While most of my time is spent hanging out in the Yoga Shala learning all things yoga, we have 1 day off after every 5 days of learning. After the first 5 days of intensive learning, I was really ready for a day off. Prior to arriving in Bali, I had this idea in my head that most of my time would be spent improving my yoga practicing, sweating my face off and getting in the best shape of my life. As it turns out, there is a lot more to learn about yoga than the practice itself, and most of my time is spent sitting or lying down in some way or another on an assortment of pillows and bolsters. I wasn’t wrong about the sweating my face off part though… I do a lot of that, despite not physically exercising excessively. Needless to say, after 5 days of slow asana and sitting, I was ready to move my body, so I got up in time to practice yoga at the guesthouse that I’m staying at. The yoga class was… different than I expected, but it got me sweating so I’ll take it.
After yoga and breakfast, Chelsey and I decided to walk down the beach to the city of Seminyak, which is much bigger, busier, and more developed than Canggu where we are staying. We began our adventure around midday, and were immediately followed by 2 adorable dogs, who made their way all the way from Canggu to Seminyak with us. Because we had left when the tide was high, we waded through nearly waist deep water at one point and the dogs followed loyally by our sides. After an hour of walking along the beach, feeling the sand between our toes and the waves lapping at our feet, we made our way into Seminyak. It was immediately noticeable that we were in a proper city, as there were cars and mopeds everywhere, convenience stores with air con, proper shops, and sidewalks. We made our way through the town to the flea market where we bartered and shopped our way through the rows of jewellry, clothing, and trinkets. By this point, we were both starving, so we made our way back towards our starting point, stopping at Siserfields for one of the best meals I’ve had in a while. I indulged in gluten free toast with avocado, feta, sun dried tomoatoes with a poached egg and a passionfruit smoothie. That plus air conditioning – it just doesn’t get much better!
Following lunch, we made our way back to the beach, and back to Canggu. We enjoyed most of the one hour beach walk back in silence, and I felt at peace with the sun warming my skin and the ocean crashing on the beach.
After our beautiful day spent in Seminyak, I had 5 more days of learning before another day off. On our last night, our whole group went to a a bar and restaurant called Deus for ladies night, where the outdoor patio was adorable and the vibe was awesome. Despite coming home early and not intoxicated, I woke up a few hours later with the need to go to the bathroom… again…and again. Bali belly had struck in my digestive tract! I spent most of the night in discomfort, feeling pretty awful, but I didn’t want to forego the trip I had planned to go to Padang Padang beach and Uluwatu Temple. I crushed some charcoal and immodium and hopped in the car with Chelsey, Britney and our private driver for the day, Putu. It took us about an hour to get to Padang Padang, and it was certainly worth the drive to get there. We weaved our way down a series of steps through the damp rocks and lush jungle and came out at a tiny sanded beach packed with people and surrounded by greenery. The ocean was a beautiful turqoise and we immediately dumped our stuff on the beach with Putu and went for a swim. Padang Padang beach was made famous when Eat, Pray, Love was filmed there, and unfortunately the influx of tourism has caused a lot of garbage to end up in the ocean. Nevertheless we enjoyed ourselves.
We relaxed on the beach for a while, before making our way to Blue Point where we stopped at Single Fin to enjoy the view, and made our way down past a ton of shops to get to an enclosed beach. The entire experience was pretty cool, and despite all the tourism, I almost felt like I was exploring something untouched. Our final stop of the day was Uluwatu temple, where we explored while watching the sun set behind the clouds. The temple weaves its way along the steep cliffside, almost like a very miniature version of the Great Wall. We stood on the side of the cliffs breating in the ocean air, enjoying the beautiful viiew, and I nearly had to pinch myself with the complete surrealness that has been this entire adventure.
As we made our way back through the temple, we got our fill of monkeys stealing stuff from careless tourists, and taking in the view one final time, before heading back to Canggu to have dinner at one of my local favorites, Betelnut. Fortutnately for me, by this point my medicine had kicked in and although I was past exhausted from the day, I was up for a smoothie and some gluten free toast!
Until next time Uluwatu….