The Perfect Place in Ubud, Bali to Make Your Escape, Chill Out, and Write Your Masterpiece!

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After we left our friends in Seminyak after a couple days, Emily and I took off on our own for a genuine escape—a proper holiday away from the traffic, the crowds, away from the laptop and the wifi connections (for the most part)…

If you go to Bali, then the small village of Ubud is the place to be if you want to find amazing landscapes, quiet oases, fascinating arts and crafts (like the impressive batik wax-dyed fabrics we watched in the making, shown below), raw and vegetarian food, spas, and yoga retreats. They say Ubud is sort of the spiritual center of the Island of the Gods.

The last time I was in Ubud about two years ago, I enjoyed the attractive Teba House homestay, especially at the height of the Hindu Kuningan Day festival when the streets are just paved with special decorations, everyone gathers in the streets in traditional clothing, children are in the streets parading, playing music…

But this time we wanted something a bit more remote, quiet, and luxurious. I happened across a new boutique retreat through my friend Amber, the Soulshine Bali villas and retreat, which is nestled between the breathtaking rice field terraces on the outskirts of Ubud and the Agung river.

Surprisingly enough, I learned this amazing getaway was Spearhead frontman Michael Franti‘s place, founded and designed absolutely beautifully along with Carla Swanson. Soulshine is designed mainly for week-long yoga retreats, but we managed to squeeze in a regular booking between retreats (and actually had the place to ourselves), and it served as the perfect escape for a romantic, rejuvenating little holiday.

The Sound of Sunshine room where Michael wrote the song.

Emily made the most of the large rooftop sala, putting it to good use for some yoga practice, with an amazing view of the rice fields as her backdrop.

Carla put us up in their finest room—the Sunset Room—just like it says, with a sunset-view terrace, a gorgeous bedroom, and spacious, modern bathroom. The amazing thing about Bali is the incredible attention to detail, and it showed here.

We enjoyed the emerald infinity pool every single day. (Funny enough, although I live 10 minutes from the beach, I rarely go see it, so I desperately needed the tan!)

In the cafe, the friendly staff cooked us up all kinds of tasty morsels—a traditional Balinese feast, as well as all kinds of raw vegetarian delights and fresh juice smoothies. The raw cacao and coffee creations in Ubud are impressive (I’ll write more about that next week)—at Soulshine I recommend the tasty orange infused truffles, and prana energy balls, with dark raw chocolate, coconut, spirulina, and mint.

What I loved perhaps most about Carla, and their beautiful resort, was that, unlike many other spas and yoga retreats, there was no pretension, no funny attitude about purity, and we could still get our hands on beer and wine!!

We did go out on the town though for even more food marathon! While I definitely enjoy my share of veggie and raw food recipes, I’m certainly no vegetarian, and thankfully, in the heart of Ubud, one can get their fill of greasy, tasty meat as well!

We met my friend Stuart from TravelFish for some incredible BBQ spare ribs at the famous Naughty Nuri’s. Anthony Bourdain also says they have the best dirty martinis outside of Manhattan, so of course we had to test that hypothesis…

Then of course we had to pay our respects to the local hotspot Ibu Oka Warung, where every morning they roast a pig on a spit (sometimes two or three) and divvy out the delicious results. While seeing your food isn’t for everybody, you can’t miss the babi guling, or suckling pig, if you come to Bali! Again, Tony Bourdain agrees. (You must watch No Reservations!)

We also ate at the famed Bebik Bengil (the “Dirty Duck”), a beautiful restaurant that’s grounds are covered in ornate garden walkways and water features… we got our own dais(!), and feasted upon delicious Balinese crispy duck. They say the restaurant got its name when they were completing construction (back in the days before there was much development and they were still entirely surrounded by rice paddies), and one day a monsoon came, and a flock of ducks all came running into the restaurant, jumping on tables and tracking muddy footprints all over the floor. Apparently things worked out bad for the ducks… but tasty for the rest of us!

Although it certainly felt far away from the bustle of Seminyak and from the “real world”—wherever that is, back here in Thailand, on the interwebs, wherever—Ubud was actually a great spot to chill out with the laptop, enjoy the surroundings, the sunsets, and get a lot of solid writing done.

Ubud served as a perfect digital nomad oasis, as well as a romantic getaway, and a real culinary adventure (even well before the holidays, as you can see I was already gorging myself on all kinds of incredible Balinese and international food!) If you’re looking for your escape while you’re in Bali, I can’t recommend a few peaceful days in the mountains of Ubud enough.

If you want to see all my Ubud photos, go here. If you’re interested in yoga at Soulshine, check out their website for the retreat schedule, or I recommend you look into my friend Amber’s upcoming Raw Yoga Jedi retreat there in March.

If you’d like to take some time out and relax by the pool, but you’re not sure how you’ll break free from the office this year, then make damn sure you get your ass over to Digital Nomad Academy and apply for our official scholarship program. Do it now! What do you have to lose? I’m giving away two absolutely free seats in this $1,500 mentorship program. Applications are due no later than this Thursday, December 29, at 12 noon EST.

I’ll be back with more from our time in Bali soon… Stay tuned if you want to watch me drink cat shit coffee.