Eat, Pray, Love : That's Love Ubud, Bali of the 1930's

This was a village with tiny winding pathways, alongside mud brick walls, leading through rice fields and occasionally abruptly descending to swift flowing rivers far below.

There were a few coffee stalls (warungs) lit at night by coconut oil lamps and a bustling market where bananas, rice, sugar, salt and eels were sold, together with ingredients for herbal cures such as 'boreh'.

It is a far cry to present day Ubud with its traffic lights, its market teeming with handicraft sellers, silver jewelry and mass produced art and its paved roads bordered by two story buildings.

Today in contrast there are just so many foreigners living in Ubud, some now part of Balinese families, some not.

The major events of the village calendar which used to consist of temple ceremonies and cremations, now include New Year's Eve and the Ubud Writers Festival.

How things have changed! But it's still a fascinating place which intrigues the visitor, whoever they may be.

If you have read 'Eat, Pray, Love' you will know what I mean. And if you need your own Balinese healer, try here.

We hope to see you here some day soon! And if you would like to visit Wayan, just let us know. She is very busy these days but I am sure she will fit you in if I ask. We have been friends for about ten years since I met her in her home village of Payangan and persuaded her to come and live at the old healing library.

But that's another story and I am very glad that she has been given so much great assistance by Elizabeth Gilbert and her friends.