After I had labeled bamboo as cool, to the lesser extent, I didn’t believe that it could climb its way out and stand among the higher ranking (if I even dare try ranking) of sights. Yet, when I stepped foot on the Green School campus located in central Bali, I definitely remember that sensation prominently known as AWE wrapping itself around me, tugging open my already wide eyelids nearly to the breaking point, stuffing my mouth with a sharp piercing breath that suddenly left me breathless, and covering my ears so the rest of the world was muffled and unimportant. Awe has countlessly taken hold of me before and although we already may be acquainted, I never get a notice to when we might meet again. Nothing. Just a silent presence until I’m mentally attacked. And afterwards it was only me… and bamboo.

You can search Green School Bali and see the images yourself. I was looking at them earlier and could almost feel the slight cold warmth of wonderment creeping up to lock hands with me. I had seen bamboo used in plenty of ways, but this surpassed anything I might’ve imagined. Shaping the center of the school is three-stories of thick bamboo crisscrossing in a dizzying pattern. The building is famously named The Heart of School. It is so outrageous and despite the sheer massiveness, it fit perfectly with ease into the background and coalesced with the nature surrounding the area. This stripped away all of my preconceived notions I had about bamboo and while I had never actually made an attempt to deepen my knowledge about it, now I was bursting with all sorts of questions (for starters, bamboo isn’t even a tree ­– it’s a grass?). To see giant buildings made entirely out of that single material was unbelievable and I became quietly infatuated with this whole other world of construction.

Three-story, Heart of School Building in the background.

Closer up, you can see the spiral roof of the Heart of School!

We would then go to three other buildings in Bali, all of which were completely bamboo from head to toe and all of which were unprecedentedly unique, beyond the limitations of our own, my own, perceivings of what’s possible. A chocolate factory, a shared workspace, a restaurant, a school, all reinventing what exactly the standard building should be like. And feel like for that matter.  I’m now looking with new eyes, seeing all it can be and knowing it to be more than what I can see, because bamboo architecture is simply awesome.

Mom inside Five Elements, an uber-hip raw restaurant outside Ubud.

We were lucky enough to get to do a tour of Big Tree Farms, a cocoa factory in Bali made entirely of Bamboo!

This is a gigantic bamboo bridge on the Green School campus.

At Hubud, all the kitchen cabinets are made of bamboo in addition to the entire workspace!

Creativity and Entrepreneurship also abound and seem to sit at the center of this energy, often combining themselves in the most interesting ways. Whether it is an artist merchandising his craft along an idealic path meandering through an even more idealic rice paddy; a Balinese woman thoughtfully preparing the morning’s offerings that festoon every threshold, alter and offering ledge; or a restaurant concept that encapsulates an entire way of life with health, nutrition and wellbeing;  ingenuity and artistry are shared by locals and transients alike. Indeed, the Balinese are renowned for their art and craft, drawing people from all over the world to it’s cultural heart. Which is why, I think, that even though there has been so much change, development and growth since our first visit almost 20 years ago, the Island, and specifically Ubud, continues to be such an energetic, magical place that pulls us in every time.

The beauty of offerings are a daily show in Bali

An unlikely establishment made almost entirely of bamboo, called Hubud, is a great example of how this energy comes together to form something new and unique. Hubud is a co-working space; on the face of it, not much more… Surely, you may ask, there must be a cooler place to highlight in this world-renowned jungle town? Which may be the case if it was just a co-working space, but like everything in Bali, it’s so much more.

Yve and I in front of Hubud

After ascending the stairs for the first time, kicking off my flip-flops outside the front door, and walking into the small lobby, I felt immediately like I was at home, with my kind of people. The energy of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship buzz and hum as you walk around the main floor, set up with shared worktables arranged in clusters. A glassed in conference room beyond the main work area has a group intently looking at a PowerPoint presentation. Laptops and large monitors set up for the day litter the tables as people work individually and in small groups. Past the galley kitchen, offering free coffee and tea, a swinging door leads out to a garden patio that features a large laptop bar overlooking serene rice paddies, a Living Food Labs raw food bar, where eclectics eat lunch and sip healing tonics, and a grassed courtyard replete with huge beanbag lounges for the more casual thinker and collaborator.

The Living Food Lab, where you can grab a raw lunch to keep you creative and productive

We joined immediately! After all, we fit their mission perfectly. Work-life balance is a hallmark of the entrepreneurial lifestyle in Bali, which is one of the core principals of Project Equator, where Lisa and I connect our family with cultures around the world while starting a new digital media venture. Hubud celebrates this value as a means to success, where so many incubator / shared work environments promote  the opposite, where an atmosphere of a more unbalanced, work-til-you-drop mentality persists.

For the past year, Lisa and I have embodied the concept of Digital Nomad, of which there is a whole tribe that makes up the Hubud family. At a welcome lunch where we sat down with the co-founder of Hubud, Steve Munroe, and a band of global, digital nomads from around the world, we were immediately struck with the diversity of talent, yet singularity of attraction, to this magnetic temple of sustainability. We’ve met several entrepreneurs in and around the Bali community, and the sense of connection and collaboration mirrors the karmic roots of the Balinese people.

Zen courtyard to hang out in, drink a healthy juice combo, or grab a beer with friends.

Me hanging out in the skype booth after midnight!

We all frequented Hubud over the course of our 2+month stay in Ubud. Wescott, Yve and Otto joined, using it as their school library and cool hangout often. Our buddy Ben, a 21-year old entrepreneur who is staying with friends Wendy and Walker, could always be found working on one of three businesses he had conceived and launched in a matter of weeks. Lisa and I had a few late night calls in Hubud’s Skype booths, reveling in the 5G Internet connections we craved for so much of the trip. We joined in on a mixer, where nutritious juices were replaced with beer, wine and pizza, offering a chance to meet many creative, entrepreneurs, designers, bloggers and personalities. It all just felt perfect, set in a perfect place.

