Bali Brain

June 21, 2026|Rick Juliusson

A month in Ubud has given us a delightful case of Bali brain. Relaxed, rhythmic, flowing. There’s a long Typical Tourist list of retreats and temples and waterfalls that we never bother to visit, opting instead for a life of good food, workouts, swims, easy outings.

We work out at our fancy gym every day. Like, up to 90 minutes of working out, then another 90 in the spa (remember - 4 saunas, cold plunge, pool…). Do our computer work at home with frequent spontaneous splashes into our private pool, or at one of the many beautiful-cheap-delicious restaurants up the street or downtown. Eat a lot of dragonfruit and fish at home, but also eat out more than usual, taking advantage of the affordable and incredibly nourishing food options.

Not that we never leave this comfortable cocoon. We do cruise the shops and markets to buy more linens, jewelry, carved masks for the nephews/niblings. Enjoy ricefield and canyon walks, temples and palaces. Twice I join a lovely writers’ group with a refreshing mix of locals and long-term sojourners. One fabulous yoga class - I can see why many travellers choose Ubud primarily as a yoga retreat destination.

The walk from our first AirBnB to the café

At the really built-for-tourists temple they dress us up :)

Every day a new inspiration in flowers at our café

This is for you, Russell

Super-peppy musical welcome video at the immigration office

Bali Bike Ride

I do sign up for one organized outing - the day after my long wandering amble, when I thought I was still on my own for a few days. Green Bikes Bali drives me and a first-time-cycling Californian way up north of Ubud, then guides us back down along quiet backroads past the famous ricefields, a traditional housing compound, the 2nd oldest temple in Bali, a firefly research/conservation centre, and of course through ricefields.

They also feed us breakfast and lunch, give us raincoats in a glorious storm, and enthusiastically answer my endless questions about Balinese culture. It’s like our experience in Cuba where we hired a young sociologist to give us the inside scoop on economy and politics, but with a glorious off-the-beaten-path downhill bike ride (they have an e-bike option, but it really is hours of all downhill!). $35 and a full day well spent.

First stop: Tegalalang Rice Terraces

Cycled past a bamboo decoration for a wedding

Ogoh-ogoh - Built from bamboo, paper, and papier-mâché, they are joyously paraded through the streets on the eve of Nyepi (the Balinese Day of Silence) to symbolically cleanse the island of negative energy before being burned (except this one, for some reason)

Intercropping - cycled through the vegetation-rich highlands

Also cycled past one of the production zones for all the magnificent statues and stone carvings in front of every house

2nd oldest temple in Bali

Temple rules

Firefly conservation research center - The live 8-24 months larva, then just 2 weeks as a non-eating but pollinating fly. Endangered because farmers weed their eggs from plant leaves from rice fields. One stripe means girl, 2 stripes means boy.

Rainy ride through the rice paddies

Misssed Flight

Bali brain is fine and dandy until it’s time to fly. We start our last day with a workout and spa, then lounging around the house and swimming as usual while Sarah finishes a sewing project. Even when we realize that we need to leave like, um, NOW, we pack slowly and deliberately - calmly even - and take our time saying goodbye to our wonderful hosts. When the 1.5 hour taxi ride become over 3 hours, we arrive 20 minutes before departure and somehow can’t magically charm the attendants to let us on.

I blame this on you, Laura Smith. You asked if we’d had any travel disasters and we smugly implied we’re too smart for that. So have your last laugh as we book an entirely new flight to a different island, waste an overnight in Jakarta, catch a morning flight to our destination (Komodo Island - see next blog post!), then hop a private-charter speedboat to catch up to our 3-day dive-boat tour. It’s a bit of a test of our Alfred E Newman / Bobby McFerrin mindset and a waste of about $500, but we do get stay in the largest and most populous city in the world (metropolitan population of approximately 42 million people) and still make it just in time to snorkel with mantas (see next blog post…)

So, did we come to Bali by accident or diving inspiration? Sitting in Vietnam researching where-next options like Uzbekistan and Latvia, Sarah suddenly out of nowhere said, “What about Bali?” and 20 minutes later we had tickets. That’s generally how it works - intense research followed by Sarah suddenly just knowing. I’ve learned to trust her Knowing, ‘cause it leads to experiences like this - a month of deep Peace, harmony, flow. A month of caring for our bodies, not caring about missing meetings (“Whoops, was it Tuesday today?!”), not worrying about missing anything. My brain and body and soul feel like the cloudforest a month after COVID gave her a break from incessant tourist traffic and let her breathe deep in and out for a spell - relaxed, recovered, rejuvenated, ready for the next adventure (komodo dragons, anyone…?)