I am not normally one for spirituality and my previous attempt at yoga rendered me a sorry heap on the living room floor. So I am perhaps an odd choice for a luxury wellness retreat to Bali. All I really knew about the island was that David Bowie – more in touch with his chakras and their relative misalignments than I – requested to be buried there. But having spent a week in Bali, I now understand where he was coming from.
My stay began at the St. Regis resort in Nusa Dua on the south side of the island. We arrived in the lobby to the sound of the rindik – a traditional bamboo xylophone – and were flanked on either side by rows of hotel staff, as if, I suggested at the time, we had just broken the record for the number of goals scored in a Premier League season. This reference was lost on most of my wellness companions who preferred the parallels to the greeting scene in HBO’s White Lotus. Even the rindik’s delicate tune was reminiscent of the show’s opening theme, or so they told me.
A flower motif is repeated throughout the hotel; etched into light fixtures, emblazoned on mirrors and carved into tiles. I later learned that this is a charming reference to Canang Sari – a floral Hindu offering to the gods in thanks for the balance in the world. Often these flowers appear outside shops, temples and homes, and foreshadow the evening’s offering.
The hotel is vast and impressive. It follows the idea of Nyegara Gunung which literally means from ‘ridge to reef’ or the sacred journey from mountain to sea. The grand reception area rises from the forest and flows into a village-like network of luxury villas set above a white sand beach.
The villas – of which there are standard and premium options – are stunning and replete with more areas for sitting than you could realistically ever use. The best I found was the cushioned and gazeboed area next to the private pool.
It all felt a little bit flash for the sacred philosophy of Nyegara Gunung, but that didn’t really matter. Perhaps this is just a higher class of spirituality: morning yoga sessions on the beach, traditional Balinese massage at the Iridium spa and sharing plates at the Dulang restaurant. Here we enjoyed a ‘royal plate’, a spinning wheel of seven different mains including lobster with sambal and bonito fish baked in banana leaf.
When we visited in May, the hotel was approaching the high season but still at a healthy 60 per cent capacity. The last time they were full was during the G20 summit, hosted around the corner from the hotel last November. The marketing manager remained coy when I asked which head of state booked out the entire resort, which naturally set me off speculating. I’m sure Macron would have enjoyed floating around the 3,668 sqm saltwater lagoon or that Meloni would have demonstrated greater balance at stand-up paddle board yoga than I did. Perhaps sleepy Joe unwound from difficult negotiations by napping on the private beach.
After two glorious nights at St. Regis, we travelled to Mandapa which is a different beast altogether, one of five only Ritz-Carlton Reserves (I think a ‘Reserve’ just means fancy). The hotel contains 35 suites and 25 villas with a private pool set within a natural depression in the jungle. The compound is bordered by the Ayung River and at its centre is an old temple. There is also small rice paddy.
Relaxing the mind, body and soul in the middle of a jungle was surprisingly easy for even the most inflexible guest. It was helped by regular visits to the wellness area and my daily rotation between the hotel’s four restaurants. The best was Kubu, set in a bamboo palace on the riverbank. Here my enthusiasm for chef Bayu Retno Timur’s sambal was keenly noted by my patith (a 24-hour butler) and I returned home one night to find a bag full of the glorious spicy stuff on my pillow.
The hotel will make an itinerary for guests so that they can make the most of their stay: from spa treatments to white water rafting. Scheduled for us was a sunrise climb of nearby Mount Batur. Enshrined in Balinese culture as the ‘mother’, its volcanic tantrums provide fertile ground for rice crops. It is also where over half of Bali’s water originates, which travels through a network of bamboo pipes down to the island’s rice terraces. The hike is well worth the early start even when the weather is cloudy, which it was when we made the summit. In the brief moments when the wind whipped the clouds away, a glimpse of the view produced cheers from those intrepid enough to wake up at 2 a.m.
Any remaining apprehension towards spirituality promised to be remedied by the final activity: sound healing. At the start of the week, even the mention of holy vibrations would have caused my eyes to somersault, but I was reliably informed that my overthinking was a product of a blocked crown chakra. Who knew?
Despite wanting to remain immune to the ritual, in truth I found the whole thing calming. Who’d have thought a man banging discordant noise out of a series of bowls could leave one so serene? I felt a warm hum for the rest of the trip, which was only undone by the 15-hour return flight.
The St. Regis Bali Resort– prices start from £396 per room, per night
Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve – prices start from £810 per room, per night
Comments