Bali

Unexpected a week to Bali, why not? A short stop before heading to India. The main reason to change my plans was to see Bram for a few days and just relax. 

De first stop in Bali could only be Canggu, especially because I had to wait a few days before he would arrive. A place where you know there are some good partys, a lot of people and beer. Luckely for me Stefan was here as well and I moved to his hostel. After meeting his German friends we went for some food, visited a temple and some parties. I met Bram in Canggu and ofcourse we went out with at the end some techno beach beats. Canggu showed again to be a killer.The days would be longer and the mornings worser. Time to work on the mental and physical part and where else to do this than Ubud. 

The next days we stayed at brams aunt and uncle who live in Ubud. Located amongst rice paddies and steep ravines in the central foothills of the Gianyar regency. One of Bali's major arts and cultural areas. This is a village more inland surrounded by nature. They have  an amazing house outside Ubud in the nature. Ubud is famous for yoga and all other kind of different spiritual, mental and physical activities.

Ofcourse we were up for some yoga lessons and we had no clue about all the different classes on the schedule. This feeling was similar as getting a menu in a restaurant in a different language. After getting more information we decided to buy a pass for a few lessons and the first lesson would be Yoga vinyasa flow. Its a kind of slow and more relaxed yoga so easier to start we tough. In these days we did as well some Ying Yang and power (vinyasa) yoga. Different kind of styles and actually every lesson had something unique and good. I really enjoyed following these classes, even that I was probably the most less flexible person in the room. 

Im new into this world and watching around me gave me a un pretty feeling. Especially in the beginning, it never feels fine to be the ‘worst’ in something. After a while I didn’t care that much anymore because I was here for myself. After the lesson I spoke with Bram and he felt exactly the same and he is just very flexible, especially compared to me. Besides being a yoga retard compared to the others I still enjoyed the lessons a lot and felt way better. I really enjoy the group lessons and that makes me more interested in yoga. Its easy to keep going on with yoga while traveling but to be fair I don’t have the perseverance to keep going for myself. 

One of our teachers was an American dude called Paul. All yogi’s loved him, talked about him and kind of worshiped him. For Bram and me he was just a random guy teaching yoga. 

Besides yoga we also participated in some other activities which were for us out of the box thinking. One of them was ecstatic dance, never heard about this before and everyone was super excited. We had no clue in the beginning and expected just to walk in the lesson and just to join. Luckely we got a tip to be early there. There was a queue in the early morning and only the first 100 people could get a ticket, we were one of the lucky ones. Its not allowed to talk or drink and only dance. Ecstatic dance is that you dance on different kind of music styles. Only you, your feelings , your thoughts, your body and your movements how you experience and feel them. In the beginning I felt a bit weird and didn’t know what to do, at the same time we saw all these people making the craziest moves you can imagine. But after a while and getting used to this experience I started making slowly my own crazy moves. When you stop thinking about what people could  think of you and just let yourself go. Wooooow what an amazing feeling is this, I actually cant describe this complete  experience. I travel for more than 18 months now and I never felt so free with my body and soul while dancing here. I would recommend everyone to experience this unbelievable feeling. Actually it’s very hard to describe with words... 

After this experience we spoke with a girl that told us about a contact improvisation session somewhere else. No idea about what and how but since we are shifting our own boundaries why not?

We arrived and had no clue what to expect. The teacher opened the lesson, we had to follow her vocal instructions, always keep our eyes closed and do whatever feels good. Everyone had to lie down on the floor and start ed moving on the music while touching as much as possible from the floor with your body parts. Next step was the same but than moving around in the room however you wanted with your body on the floor. A good and crazy feeling at the same moment. This  felt a bit like stretching yourself completely on the floor in different angles and (new) movements. 

Not long and I touched the first person and moved myself slowly away. Before I knew I was bumping into a lot of different people. Not long after that I felt a hand moving on my body and a leg over my body somewhere else. I though what the f’ck is happening here and opened my eyes a little bit and was completely surprised. I saw a pile of people in the middle of the room moving next, over and under each other. What a crazy feeling and I didn’t know how to feel in the first impression. I surrendered my own feelings again and started doing slowly the same. I made my way to the pile of people and was part of a human kind of puzzle. Still a strange feeling to feel human parts  everywhere on and around your body. After a while the pile became smaller and people started moving one on one. With an other person you twisted the bodies around each other and all movements that happened was on base of physical connection. There was no plan or script but just movements with your body and soul connected with the other person. Interesting how you feel with some people a very strong physical connection without even seeing each other and with some people almost no connection. Normally you start to touch with just one finger and making the same movements and slowly, very slowly more of the body parts started to involve. Even here I dont know which words to use to describe this crazy but good experience.

Besides this all I want to make a big shout out to all the amazing ‘vegetarian’ food I had here and the amazing people and vibes in and around this village. 

The last activity would be healing meditation. Very interesting but for me the least favorite activity. This because I know meditation and the other ones were a big unexpected surprise. 

Im very happy that I could experience all these different kind of out of the box activities. If your open for new (random) things and want to shift your boundaries this is a good place. 

Now on my way to India, famous of her beauty, chaos, diversity, spirituality, wisdom and many more things.