Hi Gram,
What a wonderful day we had! I got up this morning and did my usual routine and breakfast, chatting over my breakfast tea that David made me about our plans for the day. After tea, the three of us headed to pick up our laundry, then headed to Yoga Barn for an early lunch with Stacey and Samantha. YB is a fun, expansive place spread across many levels so even though there are hundreds of people around, we still felt like we were all alone isolated in our own little world. Everyone raved about their drinks and meals, then we spotted Susan and invited her to come hang out with us for a bit. That woman is more ambitious than I am, that’s for sure. She had just gotten back from her morning run on the streets of Ubud when we saw her. I can barely walk in this town, constantly dodging other pedestrians, scooters, cars, and construction. I don’t know how she pulled off jogging.

After lunch, we met our driver in the parking lot and headed to Five Arts Studio for our wood carving class. Dash and I were there a few days earlier for our batik painting class, but they gave us all a full tour of their family compound and studios this time. They even introduced us to some of their birds and their pig. David became instant friends with the pig, who they keep around to sell the piglets to help support themselves. Once we were able to pry David from petting his new best friend, we walked over to the porch studio where our workstations were set up. We each chose a template to work from, then sat on the floor to await instructions. The instructors came around and wedged the template between nails, then got us each started with the first section we’d be carving. The next few hours flew by, chiseling and smoothing, carving and sanding. I would work at it for a while, then the instructor would come around and fix some of my mistakes, get me back on track, and leave me with a task so he could do the same for Ashley, who was working on the same template as me, or one of our other friends, who were working on different shapes.

I swung between being certain that I had messed it up beyond repair to feeling in the groove and wondering if I’d take this up as a new hobby. Eventually, the instructor took it away to sand some of the edges with a power sander, then brought it back to me to cut some new lines and stain it. One by one, we all wrapped up our projects and left them to dry for a little bit while we talked about our challenges and what we were proud of. Once they were dry, we posed for a picture with them and our instructors, then met our driver to get back to town.

He dropped us off near Cafe Lotus while traffic was stopped, then we walked the last few meters to the restaurant. Inside, we found a table near the lotus field with a good view of the water temple behind us.

It was lit up for a ceremony and looked beautiful with the dark evening behind it offsetting the colorful display. Conversation flowed as smoothly as the delicious drinks as we all enjoyed mouthwateringly delicious dinners as we’ve come to expect here. I got some of my pizza boxed up to take home, then we all walked into the 9 to show Samantha the cool and fun part of Ubud away from some of the traffic. Her jaw dropped as we found one place after another serving meals and treats in all varieties of vegan, gluten-free, raw, dairy-free, and any other allergy-sensitive option.

We all stopped for coconut-based ice cream with gluten free cones, then enjoyed those as we wandered the street and pointed out where we were on the map so she could orient herself to her surroundings. We found one more treat shop serving dairy ice cream where Ashley found a treat that called her name. Dash decided to head home for the night while Samantha, Stacey and I walked further down the leg of the 9. After a tour of Stacey’s cool little bungalow, Samantha and I hit an ATM (that didn’t work), where I was a little suspicious of some random guy taking lots of pictures of the ATM and picking up receipts. I think he was cleaning the room that it was in, but in a very awkward and suspicious way. Samantha headed back to her cabin, then I headed home glowing with excitement and pride from the day.