Monday 29 August 2016

Day off Singapore

Since weeks I don't have a day off (which is pretty good as I do what I love) but there was one day when my visa finished and I had to leave the country. Arriving in the early morning (5:00) at the Ngurah Rai International Airport I stopped in the front and just had a look. Me and this airport are in a complicated relationship (how Facebook would called it). Love and hate. Hate, because earlier when I had to go back to Germany my heart always broke, I was crying like a kid who doesn't get a toy. It was always soooo sad for me to leave the place I love with all my heart. And love because arriving here always brings happiness to me. Even if I know I will arrive some hours back again here, the small sad feeling will always be with me when I have to go to the departure. 2,5 hours later I arrived again in Singapore (my 3. visa run meanwhile). 4 years earlier I stayed 3 days in Singapore, exploring, walking around, ticking the tags on my to do list here. Today I just went to my agent, gave him my passport, a pic of me (with blond short hair, hahaha I wish I could have taken a photo of his face when he had a look at it), all the papers, the money and then I had some hours off.
As this was a kind of holidays for me I decided to be a tourist for the day. So first of all, instead of using metro I took a taxi ride to the city, big comfy limousine just for me :-) and yeah I was surprised how cheap a taxi ride in Singapore is, comparing to Germany. After I met my agent I went to Marina Bay Sands and took, of course, some pictures of me in front of the hotel. Enjoyed an expensive cafe latte at Starbucks (the place I usually would never go in Canggu, as we have sooo many better places to enjoy good coffee), went to Lau Pa Sat https://www.tripadvisor.de/Attraction_Review-g294265-d386879-Reviews-Lau_Pa_Sat_Festival_Pavilion-Singapore.html to eat. Have you ever been there, guys? Highly recommended. Placed somewhere in the middle of the business district, this hall is full of food stalls, chinese, italian, korean, japanese, indonesian, turkish and indian food, absolutely no chance to just decide for one dish. The food is compared to Singapore prices really ok. Being outside of Bali, now for at least six months I really needed to shop some essentials you don't get in Bali. The shopping tour ended with so many things more than I ever thought.
Being back before midnight in Denpasar, with heavy rain and of course my fancy raincoat NOT with me on my scooter, I reached my home around 1 am in the night. Happy being back and having the visa for the next six months in my hands, hell yeah, life is not that bad :-)







Saturday 20 August 2016

New hippie crib

My friend Noah told me about this place months ago....but I was 1. too lazy to move and 2. I felt really well in our guesthouse with all my friends. But all of them left step by step and it started being empty and boring, so I finally decided to move, to start new again. It was love at first sight when I opened the door and had a first look into my first real apartment. Two rooms, kitchen and bathroom inside. A big balcony outside where I enjoy the sunrise every morning, listening to the prayer from the mosque and with a cup of tigermilk in my hand, getting ready to go to work. And it's much cheaper as well as my previous, pretty dark room.
Maybe some of you, who knew my home back in Germany will be surprised that everything is so colorful now (instead of my previous boho white and cream apartment), but Bali is colorful, so the life here is, too. Feeling finally really home in my small and comfy place, with small kitchen (but big enough to cook the best balinese food) and simply bathroom with cold shower (there is warm water but who needs this here?). So I packed my stuff and moved, of course the balinese way, with my scooter.
I finally bought me a beanbag (aaah there's nothing better to chill in), and my friend Andy gave me his surfboard, until he comes back in January. So I finally have my hippie, comfy, cool crib.




Dinner on the floor, eating with the hands (finally managed how to do, without losing all the rice :-)


my chill out area


Essentials you need, blender for smoothies, coconut oil, kurkuma, greentea and all the sauces for my local food


Gypsy jewelery


cold water shower :-) wakes you up in seconds 

small but nice


big bed only for myself (ok and sometimes some mosquitos and geckos)

Living here between locals is simple but cool. I was sitting some nights before outside, watching the stars and I tried to figure out why I feel so comfortable here in Bali. And now I know....I see so many parallels to my small village in Serbia where I grew up. The people are super friendly, the life is simple, you meet people whenever you want, you don't have to make a special appointment (one point which I really hatet in Germany), you share what you have, you are happy sitting with friends, sharing some sweets and listening to their guitar music, and sometimes just being silly with them :-). 


