Bali Yoga Retreat

Due to the pandemic, this retreat is suspended until further notice

Come for 1 – 4 weeks. You choose the exact dates and we will help set up your lodging. The cost for 1- 2 weeks of 20 hours of instruction with Ki and Bob is $350 a week (for weeks 1 & 2), for weeks 3 & 4 – the cost is $250 per week. Ki and Bob look forward to sharing their beautiful yoga studio that overlooks the Ayung River Valley in Sayan-Ubud, Bali and know that you will find the Balinese people to be inspiring in their approach to life and to daily ritual and prayer.

Bali Yoga Teacher Training Program

Due to the pandemic, this training is suspended until further notice.

Thank you for inquiring about our Bali Yoga Teacher Training Program. This is a 200 hour, two month course and the whole training takes place on the island of Bali, Indonesia. After two months of study in Bali with Ki and Bob you could come back with a teaching certificate. Bali is a wonderful place to live and practice Yoga with these two inspirational teachers. The location of their yoga studio that overlooks the Ayung River Valley is Sayan-Ubud, Bali. The 200 hour Bali Yoga Teacher Training program normally runs from late June until mid-August. Ki and Bob encourage you to come for the full two months of training. You are also welcome to come to any part of the two months of training and accumulate hours for the next training program in Bali (scheduled for the same time in the following summer) or for our ongoing Seattle Yoga Teacher Training group, a new group beginning each fall.

The basic cost of the yoga training is $2400. The first month will cost $1200 for study and the second month will also cost $1200. There will be approximately 20 hours per week of Yoga offered during the first four weeks and 21 hours per week of Yoga Teacher Training during the second month of the training. Extra hours will be given for a written project you do in Bali. There will be a lot of free time for you to explore the rich culture of Bali and a lot of time for personal study and reading. Once you are in Bali the cost of living is quite inexpensive. While in Bali we will practice asana, pranayama and meditation six mornings a week from 9:00 – 11:30 during the first month. During the first month we will also practice asana, pranayama, and meditation three afternoons a week.

As we progress through the program you will learn to teach Yoga safely and wisely, with opportunities for student teaching. Some of the second month afternoon subject matters for the training will include: pranayama, meditation, lineage, the Yoga Sutras, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, living the life of a Western Yogi – Yogini; ethics, and 20 hours of study in anatomy as it applies to asana practice. Ki and Bob have have only one main requirement before you can enter their training program – this being that you have practiced Hatha Yoga for at least two years before you can be admitted. Finally, they ask that each graduating student submit a 45 minute video of a Yoga class they have taught before a certificate is given. The certificates Ki and Bob hand out are recognized nationally in the U.S. and internationally, as their school is registered and recognized by the Yoga Alliance, the main governing board for Yoga in the West. With the certificate you will be able to register with the Yoga Alliance as a certified Yoga instructor.

Information

Flights

You should be able to find round trip tickets from the West Coast of the U.S. to Bali for $1000 to $3,000 (fares vary of course), and a little more from other parts of the U.S. and Canada. Normally Bali is reached from a West Coast city (via Seattle, San Francisco or Los Angeles) and after a long 13 – 14 hour flight to Singapore, Taipei, Guam, or Bangkok then a much shorter flight is taken to Denpasar, Bali. The most common carriers used from the United States are: EVA Air, China Air, Cathay Pacific and Continental Air. You can expect the flight ordeal to be long, but you can be in the paradise of the Penestanan plateau area within 90 minutes of landing.

Tourist Visa for Indonesia

The visa situation is a bit of a hassle for those staying for 30 – 60 days, and easy for those staying 30 days or less. For those staying 30 days or less, you receive an automatic 30 day tourist visa upon entry into Indonesia (Bali). The cost will be around $45 – to be paid upon arrival. In counting the days you will be in Bali, please note: the day of arrival and day of departure both count as a full day, even if this time adds up to only an hour or few hours for that day. If you are staying for 31 – 60 days, then you need to apply for a 60 day visa and you must have this before you step into the airplane to fly to Bali. The cost for this is somewhere around $60. Getting a 60 day tourist visa involves filling out a particular form and mailing in your passport, the form, and a few other required things. If you need information concerning the 60 day tourist visa we do have the forms and printed out information concerning the matter. It takes a little work to complete the forms; however, the visas came by mail to those who needed them last year without any problems at all. For those who are coming from other countries than the U.S. you will have to follow the Indonesian visa procedures set forth by your country.

