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The top of the top roundup of yoga retreats


A Sivananda yoga students sits by the nearby lake. By Sonja Bjelland

A Sivananda yoga students sits by the nearby lake. By Sonja Bjelland

I keep seeing different publications listing their “Top 10 yoga retreats.”

In the industry we call this a roundup, it’s what readers seem to like best. So today I’m rounding up the roundups in a collective of the top five lists. A few of these have overlap of the most popular places, but each has it’s own flair. One gives more luxurious places. One highlights a little more adventure with the yoga. It all depends on who their audience is.

Combined this gives a pretty good look at the world’s top yoga destinations, from the U.S. to India. The finds here vary in price point and type of yoga but if you’re making a bucket list of yoga retreats, this is a good starting place. I’ve been to a few of these places and would love to go to many more.

If you’ve been to some of them be sure to let me know if you thought it belonged on the list. And let me know what’s missing. What yoga retreat did you love?

 

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Yoga retreat spending expected to be the same


Ton Sai Bay Koh Phi Phi Thailand By Sonja Bjelland

Ton Sai Bay Koh Phi Phi Thailand By Sonja Bjelland

There’s some good, but not great news out recently for the yoga retreat and travel industry.

The American Express Spending and Saving Tracker Survey taken in January showed about 37 percent of consumers planned to spend more or the same as last year on yoga retreats, fitness cruises and other fitness vacations. The same report stated that 6 percent are planning a spa vacation and 17 percent are up for an outdoor adventure trip.

The CNN article I found on the survey goes on to give a few yoga retreat and wellness vacation spots from Massachusetts to Mexico. But here at BlissPassport it’s monthly roundup time. OK it’s a little late.

The UK’s Daily Mail had a feature on a yoga course in Morocco in the bucolic Berber country. Morocco is still on my list of must-see countries and I’m loving all the yoga places I’ve heard about there. It just makes a comfortable break in a sightseeing trip.

“As we return from the morning’s yoga, the farm’s brunch is laid out like a buffet for the Buddha,” the writer detailed.” ”Carafes of beetroot, apple and ginger juice sit beside thick, nut-studded Bircher muesli, newly-leavened bread and homegrown

Some of Bali's most famous surfing in Ulu Watu By Sonja Bjelland

Some of Bali's most famous surfing in Ulu Watu By Sonja Bjelland

fig jams rub shoulders with coriander couscous and fava dips, earthenware bowls of giant roasted vegetables and softly cooked lentils find space next to bulging wheat berries drizzled with homemade Argan oil. We look on in stunned, appreciative silence,” the article stated.

I’d also note that the teacher they had at the time had students hold poses for 12 minutes at a time and told students to “acknowledge the pain but don’t attach yourself to it.” A stretch can feel intense yes, but you should never feel pain in a yoga class. This is a perfect example of why it’s important to find out what type of teacher will be leading the yoga retreat.

Then a lucky writer got to go to Surf Haven Bali, at their treat. Yes, I’m a little jealous. I loved Bali and could really use a few days when my biggest decisions are where to sit on the beach or what juice combo I should order.

“Sitting on yoga mats on the lawn in the fading evening sun, we set our intentions for the week, Bali-style. Deeply spiritual, the Balinese are famed for their fresh flower offerings, which they place at the family shrine up to five times a day,” the author describes. Sure sounds like Bali to me.

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Yoga festivals have begun announcing lineups, new locations


Fall colors in Colorado By Sonja Bjelland

Fall colors in Colorado By Sonja Bjelland

This week the folks over at the Wanderlust Festival announced their adding a third location – Colorado!

The music and yoga festival is bringing on an in between venue to it’s original site in Lake Tahoe, Calif., and last year’s addition of Stratton, Vt.

Of course, now that I live in Colorado this makes me pretty excited and apparently this is the place to be considering there are two other yoga festivals and a Yoga Journal conference.

Joshua Tree National Park, yoga adventures

Joshua Tree at sunset By Sonja Bjelland

The annual Wanderlust Festivals blend the most popular yoga teachers with leaders in the green community and top musicians. It’s hard to get more hippy but it also sounds like fun.

A few of the big names in the lineup announced Tuesday for the inaugural Colorado outpost include Ziggy Marley, Anusara yoga founder John Friend and Deepak Chopra.

Hopefully, I will have money before all the tickets sell out. Advanced tickets go on sale Jan. 24.

