I made it! Yesterday I landed in Bali around 11:00am. After the longest travel days I have ever had to endure. I suppose you could say those long bus rides from western Pennsylvania to Connecticut during college softball prepared me somewhat. My flight from San Fransisco to Singapore was a long seventeen and a half hours. I read half of a book, listened to some podcasts, watch 3 movies, including Wicked for my first time (which I really enjoyed!), and slept a small amount. They feed us full meals on the plane too which weren’t too bad. The worst part of all the travel was I got less than two hours of sleep for three days in a row. I will say I enjoy having the Oura ring that keeps track of my sleep, heart rate, recovery level, activity, body temperature and much more! That is how I know my last three nights were under two hours and needed ample amount of rest. Last night, here at my hotel in Kuta Beach, was my first full night of much needed sleep!

The Singapore airport is very cool! There are lots of garden structures, water features, artwork, lounges and restaurants and lavish shopping! With the changes in my flight, I was slightly bummed that when I arrived it was already dark and then I was boarding in the morning when the sun was coming up. So I did not venture out into the city as I had hoped. I did explore inside the airport though and even had some great soup dumplings! Hotels were booked and waiting lists were long for the lounges, so I walked around a lot and then also found a place to prop my feet up, which was needed.

When I arrived at Bali’s international airport, my driver and friend, Choc was already messaging me and ready to pick me up! She is truly amazing. The roads in Bali are small and you have many mopeds/motorcycles weaving in and out of the cars. Most vehicles here are either small SUVs, buses, or moped/motorcyles. Also, they drive on the left side of the road here too. I think it would take my brain too long to adjust for how quickly traffic and people move on these tiny streets out here for me to navigate on my own. So I am very blessed to have Choc, who knows the whole island quite well! She will be back this afternoon to pick me up from Kuta Beach to take me to the yoga retreat resort in Ubud, which will be about an hour and a half north from here (35km which is less than 22 miles). Small roads make for slower moving traffic, so yes 22 miles takes an hour and a half here, if you’re going through their cities and busy areas, which Ubud is.

My yoga training starts on Tuesday the 1st in the late afternoon. I wanted to give myself at least a full day to try and get on the proper sleep schedule since the Bali time zone is thirteen hours ahead of Austin, TX. I decided to spend one day at the beach so that is where I am headed this morning. Yesterday, I was absolutely exhausted and tired but I did walk to go get a massage, a pedicure and a great dinner! For dinner I found a cute spot called Cocobistro that was amazing. I had salmon confit and a fresh squeezed water melon juice. All of this was for under $20 USD. I love being able to get amazing fresh food and flavors for such a reasonable cost.

One of my favorite parts of traveling is observing other people and cultures. Once I landed in Singapore I have not seen (to my knowledge) too many Americans. Sitting here at breakfast and eves dropping on conversations, I learned that the three tables around me are from three different countries, Australia, England and Japan.

I went to bed before 9pm here and woke up around 3am. The one thing I am sad to miss out on is Texas softball games this next month. As many of you already know, my husband, Steve is the associate head coach and they are also the current #1 team in the country. Not only are the times of the softball games in the wee hours of the night, I am unable to stream ESPN here. But what I did realize last night at 3am was I can still listen to the game through the radio broadcast and watch the live updates! I will still be watching highlights on social media pages and try to listen to the games whenever I can. And if you were wondering, they beat Mississippi State 7-0 and then I went back to sleep for a few more hours.

As I sit this morning writing this, it is finally sinking in that I will be here for a full month! I have been planning and preparing for this trip for some time now and I feel overwhelmingly thankful I am here and really doing this! After I finish writing this, I am headed to the beach to explore and check out the sea turtle sanctuary this morning.

Travel Days 2 & 3

Elephant in the Sky

The Training