Spirit Speakeasy
Like a seat at the table in a secret club but with mediums, mystics and the spiritual luminaries of our time. Come behind the velvet ropes with me and see inside my world as I chat ‘insider style’ with profoundly gifted souls.
We go deep, share juicy stories, laugh a lot, and it wouldn’t be a Speakeasy without great insider secrets! Plus solo episodes, just you and me, with psychic insights, inspiring chats & even sit in on mediumship readings! Hosted by Joyful Medium, Joy Giovanni (learn more about Joy across social media @joyfulmedium or on her website JoyfulMedium.com
Spirit Speakeasy
Bali Tell-All Part 1: The Spiritual Heart & Monkey Chaos
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What happens when a dream trip to Bali turns into a beautiful, chaotic adventure?
In this long-awaited recap, Tara and I will take you through our journey to Bali. We’re sharing with you honest stories about our travel mishaps, temple runs and our chaotic encounter with “Monkey Pak”. This episode is a candid and entertaining glimpse into our travels and a teaser for even more spiritual experiences and surprises to come. Tune in for Part 2!
Photos from this trip are up on my Instagram and Facebook, so make sure to follow along!
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Facebook: @JoyfulMedium
Episode 176 from May 2026: I'm Going to Bali! Intentions, Astrocartography and the Adventure Ahead Link
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YouTube: Psychic Medium Joy Giovanni
Well to be fair, the locks are different there. The locks are different. I had the keys in this hand, and all I could feel was you like, they're coming. I was like, oh man. I'm trying to open the door. And it's a real key. That's the other thing. Yeah, it's a it's a real key. And the door turned shortly. Like a door key, but like a different looking door key. And then I was like, hold this. I hand you my phone, then I opened the door, and there was like four or five.
SPEAKER_00Like four or four cry, like monkeys just gathering um like six feet away from us. Very close. A gang of monkeys. Hey, beautiful soul. Welcome to Spirit Speakeasy. I'm Joy Giovanni, Joyful Medium. I'm a working psychic medium, energy healer, and spiritual gifts mentor. This podcast is like a seat at the table in a secret club, but with mediums, mystics, and the spiritual luminaries of our time. So come behind the velvet ropes with me and see inside my world as I chat insider style with profoundly gifted souls. We go deep, share juicy stories, laugh a lot. And it wouldn't be a speakeasy without great insider secrets and tips. You might even learn you have some spiritual gifts of your own. So step inside Spirit Speakeasy. Hey, beautiful soul. Welcome in for another episode of Spirit Speakeasy. This is our long-awaited, very exciting Bali recap episode. I know we have been promising this to you for a hot minute. Uh, as we're setting down to record this, we are just a little over two months out from our return. I have Tara with me today. We are gonna do the full breakdown of the trip. So many of you have sent in questions and they've been really all over the spectrum about like how was the flight and how was the weather and what did you do or what parts did you stay in? So we're gonna go through in a fun way all of the details, our favorite parts, things that surprised us. You'll get really all the real story. We'll see if this is gonna be one episode or two. I'll let you know. And uh we're just gonna go chronologically because we figured that was the easiest way to give you guys the details. I will say, just as a fun little aside, because it's that kind of episode, we have had a really tough time bringing this episode together. We did not intend to record it this far out. We sat down just a couple weeks after we got back, and I was sick, and then Tara was sick, and then we had tech issues on both all the way around, and it's just been crazy. So we actually haven't gone over the details of the trip or like talked about it for a while. We actually recorded like I don't know, 20 minutes of an episode, and then just the tech imploded. So we talked about it then a little bit, but we haven't really talked about it. So you'll be hearing kind of real time, uh, first reel going over now that we have some space from the trip, and it is a wild ride. So buckle up, welcome, Tara. Hi, I'm happy to have you. It's good to see you. Happy to see you too, happy to be here. We've just been both having such like a busy, you know how anytime you take, especially like two weeks away and go do something. Like when you get back, it's just mayhem. So I feel like I haven't seen you in like forever. I mean, we've texted and stuff, but I feel like I haven't seen you in like a really long time. Yeah, seen your face. So um, well, thanks for being here. I'm excited to finally get to do the full breakdown. Me too. After having like a couple months, maybe even a little more spaciousness from it. It was kind of intense, the trip overall. What is there any kind of like vibe or feeling that you're left with overall, just like the trip overall? I I loved it overall.
SPEAKER_01I thought it was amazing and beautiful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's good. Well, is that what you say when like clients or like friends are like how was it?
SPEAKER_01Put it in like a little nutshell. It was beautiful, it was beautiful, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00I say that too. I think I also say, because from my perspective, I mean this with all the love. I feel like it's like beautiful and chaotic, always all at the same time. Because there's all there's so much energy there, there's so many people there, there's so much happening. It's all crammed into an infrastructure that's like not built for tons of people. There's tons of people. And it's also so beautiful everywhere you look. Like there's temples and natural beauty, and just the people are beautiful, and the art is beautiful, and then it's like crammed with tons of people and motorbikes and chaos and chickens and monkeys sometimes, yeah. So I just that's my like that's how I feel about it. It's beautiful and equally chaotic and like all the time. And you'll see as we kind of go through our trip, there's many times that we were like, what's that noise? What is that a bug? Is that a cat? Is that a do you remember that one lizard that made like the screaming baby noise? So it's like so beautiful when we looked up the picture of it. It's actually quite beautiful. So I don't know. That's my in a nutshell that I tell people for that reason. So I guess let's start at the beginning. What do you think? Oh, yeah, and the snail, the beautiful snail. Oh, yeah, there's a beautiful snail we'll tell you about. I mean, just beautiful. And also, we found out that snail can like quite literally kill you because menager this. Yeah. Um, because we looked it up, but it was beautiful. So lots of things like that uh that we have to share, some shenanigans along the way, of course. Uh, and we'll tell you some of our favorite um places and things, too, in case I know so many people travel there now, just in case. Uh so one of the first questions is right at the beginning for us. We I had done an episode before where I talked a little bit about the prep and the planning, kind of in a general way, like the pre-bali episode. But everyone is asking, like, girl, what is up with that flight? Like, how was the flight? So for us, because we're in San Diego, we took first a shuttle to LAX, which was like what, two hours? Two hours, which was great. And then we took from that shuttle, we got to LAX, and then I forget we had like a couple hours because obviously international, you got to get there early. And then we went LAX to Singapore, yes, which was I think like 17 hours, which was a lot. Uh, that is clearly a lot of hours. I thought I was prepared because I had watched all the YouTube videos. How did you feel? I I felt fine.
SPEAKER_01Honestly, I felt I felt fine. I didn't mind because in my mind I downloaded movies, shows, um, and I think what made it fine for me was they kept the cabin dark.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was an overnight flight, also. I think it left like 11:30 p.m. So they did do that. Yeah. I was a little bit shocked on the flight. Um, I won't say what airlines, just because I don't I don't know what the rules are, but the seats in front of us when the when it was like leaned back, I couldn't even open my tray table. I because I had like no expectations and was like, I'm gonna have a good time no matter what, I thought it was hilarious and also insane. I was like, this is not happening.
SPEAKER_01Um, so that was interesting. Yeah, the seats went back pretty far.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You and I also made an interesting controversial choice on our flights, which was for this long leg, one in the aisle, one in the window. We booked early enough to make these choices, and let's roll the dice on this middle seat, right? Yes, yes. Now the hope was what? That no one would pick the middle seat, of course, yeah. And on the long flights, the that not is not what happened. Well, just on the way there. Oh, yeah, on the way there. Just on the way. So we did have a neighbor um who was like, You guys want to sit together? And we were like, We are this is together. So we'll talk when we get off the plane. Yeah, so that was really funny. Um, but whatever, that's what it was. And that person was very nice. It's a close proximity situation. So anything anyone eats or any like smell that they're wearing or smell about them is extra. Um, I'll leave it at that. But I don't know. I slept a lot on the flight.
SPEAKER_01I I slept not a lot. I slept a bit. I did watch, I watched, I watched a lot of movies, yeah. Shows. And I did sleep. I was able to sleep a little bit on the flight.
