Retracing Eat Pray Love (Bali Edition)

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I was standing in front of Wayan's house somewhere in Ubud with Richard and Vicky (from US) thinking. Waiting. A lady descended from the upper floor through a stairs in the house in front of us and looked straight to Vicky. "That's Madam Wayan." one of the staff said. Hmm, it's show time now!

Now, why was I here? Vicky read a supposedly a best seller book in US (unknown here) called "Eat, Pray, Love" written by a lady Elizabeth Gilbert, telling her own journey from Italy, India, and Indonesia (including Bali) in this case Ubud. Ibu Wayan was mentioned there, in one page.

"Give me twenty minutes, I can read your body and tell you what your body needs, and what your body need less, and what your body don't need." I heard Wayan saying this. So, Vicky decided give it a try.

As Vicky and Richard sat on the chairs, and Wayan did her spiritual healing, I looked around. The place was small, maybe 4x4 meters, but it had two floors. There were two tables surrounded by chairs at the first floor where Wayan did her reading to Vicky. The other table were occupied with another American couple having a meal of brown rice, raw green beans, herbal drink (which I think made of fried garlic mix with water and lime, hopefully I am wrong about this), and all this macrobiotic food that you suppose to chew at least 75 times.

I gazed through the small kitchen at the right side of the room, to see food labeled with vitamin A, B , C, D, E, K. All I could say they were Balinese cooking. I could see green beans and spinach.

As I looked down to the front yard where many herbal plants such as white turmeric, daun dewa, ginger, galangal, aloe vera, piper betel, nutmeg, and many others, two Australian lady stepped in.

"I have chest infection" said the Australian lady. "My husband was for a treatment here a month ago for (inaudible) and he is better now."

Hm, so, this place was quite popular, I thought.

I asked for Vicky's comment when we got back from Wayan. She said she was not so sure. And then she asked me." should I got back here for a treatment?"

"Yes, you can try." was the best answer that I could say to her.

Traditional healers are not something special in Bali. People go to traditional healer to cure their sickness, but they also go to doctor. Traditional healing and modern medicine go hand in hand here.

There was another traditional healer mentioned in the book, his name was Ketut Liyer. Now, who will be my next client who want to retrace the journey of Elizabeth Gilbert in Bali?

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