60 Days in Bali & My Cortisol Detox
The Island That Hugged Me Back to Life After Corporate
White knuckling my mouse, I sheepishly clicked purchase at the checkout.
Three thousand dollars later, I’d bought a round trip ticket to Denpasar, via Melbourne.
Now, what?
I had no plans in Bali other than to drain twenty years of corporate agita, unwelcomed jargon, and Monday-dreading from my cells. Elizabeth Gilbert ended her post-divorce trip in Bali and then started her new life with Jose, her unexpected romance.
I began my post-corporate trip in Bali which was followed by an entire year of solo travel. Looking back, I can’t believe how fortunate I was to travel through 2019 right up until the world shut down and made us POWs.
My decision to travel alone to a third world country, as last minute as it was, now faced some practicalities. I needed a 60-day visa, and fast. I distinctly remember waiting in line at the visa office wondering:
“Why have you trapped yourself like this? You’ve never been to Southeast Asia, you’ve only read ‘Eat, Pray, Love’. This is nuts even for you.”
My first solo trip was at 19 years of age when I decided to stay longer in London after a 2-week course in Bury St. Edmunds. My independence and bravery was always there, but much like the elephants who are chained into submission. I, too, felt like an involuntary hostage. Having served a twenty year sentence as a hostage of cubicle nation, I had almost forgotten I was free.
The truth is, I couldn’t have chosen a better environment for my post-corporate cortisol detox.
Delicious food, daily massages on the cheap, co-working space and accommodations, and tropical weather embraced me in a micro-climate of calm.
My agenda was simple: eat, be, think, and sleep.
Ensconced in a daily Theta state of the Void, I collapsed into the present moment.
My first impression of Bali came at 2:00 a.m. in the two hour car ride to Ubud. I was too exhausted to be fearful, but I felt like a mouse inside a video game of reckless drivers. Fast weaving, no lines, and lots of honking - which occurred not out of anger, but to protect the other drivers. Road rage is not a thing in Bali. This is an American neurosis. Stress is not on the menu there. They really don’t understand why we’re constantly stressed about work, our schedules, and our plans.
Now, I won’t have time to share the arc of my adventure from arrival to departure, but allow me to at least impart the most meaningful moments in the hopes that you will one day find yourself on this island at your life’s next pause.
Bali is a great intermission between two acts. It ends and ushers in new eras. In my case, Bali was followed by Seville, Barcelona, Madrid, Lucca, Florence, Milan, Venice, Croatia & Isles, Geneva, Lucerne, and Zurich.
Bali much like Hawaii did, hugged me with its banana leaves and released me with the feeling that I’d done ayahuasca. No plant medicine transpired, but I did leave changed.
During the sixty days I slept walk through time, I had close encounters with a bat, received a past life reading in my room, spent two weeks terribly sick in my hotel room and had my first fish spa experience: ichthyotherapy.
Every day my scooter driver Made, would pick me up and take me through Monkey Forest into Ubud. I also spent time in Canggu, Uluwatu and Sanur. But Ubud had my heart. If Ubud was a Meyers Briggs profile, it would be an INFP. In fact, the whole village is. The people are warm and kind, but most importantly, will remember you for years.
Whether you realize it or not, you are leaving a mark on the hearts of the Balinese just as their spirit will rub off on you.
Tonight, I’m not writing a book. I’m only sprinkling fairy dust across your weary brow of fast living. If Bali is calling you into a new era, I beseech thee to go get lost.
The dollar will go far there and it is a great hedge for your pocketbook against the offensive inflation. As a bonus, you will be playing a part in reviving their tourist-based economy which was beyond decimated during the global plandemic.
My Top 10 Favorite Experiences in Bali:
The Kecak Dance Sunset in Uluwatu (which reminded me of the movie Baraka)
A choppy boat ride to Lembongan Island
A fashion and dance show at a hotel in Sanur & Elvis Presley on the kettle drums
Daily breakfast buffets of delicious Indonesian food
A cooking class at a traditional Balinese home
Ordering a mobile Vitamin IV drip to my hotel room while sick
Daily visits to the salt room for breathing
The Yoga Barn & Kebun
A Cacao ceremony in a teepee
Meeting a woman from Seattle who came to Bali after a breakup
What I Learned From the Island That Hugged Me Back
1. GRATITUDE IN SMALL THINGS
When it was time to go home I didn’t have room for everything in my three suitcases. I remembered a woman who owned a clothing shop who yelled my name out one as I was whizzing by on a scooter. I was moved that she was excited to see me. So I decided to gift her the yoga mat because I didn’t have room. She was so shocked and grateful. But it was her own kindness that made me remember her, not my own.
This was the shop owner’s medicine.
2. TODAY IS A GREAT DAY TO HAVE A GREAT DAY
A local restaurant owner where I ate dinner many nights loved to say this. He loved to say many things. He was a charismatic shaman-in-the-closet. “I don’t understand you Westerners. You’re always so obsessed about work this and work that. It’s all you talk about.” He’s not wrong. What if we didn’t make our identity about work?
This was the restaurant owner’s medicine.
3. TRADITION IS IMPORTANT
One day all I heard was engines. It seemed like every single scooter, truck, moving vehicle with an engine packed 8-10 people aboard. Temple sashes were blowing in the wind and incense wafted throughout the air. I asked the front desk what was happening. It was a Hindu ceremony or holiday that everyone participated in. Everyone. This is one of the reasons I came to Bali. It is grounding when a society still reveres rather than rebukes their religion and traditions.
This was the community’s medicine.
4. THE MONKEYS IN MONKEY FOREST, UBUD ARE AGGRESSIVE
I witnessed monkeys taunting and fighting with dogs, stealing iphones out of visitor’s backpacks (Yes, they know how to unzip your backpack!), monkeys eating flowers from incense trays, and much more I’d rather not repeat here. It is their turf after all - we built around it and it’s clear we destroyed the party. You can feel the tension between the two primates. I suppose the lesson here is that nothing really belongs us whether a forest or iphone. If you had hundreds of people walking through your bedroom taking photos of you daily, wouldn’t you be aggressive too?
This was the monkey’s medicine.
If Bali is calling you forward to usher in a new era, you are lucky indeed. Just try to leave your Western stress at home, because nothing matters and everything will be okay.
This is Bali’s medicine.