Best Made Plans

Look ahead. Look behind. In between you will find. – Symon

The plan was to do nothing.

But…

Then there was Kadek and his motorbike.

Kadek is the caretaker for the bungalow and my key to unlocking Bondalem. Translator, local guide, banana pancake maker and two-wheeled Uber driver Kadek was my guy. He never uses the terms I or you when speaking – only Kadek or Rashell – and he doesn’t believe in walking anywhere.

And then there was a full moon ceremony at the temple.

I’d heard the Balinese are very open about welcoming everyone to their ceremonies and that it was possible that might happen in Bondalem. But how, no idea? Enter Kadek. Without asking Kadek invited me to attend the full moon ceremony at the temple (and the ceremony the day before the full moon and the ceremony the day after the full moon. There are a lot of ceremonies here). A little worried that I would be out of place, I was happy to hear that my three German neighbors were also invited so there was going to be a band of four so the answer was yes, but then the obvious next question…what to wear? Well that was quickly solved with the Bali version of a Stitch Fix delivery with a proper ceremony outfit.

So what is a full moon ceremony? I had no idea what to expect but turns out to be this amazing, beautiful, wild experience with blessings and dancing and prayers and guys smoking cigarettes (all the guys smoke here, but none of the women do) and everyone from town is there (like 1,000 people) and there is a band in the back made up of guys with mallets and bells and there’s food and kids with cell phones and the women had the most beautiful outfits and people keep coming and going and moving and dancing and more blessings and offerings and more dancing and so much incense I was pretty sure I was going to smell like incense for the rest of my life and it went on and on and on (7pm-2am!) and it was absolutely unforgettable.

And there was a spider. At 330am. In my bed.

There are no pictures of the spider in my bed at 330am. There are also no pictures of my reaction to finding a spider in my bed at 330am but lets just say it looked like a crazy woman dance combined with lots of prayers involving four letter words. (I think God gives exceptions to proper prayer rules when there are really big spiders involved). Both the spider and I made it out alive (no kidding, this spider is going to be thanking his god for a cup and a postcard for the rest of his life) but I’m pretty sure I will never be quite the same.

And of course, there was Symon.

One day Kadek says, ‘Rashell there is an art gallery in Bondalem. By an American. Do you want to go?’

I said yes, but really had no idea what to expect. I kept thinking Royal Street gallery – but in Bondalem and the two images just didn’t merge. So we get on the motorbike and head east and eventually come around a corner to find this. It’s like the Orange Show in Houston, only bigger and wilder and with much better views.

Symon is from Detroit and after many years of wandering the globe settled down in Ubud 40 years ago. He is the quintessential artsy, anti-establishment ex-pat that every traveler meets somewhere along their journey. He created the Art Zoo, which lived in Ubud for many years until as Symon put it, Ubud’s soul died somewhere around 2014, and he moved the Art Zoo to Bondalem where he still felt the spirit of Bali.

As a PS to the Art Zoo, two days after visiting I was enjoying the beach view at the bungalow when Kadek arrives with a letter. He tells me I got mail – and for a second I felt like I was in the twilight zone I was so confused. And then I got this…a thank you note.

And then there was a waterfall, and of course a coconut.

And then there was the breakfast club.

Now I didn’t really need to go into Bondalem for breakfast because as part of the deal here Kadek offered to make breakfast every morning if I bought the food. (He used to work at a hotel and really liked cooking and now just does it to be a good host. Seriously…)

But then we needed to go to the market in the village to restock for the second week and after I talked Kadek in to walking to the market (like 1/3 of a mile) when we get there he asks if I want Balinese coffee. Sure, why not. And enter the breakfast club. Two tables in front of a house/store on the main road and I was hooked. The coffee is some of the sweetest I’ve had but each morning also offered the chance to have a traditional Bali breakfast of sweet potato and coconut. (Early birds get the purple). The man and woman who ran the cafe (if that’s what you’d call it) had the sweetest little girl and a few kittens and well, why would you start your day anywhere else?

And there were so many warungs.

There was Warung Chandra Dewi which has the best tempeh.

And Warung Labe which has the best mie goreng.

d Warung Tepuek Sarie which has the best nasi goreng.

And Warung Ming Ming which has potato goreng aka french fries. (I’m pretty sure that’s not the real name but that’s what Kadek calls it and it makes me smile laugh so…potato goreng.)

and my favorite – Vegetarian Blayang. A north Bali classic of sweet rice, spicy sprouts and peanuts, complete in banana leaf wrapper and paper bag. No plastic!

and most specially there was Dewi. Dewi works at the Shambala retreat center next to the bungalow and is friends with Kadek. Dewi’s English is near perfect and so is her outlook on life. When I mentioned to Kadek that I’d like to meet with a Balinese healer his first call was to Dewi. Dewi is the go to girl in Bondalem for healers and she probably changed my life.

So Dewi gets in touch with a local healer. In Bali much of the healing work is energy work, similar to reiki, and involves a healing massage along with your usual life Q & A session. Because the village doesn’t see a lot of visitors the healer (a woman!) didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Balinese so Dewi was our bridge, which was pretty awesome because I not only got the healers answers, but Dewi’s too. Dewi also took me to her house, introduced me to her family and I got to meet her boyfriend. So much love to Dewi.