Eat, Pray, Love

Today was an odd day.

I started my day early as I had to be up for my first ever cooking class! I was collected at 8am and taken to Ubud market where we learnt about the local ingredients and bought various pastes and spices. I have been told Ubud market is a must for me, photography wise, so it was a shame that we were there for only half an hour. I have decided to go alone tomorrow so that I can wander around the stalls at my own leisure without being rushed. After visiting only two food stalls we were whisked off to see a small rice field and learn about the various varieties of rice that are grown in Bali. There were 2 ladies sat by the road side selling sarongs. I thought these might be cheaper than at a market/in town, so I enquired as to how much they were. Big mistake. These two ladies were so aggressive with their selling, I somehow ended up buying two sarongs that I didn’t really want.

We then headed to Paon Bali cooking school to learn how to make Balinese food! This is actually my first ever cooking class, which is amusing considering my profession is in the food industry and I consider myself to be a pretty darn good cook. The class and school are run and owned by a hilariously lively and funny lady called Puspa. She explained what we would be cooking and set us to various grinding and chopping tasks. What struck me first was how slow some people are at using knives. They clearly don’t cook at home!

After chopping and grinding hundreds of various ingredients, we were then placed into groups of four, but being the only solo traveller there, I was paired up with a family of three from Hungry and was told by Puspa that this was my new family. They found it funny as the mother joked that she had always wanted a daughter, so I called her mum a few times which made her giggle. Their son Norbet and I seemed to get on well, and the family were generally very friendly and chatty; so the morning/afternoon turned out to be a rather enjoyable experience. I was being my usual lively jokey self, but at certain points throughout the morning I had to remind myself that these people don’t actually know me, so I had to shhhh myself a few times and let

them talk amongst themselves.

The dishes that we cooked were as followed:
• Kuah Wong / Sup Jamur - Clear mushroom and vegetable soup.
• Base Gede / Bumbu Kuning - a basic yellow sauce used for pretty much any meat or curry dish
• Be Siap Mesanten / Kare Ayam - Chicken in coconut curry
• Sate Siap / Sate Lilit Ayam - Minced chicken grilled on bamboo sticks
• Kacang Me Santok / Gado – Vegetables in Peanut sauce
• Jukut Urab - Coconut & snake bean salad
• Pepesan Be Pasih / Pepes Ikan – Steamed fish in banana leaves
• Tempe Me Goreng / Tempe Kering – Deep fried tempe (tempe is from the soya bean but is nothing like tofu) in soy sauce
• Kolak Biu / Kolak Pisang - Boiled Banana in palm sugar syrup

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this class and the food WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD! There was not one thing that I ate that I did not like, so I am very much looking forward to getting home and trying out the recipes they gave us!

That was the ‘eat’ part.

Now for the pray.

After the class I inquired about where is best to go for healing and meditation. Ubud is famous for its spirituality, especially after Julia Roberts filmed ‘Eat, pray, love’ here. Knowing tourism has risen as a result of this movie, you often get westerners, like me, going to Ubud for spiritual enlightenment or healing. I was looking for healing, as the last month has been pretty tough due to my nan passing; but I have also had to adjust to 2 other big life changes this year: moving house/new house mate and secondly, finally getting myself a boyfriend after being single for 9 years! The latter has also opened some very old wounds as I have not been in a relationship for a long time and getting close to someone is a very very scary thing for me. So over all, it’s safe to say, I’ve been an absolute hot head recently and EXTREMLY emotional and was in need of some Ubud healing. Several times prior to and throughout my trip in Bali, I have felt tears well up for no reason, however I have suppressed them due to being either busy, or in public.

