Island Of The Gods

Blog post number three and so many things have happened that I want to share with you, I don't even know where to start… I do, however, already apologize for the sideway pictures, I forgot to rotate them and the internet is not the fastest here to upload them again - EnJoY!

Let's see, my first adventure into the kitchen on Thursday was relatively successful as Wayan fed me delicious Muesli with young coconut flesh yoghurt and told me to come to the kitchen whenever I feel hungry - phew. I asked her if she was also on a raw food diet, since she works for Mark, when she started explaining to me with a serious face that raw food was very good and she enjoyed it, "but need nice cooked Balinese food sometime, especially rice", and her eyes started to light up followed by her big bright smile. Rice plays a huge part in this island's culture, mostly because it is probably their number one export product besides coffee and chocolate. As soon as you leave the urban, touristy parts of Bali you are soon surrounded by rice fields arranged like terraces. This ancient system has been in place for years in order to keep the water flowing through the individual fields, starting at the highest point of the island making its way down while hitting up every rice terrace on the way. It's amazing to see how much thought has been put into this when it was first introduced so many years ago.

I used to like rice a lot, but this cleansing has really purified my system, allowing me to listen to my body and to what it wants - rice so far hasn't been one of them, but chocolate will always be my friend I reckon. Luckily, we have been indulging in chocolate fairly often during our retreat and I do have to admit that I would almost pick fresh made raw chocolate treats over Swiss chocolate now and that shall mean something! Mark and Wayan showed us yesterday how to make these delicious delicacies (picture above) and I was blown away by the simplicity of it and how quick it was. Chocolate, on another note, is also considered a superfood, meaning that it has many health benefits due to its high phytonutrient content and is therefore more than just good for you, it's SUPER! Us Westerners just don't realize how beneficial it can be for us, because we mix all of this crap in it to make it taste good when you could just add some honey, coconut oil or cacao butter, vanilla, and salt to create a real yummy taste without loosing its nutrients…

Friday was then also the day when, besides rice, the rest of my cravings disappeared and my hunger slowly started to vanish as well. Weird is right, knowing myself I couldn't believe what was happening. All of a sudden I turned from being the plate cleaner to the one who was giving food away, always leaving enough room for my dessert though. I started to feel remarkable and I had energy like you would not believe. Aimee, my leftover scrambler friend, had similar effects happening and we decided to go on a little bike ride around the area to get rid of some of this energy. This bike ride was probably the best thing we could have done to get a real feel for Bali and its inhabitants. We rode our bikes through rice fields, little villages and small forests and everywhere we passed we were welcomed, didn't matter young or old, with a big vibrant smile and a "Hello, how are you?". It was incredible and you couldn't help but ride along your bike smiling, even when no one was around we were just pedaling away as happy as a little child for a solid two hours. I began to understand shortly after our return how magical Bali is and how it more than deserved to be called "Island Of The Gods"….