breakfast, lunch and dinner

Life here in Seminyak does comprise a little more than food, not alot more, but the owner was not exaggerating when he said that the cook at the villa was incredible and created delights that were ten fold on the local restaurants. We are becoming so overwhelmed with quality that complacency is setting in (well not exactly but im sure you get the idea) its all good. So good we haven't eaten out yet. Breakfast: black sticky rice porridge cooked in coconut milk served with a side of shredded coconut. Lunch a fresh delight of Soto; a laksa style soup with shredded chicken served with 2 styles of noodle and lightly steamed greens, coriander and fried garlic and rice on the side. We have enjoyed fried tempeh ( i hate tempeh normally) with lemongrass and lime leaf and chilli that tastes like peanut brittle Asian savoury style, sweet sour tofu, steamed banana leaf wrapped fish cooked with lemongrass, lime leaf and ginger flower, it goes on and on and on.

Dancing Fingers at Jari Menari

Thats how the promo reads ,

dancing fingers, massage sessions by our all male team that offer strong, firm, consistent pressure.

We had booked a yoga massage session from Australia, my friend and I and really had no idea what to expect. Regular massage with a twist? We walked off the busy crazy street full of bikes and people into a calm white and wooden space. The obligatory piped music relaxed us and the fragrant oil for our session chosen from a selection of glass vials wafted under our noses. Amber. A nice start. We changed into the sarongs provided, quietly and with some discussion with each other as to what 'take your clothes off' meant...bra and undies or just bra? We opted for keeping the knickers on and in hindsight, Im glad we did.

We walked out into an open corridor paved in the Balinese way' stepping blocks amidst stones and made our way to the two smiling men who were each waiting at a different part of the garden. We followed the pathways that each led to 'our' man and our rooms. We entered clean simple spaces hidden behind shoji screens, a communal corridor of flowing water connecting all the rooms which were open to the skies; typical Bali "'Namaste' please lie down and remove your sarong". Thats not the impression i got from the website! They showed massage in sarongs! Okkk, no problem, as he was holding another sarong up with extended arms and proceeded to place it upon me as I lay face down.

I felt him pick up one leg, pull it sideways and lay it down on a soft firm pad, then the other. I'm now splayed face down , albeit covered in a thin filmy sarong, in front of man Ive never met. I can deal with this I think, it just feels a little exposing. Then he washes my feet. One long sweep of a textured pad on each foot. Surprisingly now i feel clean. Then he lays both hands on my lower back and I just know from this simple move that I'm in for a beauty. He radiated strength and knowledge. Wow!

I gave myself over to his very capable hands as he pulled and pushed and manipulated my back and shoulders and arms and legs and feet "Please turn over". No problem, I'm enjoying myself and feel quite comfortable. Then he starts to fold the top of the the sarong down, deftly replacing it with what feels like a bandaid over my breasts. Hmm OK, that could slip off at any moment but I'm sure that's quite common and nothing they haven't dealt with before, so again I tell myself to relax and enjoy it. He keeps folding the sarong , down and in, so I end up with a vertical strip of cloth between my legs. Double hmm, this could get interesting...breathe Kel, you've still got your knickers on. At this point am thankful Ive worn some respectable and sensible ones.

He starts to massage again. The tops of my feet, long sweeping strokes. I relax then he moves up my legs until hes sliding up and down their full length, using hands, elbows, wrists, up my thighs and under my knickers! Whoohoo. This is getting interesting. He whisps past my very inner thigh around to my bum and back again, and again. Boy, this is interesting and before my brain goes too far with the 'did he mean to do that?' he's back on my calves with depth and I'm feeling the professionalism again.

Im relaxing like never before, thinking that yoga massage contains all the elements of vigor that every other massage has lacked. Im loving it. Then he whips one leg over the other, twisting my torso to the side. He steps between my legs, standing in between my inner thighs and reaches over my body lying over me to reach up and around my back and neck' and begins a firm digging pressure at the base of my head. Im trying hard not to visualise the karma sutra at this point. Im also very avoiding opening my eyes; i dont think i could handle some eye contact at this point. I hear giggling from my friend in the next room. This is completely trippy. Water gurgles, roosters crow and i can hear the faint rumble of a jackhammer.

The masseuse starts to rotate my top leg holding my ankle and rotating my hip, holding my knee, opening out the muscles of my hip. At this point Im starting to freak out about farting, letting rip after all the stomach circling he has performed; my guts have been activated and now hes encouraging it in a dangerous fashion. Relaaaax Kel, dont tense your body. So im quietly doing pelvic floor clenches while relaxing, 'letting go', of my leg and butt muscles. I can multi task! Ive long forgotten my now minor concern about 'the bandaid' falling off the breasts, Ive got bigger things to worry about! Like, 'what is his view from there'? Still i refuse to open my eyes. i dont wanna know! He continues with the other leg. Im resigned to my fate by this stage and really do relax and enjoy it, only minor pelvic floor action required.