If you can’t come join me at Wanderlust Colorado July 5-8, here’s some of the other major yoga festivals going on this year:

BaliSpirit Festival March 28-April 1: The fifth annual event that led the world yoga festival scene is doing it up big this year and many favorite teachers will be returning. This festival gets more of an international flare because musicians and yoga teachers don’t have to hassle with American immigration. No seriously, that’s what they told me when I interviewed them last year.

Shakti Fest Joshua Tree, Calif., May 11-13: A pairing with the fall Bhakti Fest, the first incarnation of the spring version has gotten some big names including Shiva Rea and Saul David Raye.

  • Hanuman Festival, Boulder, Colo., June 8-10: Yet to announce it’s 2012 lineup, last year’s event featured the festival regulars Seane Corn and MC Yogi.
  • Wanderlust Vermont June 21-24: The lineup at this one includes musician Ani DeFranco and yogi Rodney Yee as well as Twee Merrigan, whose class I enjoyed at last year’s BaliSpirit Festival.
  • Los Pinguos performing at the BaliSpirit Festival By Sonja Bjelland

    Los Pinguos performing at the BaliSpirit Festival By Sonja Bjelland

    Telluride Yoga Festival July 12-15: A smaller scene from Wanderlust, this year’s festival will include a brother and sister coming from India to teach Sanskrit, yoga philosophy and chanting.

  • Wanderlust California July 26-29: Similar to the Colorado lineup with a few changes, it’s the original.
  • Evolve Music and Yoga Festival, Vernon, N.J., Aug. 31-Sept. 3: This will be the 5th annual for an event that last year boasted 50 bands and 30 yoga workshops.
  • Bhakti Fest, Joshua Tree, Calif., Sept. 6-9: Still a ways out for a lineup, this is the biggest such festival in Southern California. The festival’s base is in kirtan and chanting but organizers have added more asana (pose) classes as it has grown.

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Yoga travel roundup: What’s new now


Most recent snow fall   By Sonja Bjelland

Most recent snow fall By Sonja Bjelland

I’ve already felt some winter chill so it’s no wonder I was drawn to a few tropical locations for this month’s roundup. I really can’t believe there’s already another month gone. How did that happen? Obviously, I’ve been a bit busy traveling this month and trying to set up my new place. But I know that after Halloween it’s a crazy shot straight through New Years and all of a sudden it’s 2012. Just thought I’d remind you in case you weren’t already freaking out about all that.

Instead give your mind, and body, a break. It’s no secret that I loved Bali and now Surf Haven Bali is giving visitors a $300 discount if they come by the end of the year.

I’d take them up on it because from what I hear that’s the best way to learn and yoga and surfing fit well together. I tried when I lived in California and took a serious beating. Maybe I’ll have to try again next time I’m in Bali.

Or if you’re still thinking tropical, Black Tomato Costa Rica has a new adventure and yoga vacation in the works.

Some of Bali's most famous surfing in Ulu Watu By Sonja Bjelland

Some of Bali's most famous surfing in Ulu Watu By Sonja Bjelland

The trip promises endangered wildlife, eco-lodging and yoga. Another one to add to my list.

Now thinking more toward next summer, Canada’s Globe and Mail had an article on Montreal that included a note about the Shea Mayer’s Fitz & Follwell Co. bike and yoga tour through the city.

“His Bike & Yoga tour, for example, takes visitors through the bohemian neighbourhood of Le Plateau, with a break along the way for smoothies at his favourite juice bar and stops for yoga sessions in three of the area’s tranquil parks,” the article stated.

Kanyakumari, India By Sonja Bjelland

Kanyakumari, India By Sonja Bjelland

Sounds like a pretty good way to spend the day and yet another note in my ever-growing list.

In more practical yoga travel information, Anusara yoga founder and yoga stuperstar John Friend has teamed up with Manduka for a product line that includes a travel mat.

I haven’t seen the new mat yet to compare it to my prAna yoga travel mat but I’ll have to check it out because Friend travels all over the world for yoga. It’s a toss up for me between taking a yoga travel mat and just taking the ToeSox and gloves. Or going au naturel. But I kinda like having a mat between me and a hotel room floor.

But what if that hotel room was on a women’s only floor?

The New York Times InTransit blog had a piece this month on more Indian hotels offering floors for women only. So if you’re planning on an Indian yoga holiday, this might help ease you into the chaos.

