FOOD FOR THOUGHT... AND FOR YOUR RETREAT

For those not running retreats in which special diets are part of the program, the importance of the food being served on the retreat is often overlooked. In my opinion, it is one of the main factors that can make or break a retreat. Regardless of the scenic vistas of sweeping rice paddies or open ocean, how comfortable the accommodation or how intriguing your workshops, if the food isn't good THAT is what people will remember.

So what makes for a great retreat menu? There are several components that will impact the success or failure of your retreat meals, the biggest being YOU. As the retreat leader, one of your biggest jobs is managing expectations of your retreat participants. The best way to do that when it comes to food is for you to make the decision about what kind of meals they will be eating. And for the love of God NEVER ask your participants about their dietary requirements or food preferences. Once you've done that you've opened a can of worms you will never be able to contain. As soon as you ask someone and they tell you they have a special request, they will then expect you to deliver on it. That would be all fine and well if you're expecting to pay extra for that, that is if it's even possible. If you get a beautiful retreat venue up in a remote area where the staff are all from the surrounding village, no one even knows what gluten is, for example. 

The only food related question you should be asking your participants is if they have any serious medical allergies. You are going to have to define 'medical allergies' for them. You will need to ask your participants about them BEFORE the retreat starts. Venues will cater to those with legitimate allergies, but not for the current trendy 'intolerances' (lactose notwithstanding). There's a big difference between not being able to eat something and making a lifestyle choice to not eat something.

There is no way that any venue will be able to make a retreat menu for everyone that is vegan, gluten-free, no soy, dairy-free, sugar-free, no garlic and onions, oh and someone doesn't like tofu.... and have it taste good or be nutritionally balanced. Very few venues will want or be able to make separate meals for each participant with their specific preferences, but any that do will charge you a lot more than their regular meal rate, and rightfully so.

If you choose the type of food, whether it be vegan, vegetarian or non-vegetarian and it's plainly stated and your participant makes the choice to sign up knowing this, then as long as the food is good, they will be happy with whatever they get 100% of the time. If you ask them what they want (or don't want) to eat, even if you manage to get the venue to make a meal that meets all the requests (which is highly doubtful), no one is going to like the food being served. And if you are not able to cater to the requests you asked them to tell you about, then they will feel slighted. "Why did they even ask - I TOLD them I don't eat salad greens!" You've created yourself a situation that you can never win, no matter what you do.

Speaking of salad greens, you hear all the time about never eating raw vegetables in foreign countries, not having ice in your drinks, etc. That is not a problem here if you are eating at a retreat venue. Regardless of whether their food is good or not, you don't need to worry about you or your participants getting sick from the food. If you have someone who is accustomed to eating meat and fast food all the time and comes on your vegetarian retreat, the drastic change in diet may 'clean out the pipes' a bit, but that is more to do with a sudden change in eating habits, and nothing to do with the quality or cleanliness of the food.

Okay so now that you have decided what type of food you want for your retreat is that it? Not by a long shot. It's come to the point where we have facilitated enough retreats to have seen the gamut of what kind of food retreat centres in Bali are offering to their groups. I have to say though, the quality of food that is now being served on retreats overall is so much better than it was just a few years ago. But that having been said, there is still a wide range in selection and quality. We have discontinued venue partnerships with certain places because of the complaints about the food.

Okay, so you've chosen the vegetarian menu. Great! Which one of these would you rather eat?

You'll want to make sure that your definition of 'vegetarian' and their definition of vegetarian is the same thing. The places that take pride in their food and use it as one of their selling points, will often have photos on their website. But don't let the website photos be the deciding factor. You will want to get a retreat menu from the venue to see what they are actually going to be serving on the retreat. One of the venues we no longer work with because of the food has this photo on their website:

Looks nice and healthy albeit a bit basic, but not bad! In reality, the food they served on the retreat was not only bad, but not nutritionally balanced. Just an example of what they served for lunch one day: white rice, baguette slices, a salad that was just lettuce, tomato & cucumber and a vegetable soup. I'd gone down to the kitchen and asked the 'chef' if he could point out the protein in that meal. He told me there were beans in the soup. It wasn't bean soup... there were about 3 in the pot. I had to ask 3 times for eggs for breakfast because all they were serving was fruit and toast. This was a venue that employed a foreigner from the US and had made a big deal about him when we'd gone to do the site inspection, so it's not like it was maybe a local who doesn't know how to cook for westerners. In fact, from our experience, the places with just the locals working in the kitchen make the best food.

