Uluwatu & Ubud
Letter #20: Celebrating my 37th birthday in Bali, and finishing my time here in Ubud.
2/28/23
I’m finishing up my last morning in Uluwatu. I spent the last 4 nights here, opting for a nice hotel to relax in for my 37th birthday, which just so happened to occur on February 25th, 2023, and also with the surprise of my best friends back home “treating” me to the hotel room by pooling together funds to send me a big ole Venmo payment. I certainly was not feeling sad about getting older, or lonely for really being alone on my birthday—I was living a dream life.
Uluwatu is beautiful, the land set up on cliffs overlooking the crashing ocean below. A surfer’s paradise. The surrounding areas are being built up to cater to Western tourists and ex-pats. And as we now all know, more tourists means more influx of trash/waste/debris—you name it.
On Saturday, I headed across the street from my hotel to Padang Padang Beach, teetering down a stone staircase built into the side of a cliff. The beach was tiny and more crowded than Brighton Beach back in Brooklyn, with hardly any space to walk between tourists’ towels, and trash lining the sand where the tide flows in and out. On Monday, I checked out Thomas Beach which was even more rugged, with fewer visitors and triple the amount of trash. The current was so strong making swimming a bit precarious, so Catarina and I stayed for only a couple hours. Tourists flock to Bali for the stunning white sand beaches, but, in my opinion, they’re hard to enjoy when you’re sunbathing in…well…trash. There is no point in placing blame on any party—the tourists, the locals, the government. You know what we need to do? Stop consuming so much. Yes, humans will always produce waste, no matter how hard we try not to. But it CAN be improved upon. In the Philippines Ally and I saw a lot of trash. But many of the resorts and restaurants made a conscious effort to provide clean drinking water for refillable bottles. It is astounding what a difference that can make. Considering a human should be drinking at least 8ish bottles of water a day, just think about the amount of waste that creates?! With no where to go?!
Ok, sorry, I didn’t even mean for this post to go in that direction. But I think a lot of travel blogs rave about how beautiful the beaches are in Bali…but they made me pretty sad! Sad that humans can ruin something so amazing and instead of changing our ways, we point the finger and head back to the super clean hotel pool (like I did on both my beach days).
Anywho…Saturday evening Chloe and Ursina, two friends who I had met at Tribal, met up with me to celebrate my birthday. We visited Uluwatu Temple—the temple being less the focus than the monkeys stealing sunglasses directly off tourists faces, against the backdrop of the waves crashing against the cliffs below. 😍 Then we took a local taxi over to Single Fin for dinner and the sunset. Kris (a Draper friend), and his friend ran into us at Single Fin, also celebrating his friend’s birthday. A German guy whom I never quite got the hang of his name (whoops). We shared a chocolate cake and all the friends sang to us. I somehow made it back to my hotel in a torrential downpour, and finished the evening with a Zoom call with all my best friends back home. Which happened to be coordinated across 4 time zones.
Catarina and I said goodbye last night, with a “maybe I’ll see you soon in Europe?” and a final hug. She and I had spent nearly a week and a half together so it was strange to be on my own again.
I was trying to decide how to spend my last 3 nights in Bali. Part of me wanted to go back to Canggu and Draper to hang out with friends and jam out more of my newsletter during the day. But the other part of me felt drawn to finish in Ubud. I hadn’t done any yoga classes or workshops since I’d gotten to Bali, and I felt that would be a miss.
Anna, a friend I met at Draper, had the most beautiful description of Ubud vs. Canggu. She said something along the lines of Canggu representing her masculine energy and Ubud representing her feminine energy. That when she was in Canggu, she was driven and social, sharing ideas with others and committed to her work. Whereas Ubud represented a place of self-care, a place where one can be alone with their thoughts, boasting an endless amount workshops that feed the healing connection to inner spirituality. My jaw nearly dropped at her concise, yet elegant description of these two places. And I decided to use this method to categorize other places in my life. I realized over several days of rolling this concept around in my head, that New York was my masculine energy, every day, all day long, for 10 years. There was little I was doing to feed my feminine energy, the parts of me that need to feel rested and connected, in deep alignment with my dreams, spirituality, and physical being. Maybe the quick weekend taken upstate to spend some time in nature helped me feel more grounded, but it was never enough time to shift over to a calm way of being. Actually, going back to my parents fed my feminine energy. I was relaxed there, getting plenty of rest, nuturing the relationships with my family, and letting my guard down.
So I decided to finish my month in Bali back in Ubud, in order to honor this feminine energy that had been craving focus for YEARS. I booked a yin yoga class at The Yoga Barn (thank you
for the recommendation), and was visited by an old golden retriever during my practice. No--I do not think that was a coincidence. 😍 I went back the next day for a breathwork and "Sounds of Mother Earth" sound bath performance. I left my days open, lounging at the pool, and searching for lunches with as many fresh veggies as possible--see meal from KAFE.I’m going to use the Feminine vs Masculine energy check from now on while I travel—and for where I decide to live next. Do I have quick access to nature? Can I be social? Do I have to work too hard to maintain the lifestyle? Will I have balance?
