text and photos by Prime Sarmiento
I consider Ubud in Bali, Indonesia my spiritual home, a place to center myself. Whenever I can spare the time and money, I travel to Ubud, to help me cope with frustrations and pressures. To nurture my writing. To have some breathing space. To hone my spirituality.

Thanks to Elizabeth Gilbert's bestselling book Eat, Pray, Love, a lot of women travelers have been coming to Bali droves, inspired by one woman's search for everything. They too are seeking something, a new life and perhaps looking (and finding!) love.
 
While a sabbatical may be ideal, it's still possible to have a mini-retreat and create your own Eat Pray Love story in Bali over a long weekend.
1. A Room with a View: What I love about Ubud is the proliferation of spacious and modestly priced guesthouses, with wide windows, located in some quiet corner, and with a refreshing view of the green green rice fields. Each cottage usually comes in with a small patio, where you can just sit down, have some coffee while writing your dreams, thoughts, impressions in your travel journal.
 
2. Art Trippings: Ubud is considered to be Bali's cultural center, a legacy of the late Cokorde Agung Sukawati who during his reign in the 1920s and 1930s served as a patron of Balinese arts and invited international artists to settle in Ubud.
Ubud continues to lure painters, dancers, writers, designers and all creative types, enchanted by its bohemian vibe. And whether you consider yourself an artist or not, a visit to any of Ubud's museums and galleries is enough to ignite that creative spark. You may want to visit Neka Museum which houses a permanent collection of paintings made by the renown Balinese artist I Gusti Nyoman Lempad. If you're keen to know more about Balinese art, you may want to go the Agung Rai Museum of Art which features a good collection of classical and modern Balinese paintings. And if you want to really enjoy yourself by having a taste of camp, go to Museum Blanco – the ostentatious former home of the Catalan expatriate artist Antonio Balnco. Its bright red motif, sweeping balustrades and gilded pillars is a reflection of the flamboyant artist.
Galleries abound in Ubud, and I spend countless of hours just going from one gallery to another. But my favorite is the Seniwati Gallery -the only art space dedicated to the nurturing of female Balinese artists, most of whom don't have final formal training in the arts, but have produced art works that appeals both to the heart and the mind.
 
3. Yoga in Bali: Bring your yoga mat and start your day with sun salutations. If you prefer to practice with a group, power walk your way to the nearest shala. There are several here and in some hotels, they even offer yoga classes.
Ubud is a place where you can also deepen your yoga practice. Several resident and visiting yoga teachers offer a month-long teacher training courses certified by the Yoga Alliance.
 
5. A Quiet Mind: Meditation both calms and discipline the mind. We live in the era of information over load, with the noise created by media agitates the mind, distracting us from what really matters. In Ubud, you can start developing a meditation practice as there are several teachers here that offer classes in meditation. One of the meditation teachers I recommend is Salena Oppenheimer who regularly teaches movement meditation – a mix of silent practice and ecstatic dance – at The Yoga Barn.
 
6. Culinary therapy: Cooking is both creative and relaxing. You can learn how to cook your favorite Balinese dish like babi kecap (pork in sweet chili sauce) and urab pakis (fern coconut salad) by signing up for a cooking class. Most cooking classes run for about five hours and start with a tour of the market. This is where you'll get to know the most common ingredients used in Balinese cooking including bird's eye chili, nutmeg and lemongrass. You can buy them to add a the sweet spicy flavors of Bali in your dish.
 
But the best buy in the is the Balinese mortar and pestle – made of volcanic stone (more known as cobek and ulek ulek) and grind those spices to make your own sambal – the spice paste that form the base of Balinese cooking.
 
7. Sacred sites: The Balinese has a distinct spiritual culture – a fusion of Buddhism, Hinduism and native shamanism. Their daily practices and rituals (like daily offerings to a pantheon of Dewa-Dewi – gods and goddesses) are grounded on this belief. If you want to know more about Bali and the Balinese, you may want to explore some of Ubud's most sacred sites. This includes the Goa Gajah ( or the Elephant Cave, used as meditation site by Buddhist monks), the Gunung Kawi (where you can go the temple complex by following the path down the side of the hill to the river. The best time to appreciate Bali's rice terraces) and the Pura Tirta Empul, home of the sacred spring that is believed to heal everything.

Walking all the waydown to Gunung Kawi
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Travel Notes:
Ubud is at the central part of Bali and about 40 kilometers north of the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar. To go to Ubud from the airport, get a cab which costs roughly 25 US dollars, one way. Travel time is about one hour.
 
Recommendations:
*I like staying at the Honeymoon Guesthouse where I can just relax and write. For about 50 U.S. dollars a night, I can get a a cottage with a spacious room that can fit about three to four people, ensuite bathroom, a queen-sized bed, and a patio where one can enjoy the yummy complimentary breakfast. It's also the place for the renown Casa Luna cooking school. Both are operated by Janet De Neefe, an Australian-born author and entrepreneur who's been based in Bali for the last 20 years.
Honeymoon Guesthouse
Jalan Bisma
Phone: (+62) 361 977 409
Fax: (+62) 361 973 282
Email:[email protected]
www.casalunabali.com
*For yoga and meditation, I head to The Yoga Barn where there are daily yoga and meditation classes taught by several teachers, informed by various traditions.
The Yoga Barn
44 Jalan Hanoman,
Phone: (+62) 361 971 236 or (+62) 361 970 992
Email: [email protected]