Restaurants

There are well more than one hundred restaurants in the nearby vicinity of Ubud and Penestanan that serve delicious Indonesian and other ethnic varieties of food. We estimate $12 – $20 a day for a couple of healthy, delicious Indonesian meals at local restaurants. Small, quaint, clean, charmingly decorated restaurants are everywhere, sometimes with special landscape views. An average restaurant meal in Bali costs $6 – $10; this includes bottled water, one to two main dishes, rice and dessert. Indonesian food is spicy, but not excessively so. Your dietary needs, whatever they are, can be met in Bali. Wherever you lodge, eating in the Ubud restaurants will become a fun part of your stay. Purified, bottled water is available everywhere.

Indonesia Update

It should be noted that the numerous islands that compose the country of Indonesia often have vast distances from each other and usually have completely different kind of cultures and languages from island to island. The people of Bali know that in times of need prayer is the main answer. The Balinese way to deal with tragedy on their own island or anywhere else near to their island is to devote a lot of attention to the Balinese Hindu tradition that governs a large part of each of their lives. Also of great significance to the Balinese way of dealing with challenge is their complete acceptance of the law of karma. Anything good or bad that occurs at any given moment in anyone’s lives is attributed to their karma by the Balinese way of thinking. There have been two bombs in the last seven years in the tourist trap of Kuta in Bali, and yet our YTT program will be held in the countryside – more than an hour away from Kuta. There is generally a feeling of great safety in Balinese, as the Balinese are so very kind and warm hearted. The Balinese have welcomed Western tourists throughout and the island has remained a safe haven for outsiders (except in these two isolated incidents), no matter what was happening in other parts of the world or other parts of Indonesia. The island of Bali ideologically stands very far apart from the governing island of Java. Bali is totally unique to the rest of Indonesia in that the Balinese practice Balinese Hinduism – the predominant religion throughout the other islands is Muslim. Bali is a very mountainous island and it has somehow found its own religion that is so rich that the people truly embrace and practice it all the time. To see the abundance of religious gatherings in Bali is very inspiring and uplifting. The Balinese are basically apolitical when it comes to big government, for it is village ruler ship that keeps the Balinese society functioning. The Balinese have very deep ties with the land they live on, their ancestors, their present family and the village they come from – family and spirituality are always prioritized at the top for the Balinese.

Transportation (Once in Bali)

Taxi transport from Penestanan to Ubud (and Ubud to Penestanan) is fairly inexpensive, and easy to come by. Our advice is to use cab service some, be willing to hop on the back of motorbikes some and walk a lot. The walk to the center of Ubud for meals, shopping and dance performances from central Penestanan is around 15 – 20 minutes. We strongly advise you not to rent a car because of very crowded road conditions, poor roads and left hand side of the road driving (right hand side of the car steering wheel) — it all adds up to a difficult driving situation that should be left to the native drivers who are more used to it all. A cab from Ubud to Melati’s (or the other way around) costs around $1.50 and certainly many of you will want to use cab service periodically during certain of your trips to or from Ubud. For temple touring and sightseeing outside of the Ubud area it is easy and fairly inexpensive to rent a van with a driver for the day ($40 to $50 a day and this could be split with a friend or two). Taxi fares to and from the airport are around $35.00 each way and could be split with another.