A quick note about Anna from Belgium: When I saw her breeze into Draper on my second day there, the room lit up. She floated around saying hi and giving everyone a hug, including me, whom she’d only just met. She was fun, energetic, deep, and spiritual, known as “Dragonfruit Girl” due to her habit of eating at least 4-8 dragonfruits a day. She was someone I definitely wanted to be friends with. We rode on her scooter together to the Beyonce Dance Class. At one point, as we pulled up to the ONLY stoplight in Canggu, and she gingerly put her feet down to steady the motorbike, I asked if she usually goes around Bali without shoes on. She responded that she doesn’t even HAVE shoes right now. I laughed and said “wait…HOW?!” She said she was in a strange place when packing for her longterm travel in Bali, throwing in five pairs of jeans and a pair of combat boots. Needless to say, none of that clothing makes sense in Bali, so instead of buying sandals, she goes EVERYWHERE barefoot. Even when the concrete is hot. It’s actually very normal to be barefoot here, and many stores, restaurants, hostels, and hotels require it. But never had I imagined foregoing shoes altogether. I told her she was one of the most fascinating humans I’d ever met. ❤️
TIDBITS for BALI
People are incredibly kind and helpful.
It is 100% safe here, I never worried about myself or my belongings.
You can live comfortably here for under $12 a day (scooter, food, and hostel).
There are dogs EVERYWHERE on the streets of Bali. Oddly they look healthier than the ones I saw in the Philippines.
Since the Gili Islands are Muslim, you see cats everywhere in the streets instead of dogs.
The traffic looks crazy and terrifying, but somehow works very well.
I never once saw a semi-truck.
I rarely saw police. Maybe once? The Gili Islands don’t even have police, just some security guards.
You could fill up your scooter for around $3.16 and I bet it would last you over 2 weeks.
The food is incredible. The local Indonesian dishes are delicious and cheap.
It’s easy to find ATMs and take out cash pretty much anywhere. There are also money exchanges everywhere. I try not to get too caught up on fees—life is too short. 💁🏻♀️ But truthfully, I travel with maybe $60-100 USD before I get to a new country and just use the ATMs. Guess what? Charles Schwab bank pays back all your ATM fees, doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, AND gives you interest on your checking and savings accounts.
Just about any hotel/homestay/hostel will help you book drivers, arrange tours, send out your laundry, and let you borrow an outlet converter.
No, you can’t drink the tap water. But it’s much better to look for refill stations than buy multiple plastic bottles a day. I brushed my teeth with the faucet and ate salads all the time and survived. Dare I say thrived.🤷🏻♀️
Yeah sometimes local drivers will try to overcharge you. There is fierce competition with Grab and Gojek being such easy use apps for foreigners. Just do your research and ask around so you know how much a ride should cost between places (I would check on Grab first and then haggle with the driver to a more reasonable price).
You can’t just willy nilly order a Grab in every place. In Canggu it is ok, yes, in Uluwatu and Ubud it is not ok everywhere. There is a “taxi mafia” that drives out the competition of ride based apps. The competition with Uber and Lyft was an issue in New York City as well, where taxi drivers were losing much of their customers to the ease and predictable prices of the apps. So I sympathize with an industry that is affected by new technology. But as I mentioned above, do. your research and blend in with the locals. If everyone says stick with the local drivers? Do it.
That said, people aren’t true scam artists here, not like we are used to in the west. Their Hindu culture helps keep the people honest, beacons of the golden rule. So let your guard down a bit, it’s ok to trust.
It is NOT easy to run outside here. There aren’t reliable sidewalks and you’ll be competing with packed Bali traffic. But in many areas you can find gyms with cheap daily rates.
The beaches are hit or miss. Canggu has black sand and its beaches aren’t known for hanging out. Uluwatu had stunning beaches but a lot of trash. The Gilis probably had the best beaches of lounging that I experienced. Safest bet is staying at a nice resort that grooms their beaches.
Yes, you’ll be barefoot a lot. Embrace it, it’s freeing.
There are bugs. I avoided them indoors for the most part after Gili Air. But just know there will bugs—ants especially—nearly everywhere.
The mosquitos weren’t nearly as bad as they were in Philippines. I had to wear bug spray maybe only 5 times in a month. I did get eaten alive at The Yoga Barn, so definitely bring bug spray with you there.
You need an entry visa from the US. It’s $35 for 30 days and can easily be extended. It is easy to buy right at the airport—don’t get scammed paying $100 to buy one online ahead of time.
Every blog I read said February would be rainy season in Bali. In other words, not a good time to visit. They were wrong. It was totally fine. Apple Weather predicted rain every day, all day long. They were wrong, too. There would be downpours here and there, but they didn’t last long. Most often at night. It actually kept the weather cooler than usual, so it was very comfortable to walk around! Anyways, don’t be afraid to visit in February.
Hey! Would you like to connect over creativity, self-growth, and problem-solving? Or just to have a virtual glass of wine or mocktail? Please book a time on my Calendly for us to chat! I can’t wait to see you. XOXO.
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Happy Birthday! Loved this article—brings back so many memories and wish we would have stayed longer.