Cinema and Rice Fields

I just can’t get enough of these green luxurious landscapes. Wes suggests that I grab a breakfast at Sari Cottage. The only way to access this all organic and vegan coffee shop and restaurant is by walk or by scooter. If your heart is well hang in your thoracic cage, you might be able to drive there without having a heart attack. I only half dramatize when I say there is just about enough space to drive on a paved elevated path with one scooter. When the local cross you, you better stop on the side and try to squish between the border of the path and a high fasted paced vehicle coming your way. Of course, if you miss a turn, go too fast or are not careful with all the pot holes, you simply end up in… The water of the rice fields.

It is just the right amount of danger for me and it makes me feel like arriving safe and dry, and grabbing a delicious breakfast in this secluded place is worth the effort. It does feel good to just be, observe and have fruits after an intense drive!

The afternoon, I buy a ticket to see a documentary about Miles Davis in a REAL CINEMA. I always have been a movie fan. When I was young and living in Paris, I used to go to the movies three or four times a week at least. Back then, the unlimited pass for young people was only 20 euros. In between my university lessons, when a promising moving was coming up, or when I was bored, when it was rainy outside or too cold, I was hoping in the first cinema around and spent delightful hours in the dark, living my emotions to the fullest.

After nearly five month of backpacking, Ubud is offering this sweet feeling of being back home for a moment, by opening the doors of a Movie Theater.

Coming out of the theater, the sun already set. Time to grab dinner. I lost myself in the little streets and grab a bite somewhere. The hundred of restaurants along the way look more appetizing than the other and I decide that I would come back one day to try them all.

I come back to my room and enjoy the solitude. The last time I will get lonely this trip? It always sting a little, even knowing it will probably be the last one in a long time. Being a long term backpacker means accepting this dual feeling of loving being alone but also feeling the pain of it.

Canggu, don’t let me go

Staying in a place for a week or more is, I would say, essential when you travel for few month. It’s like taking holidays of your trip. You can rest your bones on the same bench in the same spot at the same time everyday if you want to. You start to make friends and do some plans together, the kind of plans you do at home with your homies. You discover all the good places of the city and you have time to try all the different coffee shops and register all the wifi passwords of the town in your iPad. You take your time. 
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The perfume of Lisa

When I had dinner the very first night I arrived in Bingin beach, I had a long talk with the lady who was preparing the fish her husband was fishing each day to nurrished the tourist like me. I learned more about Hinduism religion and the life here. Balinese in general are masters of enjoying the present and be satisfied with what life offers to them. The culture of the sea, the influence of the moon and the respect of the ancient is omnipresent. 
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Hasina

Hasina is the only woman bike taxi in Mandaly.
When she told me that, I had to hire her services for the day, I had so many questions! In the end, it was like spending the day with a new friend.
Single mum, she is working everyday to show around her city and the area to the tourists and it looks like she enjoyed it so much that it was a pleasure to ride from a place to another with her.

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