When in Java, I researched for a silent retreat in Bali, I thought it would be a great life experience to not use my voice for few days. When I realized I would not be able to listen to any music, read any book and that I will basically starve for one week if I clicked on the button “reserve”, I quickly change my mind and naturally search for something less hardcore. I will have a life experience in a yoga retreat.

  
  

I found a really nice and cheap deal of three nights accommodation and three lessons of yoga at the Serendipity Guesthouse in Canggu. It looked like a nice place and everybody told me that I could also learn how to surf there. It was on my bucket list, anyway…

Serendipity Guesthouse is a little oasis with an ecological, bio, vegan, spiritual, hippy, hipster attitude that I simply loved straight away (yes, I just said that I loved the hipster attitude, pardon me!) It was also nice to feel not too much judged as I like yoga and stuff but I am not really the stereotype of a real yogi. I enjoy having a beer at night, laughing out loud over the phone with my friends and having huge pizza with prosciutto for dessert. I mean, the vegan zucchini chocolate brownie was awesome but I won’t say no to a fatty oily Nutella doughnut.

No show off fake yogi style here. The “What? But you know that killing animals to eat them is not the proper thing to do” is not a thing here. You are encouraged of course to have a proper reflexion on your actions and decisions but they mostly let you do what you want. In Indonesia and specially in Bali, because of the religion, people are vegetarian for a big majority. The only meat I could find really easily was chicken. About chicken, I was amazed to see some Balinese sitting at the front of their door, holding a chicken in their arm and petting it with a lot of affection. It was nice to see that even the chicken will be killed in the afternoon to be eaten later that night, he would have had a peace and loved life. The connexion with Mother Nature and the respect Balinese people were showing about Life was truly amazing and a lot of warm vibes are coming from every corners of the island.

I don’t know really if some places like Canggu developed recycle plans and are staying clean because the type of tourist are into these kind of ideas or if Bali was already like that for a long time but you can’t deny that this entire idea of “let’s try not to destroy too much Earth, please be kind with yourself and the others” is well appreciated. It changes completely the perception you have on some problems and helps you to see Life in a more global way.

About the yoga lessons that I had the chance to participate in. Simply amazing. I have done a bit of yoga in London, by myself, watching Adriene’s videos on YouTube (check her out, that’s the best to try) but I feel that I really started in South East Asia Each teacher had their own way of explaining and directing the lessons but I really felt in my body and in my mind a great improvement. I also had the chance to try new moves and style of yoga in few days. Being able to put my feet behind my head while doing a head stand at the same time was the highlight of these few days… Ok… That’s not true… I haven’t been able to do one head stand and my feet like to stay in front of me, but I felt my chest opening, my breath beginning to be deeper and my muscles starting to stretch a little bit more each day.

Sidah was simply my favorite teacher. A super flexible little Balinese man who showed the perfect movement and then was walking between the students in order to help them to fold yourself in half. It was funny and relaxing, tiring but full of compassion and love. That’s pure yogi style isn’t it?