Okay. Meeting Ketut Liyer (the medicine man in Eat Pray Love) was not part of the plan. I brought it up when we were planning for the trip as a joke, and just like all my silly ideas (the latest one being “let’s visit Ariel Peterpan in jail in Bandung!), this one got brushed aside with a blink of an eye by the mister.

So yes, it was by chance that I got to meet the great man himself.

In fact, little did I know that 2 hours, after seeing these Eat Pray Love souveniers – that I would be having my very own Eat Pray Love moment!

We’d been shopping at the Ubud Art Market and gallivanting with the monkeys in the Monkey Forest (it was an all-Ubud day). We were just about to head back to Seminyak and call it a day when something in my heart moved me to ask our driver (also named Ketut) whether he knows Ketut Liyer and where he lives.

It was not surprising that our driver has heard of Ketut Liyer but what was most pleasantly surprising was the fact that he happened to live in Ubud! I mean, what are the chances right? So I jumped at the chance and asked if he could take me there! Turns out, we were pretty nearby!

You have no idea how excited I was, mainly because my random “crazy idea” was then suddenly a reality.

So we finally arrived outside Ketut Liyer’s house.

As we walked in the compounds of his home, it was as if we were in the movie set. Hmm, could have sworn I had more photos of his home but here’s all I have for now (or perhaps I was too excited to meet the man himself – can’t remember now)

The compound was pretty huge with a build-in temple and a residence. The above photo is basically a rest area I think? So anyway, as we went deeper into the compounds, this was our first view of the legendary Ketut Liyer:

He was in the middle of doing a reading for this girl. It seems that we were not the only ones who came looking for him. I was just really psyched at this point, hahaha!

We were then told by his assistant that Ketut is actually very exhausted from a long, long day and will not be doing any more readings after seeing the remaining people in line. I asked if it was possible to just get a photo with him (I mean, I came all the way there, right?) and I was allowed to. Well, after he gave a reading to this other girl from Holland:

What I like about him while I was there was the fact that he tells these girls, “I am very happy to meet you” several times during the reading, with a very sincere, toothless grin.

Then it’s finally my turn. We snapped a photo together and after that he held on to one of my fingers and asked me where I’m from.

Wish I didn’t look like such an idiot, lol.

Well for those of you who are interested in meeting Ketut Liyer, his address is:

Pengosekan, Mas, Ubud – Bali Indonesia.

Phone number: (0361) 974092

Fee: 250,000 rupiah. Be sure to come early as you’d need to take a queue number to meet him!

Hope this has been helpful to somebody. Now my next target: Ariel Peterpan in jail. Wish me luck!