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Lessons learned on the road

Singapore skyline By Sonja Bjelland

Singapore skyline By Sonja Bjelland

“What do you want to get out of this trip?” the Swami asked me within my first two weeks in India.

“Discovery,” I replied.

That was all. I wasn’t looking for some life-altering experience. I wanted to see more of the world, gain some perspective, learn a few things. I wound up gaining confidence, trusting my instincts and learning a bit about myself. Here’s a bit more about what I learned – about me and the world.

1. Relax into the stretch

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do another lengthy trip out of the Western world but I figured I could always go home if I hated it. Why would I hate it? My last lengthy stint out of the country had me living in Lima, Peru for almost a year. And that was 10 years ago. That experience challenged me in ways I hadn’t realized because I was focused on getting through it. Once on the ground in India, it occurred to me that I had been 22 living in a country watching the government collapse. Now I can say, wow, I really did that. But what shifted? Previously, my mind constantly filled with notions of “if only they could be cleaner,” “if only they understood the economic importance of being on time.” I no longer look at everything in sight and wish I could make it the way I want. I don’t seek the Disney version. I can accept India being dirty, loud and chaotic and that I have to relax into that to see India, and others, as itself.

2. Trust your instincts

In Vietnam, I needed to change hotel rooms. The front desk clerk took me to a second building owned by the same hotel. It was practically empty, like an apartment building with hotel rooms. If I’d been with someone else I might have considered it. But on my own I knew I had to say “no.” That was a tough thing for me to learn to do. When I knew I needed to say “no” and to actually do it. My instincts always proved correct. I walked down the street and into a hotel advertising 30 percent off for its grand opening. It was clean, quite and even had cable and hot water. Downright dreamy.

Yoga in Singapore  By Sonja Bjelland

Yoga in Singapore By Sonja Bjelland

3. More of the world has hot showers

In the backpacker level places, I really didn’t assume I’d get hot water. But the electric hot water heater has changed everything. I could build a statue to its inventor. Even the $3 a night place I stayed in Chiang Sean, Thailand, had some hot water. India though is still well behind in this trend. Not like I often needed a hot shower in Asia but it was nice when I did. And it made this trip much easier.

4. I can live on less than I ever thought possible

Maybe a little contradictory to No. 3, but traveling around with a 22” pack gave me a real sense of what I need. Granted I stuffed 40 pounds of something in that pack by the time I was done. Since I’ve been home, I’ve found I have enough socks to fill half that pack. I’m setting aside many of my clothes for after the re-acclimation period and see what I still want. Otherwise, I could toss most of them now.

5. A renewed sense of what’s important to me

I’ve never been one to crave a fancy new car or bigger house. But I did live a life on the corporate ladder of journalism – always trying to get to the bigger paper. Now I’m a more focused work wise on doing what plays to my strengths and keeps me sane and personally on spending time with friends.

6. I don’t miss TV

Is it really all that different that I spend hours in front of my laptop instead? No. But I’m not as into certain shows. Like most magazines, certain shows don’t apply to me right now. I’m not fixing up a house or even an apartment. I’m not trying to buy this season’s clothes. I like being able to veg out to a movie on a screen larger than my laptop. But TV doesn’t hold the power it once did. And even that was tertiary.

7. Most of the world is very nice, even to Americans

I’ve been asked multiple times since returning to the States how I was received as an American. All I can say is in my experience I never had a problem. The usual response to me telling someone I was Americas came in three syllables “O-ba-ma.” Sometimes followed by “Yes we can.” From figuring out train stations in India to navigating a small town in Thailand I was greeted with smiles.

8. To use the same open mind with which I face people of another culture and language for every encounter.

Singapore at dusk By Sonja Bjelland

Singapore at dusk By Sonja Bjelland

If 90 percent of what we believe comes from our own perception, then the world really is in our head. We expect someone who speaks another language or looks different from us to have a different perspective. But reality is, we all have an equally different perceptive – 90 percent.

9. To watch how things work out sometimes

A bus forgot to pick me and a friend up in Bali. We headed to the main drag thinking we’d at least be able to get a taxi to the boat dock we needed to reach. A few minutes later the bus pulled over by us and asked if we were supposed to be on it. Off we went and everything went fine. Traveling I saw the immediate results of things going wrong and being resolved. Allowing for opportunities thinking on my feet made that possible.