SPEAKER_00You had um recommended this travel pillow for me that was like you blow it up, which I've this is ridiculous, but it's kind of big. It's like a big wedge. It's not kind of big, it's big. It's huge, and you can like stick your arms in the middle of it. Um, a tablet like doesn't really fit in there, but like a phone fits in there. It is so big. Tara's showing you a real pillow. It's like so big. And I even brought a tiny, tiny, very inexpensive, like little motor to blow it up because some of you know I have lung stuff and it's hard for me to like I could, it's like it, it's really big to blow up uh with no shame whatsoever. And the thing was a little heavy and took up kind of a good amount of space in my bag and was 100% worth it. So I think the pillow was like 20 bucks. It wasn't a lot, and I'm short for those that don't know me in in like physical person. Um, and I can't like lean back and try to sleep at all. I need to be either like rolled to the side or like elementary school style with like my face down on my desk. So it was perfect for me. Highly recommend for a long flight. So thanks for the recommendation.
SPEAKER_01Welcome.
SPEAKER_00Tara's a one of those friends that's like the best recommendation, gal. So you also made a recommendation about flight attire, which you care to share.
SPEAKER_01Oh, comfort. Um, I came across an ad for comfort with the visor inside the hoodie. Yeah. And it had a bunch of like hidden pockets, which was so convenient to put like your headphones, your ID, anything you need right away is just in a pocket. Yeah, right on your body. And like hidden pockets. But that eye mask though was a scheme change.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like an eye mask that folds flat, just like a fabric, basically. Yeah, that folds down from inside the hood part if you pull the hood up, and they have zip up and pullover. Um, I didn't really use the face mask part, actually. I think you did though, right? Yeah. Um, but I liked the hoodie. We both had them in different colors. We were Wonder Twins traveling. So picture that. Um, yeah, I really I liked it a lot. I bought a different color when I got back. Um, it's very spacious and very cozy. And for like an overnight, those flights get so cold, you know?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's either like cold or hot on flights. So I like the layering. So so that was fine. We I don't remember anything else super significant about like that really long flight, other than it was like, it's as long as you think it's gonna be. Like it feels like that. Like it really does. I tend to sleep on planes, I don't know what it is, but like I just kind of knock out. I get a little motion sick too, so I can't watch the TV in front of me. So watching it in the in the thing was perfect. Uh oh, you know what? I did they have free Wi-Fi on that flight? I think they did. I think they did. Okay. Because I was like, Did we buy a thing for that? We we'll tell you about the internet calling thing, or well, I had it on my phone anyways. Um, so then we got to Singapore and we had already been flying a really long time at that point and lugging all of our things, even though we did have check bags. Um, what's the first thing you remember about Singapore, the airport? It was big. It's so big and and and and beautiful though. It was nice. It was a nice airport. It's really nice. Yeah, that's it's gorgeous. You can walk around if you have enough time. We had like a several hours layover. We did. So we had plenty of time to stroll and tour like the butterfly farm. And yeah. Oh, I know what we did. We checked our luggage, they have these like concierge things. You can like, it's not very expensive. You can leave your um like rolling carry-on and whatever you like there that you have, uh, so you don't have to lug it around the whole entire. It's a big, it's a big airport. That's right. There were so many things at that airport. You just said there was a butterfly garden. And there was the the the fish pond, the koi pond, right?
SPEAKER_01With the video thing on the oh yeah, a video thing above the ceiling.
SPEAKER_00And then it was kind of like you're in the world type thing. And then the sunflower, sunflowers outside. That was it was so humid in Singapore. It was like it felt at least it had to be like at least 100 degrees with 90s.
SPEAKER_01You walked outside and you got punched in your face with humidity.
SPEAKER_00It was like so. Part of the butterfly garden is very like humidified for the butterflies. And then when you go to a different area for the sunflower garden that we're talking about, you actually go out of the airport, but like kind of on the roof. Yeah. So we're like on the roof of the airport. Um, so that was, yeah, that was so humid out there, but really cool to see the little sunflower garden. Um oh, I know what I forgot to say in the intro that I was gonna say that we just talked about. If you um have me on social media on Instagram at Joyful Medium or Facebook, the week that this episode is out, and if it's two weeks, I'll stretch it into two weeks. Uh, I'll post all the pictures of all of this because you know I have pictures of this airport. You know I have pictures of us being nerds in this sunflower garden and so many butterflies and so many butterflies. It was like three stories of butterflies basically. Um, so I have photos of all this, and if you want to see them, uh I'll have them on my Instagram all week and probably next week. There's a lot of photos from this trip, it's a two-week trip. So, oh we had this is ridiculous. We had the best chicken saute at that like little chicken skewers, they were so tiny and delicious. I don't know what kind of magic was in them. They had so many food choices, and I think we were just like so exhausted, and um, you know, airplane food is that airplane, that airline was okay, but like just still not great. It's a travel day, but that was so good. It was like a random fusion weird restaurant.
SPEAKER_01It was like, yeah, it was a fusion, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um they yeah, because they had some Thai, some Chinese, some Korean dishes, I believe. Um, so I guess very Singaporean, like a melting pot of different tastes and flavors, and the saute was so good. I also was probably starving, but it was so good.
SPEAKER_01It was good.
SPEAKER_00And then we did what you do at those big airports. You look at the big, beautiful designer name brand, like stores from the outside, you smell the stuff in the duty free, all the perfumes, yeah. We just really like chilled out and were getting so excited for our trip. And then is there anything else you remember from like the hanging out part that's significant? Mm-mm. Yeah, the the airport is really cool though, so I'll put a bunch of pictures of that. Um then the next weird thing that I remember is so to go to the next gate for our next flight, we had to go through security again, even though we were still in the airport. Oh, the thing we didn't do was there's a famous mall at that airport. You have to technically like leave the airport and come back through security to go to it. It's called Jewel, it's really famous. There's a jillion YouTube videos about it. Um, but we didn't do it because we didn't want to have to pick up our checked bags and have to go back through security and all of that. So we just totally opted out and we're had a very nice time, obviously. Um, but even though we didn't leave, we still had to go back through security again with our checked bags or our not checked, sorry, our carry-on bags. And our personal items, yeah, and personal items, and no water can come in, which I was very sad about because I just bought new giant waters. Um, and they took them. So it was just I've never had that experience before. I think it's something specific about like Singapore airport that does that. I heard um I that happened to me in Panama.
SPEAKER_01Okay, interesting. Yeah, yeah. So I don't know why, but maybe liquid, maybe because you could buy liquor in there.
SPEAKER_00I have no idea. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, they had still people got duty-free stuff in there, so I don't know.
SPEAKER_01But in any case, but duty-free gets delivered to the gate.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's true. So I don't know. I mean, could be just because there's such strict laws in Singapore, I mean in Indonesia about all that. So that happened. And then we finally boarded that flight. I do feel like I remember it being a little hectic boarding those little weird flights, but yeah, because it was like we had to go into that one little room. Yeah, it's its own contained area. Um, yeah, it was just it was just a lot. Uh so then we're getting on the next flight. I think was it like a three-hour flight now?
SPEAKER_02It was two hours?
SPEAKER_00Oh, almost two and a half hours, two and two to two and a half hours. Yeah, that flight was good. I don't remember anything about it, so it must have been fine.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, we had one gentleman sit me between us, and again, yeah.
SPEAKER_00We did have a guy. Yeah, and he asked if do you guys want to sit together, Ron? Yeah, we're good. We were like, no. Um, he was fine. I think the people next to us end up sleeping the whole time, too. But uh yeah, that flight was pretty short and sweet. And then we landed in Bali, which was super exciting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, I think it was like already like nighttime when we got there, which was like 7 p.m. maybe.
SPEAKER_01I think it was nine girls, like 1:30.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was like, I mean, the time difference is giant. Um, I don't know what it is right now, but I think it's plus 15 or plus.
SPEAKER_01It was 15 hours.
