I dig Michael Franti & Spearhead. It all started with the CD Everyone Deserves Music in 2003. Now I'm in Bali, Indonesia, and my degree of separation with Michael has just been nearly zeroed out...I'm spending the night at Franti's new, green yoga retreat, Soulshine Bali, near the hilltop artist town of Ubud.
Franti's "villa, retreat oasis and cafe" is edged by rice terraces and coconut palms along the Agung river. It's an oasis indeed after the touristy bustle of Ubud, world famous now that Julia Roberts starred in the film Eat Pray Love. Busloads of wide-eyed visitors arrive each day.
A tall glass of fresh coconut water welcomes my arrival, the perfect refresher in the tropical morning heat. A vinyasa flow yoga class is just starting up. I decide to join in and quickly limber up. When it's over, I plunge into the infinity pool before settling in at the cafe, where I happily down an organic fruit salad with housemade muesli and the velvety Balinese coffee that I'm becoming addicted to. Lovely. I am in the moment, and that moment becomes dusk before I realize it.
After a Taoist meditation class, I drift up to the Sunset Room, a lovely perch from which to savor this perfect day. It's the room that Michael sleeps in when he's in town, but tonight it's all mine. Franti groupies, take note--if the carvings on the teak headboard, dresser and wall ornaments are any indication, the man is gaga for geckos.
This place is a collaboration between Franti and his longtime collaborator, Carla Swanson. She filmed and edited several of Spearhead's music videos, as well as Michael's remarkable documentary film, I Know I'm Not Alone, with its pro-peace message. Swanson designed Soulshine and its grounds as a sanctuary for reflection and well-being. It can accommodate up to 26 guests, who can pick their own organic fruit from an abundance of tropical varieties, or just hang out in the gardens and by the beautiful ponds.
Natural and organic are standard procedure here. Organic cotton bed linens. Organic produce from the retreat's own garden and nearby farms. The structures were built using green materials.
Franti and Swanson also give much-needed support to the local Balinese, most notably the Bumi Sehat Natural Birthing Clinic (which works to reduce Indonesia's alarmingly high rates of maternal and child mortality), and a not-for-profit holistic school.
My advice to the Bali-bound: don't miss this experience, even if you've never heard a Franti song in your life. You'll want to afterwards, I promise.
Franti's "villa, retreat oasis and cafe" is edged by rice terraces and coconut palms along the Agung river. It's an oasis indeed after the touristy bustle of Ubud, world famous now that Julia Roberts starred in the film Eat Pray Love. Busloads of wide-eyed visitors arrive each day.
A tall glass of fresh coconut water welcomes my arrival, the perfect refresher in the tropical morning heat. A vinyasa flow yoga class is just starting up. I decide to join in and quickly limber up. When it's over, I plunge into the infinity pool before settling in at the cafe, where I happily down an organic fruit salad with housemade muesli and the velvety Balinese coffee that I'm becoming addicted to. Lovely. I am in the moment, and that moment becomes dusk before I realize it.
After a Taoist meditation class, I drift up to the Sunset Room, a lovely perch from which to savor this perfect day. It's the room that Michael sleeps in when he's in town, but tonight it's all mine. Franti groupies, take note--if the carvings on the teak headboard, dresser and wall ornaments are any indication, the man is gaga for geckos.
This place is a collaboration between Franti and his longtime collaborator, Carla Swanson. She filmed and edited several of Spearhead's music videos, as well as Michael's remarkable documentary film, I Know I'm Not Alone, with its pro-peace message. Swanson designed Soulshine and its grounds as a sanctuary for reflection and well-being. It can accommodate up to 26 guests, who can pick their own organic fruit from an abundance of tropical varieties, or just hang out in the gardens and by the beautiful ponds.
Natural and organic are standard procedure here. Organic cotton bed linens. Organic produce from the retreat's own garden and nearby farms. The structures were built using green materials.
Franti and Swanson also give much-needed support to the local Balinese, most notably the Bumi Sehat Natural Birthing Clinic (which works to reduce Indonesia's alarmingly high rates of maternal and child mortality), and a not-for-profit holistic school.
My advice to the Bali-bound: don't miss this experience, even if you've never heard a Franti song in your life. You'll want to afterwards, I promise.
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