Written on March 25th:

There is so much to write, I must confine myself to a list of the occurrences thus far in Bali:

1) Monica Myrmo, my dear friend from high school, and Jess Cometa, her fabulous roommate, spent ten blissful days with Sara and me.  This is them trying a fish spa, something that Sara and I tried in Bangkok.

2) Kuta is an awful place on the west coast of Bali, filled with Australians wreaking havoc. The mushrooms, however, are fresh.

3) Beware the Snatch Thief: On the walk home from a bar in Kuta, down a relatively dark, narrow, cobblestone street, a motorbike drove by carrying two men. The man on the back grabbed my purse, which was across my body, and somehow got it off of me. By some miracle, I forcibly turned into his arm, and he dropped my bag. I yelled some profanities (gosh, is this becoming a habit?), grabbed my bag off of the ground, and made eye contact with the guy on the back as they drove off. I probably imagined a sheepish look in his eye. I love my purse, and its contents, more than ever.

4) Nusa Lembongan, an island off of the east coast of Bali, is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. So beautiful, in fact, that I am returning in three days to spend a few days getting my advanced diver certificate in paradise.

5) Plastic sucks.

6) Mantas rock.

7) I overcame my fears following my crash in Thailand, and successfully roamed the entirety of Lembongan Island with the girls, on two motorized wheels, passing under jungle trees and stopping at various pristine beaches along the way.

8) Ubud is filled with temples, organic restaurants, and rich Balinese culture. I was lucky enough to be in Bali for the Galungan festival; homes are decorated with bamboo poles called penjor, and Balinese Hindus celebrate the victory of dharma (good) over adharma (evil).

9) We enjoyed a cooking course that took us outside of Bali, to the market and rice fields of Tangkup Village. We picked vegetables (tapioca, lemongrass, chili peppers, to name a few) with Nyoman on his family’s land, and spent the day cooking Balinese food over an outdoor, wood-burning stove. I now have two recipe books from my trip, both of which I plan on using extensively in California.

10) We ate breakfast on the crater of Mount Batur, and spent a day biking seventeen miles down the volcano, stopping at little villages to try Balinese coffee, tea, and tobacco.

11) Monica, Jess, and I convinced the eight people who were part of our biking tour group to visit Pura Tirta Emple, the “water temple,” on the way back to Ubud from the volcano. It started pouring tropical rain as we arrived. I walked around the temple sans umbrella, breathing deeply and grinning from ear to ear as I became more and more drenched. Monica and I shared a moment in the temple’s cleansing pool, bathing in sacred water as the rain poured over us, that will remain one of the most spiritually cleansing and empowering moments of my life.

12) In Ubud’s Monkey Forest, I got peed on by a monkey. Cue R. Kelly joke.

13) Sara, Monica, and I went river rafting through jungle mountains. There were no release forms, and the guide encouraged us to ride down the rapids outside of the boat. After my first try, during which my helmet came off, I realized this was nuts. I cheered Monica and Sara on as they attempted (in vain) to protect their tailbones.

14) We watched an amazing band – Cooltones – on our last night in Ubud. They played all of my favorites – the Stones, Jimi, Clapton – and rocked it. Jess got up and sang Santana. She’s my hero.

15) I love my friends. They really are amazing.