SPEAKER_00Um, I think it's the same as Manila from us. Uh because I, yeah, I have it in my phone. I just was looking at it earlier today. Um and it was warm immediately out of the airport. It's kind of a small-ish airport. And then if you've never been on an international flight, first you pick up your check luggage and wait for all that. And we did that, and that was fine.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, we had already also prearranged a driver from the hotel, uh, which, if you do plan to go there, there are ways to get drivers for less, and there are apps and stuff, but we kind of were of the mindset of like, we know that the hotel's trustworthy, we know this driver will be trustworthy. In all truth, like without tip, it was like $35 for like maybe an hour, not quite away. So we were fine with the price for like the guarantee.
SPEAKER_01We also did the visa and everything online before we went, so we didn't have to wait in line.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So while we're at the baggage claim getting our baggage, uh, the guy was already texting us. Oh no, maybe I was on the we were still on the plane and he texted us. So that was amazing. So we were already kind of dialing that in. He sent us a picture of where to meet him, and then we got the bags. I didn't, I don't think there was any like drama around that. No, no, we like you said, we had already did um there's a couple tourist visas, there's like a tax fee that you have to pay. None of it's very expensive. I can't remember the exact like fees and stuff, but I want to say altogether it was maybe like sixty dollars US or something. Yeah, it wasn't like 20 bucks each. I was thinking maybe they were or something. Something. Yeah. So it wasn't one of them was free. So whatever it was, it wasn't nominal. It wasn't a lot. You could do them all. Um, if you do plan to go, like obviously just do your research and look it up. We're not a travel channel here, but um, there's certain like a couple of them we did two months ahead or something, or 30 days ahead, and one of them you could only do within like 48 hours, but also the time you were traveling also ate up like 36 of those hours or something crazy. So that one was uh you had to like time it right. Um, people that didn't do it were in a super long line and very sad. And we just kind of sailed right through, right? Like just kind of okay. Like to the point where we were kind of looking around, like, is this like are we supposed to go here? Is it okay? Like, and it was. So we just went right through. We found our driver. He was like right where the picture said he would be. It's small there, so it's I mean, we were nervous, but it was like not hard to like find someone there, it was pretty small. Um, then what we do, we went to his car. He helped us with the luggage, which was great because we were just like so exhausted by that. Um yeah, we he's it's very sweet. He I remember he had like tea and like a snack in there for us, which was very cute. Yeah. I think we were just like so exhausted and ready to go to bed. I slept. Did you? I remember when we first started driving out, even when you're like in the airport and leaving the airport, you can start seeing the beautiful like sculptural elements and statues and like the brickwork, and like even as you're like exiting the airport, right? Beautiful. So I was kind of shocked that even as we were driving like out of the parking and out of the area, I was like, Is this still the airport? Because it was these beautiful columns and big sculptural statues, and it just was amazing. And he was like, Oh, yeah, this is the airport. I was like, dang, this is pretty cool. And then immediately on the other side of that was so many motorbikes. Dude. Um, it was, it was, it was. I mean, I've seen TV and I've traveled a bit, but it was just like people were driving amazingly but crazy at the same time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think that's why I went to sleep. Because it was so it was so many motorbikes. Right now, I was like, I could never drive in this. I because of anxiety and driving, period, even here. Um, just so close together and just kind of avoiding each other. And I was like, whoa, and like so many people on one scooter. I was like, okay, yeah. So I slept.
SPEAKER_00Uh, it was like you could easily see like a whole family on one motorbike with like the parents, the kids' sandwich in the middle, maybe a baby in a backpack on the phone.
SPEAKER_01Standing in the front, holding on like standing helmets up.
SPEAKER_00Um, sometimes helmets, sometimes not, which obviously is not the safest option. I was not nervous at all because our driver was a good driver. He was very relaxed. That's the thing. Like the drivers we experienced anyway were very like chill, reasonably good drivers. All of them, I mean, I think everyone was like a pretty good driver that we had. Uh, and we had several different experiences with drivers. Um, so I wasn't nervous because I was like, he's got this, he lives here. And actually, most people say, just for the record, the tourists on the motorbikes are more of the problem than, of course, than the locals on the motorbikes who know what they're doing. I would be a problem. Oh, I would never get on a motorbike there. Just I'm just not qualified in any capacity. I don't want to hurt myself or others. Like that's that'd be dangerous. Yeah. Um, so that was just like immediately interesting. It was dark, so we couldn't see a whole ton on the drive there, which is also probably why you fell asleep and we'd been traveling for like many hours at that point. I don't I couldn't even tell you with the time changes how long it was. Because I think we had like a six-hour layover at the airport, and then that next like two and a half, whatever hour flight. So it was it was a many hours. And we had left home early enough to get two hours away to our airport. So um, no wonder you knocked out. And then about 45-ish, maybe minutes later, we pull up to our first hotel, which we just wanted to go to the room, but it was so lovely in there. It was. I really feel like that was our first like real experience with the hospitality of Bali.
SPEAKER_01Do you know what I mean? Yes, the welcome.
SPEAKER_00Yes, they are so welcoming in our overall experience there. I think I can speak for you too. Um, and just those little touches, right? Like that tea at the first place was so good. It was just like this. What was it, like the lemongrass one in those cold cups at night? Yeah, but it was also pink though. Oh, it was red.
SPEAKER_01The first one was red, it was so refreshing. It was so good. It was my favorite one. And yeah, there was that, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like a little cold towel for your like hands and face. It was such a nice place. It was nighttime, so we hadn't even quite realized what a nice place it was yet. Yeah, but it just was like, yeah, very welcome, very open air. So, like, not necessarily like the US where everything's closed through closed doors. This was like super open when you walk in. Um, the staff was really nice. We kind of were like, this is taking a long time. We just want to go to the room, but that's how it is there. You're greeted everywhere, and then you go to the room after. Yeah. Um, oh, uh, we have a friend that lives there. Uh and she lives nearby that hotel. She'd actually actually recommended that hotel, which she's a big part of our trip. She's a friend of the podcast, Kelly. You guys probably know her. Um, Kelly Fisher. Shout out. Uh, so she had gone before we got there and dropped off like some fruits, a little welcome basket there for us, some tea, some little cards, uh, just some little sweet items. And we couldn't bring the dragon fruit into the room because they have rules about like they don't want to stain things. Obviously, dragon fruits are like really deep, deep uh purpley red. So um on the inside. On the inside, on the inside. Because here I don't think they're white. Do we only have the white ones? I've only bought the white fruit. Oh, okay. Oh, interesting. Um, yeah, so there's many colors of dragon fruit. So we couldn't bring it to the room. Uh, so they kept that, which was very sweet because they gave us like a checked, like a ticket for it, like if you were gonna check in luggage, which was very cute for one fruit. Um, so sweet. Uh, so then we go to the room and we room together, which was great. Um yeah, we travel really well together. I feel like this was like our longest trip together. Yeah. If you've been here any length of time you and see my social media at all, you've seen the Disney pictures over the years. We've gone there quite a bit. Uh, but this was a far trip. So this hotel, I think everything was great the first night. Beds were great. Once we figured out like how to work the things, I feel like um bidets everywhere. Which I was just thinking about fan, were you? Yeah. I this is maybe some of you will appreciate this, and if you don't, I'm sorry, just skip by this part. Um, I'll just say of the bidets, this was my favorite bidet of the whole trip. It was heated seats, it was heated water, it was wonderful. Um, that was great. So then we went to sleep pretty immediately. Oh, we showered. That's what we came to do. We like were dying to shower from obviously feeling airport gross. Uh so we showered and went straight to bed, I think, right? Yeah, yeah, we did. And then the next day we had kind of like we took a slow morning, but we had like a big day planned. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think it's just that we woke up early, maybe.
SPEAKER_00So it wasn't such a slow morning. We just woke up. Oh, maybe we were up early. Yeah, I'm like, I can't remember the time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because I think Kelly was a little bit of a few. It was hard to get adjusted. Yeah, it was 10. Right. So we got up, we made coffee, we sat on the balcony, yeah, we took our time to get ready.