Okay so you have a venue, have seen their menu and it looks great! Is that it? Portion sizes are of the utmost importance. Especially for those groups who are doing the teacher trainings and literally doing yoga for 8 hours a day, they get hungry! The venue needs to be making enough food. Your meal plan should not be leaving participants hungry and having to order in between meal snacks because they will pass out before the next meal time.

When it comes time to organize a retreat, your biggest investment is your venue. You want to make sure that the venue you choose will not only host your retreat, but enhance the experience and be there to help you support your workshop goals. The choice of retreat menu is not usually just a random choice, it probably is an important component of the overall retreat. It's important to be able to get a venue that will work with you to fine tune things if it's not exactly what you wanted. There are venues who will simply say: 'This is what we're serving - take it or leave it!' There are also those who go out of their way to accommodate.

As retreat facilitator, one of my biggest jobs is managing group leader expectations. When you are making your food requests, there are a few things you need to bear in mind. This is Bali. There are certain seasons for certain fruits and vegetables. There are foods that don't grow here. There are foods that you just can't get here. Part of my job is working like a liason between the venue and the group leaders to iron out all the details - food being one of them. It's all fine and well to say I want beetroot in the salad when it's in season at about Rp.6,000/kilo, but when it's not in season it can go up to Rp.60,000/kilo because if they can get it, it had to be imported from somewhere. Also probably best to keep it local and seasonal to minimize the carbon footprint.

Are your vegetarians being treated equally?

I had a group leader that we'd just started working with say: "make whatever you want but please - No tempeh!" I asked her why and it was because she'd led a retreat (not at one of our venues) before where half of the participants were vegetarian and the other half weren't. They served everyone the same thing, but for the vegetarians, they swapped out the meat with tempeh in every dish. Grilled fish and vegetables - tempeh and vegetables. Chicken wraps - tempeh wraps. stir fry with tempeh, curry with tempeh... tempeh tempeh tempeh. By the end of the retreat, all of the vegetarians has a deep seeded loathing for tempeh. 

At least this venue they were at was actually substituting the meat with something. I have heard of some places simply omitting the meat and calling it vegetarian.

If you are choosing a vegetarian or vegan menu or even a combination of veg and non-vegetarian, you will want to make sure that not only does it have a bit of imagination, but that it is nutritionally balanced. But even nutritionally balanced vegetarian food doesn't necessarily taste good. For me, the measure of a great vegetarian meal is one I eat and love and not miss the meat... and this is coming from a girl who likes her deep-fried crispy pork skin.

We have a few venues that have allowed us to come into their kitchens, make the retreat menus for them and train their staff to make it. Those venues that are willing to do that are the ones that are the most intent on accommodating their groups.

So on that note, don't overlook the importance of food on your retreat and make sure you know what they will be serving before you get there. It would be a shame after all the work and planning you put into running a retreat to have your participants say: "It would have been perfect if the food was better."

If you have any questions and are thinking about planning a retreat in Bali, come and connect with us and we will work together to create the ultimate retreat experience: info@balibiuretreatcompany.com

Want to learn a ittle bit more about us and what we do? Visit our website: www.balibiuretreatcompany.com 

10 RANDOM INTERESTING THINGS YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT BALI

Why plan a retreat in Bali? Bali is a place unlike anywhere else. Bali is magical and blends spectacular mountain scenery and beautiful beaches with warm and friendly people, and a vibrant culture with Balinese Hinduism at its heart, the devotion to which and the way it's practiced has remained largely unchanged for hundreds of years.

Lying just 8 degrees south of the Equator, Bali boasts a tropical climate with just two seasons a year and an average temperature of around 28 degrees Celsius. Apart from the better known tourist attractions, like the famous temples and beaches, Bali also has some spectacular hidden gems not written about in any guide book if you know where to look.

Still not convinced? I decided to put together my list of top 10 random Interesting things you probably didn't know about Bali. Though it was hard to narrow it down to just 10 items, these are just some of the things that make Bali unique...

1 - Balinese Names

In Bali, names are determined by caste and order of birth. Though there are some exceptions, in the Sudra caste, which makes up 90-95% of the population of Bali, the first born child is named Wayan or Putu, the second child is named Made or Kadek, the third child is named Nyoman or Komang or sometimes Nenga and the fourth child is named Ketut. The cycle then starts over, with the fifth child being named Wayan or Putu. These names apply to both boys and girls.

Because there are so many people with the same names, many Balinese choose to be addressed by their given middle or last names or a combination of their first and last names. For example, my husband Kadek Sastrawan (no middle name), often introduces himself to people as ‘Dek Sas’ to differentiate himself from all the other Kadeks out there.

