I go there on a Friday morning and there she is! The famous Wayan from Eat Pray Love. I can sit down and fill in some sort of form and then the whole process begins…it’s something special, that’s for sure.
I am very excited to be here! I didn’t expect I would be helped immediately but it’s my lucky day. I quickly understand that I’ll have a body reading. This involves hand reading and fortune telling. I’m very curious about this and hey, it’s not so expensive. I’m always into doing something different and special.
Suddenly some strange woman appears asking questions while we are in the middle of the reading. So Wayan talkes to this woman and I’m still siting there..waiting..waiting.. and then another woman comes to see Wayan. And it goes on and on like this. If you go there you have to be very patient. Before I know it there are about ten people around me and Wayan doesn’t have so much attention for my reading anymore. She starts helping a couple of people at the same time. I begin to feel uncomfortable and realise this is probably how it works.
You’re not the only one
So whenever you wanted Wayan attention again you would have to ask for it, but you wouldn’t be the only one. I felt the urgency of other people also who were eager to get treated and I didn’t feel good having a bit of a competitive feeling coming from the other people. I also didn’t feel comfortable that she read my hand with so many people sitting around. And that being said, I didn’t found her friendly at all. For Balinese this is very uncommon, everywhere you go people want to know all about you, and where you are from.
At a point I just wanted to go home. Everything all together it took about 3-4 hours. Even if you want to pay and just leave, you have to be very patient as Wayan seems to do four things at the same time, including having a massage (at a certain point she was in the back, no curtains, and I saw her breasts, that was weird).
However, I tried to rationalize it by thinking that I was 4 hours at the famous Wayan’s place. She read my hands and apparently she saw about 6 relationships in the past that I hadn’t had at all. It all was not very accurate. I still tried to have trust in it..and overall it was a different kind of experience. So i think that was worth the money.
A real healing
After it all she gave me the prices for a ‘real’ healing. She also said that it would take about 3 days for me. The amount seemed very reasonable but I still had to think about it as I didn’t like the experience that much and was not keen spending 3 days of my precious holiday around her place. A couple of days later I came back, it was a lot of money, but then again she would take a lot of time for it. When I came back she suddenly asked a lot more then before. She also didn’t seem to recognize me – i thought that was a bit strange for someone who can tell the future. I said I was ok with it.
Again, like before, she helps many people at the same time so don’t expect a very personal treatment from her. I must say her staff members are very friendly and warm people. You could see they really cared and they gave me a long treatment. I was a bit surprised by the point of view from the Balinese. I talked to many of them and none of them believed in concept of healing, even though they do have faith in theirs Gods and rituals. Healing must come from the inside, no one can do it for you. If you want a real authentic experience, go to the holy waters of Tirta Empul instead.
After my treatment I asked if I had to make a new appointment. She said: ‘ No! I will not give that. You need to give me more money then’. This was very odd because a couple of days before she told me the price for the full package. At that point I had paid around 150 euro’s (200 dollars) already and I started to get fed up with all the waiting, and her being unfriendly.
Removing a bad spirit
I was not sure if the healing was finished or not, but she did say that I now had clean blood and for the other ‘problem’ I wanted help with she would give me medicine. I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to go back there. She did offered for me to see her grandfather and somebody took be there. Again, this guy poked me on a couple of places, and I don’t really understand how this can be healing. However my bad spirit must be removed now.
The most important: do I feel better now? I don’t feel any different. The night after it all I had a hard time sleeping and I felt ripped of. I was feeling very upset, maybe because I had other expectation, because a lot of people were so enthusiastic about it all. Maybe I had expected more friendliness and kindness, which also can be healing. Instead she asked for more and more money and I didn’t feel like she really cared about my wellbeing.
My advice
If you consider going there I want to give you some advice. Please, don’t expect too much. Expect no privacy, having to spend a lot of time there, having to be patient. Don’t expect amazing results. If you want something different: just go for the body reading. And expect that she will ask more and more of your money. Too bad, I guess the publicity of Eat Pray Love really spoiled things.