We are falling into the routine of Bali, Ubud and yoga.
Katja is insatiable and get up early to do the seven or eight o’clock classes. Today she did the seven o’clock and I meet up with her at nine to do the Power yoga class with Carlos.

It’s a good class and the Power yoga sessions are hard. I like a decent training session so the classes suites me just fine. Gotta say that about yoga, the variations and focuses appeal to me. Doing one class that focuses in strength, another to stretch and yet another to play it’s awesome. I guess it’s like my approach to martial arts – it’s gotta be fun, meaningful and varied to keep me interested.

After the class we decide to take a drive in the country side. We mount the bike and set off towards the outskirts of town. We’ve been here before, but the rice fields are still a mesmerizing sight. We stop to take pictures and continue past the house used in the “Eat, Pray, Love” movie. The farther we get from Ubud center the more temples, native costumes are worn and fewer tourists are seen.

Katja acts as map reader and guides me through the local villages, over bridges, through deep gorges, over small hills and through the green rice fields. We stop at Paula’s cafe that we visited a couple of times last year, but if was closed for the day. We came down and past the Bintang supermarket. We do a little shopping. We need airtight boxes. The bags we made last night are invaded by sugar ants and have to be thrown away. Not cool, not cool at all. We find boxes of different sizes and stack up.

After lunch we go for a haircut on the long haired Humong. It’s not all that easy as everyone are happy to massage you or do your nails, but haircuts are further apart. We find one and I get it done with a complimentary wash and oil massage. Not to much to brag about, the massage, but hey – it was complimentary.

We chill out at the hotel with reading out on the terrace. Suddenly it’s time for another yoga session and we go down to the barn to do a vinyasa flow.

For dinner we drove to the rendang place and ate there. When we came back Katja wanted to test the Neti pot. That’s a device for washing out your nostrils and sinuses. It’s based on flooding the upper nostril with salt water and keeping your head in an angle that makes it come out the other. Mind you, the position of the head is important as you will get in down your throat if you’re to high. Katja ordered this device from Amazon and got it shipped here to the hotel where it arrived a month before us. It’s part of the course and now it’s time to check it out so she wont stand there gulping when they use it first time in class. Katja is not all that fond of water in her nostrils. Something our more faithful readers might remember from the “diving experience”. Anyway, this went above and beyond, and we’re confident she’ll live to tell about it.

 

“He was swimming in a sea of other people’s expectations. Men had drowned in seas like that.”

―Robert Jordan,  New Spring