Last names are peculiar in that they have nothing to do with a family name. Kadek and his brother Komang don’t share the same last name, neither of which are the same as either of their parents. Though I chose to take Kadek’s last name when we got married, taking your husband’s last name is not the norm. Especially since he neglected to mention that ‘Sastrawan’ means man of Literature and if I’d have been born a Balinese female, I’d have never been given that name. For a female it would be Sastrawati, unbeknownst to me at the time I thought ‘Danielle Sastrawan’ had a nice ring to it. Although when we were married I was actually ‘reborn’ and given a Balinese name which is completely different, I decided to stick with Danielle for business purposes, but am called Made to everyone else here. You may want to check out my other blog posting regarding the Balinese naming system and my ill chosen decision to go with Danielle Sastrawan:
http://baliprincess.blogspot.com/2013/06/dear-mr-danielle_3792.html

2 - Balinese language

The Balinese language is not a dialect of the Indonesian language. It is a completely different language in its own right. It has its own script, which somewhat resembles a mix of Thai, Arab and MS Word wingdings, but much more fluid.

The Balinese script was derived from the Old Kawi alphabet, which ultimately derived from the Brahmi alphabet, the root of all the Indic and Southeast Asian abugidas.

The Balinese script is an abugida - a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit. Balinese is spoken by roughly three million people on the island of Bali. The script is mostly used in temples and for religious writings. All local government office signs in Bali also have Balinese script written underneath the Indonesian language. 

In 1928, Indonesian was declared the national language to unify the 17,000 + islands that make up the archipelago of Indonesia. It is the language used for business and school is taught in the Indonesian language across the country. But outside the office or school, you will be hard pressed to find anyone actually speaking Indonesian. And although Balinese is spoken much more than Indonesian and although Balinese is learned in school, few people use or are able to write the Balinese script, and with each new generation, it is at risk of being a lost written language.

3 - The Most Expensive Coffee in the World

Prices for this coffee can reach as high as $50-$90 dollars a cup in the US. It sells for up to $400 for 100 grams and is the most expensive coffee in the world. It is also noted as being the most unique coffee process that produces the best tasting coffee in the world.

Ripe coffee berries are eaten by the Asian palm civet. The beans are not digested and passed out ‘the other end’ in their droppings. Farmers collect the droppings and separate the coffee beans from ‘the rest’ and they are then washed, dried, pounded (to remove the outer skin), sorted and finally roasted.

The secret to Kopi Luwak’s claim to the best tasting coffee is due to the process the beans undergo during digestion. The gastric juices of the civet seep into the beans creating an abundance of amino acids which reduces the acidity level, producing a coffee bean that makes a smooth, mellow, aromatic coffee that has significantly less caffeine than your average roast.

Your first question might be – now why in the world would anyone even get the idea to harvest coffee beans from an animal’s droppings?

While the Dutch inhabited Sumatra and Java, the colonists used native Indonesian farmers to work the coffee plantations and pick coffee fruits for production. However, the Dutch colonists prohibited the Indonesian farmers to pick and harvest the coffee fruits for their own personal consumption. As a result, the Indonesian farmers soon discovered that the Asian Palm Civet ate the Arabica coffee fruits and left the coffee beans undigested in their waste. So the native farmers started collecting the coffee beans from the droppings, cleaning, roasting them, and brewing their own coffee. As more and more Indonesian farmers began to brew Kopi Luwak, the aroma soon caught the attention of the Dutch colonists and plantation owners. Kopi Luwak then quickly became the favorite coffee drink of choice for both natives and the Dutch colonists. However, since the process of Kopi Luwak was very time consuming and scarce, Kopi Luwak became very pricey, thus making it the most expensive coffee in the world in it’s time... and it still is today.

Though not exclusive to Bali and can be found on a some other Indonesian islands, it is one of the few places where you can get authentic Kopi Luwak.

Though sold for astronomical prices abroad, Kopi Luwak can be bought from the source, right here in Bali for a fraction of the price. Looking for that perfect souvenir for that foodie friend who has everything? This is it. For more information about Kopi Luwak, come and connect with us at info@balibiuretreatcompany.com. Incidentally, a trip to a local coffee plantation is a popular retreat inclusion.

4 - The Balinese Calendar

The Balinese observe two completely different and not synchronized calendars:

• the Balinese pawukon calendar, a numeric calendar of 210 days per year
  
• the Balinese saka calendar, a lunisolar calendar starting every Nyepi, or Balinese New Year which occurs sometime in March

The Balinese Pawukon is a complex calendar, indigenous to Bali, based on a period of 210 days. Simply put, calculated in two ways: there are seven days per week x 30 weeks in a term = 210 days; or, there are 35 days per month x six months in a term = 210 days. Two terms make up a year of 420 days. Many ceremonies and holidays (including Galungan - Bali's equivalent to Christmas or Ramadan in terms of importance) takes place twice a year.

