Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Bali and the Ubud Writers Festival

Well here I am again in Nyuh Kuning Bali staying at the very beautiful Alam Jiwa and having my first holiday without Fisherman and the children for 21 years. I am feeling very privileged to be in such a lovely place and to sharing it with 3 wonderful women who I have known for more than 30 years.



We arrived here after dark and were escorted to a palatial villa on 3 levels, with beautiful 4 poster beds and day beds crammed with cushions. At dawn the ducks arrived in the paddy fields outside our windows and woke us up with their cheerful cacophony. In the daylight we could see the full glory of where we had landed. Yoga, a swim and breakfast and we were beginning to relax into our holiday.



 So far we have enjoyed a traditional massage at Nur's ( great, and my upper back is moving better than it has for months, but 3 days later and it is still very tender thanks to the heavy use of an elbow up and down my back and around my shoulder blades).

We have visited the Agung Labah temple while there was a ceremony occurring. The Gamelan was playing and everyone was dressed up to the nines. It was very intense and we mostly observed from outside. This is a week of great ceremony every day and tomorrow there will be a procession from one temple to another which we will try to observe.


As I am with several champion shoppers some shopping has occurred, mostly at the fabulous Threads of Life. There are many new shops in Ubud, and in Nyuh Kuning there has been a lot of development in the 14 months since my last visit.

As always in Bali we have had excellent food, and I have a new favourite, Warung Laba Laba on Jalan Hanoman, I can highly recommend it.

The writers festival starts the day after tomorrow and we are all really looking forward to it.

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