BEAUTIFUL BALI
Beautiful Bali - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Beautiful Bali | |||||
| By: Carol West, Issue 38 – Autumn 2009 | |||||
| (COMO Shambhala Estate at Begawan Giri – Bali) | |||||
| THE BEAUTY OF BALI’S EVOCATIVE LANDSCAPE IS HIGHLIGHTED AT COMO SHAMBHALA ESTATE. | |||||
| Bali is beautiful when it rains. Electric green rice paddies gleam and palm fronds hang sullenly. Rain dances on pools and cascades down waterfalls. Mist swirls through verdant canyons, moss mosaics stone walls and the sky is bruised with the promise of more to come. At least, that is my partial world-view lying prone on the massage table in a spa pavilion deep in a gorge where Bali’s longest river, the Ayung, meanders. It’s taken 300 steps to reach Nirvana but nothing’s gained without some effort. The traditional Indonesian Taksu massage has been applied with a degree of tough love kneading deep into a tissue of tight shoulders and a tension-filled neck. Purifying oil has silently a dismantled stress, the masseuse refusing to stop until the last vestige has been eliminated. Obviously this is massage on a knead-to-know basis! A couple, occupying one of the three treatment rooms in the water garden is making a day of it. Armed with a picnic lunch, any stress remaining after their prescribed morning treatments evaporate while swimming in the jungle pool fed by The Source, a natural spring revered for its healing properties. Bali has built an enviable reputation over the past decade as an exotic spa destination, something that didn’t deter Singapore’s Ong family from buying Begawan Giri three years ago. Adding one of the island’s best resorts to their fledgling COMO portfolio of hotel and resort properties, Christina Ong went about creating Bali’s finest wellness retreat. Mrs Ong knows a thing or two about wellness. Through her company, Club 21, she’s been making Singaporean ladies feel extremely well dressed by importing Europe and America’s top fashion labels. The resort near Ubud is the flagship for COMO Shambhala, the award-winning holistic health company owned by Mrs Ong, which operates four world-class retreats at Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos, Uma Paro in Bhutan, Uma Ubud in Bali and Cocoa Island in the Maldives. “It’s all about empowering our guests to take a holistic approach to improving their own wellness,” said COMO Shambhala Estate’s group operations director Monica Barter. Overseeing 31 rooms, villas and retreats maintained by a staff of 300, many guests return time and time again to regain control of lives, which have come seriously adrift. “Consultations with our nutritionist, holistic health specialist and psychologist assist in identifying key issues that guests want to address, and health and activities programs are tailored to help them achieve their goals,” said Barter. My stay is relatively short but I’m keen to participate in yoga, pilates, early morning hikes, outdoor circuit training and mountain biking, and Yanti is assigned to ensure I keep on the program. Belinda is here from London for a 10 day detox and Gabriella is just winding-up a three week stay. We compare stress levels in the treetops Pilate’s studio after Norma takes us A through an hour’s mat work. They like the notion that they are encouraged out of their comfort zones towards developing new strengths and greater balance and don’t mind paying a premium for it. “Working in a highly stressful environment, it’s great to have others make decisions for me on holiday and having the time to confront issues that I’ve pushed aside,” said Gabriella. Whilst the setting is luxurious, this isn’t pampering, but a 360-degree, sometimes confronting, lifestyle audit and overhaul. Specialist staff combined with a nurturing environment encourages guests to face personal issues and future challenges by following customised programs designed to mend mind, body and spirit. Fortunately, nutrition is central to the healing process and executive chef Chris Miller takes a balanced approach, creating raw and cooked menus as well as personalised eating plans. “The cuisine is organic, locally sourced, served fresh from field to table with minimum delay. Meat, fish and vegetables allow guests to eat healthily whatever their preferences. Menus feature little salt, unprocessed honey replaces sugar while raw fruit and vegetables rich in living enzymes are vital components to our extensive juice and vegetable extract selections for detoxing guests,” says Chris Miller who cut his culinary teeth at Sydney’s Rockpool. Glow, the resort’s all-day dining restaurant is a contemporary, Ikebuchi-designed space with an open kitchen. The raw menu focuses on delicately balanced flavours and a lasagna of zucchini, basil, semi-dried tomato and pine nut cheese is the epitome of clean spa cuisine. This marriage of Ayurvedic heritage and haute couture creates an estate of residential-sized villas and suites furnished with museum-quality Indonesian artifacts and contemporary luxury. Creamy marble, polished teak woods, a spacious dressing room with an off-white leather banquette, sunken tub and outdoor shower set in a lush garden create a calming oasis. Vanilla muslin drapes flutter in a light breeze and our private infinity pool slips seamlessly into the rainforest backdrop. From its natural environment to man-made buildings, this is a place of space and water, balance and reflection. | |||||
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COMO Shambhala Estate at Begawan Giri | |||||
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