10. I want to go back on the road

Yes, even to India. I enjoy the challenge and taking in that deep stretch. But I also love places that are a little smoother around the edges. Places that understand what a traveler is looking for and know how to provide it. Like hotel pickup being the norm in Phuket, Thailand, and easy bicycle rental in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Travel also agrees with me. My now almost weekly headaches had gone away to the point that I brought Advil back with me. Backaches left too. I’m trying to bring back some of the road to my life with more walking and yoga to see if I can recreate that sense and get these pains to go away.

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Questions to consider when picking a yoga vacation

Islands off the coast of Thailand  By Sonja Bjelland

Islands off the coast of Thailand By Sonja Bjelland

Maybe you don’t want to follow my footsteps hiking on jungle islands and navigating Indian trains but many more yoga travel options exist. Having a vacation feel more like you’ve walked out of a yoga class and less like you’re walking out of a night club  seems to be catching on. With so many options, I’ve offered up a few thoughts to keep in mind when considering a yoga holiday.

1. How intense do you like your yoga?

Do you want a constant challenge pushing you into new poses and ferocious sweating or are you looking for something more restorative? Make sure you don’t end up with a power yoga instructor when you’re craving something more yin. You’ll end up miserable. If you’re not sure, ask detailed questions in advance.

2. Are you OK with chanting and philosophy?

It should be expected at an ashram but may also be part of the curriculum at other yoga locations. Read the online descriptions carefully and if you’re not cool with chanting about Krishna you’ll likely not be happy being expected to do so. Some are more secular and teach more general philosophy but ashrams should be expected to lean toward Hinduism unless stated otherwise.

Sunrise on Bali By Sonja Bjelland

Sunrise on Bali By Sonja Bjelland

3. How rustic or lux do you want to go?

Sometimes what you need is being taken away from computers, cell phones and your hyper-charged life. But other times you need a comfortable place to be safe and feel good. Ashrams and similar yoga centers can be as basic as camping. Yoga spas trend toward the opposite end. Plenty of locations land in between. Anywhere from dorm accommodations with thin mattresses to private bungalows with scenic views.

4. Solo, friends, group tour?

Yoga vacations are ideal for solo travelers because you can meet so many new people on the yoga retreat or vacation destination. But it’s also a fun time for friends, sisters or mother and daughter combos. Many times they have enough chances for self reflection but also group interaction. If you’re searching for your soul, however, make sure the place will meet your needs. Some travelers are seeking more quiet personal space than some noisy Indian ashrams or Thailand yoga/party resorts offer.

5. Which continent?

Antarctica is the only one not currently available that I’ve found for yoga travel. The rest of the world is up for grabs – pretty much. Do you want something with the comforts of home or do you want to explore another culture to help you explore yourself?

Is their a country you’ve wanted to see and maybe add a yoga holiday to that. Just today I spotted articles online about a yoga cruise on a tall ship from Greece to Turkey and a foodie yoga tour of India with a woman who owns Indian food restaurants in the U.S.

6. Yoga retreat, yoga vacation, yoga spa or yoga adventure?

Some towns like Chiang Mai, Thailand and Ubud, Bali, have so much yoga you don’t even need to go with a group to make your

Yoga vacation in Cambodia? Of course, mix with the Angkor Temples

Yoga vacation in Cambodia? Of course, mix with the Angkor Temples

own yoga time. Others such as India are more challenging for travel but have live-in yoga options. Retreats keep you in a group of like-minded yogis, which is a great way to travel and make new friends. Then there’s straight up adventures. Yoga and horseback riding, heli-yoga in Canada, and yoga and whitewater rafting or hiking.

7. What are you looking for?

Is this meant to be a spiritual awakening or a weekend tune-up? Are you looking to stay somewhere for weeks or days? Is this about physical or mental fitness, or both?

Admitting to yourself that you really just want to sit quietly in the woods for a few days and do some relaxing poses is fine. Don’t require that you undertake some detox regimen with 4 hours of yoga a day just because some friend recommended it. Know what you want and do that.

 

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Yoga away from Bali

The clop, clop of horse hooves. The hum of a generator. The waves slapping the beach.

Unloading supplies on Gili Trawangan By Sonja Bjelland

Unloading supplies on Gili Trawangan By Sonja Bjelland

The sounds of Gili Trawangan.

No cars – not even a motorbike. A welcome site and sound as long as I’ve traveled in Asia.

Electricity may be in flux but the vibe contagious.

A couple hours by boat from the Bali island city of Padang Bai, Gili T, as it’s commonly known, is one of three of the Gili Islands. Trips run daily from the main tourism hubs of Ubud and Kuta.