SPEAKER_00Did we go to the breakfast that day? They had um an amazing breakfast at that one. We didn't go to breakfast. We didn't go that day. I don't think so. I think we stayed there three days. It was three nights. We stayed there two nights. Um, yeah, the first night, yeah, maybe we didn't. So yeah, we just kind of took it easy that morning or got up too early and got ready in a normal pace for vacation. Um, and then Kelly met us and this first thing we did was go to Tan a lot, or we do something.
SPEAKER_01No, no, no, no, no, no. Oh girl. We walked. We walked and got coffee at that time. Oh, yeah, yeah, in the morning. That's right.
SPEAKER_00That morning we walked there and we walked to the beach. So there the coffee shops there are the ones we saw anyway, very different, but all super cute. Um, this one was kind of like jazz coffee shop vibes. Um, yeah, that place was pretty good. I liked it. I will say one of the things that I feel like was like really hyped up was like how like cheap or inexpensive things are there. And there are some things that are like quite inexpensive there, but some of the things are to me feel like just the price. I feel like stuff should be everywhere, like $6 or $7, $5 to $7 for like a fancy coffee type thing, which here are like $12 to $15 now. Um, but I didn't feel like this is a $2 coffee. Do you know what I mean? Um, but it was really good. So you didn't mind, and that was nice. Oh yeah, and then we walked the it just so happens the hotel we were at was wonderful because it was on this street, like not no sidewalks, not a fancy street, just like a very basic street. But on that street was several restaurant options, that coffee shop, some other little stores and shops. And then at the end, um, our first glimpse of the beach. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Beautiful statue on the beach.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_01And then we walked to was it called Labrisa? I don't remember the place, but it was like a beach um on the beach type beach house. I want to say it was like Labrisa, Labrisa, something quote me on that. Yeah, something like that. They went to that. That was that was that was beautiful. Like I was like, oh wow.
SPEAKER_00That place was really cool. I did put it in my I I went, I was trying at the beginning to make like a real everyday of the stuff, and then I just was like, this is not relaxing on my vacation. I don't want to do this, but it is in the videos from that first day, that beach club. So that was fun. We kind of ordered a bunch of like apps and just stuff. Um coconuts. And yeah, coconuts. They have coconuts there, which is very cool. Uh, it was really nice to be right on the it's kind of like up, but right on the beach. But they had these like the cabanas there were like very tropical, Indonesian, um, very special. Even the bathroom was like very pretty. I have pictures of the bathroom, so if you guys want them, I will post all of the pictures. But yeah, um, just really thoughtfully designed, beautiful, like vessels as sinks. Um yeah, just really everything was just decorated, just like you might imagine for a lot of these places, which was really cool. And then what did we do after that?
SPEAKER_01We walked back, and then we had appointments for massage. Oh, yeah, that's the head and the yeah.
SPEAKER_00So Kelly is a girly who loves a good massage of any kind, just in general as a person. I think she'd be fine with me sharing that. Um, and a connoisseur. And this place did, I think, like special hair treatments um where they would wash your hair, which would be nice because we just had traveled so much. Um, they did all kinds of like massages, foot massages, all the things. Yeah. Um, that place was nice. It was. So we did that. They did like hair treatments. There's one room that's like open and everyone's there. They have to wash your hair because of all the whatever they're putting in there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then they do like a little blowout. Yeah. So that was really fun. We got to meet one of her friends there. Yeah. Um, and then from there, did we go right to dinner from there? Or did we we do?
SPEAKER_01Uh after that, we went to um Oh, we went to town a lot. Yeah, we picked up her friend and then we we got coffee at some point.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. On the way, I think we're on the way to town a lot. Yeah. And we had they had a driver off of the of one of the apps there. Um, they have apps that are kind of like our lift or whatever. And yeah, this poor driver. We had asked him if he would mind terribly like pulling over and like stopping somewhere really fast so we could get a coffee. And would he like one too? And and he said yes, which was great. Um, and this place was on like island time. Island time, island time for sure. We ended up there for like 20, 30 minutes or something. Yeah, it was pretty there, though, but it was it was beautiful. It was we could see rice fields behind, it was really pretty, but like that was wild. So, but it seemed like I mean, obviously, I'm a foreigner there, a visitor. So it seemed like everyone was chill about it. It seemed like the driver was like, that's what it is. Like, do you know what I mean? So nobody seemed alarmed about the amount of time I was like nervous because I was like, oh my gosh, is this rude? This is so long, this is crazy. Um, but no, apparently that's not how it is. So then we went to the first temple that we got to see, uh, which is called Town A lot. And it was a little ways from where we were. I feel like everywhere is at least 20 minutes away, and sometimes more wherever you are. It's a little hard to get around there. Um, meaning like it's an island and it was built for maybe like one or two lanes, you know, each way of traffic. Um, and there's a lot more traffic than that. So it's just one of those places that luckily we went into it being super chill about like, hey, we're just like not on a schedule. Uh, I almost feel like you have to be like that there if you're gonna enjoy yourself, just like you get there. You know, you can kind of loosely plan the time, but like don't be too scheduled. Um, Tanelot is the temple. I I shared this one on the prep video, and it's the one that is the the temple on the sea. Because the cool thing is, like when the tide comes in, it looks like this temple is on this rock floating out in the ocean, which it kind of is. Um, and then when the tide goes out, you can actually walk across the sand. It's like a little sandbar. You can walk across and go to the base of the temple. Yeah. Now you can't go up in the temple because it is a working Hindu temple. The primary um faith of Bali itself is Hinduism. And a lot of these temples are like real working temples for people who practice. So, unless you're practicing Hindu, you can't go in the temple. You can go to the gate, like kind of the base of the steps. It is like on top of the rocks. And they have this other cool option that you could do for small donation. Well, two things. One we did, and one we didn't.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00One we did is if you're there at low tide, you can cross, and there are, I think there are priests, right? Mm-hmm. Priests at the bottom who will give you like water to bless yourself. And the way they do their blessings is like a little bit of rice on your forehead, and they'll give you a little blessing. Oh, in your neck, yeah. Um, so kind of like your third eye chakra, and then like just below your throat chakra, where the what is it's even called? This little dip that goes down between your collarbones, um, right in the center. So rice for blessing, and then you make a little donation. And we did that. That was lovely. Uh, it is customary to do some sort of like water blessing or blessing like this pretty quickly to when you get on the island, like within the first day or two, uh, is what we heard. So that's what we did. Do you want to talk about the option we didn't do?
SPEAKER_01You could do both or neither. Yeah, uh, we chose not to go see the snakes.
SPEAKER_00It's like the sacred protector snakes of the island or or the temple or something. Um, there's a lot of as deep as you want to go into the stories online, and they're said to have like bitten people. There's a whole mythology around the snakes of the temple. You can like really go in there and see them. You can also see it on YouTube. I saw it on YouTube on some videos. Um, I just didn't need to do that, and you didn't either. So we didn't do that. Uh, at this temple, not only is the temple itself like huge scale and breathtaking, there are also these gates on the way down to the temple. You walk through this whole area with like tons of little shops, which we really wanted to do and didn't get to do. Um, we had even talked about it before, but just like didn't the timing of it didn't work out because they say the best time to be kind of at this, there's a whole park there, like a park-like grassy area where people relax and there's all the shops. There's a few little restaurants and things. And they say the best time to go is sunset, if you can line it up with the low tide if you want to cross to get the blessing. Um, so that's around the time we were there, and just no time for the shops, but like I know it's amazing for the shopping there for the stuff, the kind of stuff that you find at their um shops. And it's like those stalls, so kind of like almost like a swap meet kind of or like a flea market if you're on more east coast and have those um like little uh informal. Well, they're formal, but they look informal, little like kind of not tents, but like about the size of like a pop-up tent, like you would see at a street fair or something, about that size, but like a little more permanent looking, like almost like mini storage sheds, kind of.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And people had little shops in there and all kinds of things. Anything from like certain snacks and treats and things, to what, like clothing items, statues, shoes, lots of tennis shoes, um, some with like purses and that kind of stuff, jewelry type stuff. I mean, just about anything you can think of that's even like remotely souvenir-ish, you would find there, and also just like cool stuff. We didn't really get to see a ton of that, uh, but we saw it other places. So don't worry, stay tuned. What was your impression of the temple itself? And there's some really like beautiful scenic and smaller temples right around that you can go in that are like almost the size of like a small backyard area or something that you can kind of peek in a little bit. So there's a lot more to see there.
