I want you to know all about this place, beautiful! For this reason, I’m dedicating a full post to documenting the sanctuary in Canggu that I stayed at while I spent the most blissed out 7 days in Bali. 🙂

Before you read on, I would love for you to read more about the reason I traveled to Bali in the first place. In my previous post, I mentioned I first heard of this sanctuary from another blogger who had stayed here in 2012. I remember first reading her blog post and thinking how amazing her experience in Bali was. The retreat almost sounded too good to be true, so it stuck with me. 🙂

This retreat was none other than BLISS SANCTUARY FOR WOMEN, CANGGU 🙂

When I finally got the chance to book here for September 2017, I couldn’t wait to get to Bali. Oh the excitement! but honestly I was also nervous. A part of me was like, should I have just booked a ‘normal’ hotel instead? What IF, this wasn’t for me?

Now looking back though, I could see how silly that fear was. This experience turned out so much more than I had expected and anticipated and I’m so grateful that I got to experience it. I still catch myself smiling when I think about my stay and that says a lot. 🙂

To give you a little background, the beautiful Canggu villa (and 2 other branches, one in Seminyak and another upcoming villa in Ubud) are the brain child (or the love child 😉 ) of Zoe. When Zoe traveled to Bali, she couldn’t find a retreat where women could just relax, man-free, kid-free, get unlimited massages and treatments, go shopping or sightseeing when she likes and not having to worry about safety in a foreign land, be looked after and cooked for and fed delicious food every day, mingle with amazing women from around the world and make new friends whilst still having ‘solo’ ‘me time’ if she wishes and everything else most women only dream of when thinking of a solo adventure. 🙂 So she founded Bliss! and oh I’m so very grateful she did. What she’s created is a beautiful thing to experience.

From the moment I landed in Denpasar, Bali – I knew I was in good hands. My dear driver ‘Putu’ was at the arrival gates with my name on the big card and a big smile on his face. He safely drove me to Bliss, Canggu in the Denpasar traffic and within an hour and a half, I was driving into our Canggu villa. At the gate, waiting for me, were my beautiful hostesses, ‘J’ and ‘S’ who welcomed me in with such warmth and big smiles. I hope you are reading this, ladies! 🙂

The 3 of us then sat down for a quick chat about the villa, my schedule and what I wanted to achieve out of my stay. Funny enough, I said I really just wanted to relax, having no real plans. Honestly I didn’t, for the first time in my life, plan every minute of my trip. And it felt quite liberating to not have a plan. Haha. Really, work before Bali was crazy busy so Bali wasn’t really something I spent much time preparing for, as my full focus was on to get everything at work sorted before I left.

Anyway, ‘J’ and ‘S’ then gave me a quick tour of the premises, showed me my way through the common kitchen area, pool area and the yogashala. We then made our way through to my room, that was on the other side of the yogashala and the common areas. My room seriously blew my mind, especially the bathroom. Oh the bathroom of my dreams, an outdoor shower and a beautiful Balinese stone bath, just escaped my dreams and manifested into my reality!!!!!!!!!! ABSOLUTE LUXURY! 🙂

‘J’ then let me know that she had already booked me in for a 90 mins of Balinese massage to help me relax from the flight (it was already about 4pm by this time) and then they left me to explore my room, have some rest and do whatever I pleased before my massage.

I remember looking around my room and then sitting down to soak it in. I remember closing my eyes for a few moments and thinking, IS THIS REAL LIFE? I mean ‘Am I really here in BALI manifesting this and experiencing this, in this reality of mine? or was I in a parallel universe somewhere?’ 😀

It was then 6pm and was time for my first massage! I got changed into my sarong and got ready for the tough times ahead. ‘K’ who was looking after me that day, came to get me from my room. She led me back to the Yogashala which was converted back into a calming space for massage, with some gentle music playing in the background. She then gave me a 90 mins long traditional Balinese massage. Truth be told though, I was in pain. Wow I didn’t even realise how my body was holding so much pain. Every knot in my body was touched and released and I remember this massage being the most painful one out of all the following ones. But by the end of the massage, I was feeling lighter and relaxed already. My shoulders were no longer tight! and I was ready for my first ever dinner with the rest of the ladies staying at the villa.

7:30 was our buffet + family dinner time. I made my way to the central dining area and met all the ladies staying at the villa. This was also my first time trying the most amazing, delicious, authentic Balinese food. and wow my mind was blown!

After some amazing conversation, I headed back to my room and after meditating and journal-ing, I drifted into a deep relaxing sleep. And this was probably the best sleep of my life!

DAY 1 although very short was amazing.. and I really had the best intro to Bali I could have EVER wished for. And I knew I was in for a great soulful adventure for the next 6 days.

And now I’m going to show you all the pictures of this amazing villa – I really hope you enjoy looking at them. 🙂

If you loved reading this post, you are going to love the rest of the posts coming up in the Bali series. So stay tuned!

Until next time,

Lots of Love,

Upasana x0

---

Check out the full Bali series here:

• Part 1  – Why I travelled to Bali.
• Part 2 – Bliss Sanctuary Bali
• Part 3 – Living on Island Time.
• Part 4 – Playing tourist
• Part 5 – To Heal or To Not Heal?
• Part 6 – I Love You Bali, Goodbye and Thank You.