Bali with the Shomes

I woke up at 8.30 am on a Sunday morning, threw my Kindle and laptop in my yellow-turning-brown backpack and started walking. If you know me, you know how sacred I think my Sunday mornings are. It must be a bit of a piss-off to see this determined march to coffee every Sunday. Thankfully, love makes it look like an endearing habit. 🙂 As I stepped out of the Airbnb, shouted out a quick bye to the parents and started walking in the quaint streets of Seminyak. I have been told I am a creature of familiarity and my walk for the past few days has led me to this coffee shop called Pison Coffee. Perfect coffee and the pies always sell out! What’s not to like?

I will be finishing two years in India this November. Two years. Feels like I have been here for much longer and I say this in a good way. When the flight time from home goes from 20 hours to 1 hour, it’s like a salve for the worrying heart. After my last post from London, I went to Toronto for a couple of months. Determined to explore the city and see if it felt like a city I could move into. Whether we could call it our next home. And truth be told, I loved it. Loving Toronto in summer is easy. Akin to liking a human on their best behavior. Quirky streets, excellent coffee in every nook and corner, hipster vibe, legal weed and the weather was just perfect. They say when the moment comes to make the jump, that’s when the brain fog clears. And so, now I am back in India and thinking I will stay a bit longer. Because moving to a new country can happen later, but time with loved ones is not a constant. I have it now. I will keep it for now, thank you very much. 🙂

So, Bali. I am here with the oldies for a two week long break. Ma Baba are excellent travelers even at this age. Amazes me most times. Road trips, overnight flights, hikes – nothing frazzles them. I am missing P here constantly, and of course there is a daily dose of friction with dad because us seeing eye to eye on mundane things is near impossible. Ma as usual is playing referee and being zen in parts. When I was in US, Ma Baba used to come over for 2-3 months and we used to do atleast one long road trip. With the move to India, those annual trips went away thanks to Covid and then me settling in etc. This year it was Ma’s birthday on Diwali. So, here we are in Seminyak and going to Ubud for next few days. A much needed travel reboot.

I often travel alone or with folks my age. A very wing-it-as-you-go sort of travel. So, two days back, we went to this temple called Ulun Danu, north of Ubud. Our very friendly and local driver John told us that there is a waterfall called Banyumala (Twin waterfall) nearby, which is beautiful. So, we went. We were told it’s a bit of a walk, about ~200 m. Easy peasy. And then we started walking. It was a steep and rocky 1 km climb down! And both Ma and Baba made it all the way down. And obviously, all the way up. Damn if I can do that at 70! 🙂 So, putting it down for posterity.

Got to start walking back now. My two rounds of coffee is done at Pison. Btw, this place becomes a very vibey bar with live music in the evenings. You know you are soon turning 40, when you go to the said vibey bar alone at peak hours, and sit at ease with your coffee and Kindle. No fucks given. Pretending to be cool for the gram has definitely left for the day. 🙂 Also, I still can’t drink alone.

As a side unrelated note, so kicked about the upcoming wedding of the year. Or the decade? 🙂

Read this somewhere and it stayed….

Sometimes you find your way to the place that wants you most

The Last Thing He Told Me – Laura Dave