Ah, Bali… Let me reminisce over you while I sip on my morning coffee at my work desk on my first day back to work! 😀

Heyyy lovely soulsssss

How are you going? I know it’s been a while since my last entry, but I promise I’m back with some juicy travel posts for you..

Those who follow any of my social media channels would know I recently traveled to Bali. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. “Another travel post! Is this meant to be a travel blog Upasana?” You ask. Well no, it wasn’t meant to be a travel blog. The blog is meant to be about everything that makes me a better version of me. And travel is a big part of that! 🙂

So, for as long as I can remember, Bali had been on my Travel Bucket List. I remember I shared a picture of a rice terrace on my Instagram (@itsupasana – follow me!!) back in Feb 2016 telling the world I would go to Bali someday, but really my fascination with Bali started way earlier than that.

What started my love for Bali was really what started everyone’s fascination with Bali (I think?) and it goes back to 2009. It was when I first read the beautiful book “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. I remember reading the book, thinking how amazing it would be to meet the healers, cycle through the rice paddies, meet the beautiful Balinese people etc. Then, in 2010, the movie was released! and I couldn’t believe my eyes how beautiful this country is. So fair to say, the vision of a Bali trip was embedded in my memory forever from that point in time forward. 🙂

It was however still a dream. I was young, had no courage to travel solo and had no idea how I would actually make it come alive and manifest it in my reality.

Then fast forward to Feb 2012, when a fellow blogger ‘A’ wrote about her experience about solo travel in Bali. I read her blog posts with so much hope, thinking if I were lucky enough someday, I would get to visit and experience the exact place she stayed at. Yes, it almost sounded too good to be true. 🙂

That memory never left me, it stayed at the back of my mind, until recently I wrote my “Before 30” List.

Side note: Although, I do turn 30 next May (2018), I think I can get away with saying “I’m thirty” until a day before my actual 31st birth date in May of 2019? Haha. Ladies! the list is long so I’m buying time to go through it all and check it off my list! 😉

One of the items on this “Before 30” list was “Do a Yoga Retreat in Bali”.

Then, in April of this year, I started taking this seriously. After all, time is flying! I started researching various yoga retreats, but kept coming back to this one sanctuary again and again. Then it hit me, this was the same retreat, I had read about on that blog back in 2012. HOW STRANGE! and within a few days, I had inquired about a package in September 2017 and was all booked for BALI!

WoooooooHoooooooo! 😀

My intention for this trip really was to:

• have some ‘me’ time,
• explore parts of Bali,
• see Balinese healers,
• meet like-minded souls who were also on a spiritual journey,
• be bold
• travel solo internationally
• fall in love with myself
• pamper the hell outta my body
• stay technology free (as much as I could :-D)
• go on an adventure my soul would never forget,
• write, journal, read
• meditate every single day
• eat yummy soulful and authentic Balinese food
• swim and soak up the sun
• invite new soulful female friendships in my life
• and so much more…

So this was just some background on why I traveled to Bali, something a lot of people have asked me lately. But I can’t wait to share with you more about the place I stayed at.. things I got up to, experiences I had and so much more in my upcoming posts. I journal-ed a lot in my personal diary over the 7 days in Bali and I will be gradually sharing some of those snippets on the blog over the coming weeks… I really hope you enjoy the Bali series.

Tell me in the comments section beautiful, have you been to Bali? 🙂

Until next time,

Lots of love,

Upasana

Check out the full Bali series here:

• Part 1  – Why I travelled to Bali.
• Part 2 – Bliss Sanctuary Bali
• Part 3 – Living on Island Time.
• Part 4 – Playing tourist
• Part 5 – To Heal or To Not Heal?
• Part 6 – I Love You Bali, Goodbye and Thank You.