Desa Seni, a paradise in Bali

Off a busy main road in Canggu, a tiny narrow road leads to Desa Seni - accommodation, yoga school, restaurant and a day spa - set amongst palm trees and rice fields.

Walking into Desa Seni is a gift for the senses, especially on a steamy Balinese day after my early morning flight from Australia.

I’ve come here for a few days of ultimate rest and restoration which for me means a place to rest and sleep, yoga, healthy food and daily massages, facials and self care. A stay at Desa Seni ticks all of these boxes, without needing to leave the compound.

This is my fourth time staying here over the last 15 years. The first time in my 20s, with a friend. I resolved to come back when I had a family.

The second and third times, I visited with my husband and kids, and this time, I’m solo.

As I step up the timber stairs to reception I’m greeted with a cool breeze from the nearby ocean, and the scent of frangipanis and jasmine. A staff member named Pandi greets me with a beautiful smile, his hands in Anjali mudra or prayer position in reverence for my arrival.

The concierge takes my bags, and Pandi shows me around. We gently step on smooth flat stones embedded into manicured grass, then over a wooden bridge.

There is so much beauty, it’s hard to know where to look. The space feels like a village – thatched and straw roofed wooden homes are set within lush surroundings of palms, umbrella trees and frangipani trees. We meet staff members as we walk along the path, on their way somewhere, always greeting us with a beautiful smile. Gardeners wearing simple straw hats and carrying buckets of leaves, sweep doorways and pathways. The gardens are truly immaculate.

The Desa Seni compound is made up of 7 joglos, or traditional teak homes from Java.

I’m staying in the Village Cabin, my own little joglo cottage with a porch and private garden.

On the porch, Pandi shows me how to use the house key, a large wooden key which is inserted into a wooden lock and lifted to open the door.

As I step over the wooden door frame, I notice the intricate carvings of flowers and plants etched into the perimeter of the frame.

There’s a large four poster queen-sized bed with butter soft mosquito nets draped all around, a teak cabinet which houses a television, and an armchair. A door leads to a semi outdoor bathroom, painted bright blue with a large filtered water dispenser.  

A waiter arrives with a pink drink on a tray. “Watermelon and ginger,” he tells me.

The sweetness of the juice delivers an almost immediate boost to my diminishing post flight energy levels.  

I settle into my joglo to rest for the afternoon.

Desa Seni owner Thomas Talucci came to Bali 20 years ago and was so drawn to the people, the culture and way of life, that he made the island his home. He also discovered joglo homes.

“They are the first and original homes Indonesians lived in,” says Thomas. “Their age, history and architectural spirit make them so unique.”

The homes were once only used for palaces, aristocrats and elite Javanese society, and their design imbues them with cultural symbolism and meaning.

Thomas says their distinctive design is unlike any other way of building.

“There are the beams, the tongue and groove carpenter work. There are no nails, each parts interlocks and fits together like a big jigsaw puzzle.”

Thomas sourced the homes by travelling all over the archipelago, chasing stories from village to village trying to find good quality homes to relocate to Bali to create Desa Seni.

“Many were dilapidated and in bad shape,” he says. “They would have originally been made by farmers from the villages.”

Thomas had the homes transported from Java and relocated on the site in 2005, when the now busy and built up part of Bali was mostly rice fields.

“Canggu was a ghost town, just beautiful rice fields and openness,” says Thomas.

Many joglos have distinctive roofs which curve upwards to a point, like a broad-brimmed hat.

They say that the roofs represent a sacred mountain, a reference to Javanese belief that, “to succeed and get to the top, you have to start at the bottom.”

After a glorious sleep cocooned in my little home, I wake up ready for the 9am yoga class. There are two yoga studios on the site, and the classes attract yogis from all around Bali.

There are two other students waiting in the yoga shala when I arrive, and a young Balinese yoga teacher sits at the front of the shala.  As we sit and wait for class to begin, she chats in Indonesian with another class member, then offers us natural mosquito spray for the insects and China gel for our muscles.

The class is strong and has eased my post flight aches and pains.

Its balmy post yoga, so I head back to my cottage to change and have a swim.

The relocated joglos are set around a saltwater pool, the centrepiece of the Desa Seni compound.

As I float I watch squirrels jump from branch to branch in the huge native hibiscus above me.

A pool waiter brings me a towel, glass of filtered water and asks me if I’d like to order food or drinks.

I have another freshly squeezed watermelon and ginger juice – you can never have too much hydration. I’m the only one in the pool and I haven’t seen any other guests yet.

On the other side of the saltwater pool is the restaurant, serving breakfast and lunch with a vegetarian menu made up of produce grown onsite and from local organic farms.

By now I’m starving so get changed in my joglo and walk over to the restaurant, another joglo building with a case of coconuts and a field of zinnias growing head height out the front.

The menu is purely vegetarian and while I’m there my diet consists of fresh fruit, nasi goreng, a chickpea stew with rye bread and eggs and greens.

In the afternoon I’ve booked a massage and organic facial at the onsite day spa.

On each time I’ve visited Desa Seni I’ve had a massage with a softly spoken, gentle Balinese man Nyoman. He is a healer and gives the most amazing and restorative massages.

A Balinese woman named Komang gives me my facial, using products made onsite from plants and flowers.

One day into my solo Desa Seni experience, I already feel renewed.  

Thomas and his team will soon open a new accommodation and community in Tabanan in the mountains of Bali, opening in August 2024.