In just a few days we will be leaving the town of Ubud, which is the historic and cultural center of Bali from what we have been told. Our stay here was 4 weeks, and it’s been pretty damn wonderful! We have had an unbelievable room with a terrific hostess who brings us up a variety of breakfast choices every morning, and we have enjoyed them on the balcony overlooking the plumeria forest. Even though there is much to do, truthfully we have been using this time to relax since we were on the go for many months until we got here.

But for the last week or so we have ventured out into some of the local temples, and were lucky enough to witness a very cool blessing ceremony called Tumpek Wayang Day, which is a day of self-cleaning to achieve balance between humans and the universe, and also expels the bad energy, and invites the good energy in. Very cool. They have these every 7 months, and the citizen parade goes to all four compass points, and in the middle of the street– they stop. Out comes the incense, some very cool acoustic instruments, and a collection of full body costumes. They play music for an hour or two, then move on. The other night we heard these fascinating sounds about 9:30 at night, so our curiosity got the better of us. We went down to check it out, and there they were, parked right in front of our apartment.

No question, even with the chaos of the traffic and the scooters, there is a very spiritual vibe to the town. The people of Indonesia, especially the Balinese, have been some of the nicest and most pleasant we have met anywhere in the world. Before we got here we read the criticism about Bali not being what it used to be, but truth is, nothing is… Whatever it is NOW is pretty awesome for us, and we will return. Today we completed the last step of extending our 30 day visa for an additional month, and what a learning experience that was! If you are coming to Bali and want to say more than a month, please contact us. I will be creating a special report on how to get that extension much easier.

When we leave here in a few days, we’ll stay in three different locations for a much shorter time. All of them are smaller towns, and two are at the beach, including a new island, so we will have a good overview of what other parts of the island are all about.