Discovering the Balinese nature

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"At Jiwa Damai I felt as part of the nature, not apart from nature", says Bernardo, our volunteer.

Bernardo is a yoga teacher but he also had the chance to work closely on our mushroom project, taking care of them and planting them. He also worked with the coconuts and prepared the natural coconut oil. For Bernardo, Jiwa Damai was the place where he had his first woofing experience. 

"Jiwa Damai starts from the idea of a retreat. I felt that I could work on my emotional part, even having people around. It offered me the time to reflect on my own life. I visited Bali, I went to the south, the east, the west, but Jiwa Damai is the only place where I managed to reconnect with the Balinese nature. It is the nature that really creates the uniqueness of this place", says Bernardo. 

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While Bernardo was a volunteer at Jiwa Damai, a yoga teacher training course was also taking place. "As a yoga teacher myself, I can see why doing the course here is more interesting. This place enhances the experience of the training. You get more connected to the environment", says Bernardo.   

Originally from Brazil, Bernardo has traveled before to India and Thailand. His next stop is Malaysia. We wish him all the best and we are very grateful to having him as a volunteer at Jiwa Damai. 

Backpacker accommodation with recycled material

Our new backpacker accommodation, made with recycled bottles is nearly finished. It just looks wonderful from the inside and outside. It is called the Beehive House and has two rooms, two beds each. Simple and clean. We also added a few steps away an additional Balinese and western shower and toilet with a biological septic tank. We use the bottles as well to give a colorful dimension to the shower.

You can see how we gathered and used the recycled material of the new backpacker accommodation at Jiwa Damai on an earlier blog post, here.  

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Yoga Retreat

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We hosted a 24 day yoga training retreat at Jiwa Damai organized by School Yoga Insitute, it was a most interesting and intense experience.

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About 30 young people training day after day, getting up at 6 am to Meditate, then doing their Yoga postures, getting lectures about anatomy and sutras and much more. Our kitchen was working high speed, providing the vegetarian cuisine and many smoothies and of course, fresh coconut juice.

It was a pleasure to see so many young people learning and exploring themselves through this training. They will be back next year and are very much welcome.

Organic cooking at Jiwa Damai

One of the activities we offer to our guests is taking part in a cooking class with our Balinese cook. From our Balinese cook you will learn about local dishes and ingredients, pick vegetables in our garden and learn how to prepare the dish. We mostly use fresh organic veggies from our permaculture garden.

This is the recipe for our chicken dish. You'll need the following ingredients: Chicken, onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, lemon grass, salt, pepper and oil.

These ingredients are all mixed together and ground. The chicken is plugged into very small pieces, only the white meat is used. The tiny chicken pieces are  tossed into the uncooked herbal mixture and well mixed. Its taste  is utterly delicious. The chicken is served with rice and veggies.

Cooking

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Organic food

Fish ponds at Jiwa Damai

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Our ponds at Jiwa Damai are the home of many fish. Among them are some ten year old carps.

They love to eat Jackfruit and Algae. At night they often jump like dolphins out of the water and land back in the water with a great splash. We do not allow fishing. These carps weigh about 3-5 kg each. They have a gold colored fin on the top and a golden mouth.

Fish in pond 3

Butterflies in our garden

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These are just a few of the many beautiful butterflies that live in our gardens at Jiwa Damai.

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Fruit from the organic garden

Cacao fruit

Here at Jiwa Damai we grow various fruit in the extensive permaculture garden.

And this is how the ripe cacao fruit looks inside.

Inside of ripe cacao fruit

We also have several papaya trees.

Homegrown, organic papaya

New coconut house

coconut house with tree

A new addition to our Permaculture Garden and Retreat Centre is a building which is going to be used to produce our own Bali Virgin Coconut Oil and honey, as well as any other products from our permaculture garden we may develop in the future.

Coconut house being built

coconut house inside

Back to the real roots

Singkong roots

Our garden harbours  very powerful roots in the earth. Tapioca the large root you see is used in many Indonesian and Balinese dishes. It can be made into dumplings and chips. The leaves are used as spinach on Bali .

Singkong_Keladi_plants

The Taro, the small red roots can be used like potatoes. They are quite starchy.

Both, Tapioca and Taro, carry many nutrients and are delicious to eat.

chopping the roots

Coconut escape - 3 days at Jiwa Damai

Coconut Escape3 days at Jiwa Damai

A health program based on the multiple physical benefits of virgin coconut oil. At Jiwa Damai we produce our own Bali Virgin Coconut Oil from the finest organic coconuts, grown in rich lava soil.

Package includes:

• 3 nights accommodation

• Daily Balinese breakfast

• Two lunches and three dinners, prepared with virgin coconut oil

• One table spoon of coconut oil with each meal

• Fresh young coconut water, fruit juices, water and teas

• 1 Balinese massage with our Bali Virgin Coconut Oil (1x 50 min.) & a flower bath

• 1 head and hair package with virigin coconut oil

• 1 meridian health diagnosis by our acupuncturist

• 1 session ‘Unfolding the Heart Qualities’ with our transpersonal psychologist

• Daily morning yoga session including heart meditation (45 min.)

• Guided tour through our organic garden (1 h)

• 1 hour Internet usage per day

• Bicycle usage (unlimited)

• Airport transfers

Price: Price for one person:  IDR 5 640.000 / US$ 660 Price for two persons: IDR 9 030.000 / US$ 1.050 incl. a 5% service fee

Main pic Jiwa Damai