Wellnessssssssssss..................

Ubud is probably the Spa and wellness capital of Bali. I don´t think the density of spa´s is higher anywhere in the world....here every second shop or building houses a spa. Today in the afternoon i got stuck in a Spa as it was raining for about 2 hours and met 2 Indonesian girls from Jakarta there who had come to Ubud  to work.  One is working in the film industry as a director of documentaries, the other one was working for the writer festival they did here in Ubud in October.  


I assumed they would be celebrating Galungang day tomorrow but they said they were not Hindu and actually admitted they were not religious which is very exceptional here in Bali. One was raised Muslim and the other one as a catholic but both did not practice any religion nor believed.  It was a fun afternoon getting pampered, fooling around doing girls things and girl talk while outside everything was getting flooded.  It was nice meeting some educated women who spoke good english and asked you something else then "where do you come from" , "how many children do you have" and more of the obvious. When I left after 2 hours they had shown me a totally different side of Indonesia then i had seen so far.  


The main talk here at lunch tables and dinner tables is which treatments did you do? Did you try abc massage? Have you done xxx meditation already?  The best nailsalon in Ubud is in xxx street...quite boring...;)  Sjaman swamibami has some hours free as he will not be traveling to India ...;) .... No serious  but there are quite a few really interesting people here too.  Lots of Yogis and Yoginis, or intellectuals that lost the way here 10 or 20 years ago and are still hanging out here ...but i definitely meet more interesting people here then in Torrelles de Foix....and all have manicured nails .... ;)  

Magical Ubud.....Galungang Day

I am still in Ubud.  There is a big hindu holiday here tomorrow called Galungang Day http://www.wonderfulbali.com/ceremonies/galungan.htm for which everyone decorates their homes with huge bamboo sticks of 6 to 8 meters long called penjors. 


A Penjor is made from a long bamboo pole about eight meter high with curved end, and decorated with palm leaves, rice paddies, corn on the cob, coconut, cakes, a piece of white or yellow cloth, etc. It is the symbol of Mount Agung and also as gratitude for the agricultural produce. The arched top of the bamboo pole represents Mount Agung, the body of the pole is a river that flows from the mountains to the sea, and along its route are the products of the harvest, tied to the pole.The people in my guest house have been spending days and nights getting the thing ready. 

Tomorrow morning everybody will go to the temples with offerings to celebrate this most important holiday here in Bali.  Here in Ubus there will be a competition for the most beautiful Penjor, rumors say the winner will get a Honda motorbike.......