SPEAKER_01I loved it. That was on my list to see. It exceeded what I thought it was gonna be. It was just beautiful to me. Yeah. And then after that, when we went and watched the sunset, and then we meditated. Do you remember? We meditated, all four of us. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, so we did that. We did do a little meditation, all four of us, just to kind of tune into the energy of the temple. That was really lovely. We did kind of chat about it after and all kind of experience some of the same things, which I thought was really cool. I thought that temple was beautiful. It's it was what I thought it was gonna be. I liked it a lot. It was it was really nice there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and then we were there kind of late. There was a lot of bats in the sky.
SPEAKER_01You said it, I was picturing it.
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah, we had a little bit of a hard time getting one of the drivers to come there for some reason. Yeah, yeah. It was a little out of the way or something, or maybe in relation to where we were going. Yeah, it was like in a different parking lot. Oh, yeah, we then had a hard time finding him once he said he was there. So, I mean, that was maybe like the least good driver experience we had, but that wasn't the end of the world. Um and because it is a small island, what we did learn later in the trip was that there's like certain kind of territories of areas where one driver's not supposed to like take rides from another area. It's supposed to go to a driver and that's like registered in that area, which is part of the app there itself to try to like keep it a little bit fair. So there's lots that goes on with the rides there. Um, and then from there, I think we went back to the hotel and then went to dinner, right?
SPEAKER_01We went, yeah, we went to mostly.
SPEAKER_00Yes, because we were starving. And Kelly is great for any kind of like recommendation. Um, she's that amazing friend who's good at that, and she recommended this place that wins the award, I think. I think I think so too. Yeah, for the best meal of the trip. Hands down, yeah. That place was a little bit like mystical apothecary meets, like hippie volley vibe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It felt kind of spiritual in there for some reason. It was, and I think it's because they had a lot of like really beautiful divine feminine figures, large and small. And I have pictures of the inside of this restaurant because it was so pretty when I went to the bathroom. I went around and took a couple pictures. This is who I am, for those of you that don't know me. Um, so I will post those. That restaurant, A for Ambiance. Um, I think you had, I think, do we have mocktails? I think we have to do that. I think you guys did.
SPEAKER_01I might I might have had, I think I had a tea or something.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Mine was some kind of like juice that was good. Whatever it was, lived up to the name and was good. Um, we had a little bit of food. Those of you that know I'm gluten-free, so I'm kind of limited on what I could have. But even with the limited bits that I had were like just so delicious, like rivaling any five-star meal that I've had anywhere. So good. Everything was so good. Yeah. I think we had like a miso crusted sea bass or something. We did. Um, it was delicioso. They said it was a sharing portion. I beg to disagree. I would have got my whole own, but then it was already kind of late. Yeah. Um, even the fries were like rock star fries.
SPEAKER_01Dude, I I don't know what magic they do with the fries there.
SPEAKER_00They're so good there. They were just like regular fries. There wasn't anything like, no, but I mean like there was nothing crazy about them when they saw them on a menu. They weren't like tasted better. They just were really good. They might have been fresh, like the freshness of it. I don't know. Maybe fresh. Maybe they didn't fry it. I don't know. They were great. What else did you? Oh, you had calamari that you said was.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, the calamari is the best calamari ever had. And maybe it was a sauce they put on top. Yeah. And then I think Kelly also ordered like a roll. That was so good.
SPEAKER_00Oh, some kind of like sushi, something.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It was so good. And then we got pavlova.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I didn't try the gluten things. And then for dessert, we got a couple desserts. Um, there's a pavlova, which you can tell what that is, because it's like a you know how to make it.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Oh gosh. Um, it's like a meringue bottom and then with fruit on top.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like a little cup made of meringue, like a flipped upside-down meringue, basically. We make a cup. Yeah, and then some like I think there was what was in there? Pomelo, grapefruit, orange. That one was really good. Passion fruit, no orange, but that can't be. No orange in that one. Passion fruit fruit. And there maybe was like a little honey or something over. That one was so good. It was so good. And then some kind of little like gluten-free cake thing that was decent. Yeah. I mean, in the US, it would be like a good one, but over there, there was just a lot of good stuff. So that was like decent. And that Peblo was like fantastic. Best one of the trip. Um, so that place between like the the vibe, the it's kind of like an outdoor, indoor seating area with like under trees, but you're also kind of inside, but not inside. Um, so all of it was amazing. Uh, and it was so close to the hotel. It was like three doors down. It was like right there. I wish we could have been out there again. I know it's one of those things where it's like, oh, if I knew this was here and that's what the other, you know, these things were, then I would have like. So it is kind of, you know, I guess it's the learning of travel and how you get your favorite places, right. Right, but definitely a must do. And that was the Perarinan part of the beach city that we went to. Uh, we went home and went to sleep after that. Um, next day, which is we're only on day two, um, we this is when we had the breakfast at the hotel. Yes. Um, I am gonna be really honest and let the folks know that I was not feeling good that day. My body was like, I have some tummy stuff anyway. Um, and just I wasn't feeling a hundred percent. Uh, we did kind of we did the buffet thing and then we didn't have like a slow morning, but we weren't in a rush. We were just kind of like on our own schedule. I wasn't feeling great. I took some medicine, I rallied, embodium to the rescue, like, but it didn't, it wasn't like the kind that you hear about. I just didn't feel great. I wasn't sure if it was from the flight, if I like whatever. Uh, but it did kind of like settle down. I just still wasn't my hundred percent, maybe. Um, but that was our glasses adventure dance. Yes, yes, it was. So Tara had seen online that you could get awesome glasses and like an eye exam and the whole nine, right? For a reasonable price. Oh, yeah, we went to a pharmacy there too that day. Which was cool. Oh, we did, we did. Yes, you had your glasses exam, you found a place, we went to that place. It was in a neighboring kind of town called Changgu, which on a map looks the closest, like the next town over. In real life, it was very hard to get to that. It's like a super busy area, which is probably why the eye doctor is there. So um, that man was lovely. It was a tiny little kind of standalone, almost like a one-room shop, right? Yeah. With lots of cases and things. I think your exam went well. He had like a little exam closet. Um, we waited there for you. Uh, you got to pick glasses and then what was the deal? They were gonna deliver them to you later in the trip, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a cool thing if you're there and just so happen to need. We did learn also that there's like lots of medical tests you could just get done there while you're there as just like a quick stop-in. And it's not like it is in the States where you're like there for hours. It's um we'll talk about it maybe more later, but it seems like it's like a luxury experience that you can just do, which um I have mixed feelings about, but also I feel like if you're there like and it's makes sense for you, then and you need, you know, to go, then go. So you had a good glasses experience. And then we um, oh, that's when we were with Ma Day was our driver that day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then yeah, we went shopping and then we ate. Yeah, we went to that uh Starts with the C Copenhagen.
SPEAKER_00Yes, uh Ma Day is a lovely young man. He is the driver, one of the drivers for Kelly's family, where their kids go to school that's kind of a distance away. So he drives for them all the time, and we got to meet him. Um, actually, this kind of launches into one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. We had some really amazing drivers who, so thankfully for us, because my Indonesian I had like two phrases, had so much English, and we got to learn so much about like growing up there and life there and different, you know, thoughts and feelings. And he was really funny, he was like a cool, um, kind of younger guy, uh, very good driver. And yeah, then he took us from the glasses place. I think he just hung out and waited. Um, I think we did go to the pharmacy then too, which I haven't tried it yet, but we got some kind of magic Indonesian tea that is supposed to make you feel better if you have a cold. You have tried it. It does work. Okay. Apparently we have it at some of the stores here too, right?
SPEAKER_02We do.
