Bali Belly and other Tales

I now know the meaning of Bali Belly. It's much like Delhi Belly and is when you get some kind of stomach bug that keeps you in the bathroom for a few hours. Yuck. 

I have been being careful and watching what I eat and drink, but you just never know. I went to a very upscale restaurant for lunch (thought I would splurge a little on my big meal of the day) and had a delicious Indonesian dish that had noodles, veggies and prawns. Sounds pretty safe and tasted amazing. But within about an hour, I had a sinking feeling in my loins....I got myself back to my room just in the nick of time. Sort of put a damper on my afternoon plans, but it really hasn't been too bad. I feel very spent and have a headache and dry eyes, but it is passing and by tomorrow I'll be fine. 

I decided to go down the street to the little Zen spa and get a massage and a hot bath and I'm so glad I did. It was amazing and my body needed it so much. It's a sweet nice spot and so wonderfully inexpensive. 

The nice lady brought me into the room and had me take a shower. Then she gave me a full body massage (no clothing, no cover, but what the hell? I felt very comfortable with her). She had very strong hands, the style was more concentrated pressing then actual rubbing. I had to ask her politely to ease up once or twice. I thought she might break my little foot bones with her strong paws. She somehow knew to rub my tummy with just the right amount of pressure and it felt great. I could feel my insides responding in a good way after the somewhat violent happenings a few hours earlier.

She then scrubbed my body with delicious smelling salts and then plastered me with what smelled like cool yogurt. I'll bet I would have tasted delightful. She let that all sit for a while and then asked me to shower it all off. There was a huge bathtub in the room which she filled with the perfect temperature of water and then put tons and tons of fresh purple and white flowers in. It was so amazing and beautiful. When I was in the tub, she brought some delicious, pungent ginger tea (perfect for my tum tum) and some fresh fruit that had a coconut sauce drizzled over it. I thought I had absolutely died and gone to Bali heaven. And all of this for a mere 150,000 rupiahs. (about $16)

I'm back in my room now, feeling pretty spent. I'll do a little work and then hit the hay. I will move hotel rooms tomorrow and my friend Rucina is coming to pick me to up to help me move and then we will go to her place for the afternoon and to look at two possible venues for film festival events. It will feel good to get out and about after sticking pretty close to this 'hood for a few days. I am anxious to see other parts of the island too. Probably over the weekend I'll hire one of the thousands of available drivers for a day. His name will be Made (Ma-day) or Wayan or Ketut and we'll have some rip roarin' fun.