I was able to let go of some of that nervous energy. 

The yoga here has been great.  Several different classes offered at The Yoga Barn which seems to be the main place in town.  And Sarah has pulled together a few folks to do Acro, so that always makes my day!!  There are AMAZING fresh organic local eateries everywhere that have so many different juice/tonic/komboucha/milkshake options for about $2-4 a piece.  I spend about 15 minutes at each place just reading over the menu.  We’ve found a few local fruits that we love—my favorite is this spiny brown one called  Bali salak (bark fruit or snakeskin fruit) (bottom right).  The dark purple one ((bottom left) is mangosteen.   

This meal below was from a little local place nearby called Yellow Flower Café.  Shaved coconut salad with mung beans and arugula, homemade komboucha with ginger and soft young coconut flesh, and Nasi Campur (a traditional meal of rice with little side dishes like fried mung beans, green bean and bean sprout salad, tempeh, toasted coconut, hard boiled egg with sambal).  Such great fresh food, and this entire meal probably cost about $6.

Yoga, fresh food, cheap juice smoothies, great friends, acro.  What more could a girl ask for??