Not so simply put, the calendar consists of 10 different concurrent weeks of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 days. Because 210 is not divisible by 4, 8, or 9 - extra days must be added to the 4, 8, and 9 day weeks. The complexity of this calendar leaves most people’s heads reeling, but if you want to get a much more succinct explanation, you can check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawukon_calendar.

Unlike the 210-day pawukon calendar, the saka calendar it is based on the phases of the moon, and is approximately the same length as the Gregorian year. Based on a lunar calendar, the saka year comprises of twelve months of 30 days each. Because the lunar cycle is slightly shorter than 30 days, and the lunar year has a length of 354 or 355 days, the calendar is adjusted to prevent it losing synchronization with the lunar or solar cycles. The months are adjusted by allocating two lunar days to one solar day every 9 weeks. Every 30 months, an extra month is added to keep the calendar in sync with the solar year. 

Each month begins the day after a new moon and has 15 days of waxing moon until the full moon (Purnama), then 15 days of waning, ending on the new moon (Tilem). The first day of the year, or Nyepi, coincides with the day after the first new moon in March.

5 - Nyepi - The Silent Day
Nyepi marks the Balinese New Year. During Nyepi, the island of Bali shuts down. No phone, no internet, no power and you are sequestered to your abode. No one's allowed out on the streets or the beaches. The harbour and airport are closed. Tourists have to stay in their hotels. Even police are not allowed out. Only Nyepi security, or Pecalang, are out patrolling the streets. As Nyepi security, their job is to make sure everyone is adhering to the Nyepi rules. Any houses with lights on may find a stone crashing through their window.

Nyepi is a day of self-reflection and meditation, and thus anything that might interfere with that purpose is restricted. 

Nyepi is preceded by the Ogoh-Ogoh parade. The parade is to appease the evil spirits so they don't bother them during Nyepi as one is more susceptible to evil doings by the spirits while meditating. The parades end with the burning of the Ogoh-Ogohs to symbolically cast out evil.

As this holiday is based on the the Balinese Saka calendar, it falls on a different day every year, coinciding with the day after the first new moon. Nyepi 2015 will be on March 21st. If you are planning a retreat during this time, you are going to want to know how your venue plans to observe this holiday and what provisions they will be making. Some of the larger hotels apply for special permits from their local village office to use electricity, but many of the smaller venues do not. Nyepi is a great opportunity incorporate a silent meditation day as part of the retreat and it makes it that much more profound when the whole island is doing it too! But if your participants are going to have a problem with no a/c, a skeleton staff, early dinner (before dark) and probably no hot water and a scoop and bucket to take showers if the water requires a pump, then you are going to want to choose your venue accordingly.

 6 - Black Sand Beaches

For most, Bali conjures up images of pristine, sandy white beaches. Surprisingly, Bali is also home to incredibly stunning black volcanic sand beaches on the North East Coast, due to the active volcanoes that call Bali home. 

Some of Bali's best snorkelling and diving sites are in areas with black sand beaches. All of the marine life really stands out against the dark background in all of its fluorescent and multi-coloured splendor and makes for an incredible underwater experience. 

7 - Volcanoes
Bali is home to two active volcanoes. Mt Batur, is a 13x10 km caldera with its own crater lake. The lake is located at the foot of a newly forming 700-metre volcanic peak. The photo on the bottom right was taken from the rim of the caldera, looking in at the stratovolcano at the centre of the caldera which last erupted in 2000.

Mt. Agung is Bali's most sacred volcano and stands 3,031m. The Balinese believe that Mount Agung is a replica of Mount Meru - a sacred mountain with five peaks in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. Besakih Temple, Bali's most spiritually significant temple, also referred to as the mother temple, is located high on its slopes. Mt. Agung last erupted in 1963. One of Bali's most famous dive spots on the North East coast is the USS Liberty wreck in Tulamben which, contrary to popular belief, wasn't a sunken ship. It was a US navy cargo ship that was torpedoed by the Japanese in 1942, but not sunk. Crippled, it ended up beached on the shores of Bali. It wasn't until the eruption of Mt. Agung in 1963 and subsequent lava flow that pushed it into the ocean, did it become an underwater shipwreck.