Shopping

One of the delightful opportunities you will want to take part in is shopping. The art and fabrics of Bali are world renowned for their beauty and these products are being sold in small shops all over the place in Ubud. Ubud is truly a shopper’s paradise as the prices are unbelievably low and the wood products, batik clothing jewelry and other handcrafted items of a very high quality. For instance, wonderful rayon and cotton batik clothing can usually be purchased for 1/3rd to 1/6th the cost of a similar item in the U.S. The wood carvings are exquisite, with a wide range to choose from and so is the jewelry and beaded items — everything goes for a fraction of what the same item would cost in the states. Come anticipating some fun shopping experiences.

Balinese Dance

While in Bali we highly recommend each of you attend a number of dance performances; there are public performances each night for around $ 8 in Ubud. Most certainly your yoga practice will be inspired by watching many of the dancers, but, more than this, Balinese dance and theater has a spiritual base to it and can greatly help you understand the culture of the area. There are many dances to attend, including: the Balinese version of the epic Ramayana tale; the elegant, graceful Legong dance; the male warrior Baris dance, the constant battle between Barong – Rangda in dance; the male release Kechak dance; the ritual dance to overcome evil — Calon Arang; the wonderful performance by the children dancers and women’s gamelan orchestra; Shadow Puppet plays and many others. All the dance performances are accompanied by a Balinese Gamelan orchestra (percussion instruments of many varieties). The colorful, flowing dance costumes; the elegant grace of the dancers; the powerful archetypal images acted out on stage; the mind expanding Gamelan music and the simple outdoor settings make Balinese dance an experience you will not forget.

Money and Bali

Concerning travelling and living expenses while in Bali, it really depends on your lodging, food, transportation and shopping choices. The lodging places we are recommending are generally around $30 – $50 a night for a bungalow (this could be split in half with a roommate), and the costs will go down 20 % or so a night if you stay at any one place for three – four weeks or more. It is certainly possible to find a small house for $20 – $25 a night (possibly split in half), if you are willing to walk a few hundred feet off of the closest road to get to one of these houses. There are money changers all over the Ubud area and changing traveler’s checks, or U.S. cash, into the local currency is very easy. There are a lot of ATM machines as well, however, there is usually a limit of $300 per transaction from most of the ATM machines. One of the banks in Ubud will give up to a $1,000 cash advance from your credit card. Food should be as low as $12 to $20 a day for all the delicious, nutritious food and beverage consumption you can ask for. Transportation costs will depend on you. This could be quite low, depending on your lodging choice and your lifestyle while you are in Bali – if you walk a lot and hop on the back of motorbikes to get from place to place you do not need to spend much per week on transportation. Shopping is up to you; however, please know that you will wish to shop when you see the plentiful array of handcrafted items and clothing that are for sale all over the shops of Ubud and Penestanan. Also we recommend you set aside at least $15 a week for some of the best massage treatments you will ever experience ($15 is a typical price for a 1 ¼ hour massage). There are some very gifted Balinese massage practitioners that charge very little for their treatments and we highly recommend one to two treatments a week. We figure that the whole two months could be frugally lived, with everything included (round trip air fare; transportation, food and lodging in Bali, Yoga fees, and incidentals) for $6000. It has been our experience, however, that most of you will wish to receive massages and shop and go on a few Sunday sightseeing adventures – a little extra money goes a long way in Bali!

Arriving and Being in Bali

Please rest assured that we will have a Balinese driver waiting to pick you up at the airport and take you to your bungalow, if you wish for this. Know that we will help you to get your food situation well covered by hiring a cook if you find a house to stay in (wages for this service would be under $2 an hour). Please know that the Balinese people will take great care of you and will win your heart over with selfless service. The Balinese people are hard working, kind, gentle, outgoing, open minded, and open hearted people. Personally Ki and I feel like we have finally come home when we arrive back in Bali.

Conclusion

Please know that the Balinese people will greet you with big smiles and open arms on a daily basis. Being around the highly ritualized culture, immersing ourselves in the practice and study of Yoga, and living within the abundance of prana that permeates the Balinese terrain will most certainly translate into an incredibly rich experience for each and every one of us. Know that the Balinese will take great care of you and win your heart over with selfless service. We look forward to hearing back from you.