| Gaia Oasis Resort When Aziza returns to hold retreats at Gaia Oasis Resort each year it’s like a welcome homecoming. These pages are a love letter about Gaia Oasis- it’s people, healing waters, bungalows, grounds and spirit. Tejakula is the village that hosts Gaia, located on the northeast coast of Bali on the Bali Sea. In the 17th century an astronomical event took place above Tejakula, a light in the sky so bright that legend has that it was seen as far away as China, attracting people from all over to witness. Tejakula means ‘People of the Light’ and it was agreed that those who chose to stay and make the village their home could do so if they gave up their caste. The local villagers of Tejakula are wonderful people, and most of Gaia’s 42 staff members live there. The village boasts indigo weavers, silversmiths, traditional dance mask makers, fishermen, tailors, and many other resourceful members amongst its population.
Gaia Oasis is far from the main road, away from traffic and bustle of the village. Walk down or motorbike on a path about 600m past traditional huts and farm yards, friendly local adults and children busy with their lives, warongs selling snacks and bottled water, a small art studio, till you are welcomed by the green lush gardens of the resort and playful Bali Sea.
Straight away you’ll see the dining hall beside the pool, a large room with impressive roof architecture, filled with comfortable tables and cozy lounges in each corner to meet and linger with new friends. Meals are an abundance of buffet offerings, fresh organic local vegetables, fruit and fish. Specialty coffees, smoothies, health drinks, and ice cream are also available.
Bungalows are set naturally in this setting, most with thatched roofs, local décor and down to earth artistic comfortable furnishings. Each bungalow has a roomy verandah on which to lounge some with a hammock where you can linger away the hours facing the sea. River stones make a meandering pathway that connects the 14 rooms, lit at night by lanterns and starlight. Most bungalows feature charming outdoor garden bathrooms that let you star gaze when you shower. Many verandahs are adorned for protection by a stone carved Ganeshe, the beautiful Hindu God revered throughout the island of Bali.
An assortement of palms, flowering shrubs, highly coloured foliage and bamboo grace each bungalow, creating privacy and places of interest for butterflies, chickens and roosters alike. The surf lulls you to sleep each night, increasing in strength and sound with the moon cycles and rainy season.
Gaia sponsors a resident body worker, Internationally trained gifted people who usually specialize in yoga instruction, offering complementary classes before breakfast and dinner. The octagon shaped group meeting room has a commanding traditional roof and is grounded with a backlit centerpiece decorated each morning with fresh flowers. This detail enhances the meditative welcoming energy in the space.
Staff can teach traditional offering basket making using palm leaves, rice and flowers. You can also go snorkeling in the modest reef a few feet away, and if you're lucky, watch dolphins from a fisherman’s boat at sunrise, or sometimes catch a fleeting glimpse of them playing right from the dinning hall!
Then there's the Spa, situated in a lovely corner of the resort, with beautiful smiling Balinese women lovingly massaging and pampering each inch of a weary body. Treatments include Traditional Balinese massage, Relaxing Massage, pedicure and manicure. You can choose to follow your massage with an exfoliation scrub coating of green tea, avocado and papaya mixtures used for all their inherent healing properties, leaving skin soft, supple and fragrant. Oil massage your hair, enjoy organic facials and deeply soothing foot massage. There's an outdoor waterfall feature and garden pond behind the room where the toilet and showers are, and an array of colourful sarongs and scarves to purchase. Breezing through the private grounds wearing a pretty silk or cotton sarong and nothing else when you're not in your bathing suit is the best way to surrender to the sensuality that Bali inspires. NEXT... Click here to read about Traditional Children's dancing, fabulous staff, fishermen.... ~~~~~~~~~~
Aziza returns to Gaia Oasis next year
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