I was talking to Puspa about where to go and she enquired as to why I wanted to see a healer. Rather than go into details, it is easier to just mention the death in the family. I’m not entirely sure what happened next, but somehow, I ended up bursting into tears in front of her and had to usher us away from the class before anyone saw I was crying. Puspa was shocked - you could see on her face that she was not expecting this to be coming from me. All day she had been telling me that I was so funny and it was nice to have a joker in the group. Just goes to show that people paint smiles on their faces all the time, but you never really know what is going on inside. Often the ones that laugh the loudest are the ones that need our love the most...

I wanted to see a healer to try and re-balance myself back to normal sane Sam, as I dislike being this emotional. Puspa told me I should stay behind after the class and invited me to visit her temple. As explained in yesterday’s submission, every family has their own temple. This one was a stark contrast to the one I had visited with Luke only yesterday. This one was GRAND! Absolutely beautiful. Clearly this family were well-off as this was not a shabby temple at all!
Her relative fetched a sarong for me to wear (you need to cover your legs when entering a temple) and 2 incense sticks, to which she then walked me up the stone steps to their family temple. Unfortunately, there were a few French tourists there sightseeing, so I didn’t really feel comfortable praying and reflecting with them there taking pictures. It was so hard. I was looking up at the temple and I could feel the energy building inside of me. It took all my might to keep my composure and not explode into a sea of tears in front of them. Eventually they left and it all came flooding out. It’s strange, as I had had such a lovely morning and I have no clue as to why this was pouring out of me at this particular moment - I’m in paradise and I’m crying like a baby! What on earth!

I sat there praying and crying for a good 45 minutes to an hour, and then headed down the steps back to the school, where I returned the sarong and looked to find Puspa. We sat on the steps of her home talking for a short while, as I explained to her my own faith and culture. In Bali, you can walk into a temple any time to pray. Back home you cannot simply walk into a church. Unfortunately, due to crime and homelessness, churches are only open as certain times of the week and are restricted to mass opening times. Outside of mass, church doors are locked. And they wonder why people don’t practice their faiths in the western world anymore! For the past month, I have explored my new local area in search for a church that was open as I wanted to light a candle and say a prayer for my nana. I could not find one anywhere! So as I was in this temple, although I could see symbols and carvings of another faith, it was my god to whom I prayed.

Puspa then gave me a lift back to my hotel and asked if she could pop inside to be nosey and check out the hotel. She asked if her kids could use the pool tomorrow, which I obviously agreed to! This lovely, kind, caring woman was genuinely concerned about my wellbeing and wanted to help, and she did. Of course her kids can be my guest and use the pool! Granted, I need to check with the hotel first, but I am sure it will be fine… I hope so anyway!

I have promised I would promote her school to all of my friends and contacts for when they visit Bali, - so do please go check out the cookery classes here, as not only is Puspa a lovely, funny, vibrant lady, but also because the class itself was awesome and you learn a lot! Plus, the food is just out of this world!

Here is the link: www.paon-bali.com

Please do go! You won’t regret it!
Lourens - get ready to be my Indo’ guinea pig!!!

So that’s eat and pray done.

Now for Love…

Love wasn’t very eventful and that is just the way I wanted it. By the time I got back to the hotel I felt like a had been hung out and drained of all my energy. I was exhausted and my face was puffier than a blow fish. I had intended to visit the monkey forest today, but I am clearly in need of a little TLC, so love myself I did! I sat by the pool and relaxed for a few hours, I swam, I painted my nails and I simply - looked after myself. I did not go out for dinner tonight either as I need an early night and think the late nights and busy days aren’t helping, so rest I did and now I can say my blog is up to date!

Julia Roberts, you may have made £millions from your ‘Eat, pray, love’ but I got something more valuable from mine. I got to experience the REAL Eat Pray Love and as a result I was granted peace and release and I feel so so much better for it!!

I have now decided to not bother seeing a healer. There are so many charlatans around parading themselves as healers that I think I’m just going to leave it. Today has taught me that sometimes the answer to heal or be at peace is already within, and that you don’t need to pay a stranger to give you that because it is always there.

You just need to be…
and accept it.

Love and Light to you all xxxxxx