Bali Chapter 4 at Arjana Bungalows

It’s amazing what happens when there’s no Internet in the room. I woke up at my usual 4:30am and did my restorative yoga practice, showered, took a walk in the rice fields, and had breakfast.  It’s still before 9am and class starts at 9:30am, so here I am.

Sunday:

My driver drove very slowly along a very narrow road to the very end, where one sign indicated no cars beyond that point and the other said “Arjana Bungalows”. Yes! This is another retreat center in a small village on the outskirts of Ubud, surrounded by nature. Perfect.

My private little bungalow (we each get one at $20/night) wasn’t ready yet as I arrived at 9:30am, so I headed up to the studio pavillion by the pool and met a few of the workshop participants. One German gal was on her way to the neighbouring rice field for her daily coconut water, so I joined her. CocoWayan’s little stand surrounded by rice fields and his organic medicinal herbs garden was just lovely. This is only about 3 minutes heading left into the motorbike-only zone. It was the best young coconut water I had had so far – $1 if you don’t keep the bamboo straw. Even better, however, was Wayan’s welcoming smile and stories. Coconut water is on my Ayurvedic prescription and has lots of electrolytes, so that was a bonus.

Later, I went out for lunch with my previous guide and her sister, who is also participating in the workshop. We turned right outside our complex and headed down the lane, past a few shops and into Rumah Roda’s Restaurant & Guest House for an absolutely delicious meal – and this time for the $1.50 I had heard about before coming to Bali. The restaurant is on the second story and accessible once you enter the family compound. Nice place and very welcoming – a book was written about the family and their home. As it was Sunday, we returned there for their Balinese dinner buffet – a feast for $4. The food was definitely freshly cooked as the table was usually empty by the time I got there (all 3 times), so I waited and piled stuff on top of my banana leaf plate when it arrived. It wasn’t as tasty as the other buffets I had been to, but still good.

In between lunch and dinner, I relaxed, sketched a little, swam in the spacious pool while the thunder started rolling in, and went for a long walk along the tiny path through the rice fields once those clouds had passed. Not sure if you’re tired of rice field photos yet, but I’m not tired of taking them. So beautiful… and quiet! Yay!

The only disadvantage I see so far is that there are tons of mosquitoes here compared to the other places. They fog, but I guess it’s been long enough for a new crop. I’ll be using up my DEET for sure. Better DEET than hemorrhaging to death because I’ve had dengue fever once already.  OK, that’s a bit dramatic. The doctors can stop that if it’s caught fast enough. I don’t plan on testing that theory though… DEET it is.