While staying in Ubud, Jacky and I spent a really enjoyable morning at Lobong Culinary Experience, a cooking class giving a fascinating insight into some of the secrets of Balinese cuisine.
Sang and his family invited us as guests to their family compound, where over the course of several hours we worked on a total of 9 different dishes.
At lunchtime, some of the food we had prepared there was taken to the temple and presented as an offering, before we sat down to enjoy one of the most delicious meals that I've ever tasted.
Balinese spas are great places to chill out and they are excellent value for money. You can book yourself in for an all-over pampering in very comfortable surroundings for anything up to 4 or 5 hours for just US $50 (EUR 38 or GBP 33).
To begin with, you’re given a 4 hands massage by two well-trained and knowledgeable therapists. Two women expertly working in synchronized motion is truly heaven for your muscles.
This is followed by a jasmine, coconut or lulur body scrub, and once all of the grime has been removed from your skin, they cover you in yoghurt. Whilst doing so, they prepare a hot flower bath decorated with beautifully fragrant red petals and even serve you tea and biscuits from the rim of the tub as you get ready to soak.
Your face is then given a complete detox by way of a facial massage, with blackhead extraction if you request it.
For the final 60 minutes you are treated to a cream bath, which is a traditional Indonesian hair treatment. First of all they wash your hair, before thoroughly rubbing in conditioning cream made from avocado and other fruits. This is followed by a relaxing scalp and neck massage, before your hair is blow-dried with steam.
Some spas even throw in a foot massage, tasty meal and fruit juice as well, and if you want to experience the full monty, you can even add a manicure and pedicure too.
After a half day of being rubbed, scrubbed, cleansed and washed, even an old wrinkly like me felt completely rejuvenated. I suddenly felt as if I'd sprouted a brand new layer of soft, pink baby skin over my entire body. By the time I came out, it was as if I was 10 years younger.
When in Bali, it's worth paying a visit to a plantation. After arriving, you are briefly shown around before being encouraged to try a huge variety of the different teas and coffees that they produce, all of which are flavoured with vanilla, coconut, ginger, etc. For those less keen on caffeine, they even throw in a cup of cocoa.
It costs nothing to visit the plantation, and the beverages they give you there are all free of charge. This is despite the fact that they are all extremely tasty.
They don't charge you because while you're there, they hope to entice you to spend your money on the coffee that Bali is renowned for worldwide. Given that Luwak coffee is said to be the most expensive in the world, it was quite a surprise to learn that it is effectively made from cat poo. This is because a luwak, or feral feline, eats only the finest and richest coffee beans, rejecting the rest.
Yet after consuming them, by a miracle of nature, the beans somehow remain undigested and they reappear whole in the feline's turds.
Plantation workers then sift through the cats' droppings (quite literally) and after being roasted over an open fire, the beans are then ground and the coffee is sold for an extremely high price.
One 50g packet of Luwak coffee retails at around US $30, EUR 23 or GBP 20, and you only get about 6 cups per packet. It's so good that it's endorsed by countless celebrities, and even Austin Powers drinks it.
Bali is an incredible country to visit. Known as the island of a million temples, it is home to almost 4,500,000 people, over 90% of whom are Indonesian Hindus.
The province is renowned for its traditional dances and places of worship, as well as its rice terraces, volcanoes, Luwak coffee plantations, monkey forests, health spas and local cuisine.
We stayed for 7 nights in a family compound in the town of Ubud and used our time there to try to gain a cultural insight into this fascinating place.
Whether it was witnessing the Kecak song and dance performance enacted by 35 bare-chested men at sunset on Uluwater cliffs, getting pampered by Ayu with a jasmine and coconut body scrub at Jaens Spa, cooking Nasi Sela with Sang and his family at Lobong Culinary Experience or participating in the cleansing ceremony with Dewa at the Holy Spring Temple at Tirtha Empul, it was a truly unforgettable experience.
Every year on Good Friday, the parish of St. Andrew in Paranaque in Metro Manila holds a traditional lenten procession. Hundreds of parishioners pull and push over 40 hundred-year-old floats along the crowded streets of what some might consider to be amongst the more deprived areas of the city. The statues they carry depict the saints who are said to have played a role in both the life and death of Jesus.
The route they follow is approximately 8 kilometres long and the procession lasts several hours, finishing well after dark. At times the procession is extremely slow moving, as telegraph wires frequently hang down directly in front of the elevated statues, thereby blocking their path. On such occasions, the wires need to be painstakingly raised by individuals accompanying the floats, who carry long wooden poles specially for this purpose. At other times the streets are so narrow that it's almost impossible to move in any direction at all.
I was fortunate to experience this touching event, thanks to the kind invitation of my friend Cari, whose family was responsible for the 5th float in this year's procession.
What I found particularly interesting were the people who lined the different streets which the procession went down. Living in the bubble of the comfort of Fort Bonifacio, it is only rarely that I get the chance to leave its security and venture out across town into the kind of environment that most Filipinos know only too well. Consequently, it was a real pleasure to share in an event which is evidently very close to so many people's hearts. Thank you Cari and Paul for making it possible.
With over 75 million Catholics, a number which is growing steadily each day due to the ever-increasing birthrate, it is scarcely a surprise that Holy Week is commemorated with such intensity throughout the Philippines.
Just two hours north of the capital in the village of San Pedro Cutud, 50,000 tourists from all over the world converge each year on Good Friday to witness a most bizarre and gory spectacle. The day begins with 5,000 masked male barefoot flagellants whipping themselves to demonstrate public penitence for their sins. After this ritual, around a dozen worshippers give thanks to God by volunteering to get nailed to crosses by locals dressed up as Roman centurions. Whips can even be purchased for 300 pesos (around US $8) as rather gruesome souvenirs before the crucifixion ceremony begins.
Thankfully, here in Manila, the public displays of faith by individuals, couples and families are far less extreme. Instead, they are more personal and individualised, and Bonifacio High Street commemorated the occasion by erecting 14 Stations of the Cross.
At various times during Holy Week, long queues formed of people wishing to carry a heavy cross upon their shoulders.
Others chose to bear the considerable weight of just one part of the cross instead.
At the station commemorating the Garden of Gethsemane, mirrors were placed on the lawns to encourage people to reflect, both literally and metaphorically.
There was an oversized replica of the Crown of Thorns at the station of The Curse.
While visiting the station of the Crucifixion, many took the opportunity to symbolically nail
a piece of red felt to a large cross.
The station of The Mother encouraged people to give thanks by hanging up pictures of their loved ones.
Having done so in abundance, the photographs generated considerable interest.
Despite the blistering heat, more and more people came to the station of The Cloth to add yet more names to a giant wall of thanksgiving.
And of course, after the last of the 14 stations had been visited,
there was the obligatory merchandise on sale as well.
Having successfully completed shorter distances in recent months, I decided to try a 16k run.
We assembled at the start line on Manila Bay at 5am on Sunday, 24th March.
The route took us all the way along the seafront past the palm trees.
As the sun came up, it felt good that the finishing line was getting ever closer.
1 hour and 41 minutes later, after breathing in a mixture of sea air, as well as bus and jeepney fumes from the vehicles which at times were travelling right alongside us, I arrived at the finish line.
If you've ever wondered how much a porker sweats during such a run, just click on the video below to see what happened when I took off my headband.
Buoyed on by this latest achievement, I'm now planning to compete in my first half marathon
(21k or 13 miles) in the Fort on Sunday 28th April.
