eat pray love

As a Christmas present to ourselves, we have come to beautiful Bali, and it is so much better than the Julia Roberts movie (which, yes, we watched while captive on the 20 hour flight here).  It's true, there  really are those verdant rice paddies and markets laden with rambutan, durian and papaya.  But thankfully no one here appears to be suffering from a bad case of mid-life crisis.

Ed has been trying to plan a trip to Bali for almost a decade.  But Nicole consistently rejected those plans because of anti-foreigner bombings in 2002 and 2005, anti-Chinese laws and violence or general Acts of God.  This year, however, our friend Jean-Marc opened up a touring company in Bali and, given that the whole world seems to be on a constant Orange Alert, we thought we'd give it try.  So far, it has been a holiday of eating, praying and loving.  But mostly eating.

Here's how we spent our first full day in Bali:

* eat:  We start every morning with a full Indonesian breakfast of Nasi Goreng (fried rice) or Mei Goreng (fried noodles) and fresh juices.  As they say, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Until you get to lunch.

* pray: We first visited a local priest's home where he receives visitors, conducts ceremonies, gives blessings and answers questions about your future.  There are actually four families that live in their compound and two priests.  We wore traditional sarongs and were blessed with coconut water infused with plumeria blossoms.  The priest said that Nicole and Ed were born on sacred days for Balinese Hindus and that we were a good life match (whew!).  He kept asking if there was anything we wanted to know about our future but, honestly, we feel pretty good about the general course of our lives, and knowing the future doesn't seem particularly helpful.  That's ok, too, he said.

* love:  Well, at least admire.  We next went to visit the Njana Tilem Gallery which was the wood carving workshop of a father and son who were famous for their modern, multi-dimensional sculptures in the 1930s and later the 1960s.  Indeed, over the years, hundreds came to apprentice themselves and have become masters in their own right.  The Tilem family and students carry on the tradition with enormous generousity, including providing materials and tools to students who cannot afford it.  They also gave us a lesson using soft soap and their carving tools.  Sophie was a particularly adept carver.  Ed sliced his thumb so that we could make use of our Neosporin.

* eat again:  Then it was time for our cooking lesson.  We learned how to make chicken satay and ground pork steamed in banana leaves.  There is a lot of elbow grease that goes into grinding the spices (even the pepper!) by hand.  Then, we ate.  Again.  And it was delicious.

* love again: This time in the form of massage, which both Ed and Nicole truly love.  We went to Spa Hati -- the commercial arm that generates income for the Bali Hati Foundation, which in turn provides job training and public health education for local Balinese.  How's that for good karma while working out the knots in your shoulders?

* eat, of course: At Bebek Bengil -- or, the Dirty Duck Diner -- which is much more appetizing then it sounds.  We had an exhausting day and only managed to get a block from home before finding this lavish outdoor restaurant laid out across a traditional garden.  The owners named it after a flock of ducks walked over their newly laid floors with muddy webbed feet.  Of course, it specializes in traditional Balinese fare and delicious fried duck.

We are fighting our jet lag, but having a wonderful time.  Here are pics from the first day.  We'll send more soon.