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah, we got some other little pharmacy type stuff that, you know, there for very inexpensive, and then went to lunch, which I was still not feeling my best. So I had just like the tiniest asai bowl, I think, was the only thing I could get at that place. And I think I had like tea, like very maybe like the lemongrass tea, because I was like, this is not, I don't feel great. Um, yeah. So you what did you have there? Salad? Some kind of salad? No, I had tuna with capers. Oh, yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. There's lots of things that look good. I just wasn't feeling great. That place was cool. It was kind of more uh Scandinavian vibes in there. Um, and then we left there, and oh, we did get to stop into uh Balinese grocery store while we were over in that part of town, which I don't know about everyone else, but like I love a grocery store when I'm traveling just to see no matter where I am, like whatever country, whatever part of the US um or Canada, I just want to see like what's the local stuff, you know what I mean? So that was kind of cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was.
SPEAKER_00You got to see their cereals, their fruit. Yeah. I mean, and obviously some things we knew what it were and some things we didn't. So um, so that was really cool. And then I think that day, oh yeah, that day, then we kind of like went home and changed and regrouped, and that's the day we met Kelly back later.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, to go watch it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, one of the um high school kids that goes to school with her kids uh had a documentary project about a small, like remote island and the surfing community, and it just was like a really cool project, which apparently is gonna get taken to film festivals and things. I cannot remember what it was called, and I actually think they were gonna change the name anyway. Um, but keep your eyes peeled. It was really a beautiful look at Balinese people and culture.
SPEAKER_01It was.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was and the surf community and kind of protecting these sacred indigenous places. Yeah. So that was really lovely. Um, it was kind of at like a cool space with like art and uh they did a screening for like the kids and their families and that. And then we went to dinner after, which was fun. There's believe it or not, um uh Kelly also makes lots of friends wherever she goes. She has friends or knew someone that owns a Mexican restaurant there, which coming from San Diego is an interesting choice. I'll say that because for those that don't know, we're quite close to the border of Mexico. Um, we're the the county of San Diego that like I mean of California that borders this state, the country of Mexico. So we have a lot of Mexican food here and a lot of amazing of all types of places, Mexican. So this place was okay. Yeah, yeah. The decorations were beautiful, the vibe was cool, the service was amazing. Yeah, um, it was fun. We chatted, like the ambiance, which I love a good ambiance. So the food was pretty good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I I just got chicken feltas. I don't remember what I got because sometimes with being gluten-free, it's like I'm not really getting maybe like what I would like to get. And so I'm just kind of getting, I think it was like tacos. I think it was pretty good. Yeah, um, I think the chips and salsa was good if I remember. Uh so that was great. I was still not feeling amazing. And then we we that night was maybe longer than we thought it was gonna be because we were both kind of tired when we it was like after, it was like 10:30 or something. Yeah, we almost like were like, do we go, do we don't go? But then we're like, we're on vacation, we're here to have new experiences, like we're gonna go. Um, but we were we were already tired. Yeah, so we got home a little later than we planned and immediately to bed, uh, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01And then well, in between that too, I think before we went to watch the documentary, didn't we get a dessert or something at the hotel? Remember, we walked and did like a card reading? That was that day, I think, too. Oh, was that that day too? Like rice pudding. Wait, what did we get?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, oh yeah, that we got this, it's called black rice pudding. Yes. I know my desserts. Um yeah, so there was this little part of the like right at the hotel that was like a little different area with these. Um, you kind of sit on the ground on these pillows with like tables, and then there was umbrellas, I think, above, and twinkle lights for the nighttime. And we had, yeah, it's just what it sounds like. It's like rice pudding, only black rice, and it's maybe a little thicker with like a little kind of like coconut milk on it. That was yummy. Uh, we played with tarot cards and did some like fun tarot card readings and just I just kind of hung out, which was really nice. Uh, and that was before we got ready for another thing. And I think because we had such a like, yeah, thanks for reminding me. We had such a like relaxing kind of like come down that it was like, oh my gosh, now we gotta get ready and go do something like at a different place. It just kind of was like, we're so tired, but it was worth it, I thought. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So that was fun. Um oh, the next day was the day we were leaving.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00I was starting to feel a little better.
SPEAKER_01You were starting to know. I was starting to feel good. Yeah, because I I think I remember that that morning for breakfast, I drank a big old thing of pineapple juice and coffee on an empty stomach, and then I'm very sensitive to acidic things. And then my stomach was just in pain.
SPEAKER_00But like, but that was the day that Kel said that her husband and family kind of wasn't feeling great either. So we weren't sure if you had got a bug.
SPEAKER_01I it didn't really feel like a bug. It really felt like my acid, like if I ate a tomato, like it was like that uncomfortable feeling that I got.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That um breakfast buffet at that first hotel was pretty great. I think so. Yeah, absolutely. I thought it was pretty great. Um, they had all kinds of like traditional breakfast buffet stuff that you'd find in the US, and then also some Indonesian type dishes, um, which were really good, and just like so much stuff. Uh, they'll make you a whole fancy coffee, juices, all the things. So I got to try some desserts that I had wanted to try that were Balinese. Um, I can't remember the name of it now, but it has it has like uh it's green and it's delicious. Um so that's fun to do if you're going there to like if it's a hotel that has a decent buffet of any kind, they probably have some like dishes from the place mixed in. They had a lot of um Indian food too, curries and things. Um, so that was really fun. You liked the stuff that you could try that I couldn't, I remember. Uh all of it looked amazing. And some of it was like, oh, this is at a breakfast buffet, but like, hey, this is cool. Yeah, and the truth is your time zones are off. So sometimes like you don't mind chicken wings at like 9 a.m. So um okay, so then we did the spa that day. Yes, we did at the hotel. Um, I am not so much a spa girly, I'm gonna be honest. I was in massage therapy and body work for many years. I have received a lot of massages at different points when I was going through like all of my education. I am kind of picky because my body is sensitive. So, in general, I don't necessarily love a massage. I'm not that person. Kelly really is, you really are to some extent. Um, and I was like, okay, we're on vacation, we're gonna see what they have. Uh the spa's on the roof, and it's this beautiful, huge rooftop at this hotel that we didn't know was there before. Um, you can see the ocean, you can see rice patties, we could see actually the house that Kelly was gonna be moving into that week, which was cool. Um, so that was really amazing. The spa was beautiful. There was like this little add-on, uh, not very expensive thing you could do where you could like lounge there for like a couple hours ahead. And since we were checking out, we were like, oh, we'll leave our luggage at the front desk, we'll go up there, spend some extra time. Um, there was lots of amenities there that I didn't do at all, but we paid to like hang in. Did you do any of those? Did you we didn't do the cold plunge? There was like cold plunge, there was sauna, there was steam room. I didn't do any of it. I didn't do any of it just because I don't, those aren't really my jam, but we did get to sit in the little area and kind of like see the view. And of course, there's um some kind of fruit water everywhere, so like with lemon or lime, that was beautiful. Uh the massages were amazing. Mine was amazing. Shout out to Linda, like she was so good. Um, and I'm picky.
