August 10, 2025
Joanie and I went to Ubud today to meet with Surya and visit the two healers that our group will be meeting for treatments midway through our retreat. One focuses more on physical problems of the muscles and bones and the other more with spiritual/energetic blockages. I’ve been treated by both of them before so it was like going to visit old friends.
In the car on the way, I pulled out my little notebook and began taking notes in preparation for one of our initial writing classes. One of the first things I talk about at a travel retreat is “place” because everyone is in a novel, unfamiliar environment, excited to notice all that is new to them. One thing that makes writing pop is the inclusion of these kind of unusual, quirky details. So I’ll be asking my students:
- What are the specific sensory details connected to this place?
- What things do you see or hear or smell or feel that make you do a double-take?
I’ll ask them to jot down these unusual sensory details in the little notebooks I provide them with—the kind of specific details, when inserted into a story, that make the reader believe they are right there.
I began to record some of the things I was noticing, to give my students a sense of the lists I wanted them to compile. Here’s a partial compilation of what I saw today:
- scrawny black, white and tan dogs running free on the road
- huge gold elephant statue by the side of the road
- a man on a scooter carrying a huge machete strapped to his back
- woman carrying a huge pile of rocks on a coiled towel on her head
- a man on a scooter with a newborn zipped into the front of his jacket
- a man on a scooter holding two dead chickens by their feet
- woman wearing a hijab and a motorcycle helmet looking at her cell phone while riding on the back of a scooter
- school girls in black, red and white uniforms with black pigtails marching in formation
- a scooter driver pulling over to a roadside stand to buy a small plastic bag full of one serving of pork soup
- an old fashioned striped barber pole where I never expected it to be
- garbage burning by the side of the road
- a warung featuring small bottles of gas for quick fill ups for motorcycles
- the Ganesha Vape Shop with a image of the Indian God Ganesha at the top
- a pushcart settling fried tofu and fried banana
- intricately carved teak doors displayed right along the road
- a woman carrying roasted corn for sale on a large tray on top of her head
- giant billboard for Bali Cliff Glamping
- a motorcycle with flashing red and blue lights as if it was an emergency vehicle
To give you a visual version of something quirky and unusual, here’s a shot Joanie took today. I love it because it captures something emblematic of Bali today: tourism juxtaposed with the sacred. This community ritual was occurring despite the unmistakable backdrop of a tour bus.
On our drive back from Ubud, I got deeply engaged in a Whatsapp thread about the forms needed by the dive shop so they can outfit everyone with the right size booties and fins for our snorkeling expedition two days from now. Everyone had filled out the forms online, but somehow they’d gotten lost in cyberspace and now the shop needed new forms and it took 45 minutes and 50 whatsapp messages to straighten out that snafu. I definitely have my manager’s hat on now.
Shortly after we returned to the hotel, four more students arrived, so I greeted them with hugs and a printed copy of our “on-the-ground-itinerary,” which outlines details of what to expect day by day once the retreat gets rolling. Two more of our cohort will show up later tonight. Our final participants arrive tomorrow, the official start date of our retreat.
But for the next few hours, savoring the wind and the sound of the sea, I have one last night of freedom. As I write these words, I’m sprawled out on my favorite big cushioned couch, listening to the Indian Ocean beside me, a perfect breeze on my bare arms and feet. Joanie is reading her novel to my right as I gaze out at the turquoise infinity pool in front of me. We’ve just ordered dinner and are waiting for our brick oven mushroom pizza and Greek salad to be delivered to our sofa.
It’s a perfect moment.