Blog

Part I: Pineapple House in Canggu

After 27 hours of travelling (though not a bad 27 hours, I might say), I arrived at Pineapple House in Canggu, Bali. I was welcomed by Rachel, a delightful British girl who is running  her surf and yoga retreat based out of Pineapple House.

My time there was a bit more isolated than I had expected, but I made the best of it and read a lot of great books. (I read seven books in the two week span I was in Bali.)

It was hard to walk around in Canggu, because there are no sidewalks, and crazy scooters and cars are flying right at you. Sometimes I would walk around and pick up a bite to eat, but generally I had transportation to important events (like surfing), or just read at the guesthouse. Desa Seni, Canggu’s premiere yoga “haven” was right next door, so for the yoga portion of the retreat, I just walked next door.

Before I tell you about my fitness activities in Canggu, I want to share some of the sights that stood out to me as novel or different in (all of) Bali: seeing a 9 year old boy drive a motorbike; seeing frogs in the kitchen; water buffalo on the beach; cows in the street; hoardes of monkeys along the side of the road; seeing a truck stuck tilted over on the side of the road into the rice patties, because the roads are so narrow, and the driver misjudged the width. I heard sights like this are very common among this road!

Regarding fitness in Canggu, I did:

• 5 surf lessons: I was pretty scared of the waves, getting hurt, being smashed, getting injured, falling funny, hitting rocks, having the board hit my head, etc etc but I sucked it up and did it anyway!  I pumped myself up and told myself it’s only 5 lessons and YAY I DIDN’T SUCK! I stood up from Day 1 and enjoyed trying a new sport. My neck was pretty tight from looking up while paddling (as you’re supposed to) but it was nothing a few massages couldn’t extinguish, and I’m sure if I were to continue surfing as a regular hobby, I would strengthen my neck and the pain would diminish. Altogether I enjoyed surfing!
• 4 classes at Desa Seni: I still don’t like yoga. I took Yin Yoga and thought meh. I took kundalini yoga and despite my wonderful experience at Esalen- this was not the same. So meh. I took Sound Meditation and that was fab! That was just listening to gongs, didgeridoos, chimes, chanting, etc and let the music overtake you. And I took Embodied Flow which was more of a mindfulness through experimental movement/dance class, and THAT I enjoyed. Because it wasn’t yoga so much IMO as self awareness while moving and dancing.  I love every component of the last sentence, so that class was a win!
• one class at BaliFit/Training for Warriors: I am a huge fan of Training for Warriors, so to have found a Bali branch, I was delighted to get in on the action! I found the trainer, Mark Mariani, to be highly skilled, and found the workout to be exactly true to the Training for Warriors format.  Awesome class!
  

  Bali Fit, Fuck Yeah!

• one no gi grappling class at Bali Muay Thai and MMA: I was hoping to roll around on the floor with a bunch of hot fit Australian men (one can hope, right?) but it turns out that there was going to be a grappling tournament that day, so the men had to save their energy. So instead of regular class format, I was informed I would do warm ups, work on some arm bars, then do some stretching. I still had a great time and was happy I got to check it out! Follow your passions wherever you can, right?! I love grappling so it’s cool to be able to go around the world and still speak the same language of jiu jitsu.

Part II:  North Bali, West Bali, and East Java with NEWBali

Day 1 of the 3 day tour, I met with all the folks going on the excursion together. A great group of people! We travelled many hours to go to North Bali, to hit up a pristine landscape of lush forest, wild flowers, multiple waterfalls, and hidden swimming holes.

We hiked and climbed through the terrain til we arrived at a “waterfall slide.” Basically, it’s a slide created by currents from the waterfall. The path was worn enough so that it was smooth. You set yourself up at the top of the waterfall; say a prayer if you need to; and OFF YOU GO! Next thing you know, you are careening down the natural waterslide and shot into the deep waters below. Fun! I did it twice.

The other super fun thing was the 40 foot high waterfall jump! Two other people in my group jumped off, but then another two people held back. I was vacillating on which camp I wanted to side on.

“It looks scary as fuck. It’s pretty far down, and what if I hurt myself?”

“Isn’t this what I signed up for? Why not? It’s just water. The water is super deep.”

“But it’s so scary. You don’t need to prove anything to anyone. If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to do it, no one will care. Just being in this amazing place and doing the waterfall slide is enough and its own reward!”

“Fuck it! Isn’t this what I paid for?!”

and I lept…and it was great! 😉 Did it twice.

 

Day 2 actually started at 11 PM on Day 1. After napping for maybe an hour, 11 PM was our wake up call, and it was time to begin our journey to climb Ijen volcano in East Java.  We arrived at the base of the volcano around 2 AM and arrived at the top around 4 AM. Ijen volcano is the site of a lot of sulphur mining.

As I struggled to ascend the very difficult, steep, sandy, dusty, rocky, and uneven 2 hour trek to the top, I saw old men with 100 kilos (200 lbs) of sulphur rocks on their back, hung in baskets, that they were taking away to trade in for cash. Ijen is also known for the electric blue flames that are seen in the dark. It is the largest blue flame area of the world.

4 AM is a perfect time to see these amazing blue flames that are ignited sulphuric gas, because 1) you can only see them in the dark, and 2) sunrise is around 5:45 AM, so that gave us time to enjoy the blue flames, and start our way back down, and allowing use to see the volcano also after sunrise, to actually witness the magnificent vista we had been trekking, unbeknownst to us. At 4 AM, though, it was soo surreal. We had drank coffee and had breakfast at 2 AM to power the trek, and everything just felt weird. It was pitch black, and the only lights to be seen were the flickers of flashlights, headlamps, and the stars, of course. At the site we were trekking to see, it kind of felt like Burning Man, though I’ve never gone. A huge gathering of people in the middle of the night. Plumes of sulphur clouds were shooting out; blue flames dancing; every foreigner wearing gas masks (an odd sight); and the old men dredging slowly (no gas masks) through the path with heavy baskets of hardened sulphur. Just surreal.

Post-note: was ridiculously sore in the calves and glutes for FIVE days after that undertaking!

Day 3 we snorkeled at Menjangan Island in Northwest Bali, and it was fucking amazing. All sorts of corral; interesting, beautiful, and strange fish; sea anemone things and blue starfish. In turquoise waters. It was absolutely magnificent to see all the beauty just a short distance beneath our normal vision!

Part III: The Happy Mango Tree in Ubud

Re: fitness/yoga, Wednesday I went to Ubud Fitness Centre. I got super lost walking there and a 30 min walk turned into an hour and 5 minutes. Oops! Thursday I went back to Ubud Fitness Centre, and took Shamanic Breathwork at Yoga Barn at 5 PM. Friday I took Tibetan Heart Yoga at Radiantly Alive, and Yoga Nidra at Yoga Barn. (I’m a pro at selecting yoga classes that are not too “yoga-y”.) I also refused to take taxis, so I walked everywhere, which probably added up to 2 hours a day. Was feeling really ill toward the end of my trip, so I was happy to go home on Saturday! And that, in a (large) nutshell, was Bali.

Share