SPEAKER_01So mine was mine was really good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she was good for me, like what I liked. I'm just I'm not a person that needs like a lot of pressure. I'll just say it that way. So she but she was great. I mean, I felt like things got worked out from that flight, which were amazing. Um, and that was a really nice way to kind of end our stay there. I really loved that first hotel. So did I. I really did. Um I did too. Kel made a great recommendation as usual with that. Yeah. Uh, and then we were gonna get on to our next segment, which is a place called Ubood, which is known as the spiritual center of Bali on on all these videos and tourist stuff. Um, and what is it about an hour? It was an hour, it was an hour. Hour, hour and a half, maybe. No, I think it was an hour. It was a quite a far drive, and we were in quite a bit of traffic. Um and I wasn't feeling good. You weren't feeling good. I was getting car sick. Uh, so it was cool to see like the things we could see along the way, the little roadside shops. There are little, um, a lot of like just little roadsides, someone with a grill making some kind of food, people eating it, so clearly it's good. Um, little one of the things they do there is um uh you see offerings everywhere, which are essentially little palm leaf woven baskets with different flowers and things inside. So we got to see some of the places that weave the uh palm leaves in in the baskets and then also like into different things. Um, lots of like oh, one of the other beautiful things is that every business or home has its own like different versions of temple. So they'll have like a whole house temple, but then they'll also also have like a small box that almost looks like a kind of reminds me of those fancy like give a book, take a book thing that we have here, like a birdhouse, but like beautiful kind of. Uh, and they do offerings there for the business or for the home or whatever. So we saw a lot of the the ornate decorative like boxes that those that those are. Um, so just kind of cool to get to drive from one part of the island to another. And this is kind of up in the central part, so more towards the forest, which we'll talk more about here in just a second. Um yeah, so gorgeous drive up there. Uh beautiful getting onto the resort. Like it's busy in town, and then we were staying kind of set out of the town area by maybe just like 10 minutes. Yeah. Yeah, kind of more back into the rice fields and stuff. So we got to drive through some rice fields, so that was lovely. Uh, we got there to that hotel that I'm not even gonna name because it just wasn't my favorite. Uh and first impressions of the second hotel. It was gorgeous when we got there.
SPEAKER_01It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I didn't be able to see. Um, yeah, it's beautiful there. You're sitting again in this very like open-air kind of lobby, palapa, you know, grass roof over the top check-in area. And it's like that's the front desk of the hotel. The property's gorgeous. Yes. Um, as promised in the photos. Yes. Uh I immediately, I mean, I was, I think we were just ready to go to our room that day, too. We were hungry, we were wanting, yeah, you weren't feeling great. We were wanting to kind of just settle in and call it a night. And I remember we started noticing, like, first they tell you, because you are right up against what's known as monkey forest. The monkeys live in the forest. I mean, hello, obviously. Yeah, it's in the literal jungle, like, not kidding. Um, but it's more in a deeper part because it's not really next to the tourist streets, it is set back. So we're more tucked up where the villages are, which you can even see villages off the back of this resort, kind of in the distance in the forest. Um, the real jungle, guys. So there's these little warnings that are like, you know, don't feed the monkeys. And then when the steward takes you to the room, they tell you several other instructions about the monkey. Lock your door. They know how to open doors. You know how to open doors. And we're like, okay. So even if you come in for a second, lock your lock the slider. We had a low balcony, lock your slider door. Yeah, don't leave anything out there, even if it's like a towel that's wet, like don't leave it there. So, like all these little things start getting dropped to us. And then as we're settling in, um, there's this little, I remember the there's this little paper like triangle card thing that has a whole list of all the nature and wildlife you might encounter and like what it is and how what kind of be careful it is, like the bugs, the geckos, the just so many things. And the monkeys. I like nature, but I have a lot of healthy respect for nature. Um, the first day I that we were there, I think we just kind of relaxed. Yeah, we sat on the balcony.
SPEAKER_01We sat on the balcony for a while. I did sit on the balcony for a while.
SPEAKER_00Pictures. Yeah. We relaxed. I mean, like the resort was beautiful, like I said, we kind of got the news. We uh oh, that was the day we met Monkeypox.
SPEAKER_01Was that the first day?
SPEAKER_00Yes, because we were laying in the beds. We had again, we shared a room, the two little beds next to each other, and beautiful like canopy and that's a roof. And we're like, oh, this is lovely. Um, and then all of a sudden, because then when we were nervous about keeping the door locked, yeah, right? So we were like, we gotta keep this door locked. It's a beautiful view off the balcony, and all of a sudden, there is a monkey. And part of what they tell you is like, don't look at them in the face, and don't smile at them, don't smile at them. That's a sign of aggression. Don't look at them, don't make eye contact with them, don't let them see anything shiny, don't like the rules came and came and came as we were getting settled in. And this monkey is on our balcony staring at us like through the window. And I don't see you. Yeah. What I should mention is that pock in Balinese and Indonesian means it's like sir or man, so monkey pock. Um, so we want to respect this monkey, but like, how do you not make eye contact with a monkey staring in your window of your balcony? Um and he just like was like staring at us with like he didn't look entertained, he didn't look, he just was like, hey, like a bouncer, like monkey fuck. Um then you closed the, I think you closed the blinds after that. The I think I might have, yeah. Oh, and you put you put the big luggage in my mind.
SPEAKER_01I put my big suitcase in the yeah, so that that way they couldn't, in case they could open the door.
SPEAKER_00And then you start showing us, me and you, YouTube videos or like social media videos of people, primarily girls, sorry, who had come to Bali and stayed at Airbnb's and didn't lock the doors and the monkeys like inside taking their stuff, throwing it around, being aggressive, monkey shenanigans. So we were very aware of the monkeys from that point on. And because they tell they'll tell you, like, oh, they'll come, they'll take your phone, they'll take your glasses, they like you want to avoid them at all costs, but they'll kind of like stay away. That was not my experience. So we did ultimately go to sleep that night. Um but yeah, that was monkeypox day. Uh, you weren't feeling great. The next day we woke up in the morning, and that is the day that the steward, a couple little rooms down from ours, uh, there was a monkey outside in the morning. And then we were like, Can we come out? Is it safe? And it was kind of a little ways down, maybe like a two-house length down where this monkey was. And the guy was like, Yes, come out. And we did come out to go to the breakfast buffet, and I didn't know how fast monkeys were. I didn't know. I didn't know. Those monkeys were on the corner of the wall next to our door in like two seconds flat. There was one, and then you were like, There's a monkey, and then I saw the monkey, and then we were trying to get back in the room, and we couldn't get back in the room. Well, to be fair, the locks are different there.
SPEAKER_01The locks are different. Like, they're coming. I was like, Oh man. And I'm trying to open the door in the middle. And it's a real key. That's the other one. Yeah, it's a it's a real key, and the door turned down. Like a door key, but like a different looking door key. And then I was like, hold this. I hand you my phone, then I open the door, and there was like four or five.
SPEAKER_00And then there was like, yeah, like four, four or five like monkeys just gathering um like six feet away from us, very close. A gang of monkeys surrounding us. And then we noticed that there's a monkey on the keychain, and we're like, this is not great. So we hid in the room from the monkeys. For a little bit. I even have a picture of one of these angry face monkeys on the wall looking in our window for us. Okay. Was this when we were gonna? Walk to the pool. This was in the morning we were trying to go to the breakfast buffet, and that's the day we went to the pool. Same day.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Yeah. Okay, but we will remember we woke up early and we walk outside and we walked over the grounds and took pictures. And that was before monkeys surrounding us.
