The awesome Shanti Toya Ashram . . .

It was only 20 minutes drive from Ubud to Shanti Toya Ashram, but life seems so different here. From the busy streets and pedestrian clogged pavements of Ubud to an outlook over rice paddies, native bush and not much else. Aaaaaah . . . .

Actually, this was our second choice of yoga retreat in Bali. Back in New Zealand we originally had our eyes on another place at the top of Bali island. It looked amazing to our eager Western eyes – beautiful looking accommodation, delightful restaurant overlooking the sea and lots of great sounding yoga. Thing is though it was expensive – $3,500 for the week for the two of us.

And then came time for payment. Like so many places in Bali, they wouldn’t take credit card which meant I instead had to a transfer direct to their Indonesian bank account. Well long story short, the payment failed to go through. I had had a nagging doubt in the first place about this particular retreat in Bali’s north and so after some discussion Jolanda and I decided not to go ahead but instead to come to Shanti Toya on the outskirts of Ubud, at a price around 25% of that which thankfully failed to go through the Indonesian banking system.

Which just goes to show how sometimes the world just wants to tell you something. In the middle of nature, Shanti Toya is glorious. It’s most certainly not pretentious – more old-world charm (perhaps a bit crumbly and decayed in some parts) and ultimately authentic. From the top of the property there is an administration block with a restaurant sitting on the top with views of the surrounding rice paddies – serving non stop vegetarian food which just tastes divine. The villas then descend down the path to the river, each one different and slightly quirky, with the yoga shala sitting atop the bottom-most villa, open to the surrounding bush and with the sound of the river running past. At the very end of the property is a grand old swimming pool, resplendent with a few cracks and fed by a natural spring.

All in all, it just goes to show that, in Bali anyway, authenticness is very rarely determined by price alone.

The programme here involves yoga twice a day – 90 minutes starting at 7am and then another 90 minutes at 5pm (the later session being a lot more chilled and relaxing than the morning). In between there are activities set out during the day such as participating in an offering ceremony, cooking class or dancing. I didn’t quite get the courage up enough to participate in the dancing but gave everything else a go, including a slightly strange ceremony where you basically chant to the accompaniment of a hand organ and drum. Oh, and there are also massages and healing sessions available if you somehow get bored . . .

So much about travelling is the people you meet, and I think that yoga really does attract the most interesting, varied and laid back people. In no particular order there is Oena from Romania and living in London, Madhu from India living in Singapore, Amy from Pennsylvania living in China, Valeria from Italy living in Holland, two Lauras from London, Mika and her daughter Clara from Surrey, Marieke from Holland, Jessie from the Philippines and Krishna from India. Krishna and I are the only blokes by the way. Such a nice group of people to connect with, share life stories that mean something – and of course laugh a lot about shit.

So how do I feel now? Well to be honest the yoga has challenged me. I’m not used to three hours of this stuff a day and so I do feel a little sore in my muscles. But I also feel stronger, straighter and calmer. I like my daily 20-30 minutes of YouTube yoga at home, but sometimes you just need to get out of your comfort zone.

Tomorrow Jolanda and I head off again for Canggu on Bali’s south coast for four nights before departing for Spain . .