One Hundred and Five Dollars

Initial Question:

What can you buy with a hundred and five dollars?  Dinner with a friend?  A new pair of shoes?  A mountain of unnecessary plastic items from Dollar Tree?
     No doubt, a hundred and five dollars seems a paltry amount if applied to rent or an electric bill.  A hundred and five dollars is not enough to buy an iPhone.  Certainly, a hundred and five dollars won't buy much of anything in the city of Singapore.
     But Bali, as it turns out, is no Singapore.

Background:

    Everything in Bali is bought and sold in the Indonesian Rupiah.  This is a monetary unit that takes getting used to.  On my first day exploring Bali, I was momentarily panicked when the young woman at the Butterfly Garden asked for two hundred thousand rupiah-- for two tickets.
    Flustered, I opened my wallet and began to sort through the multi-colored bills inside.  Two hundred thousand just to see butterflies?  I was astounded.
    As I drew out two pinkish red bills, I did the math.  I remembered that a hundred thousand Indonesian was  less then ten dollars in American  (100,000 IDR = $7.66).
     I haven't shopped or spent many rupiah (yet).  This week, we are staying in Ubud, a town in the mountains known for rain forests and rice fields, temples and shrines,  traditional arts and dance.  Yoga, meditation, smoothies, and health spas are all big business here.  So, I decided to make a spa appointment.
    Bali is delightfully inexpensive.  Turns out, for instance, you can buy quite a bit for $105.00, as I discovered yesterday.

Day Spa Ah Ha

     My appointment at Sang Spa 2-- they have four different spas in town-- was for 9:00 AM.  I was asked to arrive 15 minutes early.  A bit nervously, I walked up the path wondering what to expect.  You see, I'm not a typical spa-kind of girl, and this would be my first "day spa" experience.

     In typical Balinese style, the lobby was open to the outdoors on one side and had a giant picture of Buddha on one of the three walls.  A young man took my shoes and gave me a pair of slippers to wear for the day.  He put my belongings in a locker and gave me the key.  No cell phone.  No book.  I held the key and looked down at my otherwise empty hands.  Then he handed me some kind of green drink for cleansing.
     We discussed some items on the questionnaire, but mostly he wanted to know my preferences.  He displayed trays containing various jars and I was asked to select:  Which mask?  Which scrub?  Which cream?  Randomly, I pointed to jars-- something herbal, something with Bali in the name, and something with aloe vera. After each choice, he made notes on a small clipboard.  He handed me an extensive menu.  Something for lunch?

     Erini was introduced.  She was dressed in a white v-necked t-shirt and a long golden sarong.  She had large brown eyes and lips painted red.  Her smile was genuine.  I smiled back.
     I followed her down a long hallway, past fountains and statues, with doors on each side of the hall.  She stopped in front of door number seven and asked me to sit in a nearby chair.  Knelling down and removing my slippers, she explained she would first bathe my feet.  She reached for a large bowl made from black stone.  Yellow flowers floated in the water.  She carefully lifted my feet into the water and cupped water in her hands, pouring it slowly over my feet.  Her hair, I noticed, was extraordinarily shiny.  The ceremony was like a blessing.  I may have relaxed just a little.

My Own Room

     As she opened door number seven, she said quietly, "This is your room."
     A massage table was laid out in the center of the room and a large tub was behind it.  I also noticed a shower.  Music played softly and the room smelled fresh.  Erini asked me to remove all clothing and to wear a pair of disposable panties.  I trusted her.
     The moment I lay face down on the table I understood that a Balinese massage was not like the massages I was used to.  Instead of putting my face in a doughnut and then gazing down at the floor,  I found myself looking into a round stone bowl.  It was strategically placed on the floor precisely below my face.  Filled with water, it contained three white rocks.  A yellow blossom floated on the top.  I began to float as well.
    Erini placed both hands on my body and pressed down.  I relaxed a lot.  I left my body and floated into the Bali morning.