SPEAKER_00We had gone to kind of explore out there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and get to see it the night before. And luckily we did that because if that would if monkeys surrounding us happened before that, we might not have been able to see the grounds.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And then we got eaten by mosquitoes and mosquitoes probably don't normally eat us. They don't normally eat me. They ate me there. Yeah, yeah, I get the mosquitoes. I do. Um, yeah. So I think we did go to the breakfast buffet ultimately, but we did hide in our room for a little while and try to check several times to get out. And then I was scared of monkeys the whole time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I was done. I was like, I they came so quick and were like so beady-eyed, and then they're right behind us, and then I see them, and then I'm trying not to look them in the faces, and there they are. Oh my gosh, it was not great. So that was our we there's lots of monkey encounters. Yeah, and that was a pool day because you just weren't feeling 100%. And we were like, we're just gonna chill here. We're just gonna, there's a gorgeous like infinity pool that looks over the jungle, and you can see some villages in the distance. Yeah, it's beautiful. Like, twist my arm, please. Like it was it was so relaxing. There's umbrellas, there's um, you can order stuff at the pool, which we stayed there for a few hours, and then um, I guess the monkeys kind of like patrol the hotel because they did there was a monkey in a tree that like scared some kind of food away from some kid when we were leaving. So that happened. Yeah, that day I think we just really did the pool, right? And then we had dinner. Oh, we had room service that day. Yeah, again, good French fries, yes, and we watched uh like 12 hours at the Asian Food Network. It was great. I love that kind of TV, and we just hung out and had our room service. Yeah, um, and then we were scared to put the room service stuff outside because there might be monkeys out there and we didn't want them to get us. So that was that day. Um the next day, you're feeling better. Yes, and we decided to go do some shopping and see some temples, which was great. Yeah. Um, we took a little shuttle from our hotel, maybe like 10 minutes down to the main drag there in Ubud. I can't remember the name of the street, but it's like the street that's there. So we get dropped off in a little parking lot, which has really some beautiful temples and something that we'll see the next day. And we stroll down to if you've seen any of the videos where there's like the art market, it's this um two-story, one on each side of the alley there. Um, and these just really big structures with lots of little shops, stalls inside with everything that you could possibly think of there. And then there's all these little winding streets all around that also have these little stalls. There's fabrics, there's saris, there's jewelry, statues. Oh, you could get a braids, you could, yeah, there's incense, there's um so many dreamcatchers, there's shirts and pants and all the things, dresses and um, yeah, so much stuff. And then on the street on both sides are also like formal stores that you can go in that are like maybe a little bit higher end, some of them, some of them not, because there's also stalls mixed in the middle. Um, and in the middle of this street, there are a thousand motorbikes, cars, uh lanes are a suggestion there. I saw someone on a motorbike trying to carry a ladder. Um, like just people getting after it in their life. Uh, I really, it was so hot too. That's the other thing I remember. Like, it was very hot. I really liked getting to see shops there and toodle around in the art market and get some souvenirs and things. We didn't get a ton of stuff, but some stuff. Yeah. We saw some temples that day. Just kind of spent a lot of time there. And then we had scheduled that night at the hotel, they had um like a dinner and traditional dance program thing with dancers from nearby villages to do the traditional Balinese dance. So we weren't gonna be there the whole day. We just were shopping for a few hours. So it was it was a lot. Um, it's a lot of energy and a lot of people, and the people are, you know, just like any shop owner would be in a place that there's lots of shops, like come in, like see what I have, type thing. So it's a it's really stimulating, like overstimulating for some, I'm sure. Um, I think we got exhausted, but I think we were fine for like a few hours. And then we got changed and went to the dance presentation thing. We were falling asleep at the table. We were so we were struggle bus all the way. The food was really good. It was, I was gonna say the food was really good. I remember that one. It was some sort of traditional chicken dish where they wrap it in banana leaves and put it in some clay pots. Um, it was amazing. And have you ever been like exhausted to that point where you're just like, I could barely eat this? Like, I know it tastes good, and I just can't even like I just want to lay down. That's how we felt. And it could have been hot and sunny that day, and it was a lot. So, yes, uh we kind of were suffering through at the end. There was again mosquitoes because everything's open air. The dances were wonderful, really well done and cool. And you can tell there are like specific traditional dances that they do that like tell certain stories that are part of the mythology and the culture. Um, the obviously the costumes and everything are handcrafted. And they did say, like, these are you know the nearby villages, and this is how we support each other. And so all of that was great. And we barely made it to the end. The couple next to us got engaged, yeah, from France. Um, and we just were like, we, oh my god, how much longer? But like, not in a bad way, just exhausted, so exhausted. Yeah. Um, but the thing was really cool. I would definitely do it again. I thought it was like a neat way to like enjoy the hotel. Um, and then we I think we just went to bed then too, and then we went back to that city center the next day. And in the parking lot where we got dropped off, there was like a little, like almost like a monastery with like gardens, beautiful um Kwanyan, like fountain piece, uh, and some art museums there. So a lot of traditional Balinese art from different like centuries, um, tapestries, like how many were like four buildings, five buildings. Because then there was that one with like the new art too of like youth and stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so five buildings you could walk through, just really incredible. Some of the very traditional, like heavy ink drawings, other that is like almost looks like etched on papyrus, kind of, you know, um, probably some sort of palm leaf or something. That was all really incredible. Uh, just a couple bucks donation to go in and totally worthwhile. Absolutely. And it didn't seem like anyone was really doing that. So it's why I love having kind of a more, I don't know, not so demanding schedule, because it gives us space to like find these gems, which it was really incredible. I really liked those museums.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh, and then we did more shopping. There were some like jewelry gifts that we had picked up.
SPEAKER_01And then we did Saraswati.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. We did a couple more temples that day. The I forgot the day before we did something called the Royal Family Temple. And these are just like all on the main street still. Like just right now. Like standing outside, you can't tell. You can't just look like a yeah, you have to go inside. The Saraswati Temple was beautiful. I was kind of hoping to maybe like feel a little bit more Saraswati energy, I guess. Um, and get to know her a little bit because I've had some experiences with her through other people, but she was one that I was really intrigued about meeting when we were there. Uh, and that place just felt so hot and so rushed. It was gorgeous. It was the statue sculpture. I don't even know architectural parts of the building. I don't even know what to call it. There's carved um like protectors into the buildings. I actually have some of the photos of them framed in my living room now, which you haven't seen yet. Uh, I from this trip, you can't really see it now, but there's like framed fabric that we got on those days kind of hanging next to my desk now. It's called Batik, it's their traditional fabric. Um, so the Saraswati Temple was gorgeous and so hot. So because they put you in the traditional robes and stuff. You can't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but we thought if we put on our own long sleeves, we wouldn't have to wear theirs. So we put on ours and then they give us theirs. So we're wearing a lot of theirs on.
SPEAKER_00So and we're it was like too uncomfortable to try to take it off, or just like and it's like stick almost like if you've ever had um done any kind of like martial arts, like the ghee, it's thick like a ghee, like that you're wearing as like a jacket, and then this skirt thing that's also made of like ghee material, um, really, really thick, almost like uh, or like chef's apron, only thicker, like just really chef's jacket. That's what I'm thinking of. I worked in a deli when I was in high school. Um, yeah, so just so thick and hot. And then we were there like in the hottest part of the day, of course, because we tootled at the museum. So it was just it's lovely. The pictures are lovely from that day. Um, my tennis shoes are super dorky, but I didn't even care. Yeah, it just was so that was cool, but like, I don't know. I didn't mind even that there was like a lot of people there because I just expected that, but it just kind of didn't feel maybe as spiritual as I thought. But the hot thing was problematic. So uh and then oh, we did a little more shopping, we walked in some more alleys, we had some gelato, yeah. Uh, which that's one of the other unexpected things, just as a weird little aside. There's great gelato in Bali. I mean, there's lots of great food of all kinds, I feel like, but something about the gelato really stood out to me there. Um so that was really cool. And then when we got back to the room and we're starting to just kind of like unwind, we saw a whole monkey show on our balcony. Um, the balconies are all connected and the roofs, and across the balcony came this like parade of like two monkey families, it seemed, with like babies and teenagers, and uh, and then they were there's kind of like a lawn down under our balcony where our view was, and they were like playing all down there and the trees there, and just so many monkeys just putting on a whole monkey show, which I was watching through the glass with the door locked, I will mention. Um, it was really cool to see. I just I don't mind when they're like out there, I just don't want them to have us to me because I know I'm in their space, obviously. Um, but that was really cool to get to see. I have some good close-up pictures of like monkey babies and videos of them just like monkeying around, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think every morning though, like when the sun would start to rise, they would a few would walk across our balcony in the morning, and then when they were going home, they would walk back across at night.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so they would walk across, but this day there was really like a show, like so many. Um, so I'll make sure to post about that too. Yeah, yeah. Well, I do think this is a good breaking point. This is obviously gonna be two episodes. The next part of the journey is when we really have some more incredible spiritual experiences. We will tell you about the famous Bali swing in this next segment, uh, this next episode, part two. Uh, and I had just a whopping experience that I was not expecting that was not amazing, that I am gonna share with you guys. Uh, so you will not want to miss part two of our Bali recap episode with all of our highlights and favorite things. Uh so thanks for being here. I know you'll be here again, Tara. And we will um, yeah, we will cut for now and we will pick up next week and we will share the rest of our journey, which it really does get better as we go and a little crazier too. So you'll not want to miss that. Thanks for being here with us, and we will see you next episode inside Spirit City.