A Young American in the East: Goodbye Ubud, Hello Uluwatu

Well it is Sunday and I am leaving the first stop on my Asia tour. Heading down to the south of Bali, to the famed Uluwatu beaches to reunite with my best bud Jake Matz. He's been off in northern China since April teaching english and I don't really know what else, but I'm excited to learn all about his new life. We're starting our beach week at a snazzy hotel and then off to explore the backpacker lifestyle. I imagine constant drinks in hand and gorgeous sunsets. What else do you really need? Backtracking quickly- Friday was my last day of "work" here, and it was rather relaxing. As this entire experience has been. I visited a local farm which was extremely impressive- run by a local guy, but has an older Italian man working for him who moved here 20 years ago from Balzano (northern Italy) to escape the snow. I harvested okra and passion fruits and some baby limes!!! Just another day in Bali. Then had my last mindblowing fried rice lunch- truly better than any rice I have ever eaten. More flavors and ingredients in one rice mix-up than I could have ever imagined. After that just played with my best friend Arsa/ Monkey, he know refers to me as monkey and at one point while watching him I went to pee and he got so confused that he started screaming monkey all over the house until he found which room I was in. Like marco-polo, except monkeyyyy-MONkeyyyyyy. SO ADORABLE I COULD'VE CRIED. And after turning in my final pages for the eco-tourism books and cookbook I helped the staff create, I was done. I also wrote a small feedback piece for them, which was well recieved where I basically thanked the staff for all the great chats and time together, and complained once more about the terrifying motorbike experience and nearly a thousand mosquito bites I've gathered. All in all- 9/10 experience.

This place was super cool to see and be a part of and I would def come back. Pros: awesome staff, really fun to hang with, My best friend here is Zoe, she was Petra's new assistant and is very cool. She is super up on western culture, is like obsessed with celeb gossip, lots of different foods and we just have lots to talk about.easy work- made them a few photoshop designed books one on local activities and one a cookbook on easy, western recipes, and served as a guinea pig for workaway volunteers in the future and guests. It's also insanely beautiful, they have a pool, a very nice house and now that I can ride a motorbike, it's super accessible to go to Ubud by myself- 20 min drive. Cons: It's isolated, extremely quiet at times and besides the fam and staff, so 10 people total, there aren't a ton of people to meet. And to me that is really what I'm most after with all this travel. Also the bedbug issue/ mosquito problem- have I mentioned that yet? It 100% looks like I have the chicken pox. I could attach photos but they are terrifying, so just trust me- it's really bad.

Saturday was jam-packed, much more than I anticipated. Heading into Ubud solo, on a new bike leant to me by Zoe, at the crack of dawn- aka 9am- for breakfast at my fav spot, Seniman Coffee. About half way through my delicious avocado toast with poached eggs and bacon, YUM, and doing too much scary internet research on mosquito bikes -ZIKA EEK- and catching up with the parents I realized I needed to take action against the bug bite/rash situation taking over my body. I scootered off to the local clinic, VERY nice by the way and got a diagnosis of "severe allergic reaction", as if that was not obvious and given a bag full of pills and creams- which do seem to be working quite well. Then hit the market for some shopping and errand running and spent a lovely day walking around with Arum and her hubby, such a fun & funky couple. Successfully drove myself back to the ranch around 4 and enjoy a dip in the pool, because it was 95 degrees and SUNNY, finally, but extraordinarily hot. Around 6, Zoe and I headed back into town for our last hang- grabbed beer and a pizza at a awesome cafe that was having happy hour, she knows all the cool spots, because she is truly the "coolest" one here, by my standards at least (aka hip, loves to chat about all the people at the spot we're working and up on things I care about, good food, shops and having actual human interactions and fun past 5pm). And then she surprised me by having her hubby, graphic designer and chalkboard artist, SO cool, bring Arsa to the cafe to say bye!!! So fucking cute. The 4 of us had such a nice night just walking around town and grabbed another drink, and then sadly said our goodbyes. I know we'll keep in touch, and I only pray that if and when I return here Arsa greats me with a loud MONKEEEYYY and big hug. Really love that boy.