Gili Yoga shala   By Sonja Bjelland

Gili Yoga shala By Sonja Bjelland

Close to the more populous island of Lombok, the Gilis are still being developed. Fresh water showers have recently arrived along with air conditioning and wifi.

Horse-drawn carts pull bamboo beams and concrete blocks made by hand in backyards to a host of new, more luxurious accommodation options being built in some locations on the island. A sure sign more people will be coming to snorkel with sea turtles and take in the party nights.

It’s easy to loose a sense of time and place. I had to put on my watch to make sure I made it to my yoga class after playing Frisbee on the beach.

Yep, some days are rough for me.

Just after the spot where the boats drop off passengers – as in take off your flipflops, you’re walking through water to disembark – I spotted a giant sign for yoga.

Restaurant on Gili T  By Sonja Bjelland

Restaurant on Gili T By Sonja Bjelland

Canadian ex-pat Kate Middleton runs the island’s one yoga studio and freedive center, Gili Yoga.

After living on the island for three years, she opened her yoga shala in September.

Thatched roof, wooden floor and surrounded by gardens just off the beach. Breathing in the sea air makes it easier to form that oceanic sounds of Ujjayi breathing. (A way to breath in yoga.) She even has a bowl of water to wash the sand off your feet before entering.

During the high season in July and August she teaches two classes a day, morning and evening. And in low season she limits it to one a day at 5:30 p.m.

Beach at Gili T  By Sonja Bjelland

Beach at Gili T By Sonja Bjelland

It’s nice that it’s finally cooling off a little by that time of day but means foregoing the outstanding sunsets. When the power is on ceiling fans help keep mosquitoes and sweat at bay.

Most of the daily drop-in classes are a Vinyasa flow style of yoga for levels 1 and 2. When she has two classes, she said she focuses the morning class more on meditation and pranayama breathing techniques and pairs that with a stamina-focused, more invigorating class in the evening.

The classes run daily, except when she travels for freediving competitions. She’s managed to mix her two loves into a yoga and freediving immersion program including unlimited-depth dives along with daily meditation and breathing exercises.

“Underwater yoga,” she said.

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A little SoulShine time

I had to help my motorbike driver find the signs the place is so new.

Rice paddies outside Ubud, Bali, By Sonja Bjelland

Rice paddies outside Ubud, Bali, By Sonja Bjelland

We headed down a dirt path and over a river where men bathe naked. At the end, it opened to a new three-story complex known as SoulShine.

An extension of musician Michael Franti’s Bali home, the retreat center just opened in January. After the BaliSpirit Festival, a few participants stayed around for more yoga and training to be certified yoga life coaches with one of the BaliSpirit teachers Deborah Williamson of Midwest Power Yoga.

For a week they lived and ate at the new complex overlooking terraced rice paddies outside Ubud, Bali.

Pool side at SoulShine By Sonja Bjelland

Pool side at SoulShine By Sonja Bjelland

“You do have the retreat feel if you’re trying to escape the chaos,” Williamson said.

Morning yoga classes started at 7 a.m. with a full day of activities. And this is no restorative class. A few poses in and it was right to standing splits.

It’s not exactly summer-camp retreat living. It’s complete with a pool, lounge chairs, massage tables and cooks preparing three meals a day.

It impressed Williamson enough to already book again for next year.

She does about eight yoga trips annually both within the United States and internationally always looking for a unique location that can hold 20 to 30 people on a property where everything works and the kitchen can handle the cooking. A

SoulShine Yoga shala   By Sonja Bjelland

SoulShine Yoga shala By Sonja Bjelland

tall order most of the time.

Having a clean bed and good food are crucial, she said, because people are working hard and going through a lot during the training.

But she likes taking yoga on the road. She’s done one retreat in Africa and would like to go back but maybe trying South Africa. And Peru is still on her list.

 

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Yoga in Ubud – The outskirts

Like everything else in Ubud, Bali, there’s the obvious and easy choices where fleeting tourists flock. Then there are the hidden elements frequented by longer-term folks.

Yoga is no exception.

Most everyone heads to The Yoga Barn. It makes sense – huge class schedule and if you’re OK with walking a bit and manage to find the Siam Sally’s restaurant sign it’s easy to find.

But some people crave smaller class sizes and more local prices. The website www.BaliSpirit.com – from the same roots as the festival lists some options but finding others takes perusing posters at local hangouts such as Kafé or just asking anyone you see with a yoga mat strapped to their back.

