Monico Family Travels

For Robin’s last full day, we hit Virgin Beach.

Bali is not always the best for beaches, but this Culture Trip highlight didn’t disappoint!  Soft sand, blue warm sea, enough waves to have fun in without being scary or dangerous, comfy loungers, tasty fresh fish in the restaurants and various beach urchins selling tat to keep the kids occupied.

On our way back from the beach we stopped at Aloha Ubud,  one of the proliferating swing complexes that abound and surround Ubud.  On discovering that it was (yet again) purely a set up for the Instahounds, much to the horror of the girls, we embraced wholeheartedly to join vs beating them. Step one, rent a long dress from the closet and change out of cut offs and shredded t-shirt.  Having failed to spend the day at a salon in hair and makeup I was never going to rival the dedicated Instacrowd, but we figured the ‘from behind shots might work out OK.  It was actually more fun than we thought it might be, and after a certain amount of cajoling we even got a shot or 2 out of the Bella Bean where she engaged (albeit reluctantly) and even offered a smile.

In a (successful) attempt to send Robin out in something close (but so far) from the style that we welcomed him in,

we got up in decent time on Sunday morning to go worship at the church of Yoga Barn for their regular Sunday morning Ecstatic Dance.  So popular is it that we joined a long queue at 8:45 am along with the Neo-hippies, yogis and other loons-such-as-ourselves to get our numbers (we were 82nd – 84th in line to buy tickets – the girls got in free), and then extracted ourselves to go for brunch (fuel for us, bribes for the girls).  The main event kicked off at 11 and consisted of a slow build up of movement to a mixture of tribal, trance and dance beats.  It built to a crescendo over 2 hours and then slowed right down until all were lain out prostrate on the floor (or hugging someone) while the DJ brought us down from our high with some soothing guitar music.  It was the most bonkers out-there ‘clean’ rave that we’ve ever enjoyed. It sat somewhere between exercise, yoga, self expression and raving.  I have to say that as an early adopter I stuck close to the open-sides of the room as the extreme BO closer to the centre became somewhat unbearable.  At this point I was (once again) slightly relieved that nudity was strongly discouraged.  Having said that, despite extreme sweatiness, everyone had enough self-awareness not to bump into each other (at least not unintentionally!), which is more than can be said for Space in Ibiza!  It was a room full of beautiful people of all ages and races losing their inhibitions, and dancing freely which is a precious and rare thing.

The girls needless to say were mortified and having none of it.  I bribed them to sit at the side of the room for half an hour, and James even convinced them to walk around a little with him, but then we took mercy and released them to the outer terrace with their iPads.

This celebration of sweat and love and music marked the end of our fabulous week with Mr Robin Cooch.  After a quick shower and lots of happy-sad hugs we waved him off to the airport.  Thanks for visiting Robin – you were AWESOME, and it was wonderful to have such a great chunk of time with you.