Bali

This morning I received an email from my friend who lives in Singapore. She didn’t write earlier because it took her longer to adapt to being back home than she anticipated. She was gone for one month. It takes time and there is nothing a person can do but give it time, be patient and

Hello! Yesterday was my birthday and it was a lovely day. Actually, as my friends from England would say, it was “Brilliant”. After a lazy start to the day, I went out for coffee, shopping for some herbs to bring back, bought a necklace for myself and went back to drop things off at Nyoman’s.

The evening before NYEPI is the Ogoh-Ogoh ceremony. I hesitate to call it a parade although that’s the closest word we have for it. However, a parade goes all at once, this doesn’t. The Ogoh-ogoh’s are so large, men with loooonnnnggg bamboo poles accompany them lifting power lines and telephone lines out of the way.

It’s been a while since I updated here. The last I wrote, I was stranded on Gili Air. The boats were to start running on Sunday when I was there. I arrived early for the 10:30 boat only to find it had already left. Surrendering quickly to the reality that there was no boat, I

It’s been a couple days since I wrote an update. I’ve been told to check with the “agent” near the jetty for the Sea Marlin fast boat schedule and information on when they will resume travel. I have, did again, did again, did again…it wasn’t a pretty picture as they knew nothing. Via Skype, I

Yesterday, I learned why all the boats have been stopped. We are on the edge of a cyclone, not a storm. At the earliest, the boats will begin again Saturday, possibly not until Sunday or Monday. Some people say not until next week. The challenge with information here: everyone has some and rarely is it

The wind was horrendous last night, really loud all night long. The only thing louder were the people from Russia partying below me! That was loud. When I did get up and look out shortly after 6:00, I was surprised to hear the wind but see calm trees. It wasn’t the wind but the ocean.

I’m on Gili Meno, one of the islands off the coast of Lombok. They do have WiFi here in two spots I’ve discovered which is slow and expensive. If you are reading this, I was able to get a message out with a few photo’s. I left Ubud last Saturday morning on a shuttle bus

This morning, waking to my last day in Ubud, I felt like having a lazy day and maybe going into the country for a motor bike ride. The weather looked good, the skies clear and a ride to the rice fields to take some photo’s of green sounded appealing. Once I saw just how clear

MY coffee interest and background keep surfacing here. I stopped for a morning coffee at Cafe Moka yesterday. Talking with their barista, I looked into the hopper and showed him how they could tell it was a blend of beans. Different color beans, different roasting profile, combined to make a very good espresso. It’s the

Yesterday, I sat down once again at Warung KACU for a bite to eat. I’d been to Eddy, seen Nyoman, gone to visit the Holy Knife, stopped for groceries and was headed back to Dewa’s. I didn’t really need or want anything so planned to head back. An urge nudged me to stop at KACU

It was early September, Fall of 2011. I had just completed my first stint as caregiver for mom and dad which started April 24th. Tired and exhausted, emotionally spent and yet reluctant to let go, I walked away leaving mom and dad on their own for the first time. It was the only way to

This is a partial view of what I see from my veranda overlooking Ubud. Lots of rain last night, cloudy and cleaning today. After having my session with Nyoman yesterday, I crashed and slept 12 hours last night!

I’ve had a whirl wind visit to Singapore. Normally, travel days are tiring, long and expensive. Yesterday, everything went relatively smoothly, not so tiring, I only got lost once and it was surprisingly inexpensive getting here. I left early to avoid the heat in Bangkok heading to the BTS SkyTtrain at 7:30 am. The heat