FourTreatments for the Body

   During the hour-long massage, Erini used a lot of pressure, soft rubbing of essential oils, and direct pressing on pressure points.  It was an incredibly thorough massage and I felt like a famous movie star.  When finished, while I rested, she brought me a glass of water and then applied an herbal scrub all over my body.
    The scrub was gritty, but did not feel like it contained the microbeads that are so toxic to aquatic life.  This scrub seemed to have sand in it for the grit.  The smell made me sneeze.  Erini and I agreed that next time I would choose the Green Tea Scrub.
     I rested while the scrub dried and then she rubbed it all off with her hands and applied a full body mask.  While the mask was still wet, Erini wrapped me in blankets and left me to dry in my cocoon.
     Before showering off the body mask, Erini rubbed yogurt all over my body.  The hot shower felt wonderful and the disposable panties were disposed.  While I showered and Erini cleaned the room we talked.
     She told me she was from a small village in the north of Bali and that her father had died in his early 30's. The owner of the Sang Spas, her father's friend, had paid for her to move to Ubud at 17 and finish school here.  She worked in the spa while going to school.  She was now 19 and planned to work until 25, continuing to send money home to her family.  Then, after they were taken care of, she might get married.
     She smiled as she assisted me into the deep bathtub.  The tub was made of granite and long enough for my legs.  In addition to a soft scent, hundreds of pink and red flower petals floated on the surface, one yellow frangipangi blossom in their midst.  Erini brought me lemon ginger tea and a basket of fresh watermelon and orange slices.  She quietly closed the door and left me to float blissfully for about twenty minutes.

Face, Lunch, Hands, Feet, and Hair

     When she returned, I had dried and put on a sarong.  I lay face up on the table while she gave me a long facial that included many treatments, including a mask and steam.
     "Time for lunch," she said.  I looked at the clock.  Already, I'd been there for almost four hours!  I dressed and said goodbye to my room.
     Erini led me outdoors to the garden.  The lunch I had ordered from the extensive menu during the intake session waited for me at a quiet table by a fountain.

My salad and cucumber/lime smoothie tasted divine.  I admit I sneaked away to my locker to call Nicole and check Facebook.
     After lunch, Erini escorted me to the nail area of the salon.  While she gave me a pedicure and a manicure I sat like the Queen of Sheba and watched a giant goddess statue and fountain in the courtyard.  I won't describe her methods with the nail procedures other than to say it was all done--like the first foot bath-- with her knelling before me on the floor.
     The final treatment was a hair cream bath.  Oh my goodness!  Without doubt, this was the highlight of the day.  This part of the salon looked just like a beauty parlor at home.  First I lay back in a chair at a sink and Erini washed my hair, slowly.  She used those strong, very strong hands to massage the pressure points in my scalp.
     Then she led me to chair and applied an aloe vera creme to my hair.  It was thicker than an ordinary conditioner and she administered it deliberately, section by section, from scalp to ends, almost like hair dye.  They she massaged that even more deeply into my head.
     By now, I'd stopped thinking of myself as the Queen of Sheba or a Hollywood starlet.  I was more like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz when she gets the make over. . .  "brush, brush here; scrub, scrub there. . . it's how we spend the day away in the merry old land of Oz" (remembered with liberties).
     The wizard Erini wrapped my head in a towel and placed me under a steam helmet for about twenty minutes.  During that time I sipped another drink and enjoyed another basket of fruit.
      After one final trip to the sink for a rise, Erini the miracle worker, took care to blow dry my hair. Amazing results! My hair was wonderfully soft, light and smooth.  Delicious and lovely!

The Sum

     Six hours after my first nervous entrance, and I was in the exit interview.  The young man presented my bill.  One million, fifty thousand rupiah.  I just smiled and gave him one hundred and five dollars.
     Then I walked back down the hallway and found Erini.  I gave her a large tip.  "Open your own spa one day," I told her.