Image was taken on Gili Trawangan
Life in Bali!
I've been here for almost 2 months I'm really enjoying my time here.
The good: I have found the largest spiritual community and very affordable/healthy/yummy restaurants and inexpensive accomodations.
The bad: I'm living in a busy city which I told myself I wasn't going to do again.
This was taken on Gili Meno, one of my favorite baches I've ever been to in front of Sunset Gecko
The main attraction for me here in Ubud is the people and events, I'm making more connections here faster than anywhere else I've ever lived and it's providing huge opportunities
What My Week Has Looked Like So Far.
Sunday: Ecstatic dance at Yoga Barn then hung out at Soma making music
Monday: I went to a cacao ceremony
Tuesday, I went to another cacao ceremony
Wednesday, I worked on my business all day and practiced guitar then a friend I met in Uluwatu came to hang out with me at Soma
Thursday, I went to this amazing water blessing ceremony: http://www.destinasian.com/blog/news-briefs/a-cleansing-ritual-with-ida-resi-alit
The Slow Life!
Time here operates different than back at home, everyone seems to be quite relaxed and not so worried about it
Even business meetings are usually at some hip organic vegan place and centered around health
I'm currently laying down on a couch at a restaurant I frequent called Soma where there are often gatherings and music circles.
Taking a trip is soo easy, I can jump on my motorbike and go.
I will say that Google maps doesn't always work great here, I got completely lost a few weeks ago. I was taken on this really remote, single lane road in a high elevation. It was almost dark, my gas was running low, there were no people around, my phone battery was almost dead and it was pouring rain! I was very concerned but a man came by and I paid him to get me back on track, this was very fortunate for me!
The things that bother me the most here is that as a foreigner I'm constantly bombarded with people trying to sell me things I don't want or need. And often, saying no politely isn't enough.
About a month ago, I was on the beach with 2 friends. A beach that seemed very secluded and away from busy-ness. This local woman approached us to show us all of her goods. We all politely said no and she continued to linger and was saying "cheap cheap". We were wanting to relax so we again politely said "no thank you" again and again. Finally, after 10 minutes of holding space, my friend raised her voice and said to her "no means no, please leave" and she finally went away. In Ubud, I hear "Taksi, Taksi!" everywhere and it's quite obnoxious.
The worst experience I had with this was when coming back from the Gili islands at the port. My friend and I had already arranged transportation and paid for it. The taxi drivers were lined up at the harbor in droves. They asked "where you going?" which I find to be quite intrusive. I anwered "Ubud" and they said they could take us there for 400,000 rupiah which is a small fortune. I said that we already had transportation paid for and they said it would take 3-4 hours on the shuttle service we had already arranged and paid for. We almost took them up on it.. We decided to stick with the shuttle service we already paid for and it took 1 hour, it would have been exactly the same as the taxi. One thing I really don't like is being lied to.
There is also a major trash problem here, it's very sad to me. I see people throw plastic on the side of the road all the time like it's not their problem. Because of this, many (not all) of the beaches are disguisting and I won't go to them.
This is a very special and medicinal tea that was prepared for my by a local woman. It has really special and medicinal red bark from a rare tree found on Jakarta. It made me feel amazing and really got my blood flowing.
