02 May 2024

Bali

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Other Asia Reviews

Feast for all the senses

Take a generous helping of yoga, mix with serenity and add a dash of spirituality. For celebrity chef Tom Aikens the result was a joy. And even the food in his Indonesian retreat was faultless.

1 A spectacular dinner 2 The Conrad, Bali 3 Traditional paddy fields

BALI HAS ALWAYS BROUGHT to mind visions of a Bounty bar advert of heavenly beaches, coconut palms and mesmerising blue seas.

It is a small island of Hinduism in what is the world’s largest Muslim country, and the roadsides, paddy fields and villages are laden with small, beautifully decorative Hindu shrines.

While the coast offers some luxury seaside resorts and five-star Asian fusion restaurants, it is in the interior that you experience much of the charm of Bali.

Here, the Zen-like calm, coupled with the intense scenic beauty of volcanoes, temples and paddy fields, make it a vivid experience.

My initial reason for visiting was not to lap up the cultural side, but a more selfish need to chill out and detox.

As a busy chef in the midst of writing a new book, I needed a break, and my wife, Amber, and I wanted to find some inner peace and a much-needed distraction from stress.

While the island is well known for great spas offering life-changing deep tissue massages, we chose as our sanctuary Christina Ong’s destination spa retreat, the COMO Shambhala Estate at Begawan Giri – sister hotel to Parrot Cay on the Turks and Caicos islands and the Metropolitan on London’s Park Lane.

A Haze of Relaxation

Situated in the middle of the jungle in a magical setting above a huge gorge over the Ayung River, the spa has played host to many a detoxing celebrity, from Sting to Annie Lennox, and even has Donna Karan on the board of directors.

Home to one of the largest destination spas in Asia, the hotel has a series of programmes for guests including detoxification, fitness and stress-management – just the medicine we needed.

The Estate, as it’s known, covers an area of more than 23 acres populated by villa-style residences. Our villa came with its own secret garden, private pool and butler.

It stood on stilts and commanded breathtaking views over a canopy of trees below.

We passed the next few days in a haze of relaxation and treatments – woken at 6.30am with ginger and lime-honey tea, before a private, hour-long yoga class.

The rest of the day was a continual routine of treatments, massage and exercise organised by our butler – from an endless menu – while occasionally wandering out into Begawan Giri village to meander through the streets, always full of playing children, and then on into the paddy fields beyond.

Food, for me obviously, is an important part of my psyche and I was intensely surprised by the choice and high standard of the healthy cooking as offered by the chef Chris Miller.

We had fruit juices and smoothies for breakfast and the closest thing resembling an English breakfast was poached eggs with green vegetables and baked tomatoes.

In the evenings we stuck to our healthy ethos and indulged in a detoxing vegetable juice accompanied by simple, organic, seasonal food.

As a chef, I know it is very difficult to be creative with vegetables but young coconut and avocado soup served chilled and chargrilled Estate vegetables with torn basil served with marinated olive tapenade on grilled Siebenfelder loaf, were just some of the delights that we sampled.

An Unexpected Sophistication

Every course was sublime and it always tasted fresh and light. It was some of the finest cuisine I have ever eaten in a hotel.

Inevitably, we felt a lure towards the coast and travelled from the tranquillity of the interior of Bali to the wealthy enclave of Jimbaran Bay, where there’s a world-class Four Seasons Hotel.

It seemed to have every kind of Western indulgence but in an ultramodern setting.

We stayed in a villa which had a fish pond on the roof and its own pool and butler.

The service could not be faulted. Somehow they managed to consider everything.

We enjoyed couples’ treatments; cooking classes (there’s always so much to learn); yoga, bike riding, painting classes; and there was a well-stocked gym for when a little more serious physical effort was required.

The Four Seasons was an alternative experience to the COMO Shambhala Estate – more of a classic beach holiday – with less temptation to venture out of the hotel. It was the perfect ending to the trip.

I was surprised by Bali. Yes, I anticipated sun, some fine massages and a chance to unwind, but I found in addition an unexpected sophistication.

My aim was to have a full detox and a rejuvenation of mind and body. And now, whenever life in the kitchen begins to boil over, I will think of the infectious serenity of Bali and its people.

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