Day 8 (Sunday). Tarli and I went for a sunrise swim at around 6:00 am. It was a great way to start the day.

All the participants for the yoga retreat were here! We were now four. We started with yoga at 7:30 am. We had a great yoga session with Tarli, Luba and Irene.

After yoga we got some breakfast and took a short 30 minute break before art classes with Tarli tbirdart.com. Tarli has a unique method of sewing into her artwork for added texture and we were excited to learn about it. Today we would be painting using watercolors and on Wednesday we would sew, completing our two session art component of the retreat.

All three of us chose different photos of ours to draw and it was evident we had very different styles. Luba’s drawing was quite subtle and mine a bit bold. But Tarli’s teaching was amazing and I was surprised at what I was able to draw and paint in such a short time. I hadn’t painted anything since I was a child.

Tarli and I decided to stay in afterwards and enjoy the pool. We walked over to Bali Boozy for lunch and then got massages at 3:00 pm. After that we went to the beach and had a lovely swim and dinner at 707 Beachberm.

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Day 9 (Monday). Today was an early day. We were visiting the island of Penida, called Nusa Penida (Nusa means island in Balinese).

This was going to be a long day. We drove to the Port of Sanur in about 45 minutes and caught the 7:30 am fast boat to Nusa Penida. There our driver Marcel received us. He was a friendly and knowledgeable young man and we had a great time with him. He drove us all over the island and had incredible skills. The roads are unbelievably narrow, bumpy and steep. Some roads are reduced to one lane, but drivers somehow manage to maneuver past each other without scraping each other or honking and getting annoyed.

The first stop was Angels Billabong, a natural infinity pool.

After that we moved on to Broken Beach (Pasih Uug), a natural arch formation. From here we got a nice view of the wide open ocean.

Next we drove to Kelingking Beach. The outcropping of the huge rocks below us, all around the beach was the highlight here.

After that we got lunch at Sagi Resto. It was included in our tour and was a decent lunch where you could choose 1 main item and a drink. I had the fried noodles and Tarli had the chicken curry. Not bad for an included lunch.

After lunch we headed to Crystal Bay. This is what Tarli and I had been waiting for! After seeing a lot of tourists at all the other sites (often fighting for position to take their selfies) we were finally able to relax for a whole two hours by this beautiful beach. Tarli and I got beach lounge chairs with umbrellas. A good thing because it was raining!

We really enjoyed Crystal Bay despite the cloudy weather.

After cleaning up and getting back in the car we were at the port again around 4:00 pm to take the boat back to Sanur Port in Bali. There was quite a bit of jostling for position. If you missed the boat because it’s full you would have to wait for the next one! It was a slow process getting on as they were only letting people on ten at a time.

We had a bit of a choppy ride to get to Bali. The boat was a bit bigger, so Irene, Luba, Tarli and I were able to sit together and it was also faster getting back. It took us about an hour to get back to the Kashantee Villages. We were happy to be home after such a long day! But it was well worth it! Tarli and I had a nice dinner of local food – Nasi Goreng and Chicken Satay at Kashantee Village, our lodge.

Stay tuned for Days 10 and 11!