Many of these finds rest in the outskirts of town and may require renting a motorbike or making sure you have one to take you. For some reason, there are never men on the street asking “transport” when I need them for a yoga class at 7:30 a.m. And no, despite all these months in Asia I haven’t taken up driving a motorbike. The broken arms and bandaged legs I see around me only solidify the stats on traffic accidents being the number one cause of death for American tourists at home or abroad.

Heading in a one direction from town can send you to Intuitive Flow or Balinese Yoga studios.

Another ways sent me to the small village of Nyuh Kuning.

Not like I noticed I changed towns.

It’s on the other side of the Sacred Monkey Forest. The cremation site, temple and lush jungle serves as a location marker for everyone.

This trek required staying to the left as I went from Ubud city to Nyuh Kuning. From Kafe as a base point, the walk took about 20 minutes.

Once out of the forest (don’t be carrying bananas for your breakfast, there will be monkeys) turn left again and the village opens to ayurveda, Indian medicine, shops and a few yoga options. The popular Ashtanga Yoga Bali pops up first and farther up the road is the Satyagraha Ashram, part of the Breath of Hope Foundation. Tucked down dirt paths, both yoga centers offer a focus on the yoga system out of Mysore, India.

More outdoor beautiful and buggy yoga shalas but this time with smaller classes and thereby more personal attention. Another 90 minutes of sweating Bali style in heat that allows poses to come more easily. I’m just hoping my body can still do some of these things when I get home.

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Yoga in Ubud, Bali

Almost every day I can pick a different yoga class.

Cremation ceremony on the streets of Ubud, Bali By Sonja Bjelland

Cremation ceremony on the streets of Ubud, Bali By Sonja Bjelland

Do I want to take a class in the quiet jungle room in Taksu or overlooking the rice paddies at The Yoga Barn?

Tough decisions I know.

Ubud, Bali, feels more than a little like Berkley. Stores up and down the street sell soaps and incense. Cafés have boards covered with advertisements for palm reading, massage and yoga classes. I can even eat a leafy, green salad.

Then a cremation ceremony starts in the street and I’m reminded I’m in Bali.

This is my first time to Ubud so I can’t compare it to its pre-EPL (Eat, Pray, Love) days.

The walk to the yoga at Taksu   By Sonja Bjelland

The walk to the yoga at Taksu By Sonja Bjelland

In town you’ll find T-shirts saying “Eat, Pray, Leave” and metal sculptures of the original sentiment. What I do know, is I really can’t find a little dirt path to ride a bike on. Yes, once you get out of town it’s green rice fields. But the streets in town are not some place I’d be on a bicycle. Like the rest of Asia they’re small and jammed with motorbikes.

But the town is pretty small so it’s easy to navigate on foot and someone is always saying “transport, taksi” on the chance you want one.

The Hanoman Street region serves as the hub for the yoga community. From Clear Café at the north end to Yoga Barn on the south it’s the place to find out what’s going on yoga wise. The American run businesses show the diversity in Ubud’s yoga scene. Clear Café looks straight out of Beverly Hills with a big heart. The Yoga Barn and the restaurant Kafe are more chill, hippy venues where I have a great conversation with someone new at every meal. Sometimes an American but often not. Sometimes I even get to speak a little Spanish.

Yoga classes go for near Western prices here but at least the massages are cheap. Yoga teachers come from around the globe come to Ubud willingly so the studios have a litany of quality instructors. Some teachers also hold teacher trainings and workshops for teachers on specific aspects of yoga.

Classes vary month to month so it’s important to get the latest schedule or you might end up in “Hatha Flow in Japanese” instead of a restorative class. And as you might note from these photos, the

View near The Yoga Barn in Ubud, Bali By Sonja Bjelland

View near The Yoga Barn in Ubud, Bali By Sonja Bjelland

classes are al fresco. Most have mosquito repellent on hand or you can bring some. Ubud’s (pronounced oo-b00-d) is in the mountains so it’s a smidge cooler than other parts of Bali. That means only sweating profusely through part of the class. Maybe. But at least you can sweat in comfy Western yoga clothes.

Each studio seems more beautiful than the last. None of this closed room with mirrors stuff. Terraced, vibrant green rice fields or jungle plants dripping down a wall. I know you’re supposed to close your eyes and go inside but sometimes it’s just to pretty to keep looking.

 

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