Diving Adventure
I met a really cool guy when I visited Gili Trawangan and he invited me to go to this sunken ship wreck on the East side of Bali. I drove there to meet him and his friend, these guys are both certified dive masters. I met them both on a Friday evening and it was obvious this was going to be a testosterone filled weekend. I don't have a tent, they brought 2 hammocks and 1 tent. The beach was rocky so they both slept in a hammock and I decided to get a hostel. After dinner, I went to my room and they had a fire on the beach. The next morning, I met them at their camp site on the beach of the sunken ship wreck. A couple of the locals were upset that they had a fire on the beach and were complaining about rubbish. We blew it off and went free diving. While we were free diving, a police officer was on shore and waved for us to come in. We did and he was saying we burnt a very special piece of wood that was going to be used for making a boat and that it was very expensive. Uh-oh, my 2 friends became defensive and said this wasn't possible as they used wood they found on the forest floor. The cop became very angry and began raising his voice, this wasn't an ideal situation. This was a situation I think most people fear the most when overseas, that something seemingly innocent could escalate into something much bigger like destruction of property or theft. The cop said we needed to come to the police station to clear this up and everything would be okay. I told him I stayed in a hostel and wasn't involved with the fire but he said I needed to come as well. We were all scared, we didn't know what to expect. When we got to the police station, the local who was accusing us came as well and began taking pictures of us from his phone. One of the guys got very upset and began raising his voice saying he can't take pictures of us, this wasn't looking good. The cop then showed us a picture of a man who went to prison for 5 years for "stealing wood" which was what all 3 of us were being accused of. After about a 30 minute lecture and build up of being assured we were in a serious situation, the cop told us we could fix this by paying the man who claimed we burned his special wood money. We had to pay around $200 U.S. which we happily did for our freedom and since then have been much more careful realizing how quickly innocent activities can escalate.
After we paid, we went to go rent diving gear. They are both certified dive masters and told me to pretend I was too. I went with it, the guy who owned the shop was certified dive master and he came across as intimidating. He asked for certification and my friend showed him his certification but the owner couldn't verify it because the internet was down. He rented us the gear and they helped me suit up and gave me a crash course. The first 5 meters was scary because my ears were hurting soo much. After 5 meters, all the pressure went away and the experience was one of the best in my life. Sea life was thriving from the iron on the ship, it looked like an underwater festival of the most amazing colors I had ever seen. Big fish swam really close to me, we went all the way down to the bottom it was around 30+ meters I beleive. I ended up running out of oxygen, they said its normal to breath more than you need to on your first dive especially without training. They let me use their oxygen. When we got back to the surface, they said that they broke just about every rule. I was soo greatful for the experience.
Long Term
I don't think I'll stay here long term but I imagine I'll want to come back. My friends who have lived here long term are constantly going on runs to Denpassar to get their visa extended. That feeling isn't fun, the feeling of "I'm an immigrant". I found an awesome visa agency here that does almost all of the visa stuff on my behalf and even has a courier service to come to me and pick up my passport thus saving me trips to the immigration office and stress. As a foreigner, I can't buy land here. I could lease the land for up to 30 years I beleive.I want freehold land so that I know all of the energy that goes into it won't go away in 30 years. Indonesia is really into progressive, environmental projects. They donated an entire island to the earthship project which really says a lot. That all said, I'm working with a few people to get resources/funding to start a permaculture/intentional community. The people I'm working with are both from different countries and they are thinking they might want to get land here, in which case I'm open to making this my part time home.
My favorite island I've been to is Gili Meno. It's the smallest of the Gili islands and the least crowded. Its around 200,000-250,000 for a shuttle and boat ride one way. The only way to get around is walking, horse drawn carriages and bicycles. I stayed at this awesome eco resort called the Sunset Gecko, it was really affordable and steps away from a very clean and well kept beach. There were many amazing beach front restaurants such as the Reishi Livingroom and many of them caught their own fish that they served. The locals who lived here didn't try to sell me anything and they seemed very different. I sat down over dinner for about 2 hours with one local man and talked about the island and my vision of permaculture community. He shared that the island was under different governence than the rest of Indonesia and even Gili Trawangan. He said that Gili Trawangan never even had police until a few months agao and they just started it because of how busy it is.
There are still some things I want to check out while I'm here. Earth ship island (Kenawa Island) is a project where 60 earth ships will be built and an entire permaculture community will be established and they're having a course in September on how to build an entire Earth ship, I may go if I can get a scholarship.
I also want to go to Nusa Penida island, it's closer than Gili islands. Here is a picture taken by my friend Naila
source
I hope this has inspired you, perhaps you'll come to Bali some day.
Thanks for reading!