My bro Budy, playing anak pantai (Beachboy). I love getting silly with him, nearly dying laughing always


bro and sista aka Slash and Axl Rose





Thursday 18 August 2016

A post for myself

Today's post is going to be a bit different than my previous ones. Usually I try to let you taking part on my daily life but today I want to dedicate this one post only to myself. Why?
It's been now 7 months living abroad for me. 7 months...wow! I have already 2 full diaries, written down all the good and some less good things happen the past months. And today I am sitting outside of my first real apartment here in Bali and a new chapter is starting.
Most of you still remember how long I planned to go away from Germany. Thinking back as well to my first Yoga Teacher training when I struggled with my english, when I had absolutely no idea how to teach and those moment when I thought, aaaah bad idea thinking I could ever teach. It was a long and hard way from me, as my previous boss didn't like my plan (which was leaving Germany and the company for good) and really create special difficulties for me. I went through some rough times with him and today I would just like to thank him, saying see, I did it!!! I realized my so called "south see dreams". I never stopped dreaming and believing in myself. Even if the start in Bali was not easy. It's saying Bali is proving you. Either you stay strong and patient and your time is coming or you give it up and go. There were 2 minutes once when I nearly booked a flight back to Germany, thinking ok I tried, it didn't work, end of story. But this is not me! So I stayed patient, I learnt to be patient here. And now I am proud of myself. I did it! I have a job which fills me up. I love teaching yoga, I am so grateful for all my students in the past months, seing their happy faces and saying to me how much they enjoyed my class. I moved some days before into an own apartment (I will show you more in my next post) and I found friends and family here. Bali is my new home. And today I like to say a big thank you to all my peeps who believed in me and always supported me.  I as well want to say thank you to all those who were laughing about me in Germany, to those who offered me their sofa as I will come back again (and those were not even people I really knew well), to those who wanted to see me giving up :-) I proved you wrong. But mostly I want to say thanks to myself! Thank you myself, that I never gave up my dreams. I am so f....ing proud of me. You just do great!!
This post should not be understood as me being arrogant, I am not. But being proud of ourselves is a good feeling and I just want you to stop for a moment and think about yourself. Look back and realize how many things you reached already, who seemed to be impossible. Sometimes we have to jump out of the comfort zone.
"Everything seems to be impossible until it's done" I love this quote!





Monday 8 August 2016

Life just don't gives you lemons.....

and if, it's not always a worse thing! And no, you don't need tequila for it. My Balilife gives me at the moment the juiciest and yellowest lemons or more redest strawberries at the moment...when I was asked last week by a friend if I would like to take care of his house and the two dogs, while he enjoys a surf week, it didn't took me even two seconds to say yes. I packed my stuff and moved into his gorgeous jungle beach house in Pantai Seseh, which is aprox 7 km away from Canggu. Seseh is a very small village surrounded by green rice fields and full of palm- and bananatrees and yes, in Seseh live the nicest Balinese local people I ever met.
My week was full of stillness, as the house is located in the middle of the Seseh jungle, the big garden full of palmtrees and millions of different Baliplants. You hear nothing but the fresh breeze and sometimes some geckos and frogs. I treated myself with meditation in the morning, fresh pressed watermelon juices, Yoga sessions in the garden and long swimmings in the pool full with beautiful and well smelling frangipani flowers. From my bed I had the most beautiful view of sunrising above juicy green rice fields, while I was listening to the silent breathing of the lovely doggies sleeping next to my bed. Walking the dogs twice a day along the absolutely empty Seseh beach, listening and getting lost in the sound of the waves, relaxing on the sunbed cuddling the dogs, filled my heart even more with love and in the past days I finally found my inner peace and realized, how f...ing amazing my life at the moment is. I love the vibrant Canggu life, but spending the time here in the small place like Seseh, far away from the crazy traffic, drunk tourists and loud places I felt like going on holidays.