He ends the session with a gentle face massage and stroking of the scalp. I know the session is over when he waves a humming bell in circle over my limp body. 90 minutes of sheer heaven has just ended. I breathe out long and slow and smile to myself.
My body has been pushed, pulled, prodded and it feels great. My discarded sarong gets wound back around my body and I float back to the change room where i greet my friend .We exchange a myriad of laughs and mutterings of disbelief. Yoga massage Jari Menari style is not for the faint at heart, nor for anyone with the slightest hint of body selfconsciousness, but so worth the challenge!

blogging not allowed

brought the laptop down to write a post and was duly informed that I had a 100 word limit and to get off the laptop. Not sure how many words this is but Im being booted, so the curious dancing fingers massage will have to wait another day. They are tickling me, laughing, trying to put me off, pushing escape, threatening to throw mangosteens..byee

the things we do for blogs

My blogger pages have automatically been formatted into Indonesian. So you are now reading buat blog. This is the lazy bloggers post, which miraculously some of you are quite interested in.

Im not sure if there are vegetable gardens around here, there are markets and not many gardens seem to grow their own;actually i havent seen many gardens full stop. I think its urbanisation doing that. There are however a lot of mango, papaya and banana trees with fruit falling over the laneways. I will do a dedicated photo walk at some stage but with five kids in tow sometimes, i forget to take the camera.

Breakfast is just how we like it, fresh tropical fruit,sometimes with yoghurt and banana pancakes. Tomorrow i am hoping for rice porridge with garlic and chicken- i love that! Last night we had a an absolute feast. Prawns fried with a coriander and tumeric spiced rice flour batter , chicken pieces dry fried in a coconut chilli crumb, snake bean and roasted coconut and soy bean salad, mild tofu in lime leaf, galangal and lemongrass curry sauce with fried shallot and potato and tuna balls.
Talking to the manager of the villa yesterday she told us that the staff here liked us as we were very happy and friendly bunch and appreciated what everyone was doing for us; we seemed to enjoy the house and were very happy people! It shocks and surprises me that people could come to a place like this and be so spoilt with the food and the beauty of the place and not be happy! She said lots of people complain all the time about the food, the staff...HELL=O! People like that don't deserve to have good experiences and generosity in life. Anyway, its a good thing that the friends we are away with one half of blogs, so therefore forgive me for leaping in saying 'hang on, dont eat yet, let me take a pic'. Lunch today I'll post later. Heaven, Im in heaven...
Pics not good at night and im on a strange camera so im unsure of the settings. Will blog about my 'dancing fingers' male masseuse experience when i can! Trippy!

relaxation and a good dose of...guilt

We have found ourselves in an unexpected heaven, paradise. We expected some heaven, but this is bliss. Three weeks of this? It may kill me.
We're camping out in a house found on Craigslist six months ago. Its a family compound of beautiful proportions, tropical gardens, resident mangy dog, a herd of cattle, roosters in bamboo huts, frogs, snails of mammoth proportions and two chefs! We were a little surprised to find upon arrival that the villa came equipped with an onsite manager, cooks, gardener, 3 cleaners and all the babysitting you can ask for (actually I have to be quite assertive to get the bean back, he gets whisked off quite frequently, i find him eating with strangers, out the front with the blokes and their motorbikes, on the cooks hip while shes grinding spice in the mortar and pestle- babies are hard currency in Bali. 'Just relax, just relax' we keep being told as we pack up after ourselves, try to do our own washing, look after my own kid. Its hard to relax when there are people wandering around cleaning up your own 'mess'. Colonial mistress I certainly fail at. The girls are finding it confronting too, wanting them to go home and be with their own families and let us do our night time dishes. So were struggling a bit. But its beautiful here, friendly and quiet. and were slowly relaxing. The chef, Nunga is a wonderful cook and lovely woman and she has agreed to show me some dishes in the kitchen and to go to the traditional market next time she goes; that's a motorbike ride Im looking forward too! So Im looking forward to learning some wonderful new dishes while we are here. The pic taken is a water spinach and mung bean cooked salad and Balinese chicken with cracked rice. Our first meal here and recalled in this post just for Veggie.

I love the tropics; the incense, the damp, the thickness of the air, the smells of spices wafting, the slightly cloying smell of waterways, the rapid fire language that you cant quite understand, the laughter, the flowers, the colour of the green. My favorite are the delicate plates of offerings made morning noon and night to please the Gods; flowers and fragrant pandanus leaves on flat woven banana-palm bowls topped with a stick of lit incense and a Ritz cracker. These gifts are placed in alcoves, on the grass, on a path, about 20 around the compound at any given time (i think the dog ate the cracker in the pic, else it was one of the kids). We are away from tourist town, located at the end of a long banana palm lined lane and amongst trees and families. Its beautiful, full of ancient culture, tradition and lots of flowering vines and mossy walls. I just have to manage the guilt.

Haiku Friday

A gift for you all.
Touched by your honesty, trust
and good will. Thank You.

my crowded hour[s]

Ive been mad crazy busy at work lately preparing to go on 3 weeks leave. Today is my last day at work and I have just crossed off the last project on my list. Jesus that felt good. Celebrated with a Kit Kat (shhh) and a cup off tea. Goin' craaaaaazy i know! I'm hours ahead of schedule and I can feel a stress release headache coming on. Mid-winter school holidays here I come! Not too sure about internet access where we are staying, i do recall something about wifi... will post if and when I can. Totally looking forward to weeks with the kids and the bloke, sun, a good book or five and some drafted webpage ideas. Any suggestions on that front?