Two on a Scooter and Jatiluwih

After an incredible time in Sydney and Brisbane I travelled back to Bali to not-so-patiently await the arrival of my beloved John. There is still much to be chronicled about my Australian adventure but in an effort to challenge my somewhat perfectionist mind, I'm allowing a bit of unchronological story jumping.

I arrived back in Bali five days before John was due. Five very long days! Eventually I found myself sitting at the airport, waiting for him to arrive. I sat there for nearly an hour and part of me didn't believe that he would ever walk through those sliding doors! Six months blurs one’s ability to believe that certain people exist in the flesh. And then… suddenly… there he was! 

John jumped off the plane and into the sea! My friends Georgina and Shailender drove me to the airport to pick him up.

We spent two wonderful weeks in Ubud; visiting my favourite eating spots, meeting friends, enjoying delicious meals together in my little cottage and having daily classes at my favourite yoga studio, Radiantly Alive. We were treated to a special Balinese dinner with my Balinese family, they also excitedly gave us traditional ceremonial dress to wear. They absolutely adored John. Once or twice he went to collect the laundry and still hadn't returned half an hour later – where could he be? After stomping up the garden path I was met by a laughing Gustut as he explained to me that he had kept John chatting for a very long time and that John had only just been released to pursue his original quest!

One Tuesday morning we packed up our two little backpacks, donned our helmets and set off on the scooter. Off on an adventure! What a wonderful feeling! We were not long out of Ubud before we stopped to snack on peanuts and watch the kite flyers launch their kites over the rice fields. It is both the windy season and the kite season in Bali and it was awesome to be able to count over fifty kites sailing in the blue blue sky over the green of the paddies. 

Our first stop was the rice terraces of Jatiluwih, a UNESCO world heritage site. We took our time to climb up through the misty mountains and valleys to the highlands of the Penebal District. We followed some wooden signs to an organic farm where some lively Balinese children asked us questions in impressive English and showed us what was growing in the thin strip of farm land. After enjoying our picnic lunch we made our way back into the mist towards Jatiluwih. Before committing to accommodation for the night we continued to scoot up and down the hills exploring the area, but after experiencing a very bumpy and potholed road we decided that we better backtrack a bit and return to the small village of Jatiluwih. I can promise you that any bump is felt quite severely after being on the back of a scooter after a couple of hours!

The small warungs and homestays devoted to the tourism of Jatiluwih are set just behind the road that lines the edge of the cliff, as it gently falls downwards to the rice paddy terraces. This place is one of the best spots to witness the clever subak irrigation system, which allows water to be shared by a community and flow from one paddy to the next.

After settling into our accommodation for the night we went for a dusk-time walk. I thought that the view was rather nice and pretty. But, it was only the next morning when we truly experienced the spectacular beauty that Jatiluwih boasts of. The sun was not yet up and the sky had not yet been clouded in the thick mist characteristic of this region. We saw the two spectacular volcanic mountains of Batur and Agung to our left and all the way to the sea straight ahead.

We walked into the rising sun and beyond it. We experienced that precious morning time when things are slowly starting up, where the air around you is pulsing with that special, somewhat energised sunlight of the initial moments of the day. We saw cows having breakfast and farmers making their way to their fields. We reached the shaded entrance of a temple compound. We were the only ones there, and this solitariness, coupled with the feeling of the early morning, made it feel all the more sacred.

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