April 30, 2007

Asia | Indonesia | Bali

Do the Shambhala

By Mark Jolly

Perfect your downward dog at Christina Ong's Pacific paradise.

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If there’s one place to get your ashtanga on later this month, it’s Bali. From May 23 to 29, COMO Shambhala Estate is hosting a yoga retreat with ashtanga legend David Swenson. The residential health resort (they hate the word “resort,” but we’re sticking to it if only to keep from repeating the word “retreat”) is the flagship among Christina Ong’s seven luxury Shambhala sanctuaries — which include Parrot Cay (Turks & Caicos) Cocoa Island (Maldives) and her two Metropolitan hotels (London and Bangkok).

Located on a jungled, secluded riverbank near Ubud, the perpetually-praised retreat estate takes its business of wellbeing very, very seriously: guests are assigned a personal assistant during stays, and a pool of resident specialists are on hand to consult on everything from nutrition to ayurvedic medicine to stress management. The yoga retreat week is open to all levels (despite the fact that ashtanga is considered eminently “hardcore”), and is geared more toward single travelers so they can “experience the powerful camaraderie created by shared goals.”