Our buddy Ben, getting a cucumber eye treatment with Otto at Tuck and Jones birthday party

Communal atmosphere, open 24 hours per day

Gazing out across the mature rice plants bending gracefully with their almost-ripe grain heads, my laptop keys untouched for the past several minutes, I am struck with a sense of the energy that is, in fact, a collective generation of an unseen vortex, spiritual crystals, positive karma, centuries-cultivated creativity and an undeniable entrepreneurial spirit. It is a collaborative evolution, started and cultivated by the Balinese, and amplified by a fascinating, eclectic, imaginative, grounded, seeking set of visitors. I am powered up, renewed, refreshed and ready to take on the next chapter thanks to a nice pit stop here in Hubud. To all my digitally-nomadically inclined friends out there, here’s a piece of advice: come to Bali, join Hubud and let the creative process begin!

There is an endless supply of inspiration to work by in Ubud… Here’s another nice place to work quietly by serene rice paddies at Pomegranate Cafe…

Storefront of Banana Republic

Flash forward to the dusk of my 50th year on the planet, and the dream I had as a boy has finally been fulfilled, lion included, beyond any expectations I might have had. While Banana Republic’s cool safari wear no longer exists, I still carry the updated logo on the tag of my more stylishly cut urban t-shirt as I first gazed across the magical land of East Africa. The dazzling beauty of the landscape, the overwhelming scale of the views and the hypnotic allure of the animals all combined to truly create a trip of a lifetime experience.

Sunset over the Serengeti

John Davies of Bainbridge Island, who owns Africa Safari Experts, arranged our safari. About a year ago, we ventured out to his family home on the island to plan our expedition. Gazing out at Puget Sound, John presented us with lots of options, and eventually we settled on the following itinerary:

Day One: Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Highlands

Elephants grazing in Lake Manyara National Park

Day Two: Ngorongoro Crater

The Gang before descending down into the epic Ngorongoro Crater (behind us).

Day Three: Serengeti National Park / Lake Masek

Serengeti Plains stretched endlessly beneath us

PopPop relaxing after our sunrise and afternoon game drives

Day Four: Serengeti National Park / Lake Masek

Flamingos eating breakfast on the shores of Lake Masek as the sun rises

Hanging with the herd in the midst of the Great Migration…

Day Five: Serengeti National Park / Lake Masek

Wescott, Otto and Yve’s tent platform at Lake Masek

Roughing it in our tent…. NOT!

Day Six: Leave Serengeti, Through Ngorongoro Conservation to Arusha

Surreal giraffes grazing as we headed back from our safari

Joined by Lisa’s parents Terry and Tucker, the nine of us climbed aboard 2 intrepid 9 passenger safari vehicles that became our home away from home for the week. Our expedition leaders Bonifice and David, personally requested by John for our safari, became the key ingredient in a flawless itinerary that brought us all of the wonder, education, experience and hospitality Tanzania has to offer.

With our guides Bonifice and David

Unknown to us when we booked our trip, all of lodges, safari vehicles and support team are part of a Tanzanian owned company called Kibo Guides and sister company Tanganyika Wilderness Camps. Owning over 30 lodges and tented camps throughout Tanzania, this company has the end-to-end safari business down. Founder and Director Willy Chambulo, who grew up in Arusha, started his career as a guide and worked his way up to building an empire that has almost complete vertical integration to power a self-sustaining, environmentally sensitive empire. We had the opportunity to meet Willy at Kitela Lodge one evening over wine and got a small taste for how the safari business works, and the challenges he faces running such a far flung enterprise. From the organic farms at several of his camps that provide fresh produce to all of the properties to his coffee plantation at Kitela providing excellent Tanzanian brew each morning, as well as his community building initiatives that include building a state of the art police station and a science lab for a local school, Willy is one of the most forward thinking entrepreneurs I have had the pleasure of meeting.

The organic farm and coffee plantation at Kitera Lodge was garden tour surprise!

Over the family’s next few posts, you can get a sense for our quixotic week in the bush. As I now sit on the verandah of our circa 1938 plantation estate on the slopes of Mount Meru outside of Arusha, I still can’t completely process all of the natural wonder we experienced over the course of our week. Sipping a glass of wine, surrounded by teak, tusks, African masks and the mirage of the Kilimanjaro massif, I can’t help thinking we truly did step into the timeless romanticism of an African safari and the essence of my childhood dreams.

Sunset at Lake Masek

Navigating the Souks

Unlike any city I have been to, Marrakech is loaded with thousands of entrepreneurs, offering a dizzying array of goods that blend into a commercial tapestry of wonder. Every style of salesmanship is on display, sampled each day that we wind our way through the ancient streets, souks and markets. Communication and presentation skills are essential, and the Moroccans can do this in a plethora of languages. French, English, Japanese, Italian, Bereber, Arabic, German… it seems that everyone in this country can converses with almost anyone in the world. And communicate they do!

“Barack Obama! Yes We Can!”

“Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello!”

“Hey China, Japan, Kenichiwa, Nihau!”

“Cookies, hey Bieber! Cookies, hey Bieber!”

“Good price. You want? Good price!”

Entrepreneurship around photography is everywhere… after I took this, he grabbed my camera, stuck a snake in my lens and took a few more; then hit me up for a bunch of dirhams

It can be pretty disorientating, but also part of the down-the-rabbit-hole experience that is Marrakech. Our favorite business strategy we found in the city, which was fairly rare, was to put actual prices on the merchandise, and let the consumer just shop… It’s a radical approach for sure, but one that seemed to yield the best response from us, at least!