bali
Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay
Jimbaran has beaches, shopping and a wonderful local market, which you’ll be taken round by Chef Ariana if you sign
up for a cooking course at the Four Seasons. Wandering between stalls of chilies, vegetables and fruit, flowers and temple
offerings, it’s a great way to learn about the island’s way of life. Back at the hotel the class starts, following which
you’ll be amazed to find that you’re sitting down to a three-course meal, either Balinese, Asian or Spa Cuisine, that
you’ve cooked yourself.
Each villa in this resort is entered by opening an antique Balinese double door, leading to the outside living area
and plunge pool, which look down over the beach and up the west coast of the island. Inside, the cool tropical interior
has a traditional roof soaring above the bed, sun streamed bathroom and alfresco shower.
When lying by the resort’s pool gets too hot, the resort’s spa is the place to kick back with a healthy drink, and
succumb to a Lithos Therapy massage with deliciously hot and shiveringly-cold marble, great for deep muscle work. Interestingly,
also on the menu are alternative therapies like Reiki, Watsu (water shiatsu) and craniosacral therapy.
www.fourseasons.com/jimbaranbay
Kirana Spa
The proud recipient of AsiaSpa's Day Spa of the Year at the Baccarat AsiaSpa Awards 2006, Kirana Spa (kir means ‘light’ and
‘aura’ in Sanskrit and ‘beauty’ in Indonesian) brings a resort feel to a day spa. Set on 18,000 sqm of multiple levels
of Ubud looking out over the Ayung river, the spa garden is made up of two pools, a Jacuzzi and sauna, for all guests
to enjoy.Created by two of the biggest names in spa design – Khun Lek Bunnag and Bill Bensley – the spa’s stunning private
villas are surrounded by greenery (courtesy of Mother Nature). While the Presidential Villa is a smorgasbord of treatment
room, plunge pool, hot and cold Jacuzzi, day bed and garden – and that’s just on the upper floor – even the Suite and
Treatment villas offer new levels of day spa comfort. Treatments come courtesy of Shiseido, who focus on the healing
power that human hands can deliver, performed beautifully in time with your breathing, via their range of body or facial
therapies. Three to five and a half hours of packages include treatments, time to relax in the villa facilities, and
light meals.
www.kiranaspa.com
Don't rain on my parade
Your wedding has been perfectly prepared, your New Year’s Eve party is going to be the biggest ever, your business function
has brought in colleagues from every part of the world. Everything is going to plan apart from the weather forecast. Bali
is beautiful in the rain, but the rain is not always appreciated. And unbelievable though it sounds, it is in fact possible
to defer the rain in Bali – and not by any chemical means.
In each area or banjar of Bali is a priest looking after the community. Every day the Balinese people get up early in
the morning to make offerings, and if the priest is in their particular area they will also get a blessing. This gives
them a sense of comfort and balance. Not just for the locals, if you are building a hotel, running a business, opening
a restaurant, you don’t start operating until you have had the project properly blessed, otherwise, although it may sound
strange, dire consequences have been known to happen.
Of course when there is an important function no one wants rain. And to make sure the skies stay dry, it is possible
to seek the advice of the local priest. If he agrees, he uses positive energy, not to actually stop the rain, but to move
it to another area at the time in question. It’s hard work – the priest might be seen to be praying, sweating, shaking
– but of course each request is accompanied with a donation to that banjar.
Just one more way in which Bali is such a unique place on earth.