Recap and reset

- 12:15pm mon Aug 19th Local Balinese time -
As I mentioned, we are in lovina. The beach here is majestic. 8 more days!

 Before I go into those details, let me take you back to Saturday evening. I had set up my post that day as Indonesian Independence Part 1. Well...there really was no part 2. Ended up that we all lazed around all day. Not doing nothing. It felt amazing. And then, around 8:30, yours truly says, "man I need a nap", I'll take an hour and half refresher and then we'll go out for celebrations of independence. No one woke me up! I came too around midnight and all energy around Ubud was dead. I quickly woke Brian, who was snoozing next to me, and scootered into town. Shockingly empty. Almost no one on the streets. The main bars, XL and CP lounges were medium to small filled. None of the festivities I had imagined. Not that were slowed down too much. Dancing to bad DJ music, chatting with expats from all over the world, getting "hustled" by Balinese pool sharks, it was wild night. Kept us out until 3:45 in the morning.

It is good to hang out with Ex-pats, to hear english and know you're being understood, but it also makes me feel lazy to be too comfortable. We are here to relax first and foremost, but there is an itch in the base of my being which says to challenge the comforts, and furthermore to walk away from the comfortable, the live challenged and to grow because of it. I believe Heidegger said something like, the goal of philosophy is to make yourself at home everywhere, to make the world your home.

Ok, enough of the fancy talk, back to the basic.

Later that morning, now its sunday...I believe :) we get up at 8:30 to meet our good friend Qull. As a small backstory, My father and him bonded very well when he visited Bali in 2011. So much so that he named his first born child after him!!! So I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Randy Jr. The resemblance is striking!

And look, Solare has representatives the world over!

We got a full tour of Qull's family's compound (something like 6 families live there, complete with a private temple) with several kids running around, birds everywhere and unique for Bali, no family dog. It was a pleasant morning filled with Bali coffee (Kopi) sweet cakes and good conversation. We left feeling fuller of both mind and spirit, and with plans to at least have dinner with his whole family and the possibility of a full moon fishing trip.

We returned to the compound we were staying at and immediately set into packing for the journey to the North and Livona. What a ride, we got a full tour of some very gnarly back roads out of Ubud to the west but also spectacular vistas of rice paddies and mountains. Here are some photos from that.

We stopped in the mountain village Bedugul, a village high in the mountains that is famed for its strawberries and other produce. Stopping in a market clogged with tourists and aggressive salespeople, we were able to find a small spot that specialized in juices and coffee. Brian and I were functioning on 3-4 hours sleep and coffee and mango smoothies does the body good. We also ate corn (balinese love corn) and boiled peanuts along with a delicious little soup called Bokso (meatballs) that was incredible. Imagine a heaping bowl of ramen for 50 cents. Filled me right up.

Then it was on to more driving. We passed from the mountains to the coast, through some of the twistiest switchbacks of my life and into the old capital of Singaraja. In short, the capital got moved from Singaraja in the 60s and development immediately stopped. Only in the 90s did tourists and money start flowing back into this area.

We got momentarily lost and had a funny interaction with some folks who couldn't speak a lick of english. Luckily our balinese friend was able to save us and speak through the phone. The only word he gave us was a very serious, "STAY", and a smile.

Once reunited it was a short 15 minute ride to our current location in Lovina. The spot is incredible.

and sunrise

Once here we were thrust into the happiest of situations. A decent room at a good price with an amazing room/deck atop a three story building that gives amazing views, as I hope the photos show. And its right next door to friends of our friends! Ryan and Prita have cultivated quite a relationship with owners of a warung (restaurant) right on the beach. Their names are Anik and Domingo. After getting situated and taking our requisite "holy shit we're in Bali and the sunset is gorgeous" photos we sauntered down to the beach, to be greeted by a table of bubbly happy people. Half were our friends, and half were our new friends, all playing Uno, with ice cold Bintang Basars (22oz Bintangs) waiting for us and a pitcher of Arrack being actively prepared. Of particular curiousity to me is the local "cocktail", arrack, lemon and honey. Oh sweet symphony. You feel the burn but the burn is good :) After a meal of freshly caught fish, french fries and rice we settled into a night of partying and fuzzy memories. I do remember playing drums, listening to amazing music, philosophizing with my new "brother" Domingo and taking bathroom photos. Haha.

And amazingly, the hangover was not bad. In fact, after a couple sips of coffee this morning, I felt damn near perfect. Anik made us an incredible "american" breakfast of eggs and toast. My god was it good. Except it made me crave frijoles or at least a carne asada burrito. I'm not quite sure why. Here are some silly photos from our breakfast.

And look, I eat bananas!

All in all the last day has been amazing, and I can't wait to see how the next few go. Today I have loose plans with Domingo to visit a producer of arrack (everyone gets a kick out of it when I ask to visit an arrack distillery, for, it is really a homemade product of a few dedicated farmers. Not a large industrialized process, more like moonshine really), go fishing for dinner and have a giant bonfire this evening. Oh, and there is a massage planned this afternoon. :) happiness incarnate.