Nyepi in Bali

We arrived in Bali and one of the most amazing resorts we have ever stayed at – Desa Seni (click on picture above for a bigger version of the panorama of the village). Our friends Eoin and Insiya have picked this resort for a Yoga Ecology Surf (YES) retreat they organize at various places around the world and we were fortunately able to time our trip to meet up with them (check out http://www.eoinfinnyoga.com/). The resort is built like a traditional Indonesian village with historical huts sourced from Bali and the surrounding islands and brought back here to Cungga Beach where each hut was reconstructed with all the modern amenities but while preserving the authentic look and feel. The owners have a very fine eye for art and design with the décor featuring incredible carvings, artifacts and pictures throughout each custom hut. The setting is then all tied together situated in the midst of acres of rice paddies about 800 meters from the beach. They have laid out the village with private access and walkways to each hut, a big central pool, eating room, yoga studio plus the landscaping throughout is amazing – not only the decorative plants but the gardens that all our fresh vegetables and fruit comes from for all our meals.

Today we find ourselves spending the entire day at the resort as we are forbidden to leave the grounds so that we can honour their local tradition of Nyepi – where nothing goes on, kind of like a super-Sabbath (the airport is even shut down and if you are caught out on the street the police will escort you home). Last night was a major festival that marks the end of their Hindu year and the end of the rainy season and they celebrate last night in a festival that is like a cross between Halloween and New Years Eve. Throughout the island each neighbourhood and village builds huge monsters out of paper maiche and parades them around the villages to scare the evil spirits away along with cymbals, gongs, drums, torches and Ogoh Ogoh (the demon who helps chase spirits). Then today is when everyone stays at home very quietly so that the evil spirits believe the island is uninhabited and pass over looking for a different place to dwell. At dark, no lights outside are allowed and we have to stay inside until 6am the next morning. It was a very interesting experience taking in the day and melding our vacation with their local culture.

SURF REPORT: I arrived to a solid swell and joined two surf buddies who are here in Bali for the retreat – Eoin who is leading the retreat and his friend Chuck, a designer from lululemon, both are here ahead of the retreat that starts Saturday to get some extra surf time in. On the first afternoon they took me out to Echo beach which is right behind Desa Seni and we had some large and lumpy surf with 6-8 ft faces breaking about 250m offshore which also connected to the inside section on a few waves – fun but not the real indo surf experience. The next day we hired a driver and headed to Nusa Dua, which has an offshore reef that catches all open swell – but it was huge (triple overhead) and no one out so we followed a tip of a Keith's (friend from Jeffreys Bay) and headed to Sanur. It is the harbour where the boats that go to Nusa Lambook (a smaller island about 60 minutes by boat away – and good surf we are going to get to later this week!). Sanur has a great reef break 800m offshore and further down the island so the swell is tapered from the huge size at Nusa Dua and it turned out to be the real indo deal. We spent the last two days there with fun fast waves and bigger sets with 8ft+ faces. Lots of paddling as the current was strong and the long of the paddle haul in and out added to the burn on the shoulders – so the rest day today feels pretty good! The reef on low tide is totally exposed and the reef walk is a must to get in-out plus you have to make sure you are not greedy on the inside section of the fast waves! Waves are forecast solid 6ft all week long – so perfect fun size for us to explore and surf – stay tuned for more!