September 16th

Jelly Donuts…mmmm….I’m getting to know my wife and her inability to bypass a good donut in a breakfast line…To be fair, she’s finding out that cold beer, french fries, and coco puffs are amongst my soft spots. September 16th was our big relaxation day, our day to “Chill Out” as Megan kept on insisting I do. So without objection, we found ourselves at the most amazing pool we both had ever seen sipping on mineral water and catching some sun. This particular pool at the Maya Resort sports water that is level with the walls that hold it, as you enter you see the water overflow and drip off to what looks like the deep cliffs with the river below (called an infinity pool). The hillside is green everywhere with red heliconias, red African tulip trees, and a bunch of banana trees, tall grasses, and many other plants. We had an 11am couples massage at the spa. We chose the Maya special, which is a full body long stoke massage with the oil of your choosing. Megan got the Bali flower and I got the cooling minty oil. This massage was much better than the other massage we got, partially b/c I didn’t have to wear womens panties this time! Man, I’m still laughing about that last massage we got, and how tight and uncomfortable those things were…The massages were fantastic, we got tea before and lemonade and fruit afterwards.

After the massages we hung out by the pool and ordered a pizza from the River Cafe. I read my book, the Omnivores Dilemna and Megan read hers, the Life of Pi. We followed up the pizza with a private pilates class. Megan, our instructor, and I did some pilates that I am still sore from doing — it seemed so easy at the time. The pilates and yoga classes are on this square platform that overlooks the (fake) grass tennis court. I got a chance to meet the tennis pro, a man named Kelly Woolford, from the US, so he gave us some Ubud insight. Tennis is one of those sports that bonds people across the world, it was very cool to be an insider with him just by mentioning that I played college tennis in the States. With the hotel package that Kim, our travel agent put together, was a candlelight dinner with a bottle of champagne. We had a wonderful dinner, although were slightly let down when the location we wanted to have our dinner was actually for another couple…our location wasn’t half bad though.

Once again we were exhausted from our hardly stressful day of relaxation, spa treatments, pilates, and good food. The rooms at the Maya Resort are individual bungalow style villas with big canopy beds and huge bath tubs and all the amenties one could ever ask for in a hotel room. Gorgeous.