I'm still alive. Don't worry!

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Hello dear peeps!
I have just returned to "civilization", so here's a note to let you know that I am well and safe in Bail. I'm back in Seminayak (where I stayed the first night).

Flora, Shanti and I stayed the last two nights in Amed (east Bali) in a dive called the Three Brothers Bungalows. The view was amazing and the bungalows were only about 3 meters from the ocean. Black sand. Amazing views of the volcanos, especially G. Agung.
Met an ear to ear smiling 10 year old named Made . He walked with us on the beach and was so proud to introduce us to his father who was coming in from fishing in his boat. The father invited us to their home, apologising that he had nothing to offer us (to drink, etc). They are so poor! Dark from working in the sun, have a tiny 1 room cement block house for a family of 5. And they recieved us with such warmth, grace and dignity. It was really nice to sit with them as the sun went down.

On our way there we stopped at Tirtta Ganga, a giant, old water palace that is spring fed and got to swim in one of the pools. Great water. Cool and refreshing.

Before that we were in Sidemen at a retreat center called Nirarta. It is kinda like "Esalen East". Beautiful location, rice paddies, Unda river to swim in, warm, welcoming staff, fresh organic food.
Shanti got her visa and joined us halfway through the training, so I had both private focus and group interaction.
The silat training was . How do I describe? Hot, intense, transformative, sweaty, opening, fun, funny, joyful, humid, challenging, satisfying, hot. To do silat in Bali is to have an entirely new understanding of the movements. I can feel where the movements come from, can feel where the "women's style" derives... based on how people, animals, plants.... live, work, move.

Sidemen is still "real" Bali. The tourist thing hasn't mucked it all up.
We received a blessing from a preist (a relative of Dayu, the Balinese woman who owns the center with her English husbad Peter) in Sidemen. The ritual was very beautiful. Flowers and flowers and rice and water. Afterward we sat, talked, and had tea with the women (preistess and daughters) there. This old woman was in her 80s - so alive and bright eyed and smiling. She must be so high from praying everyday!!!
Dayu and Peter also took us to a wedding where we were welcomed, peered at curiously, displayed, fed, persuaded to stay.

I climbed Gunung Agung! Bali's biggest volcano and mounain that last majorly erupted in 1963. It took 4 hours up and 3 hours down. We (Made, my guide/bodyguard/driver and I) left Nirarta at 2 am to get to Pura Passar Agung, the temple halfway up the slope, by 3am. We made offerings and prayed at the temple. Then climbed. In the dark. Flashlight in one hand, rock in the other. Sketchy in some places. Certainly no climbing gear. Dear Sierra, thank you for teaching me everything I know about rock. I thought of you gratefully and affectionately the whole way. 1500 meters.
When we got to the top we prayed and made more offerings and then had breakfast. The view was amazing. The sun had just risen, it was like flying above south eastern Bali.
The trek down killed my knees. As we descended a group of Balinese men came up the slope in their flip flops and bare feet and carrying stuff on their heads... Then they passed me on the way down - this super old priest with a cane and no shoes (who happened to be a friend of Made's uncle) passed me!!!!! Him trucking along, down the crazy steep and sometimes gravelly slope, completely upright...... and me using all the limbs I have in order to not break my neck!
I bought a durian fruit on our way back to Nirarta - it is a tropical (Indonesain?) fruit that is spiny, smells horrible, but tastes amazing. I first read about it when studying oragnutans. I loved it. Wasn't sure I could put it in my mouth when I first smelled it, but I quicky aquired a palate. Very rich. Like a cross between a mango and avocado in texture - taste undiscribable.

2 nights here in Seminayak. Then I venture out alone to Ubud for a week or so before I join up with Ellen and Perry fpr the Massage workshop.

Love yous, Maggie

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