8 - Rice

The fertile rice terraces are one of the iconic images that comes to mind when most think about Bali. To the Balinese, rice is not only basic sustenance for the body, but also the soul, incorporating male and female creative forces, as earth and water both unite to give rice. They also revere Dewi Sri, the Rice Goddess to which offerings are routinely made. 

So much so does rice have a socio-religious significance that there are certain rules of conduct that must be observed. No loud noises are to be made in the rice-fields for fear that the rice may ‘miscarry’ and fail to yield. For the same reason, there is no talk of death or demons in the rice field. The first paddy to be planted is that closest to Mt. Agung. The Balinese also perform a series of rituals that accompany each stage of rice farming whereby each stage is followed by an act of purification of the sawah, or paddies by sprinkling holy water on the field which has been taken from the central lakes and blessed by the priests of the mountain temple.

Rice is also used during temple ceremonies and for blessings, at the end of which rice, slightly dampened with holy water, is placed on the thoat chakra and on the forehead to represent the third eye. 

It's not just the cultural significance of rice that makes it so important. In Bali, rice is eaten with every meal. No exceptions.

9 - Tooth Filing
The tooth filing ceremony is of great importance in the Balinese culture and is a significant right of passage from puberty to adulthood. As any Balinese ceremony tends to be a big affair, to help keep costs down, a tooth filing ceremony is often done with a group of relatives. Or, as it was in mine, my husband's and one of our cousin's case, packaged with a marriage ceremony. If you haven't had your teeth filed by the time you are married, it is done during the marriage ceremony.

The tooth filing represents the minimizing of animalistic tendencies and the control of the six human evils: desire (kama), greed (lobha), anger (krodha), intoxication or being under the influence of strong emotion (mada), confusion (moha), and jealousy (matsarya). 

When Kadek and I got married, I wasn't too excited at the prospect of having my teeth filed. I tried to argue that my animalistic tendencies were a part of my charm, but to no avail. I was relieved however to find out that unless you really want your teeth filed, it is done more as a symbolic gesture than an actual filing. That having been said, I made it very clear that my cultural sensitivity ends when it becomes detrimental to my health. There was no way I was going to have enamel scraped off my teeth. I have been meaning to write a blog about that whole experience for a while now as it was definitely an interesting experience, especially since my parents were also in attendance and although she had held up pretty well up to that point, also marked my mom's cultural meltdown on her first trip to Bali. That photos is of me right after the tooth filing. The next step required me being carried (part of the ceremony, not because I couldn't walk on my own) from the filing 'platform' by my mother-in-law and several aunts, all of whom I was sure would suffer from some sort of spinal injury after that ordeal, to a waiting chair outside for the next ritual.

10 - Most Dangerous Tourist Activity in Bali 
There's nothing like the feel of the open road and the wind in your hair to convey that sense of freedom and holiday escape, but if you are planning on renting a motorbike while you are in Bali, there's something you should know. 

According to the OSAC 2015 Indonesia Crime and Safety Report: "Accidents on rented motorcycles continue to constitute the majority of expatriate deaths in Indonesia - especially on the resort island of Bali."

I tend to try to discourage visitors to the island from renting a motorbike. When people are on holiday, they sometimes lose inhibitions that have them doing things they wouldn't normally do. It goes without saying that if you have never driven a motorbike, Bali is not the place to learn. But I am often met with resistance from those who are experienced motorbike riders. And because the average size of a motorbike engine in Bali is 150cc, people like to call them scooters, as if they are more like a hobby toy than a means of an early entrance to the organ donation list. 60km/h is the same whether you are on a 150cc or a 1500cc motorbike. It's not a question of whether or not you have experience riding a motorbike, it's about whether you've had experience riding here. It's a different kind of driving. Everything you ever learned in Driver's Ed. is going to kill you here. That is over and above the the fact that, wherever you are coming from, you probably don't have to worry about dogs and chickens darting out in front of you on the road, people driving on the wrong side, pulling out of side streets without looking and that the driver signals that you are used to, having a different meaning to which you are accustomed. In Canada, for example, if another driver flashes his lights at you, it means 'go ahead'. Here, it means, you'd better stay where you are because I'm coming through. To avoid being just another statistic, I would definitely recommend that you leave the driving to someone else while you are here.

Okay so that last one, though certainly random and interesting isn't something that will convince you to come to Bali, but I felt the need to throw in a public service announcement. After all, our aim is to facilitate everyone having an experience of a lifetime they will never forget (in a good way!) when they come to Bali.

If you have any questions about anything in this blog posting or Bali in general, please don't hesitate to connect with me at info@balibiuretreatcompany.com.