Bee hives in the permaculture garden

Recently we put up five new bee hives in the permaculture garden. We want to produce organic Balinese honey. Jiwa Damai is a social responsable retreat center. We take great care of our natural environment and constantly try to minimize our ecological footprint. The organic honey being produced in the permaculture garden is an environmentally friendly product.

The bee hives are distributed all over our compound, high up in the trees.

Bee hive up in the tree

These are traditional Balinese bee hives.  They are made out of coconut shells wrapped with palm tree fibre.

Getting attracted by a secret sugar-mixture (we can not tell the ingredients ;-), the bees fly in through the little hole and (hopefully !) start producing honey.

Bee hive

We also painted some signs  - so that our guests can spot them on their tour through the organic garden!

Come by and learn more about organic honey production on Bali! Jiwa Damai is located close to Ubud, just a 20 min drive away.  We offer guided tours through the permaculture garden and explain about biological farming and a sustainable way of living. Enjoy the tropical fauna and flora.

Sign bee hive

Coconut harvest on Bali

Do you know how our coconuts are being harvested? Bringing down the nuts is not an easy task! Only few local men know how to climb the coconut tress and harvest the nuts. I've seen them climbing up the high trees, sometimes up to 30 m, without a rope, without a safety net, just the machete in the back of the pant, .....like a little monkey.

Made Sueca is a real acrobat. He is climbing to the top of coconut tree just with his bare feet and hands. It’s impressive !

Made Sueca climbing a coconut tree

His work is to clean the trees - cut the leaves and harvest the coconuts.

When he finally made it to the top, when he reached the crown of the tree,  he is simply 'sitting' there, supposedly very comfortable, cutting off the nuts with his machete.

For me it is amazing how a person can climb up a tree like this and then, without effort 'sit' there for minutes until all the coconuts and dead leaves are cut off. What an incredible strenght is needed for this kind of work! Respect.

Made Sueca est d’une agilité déconcertante. Il grimpe dans les cocotiers à 30 mètres de haut et à l’aide de ses bras et ses jambes, il se retrouve au sommet en moins de deux minutes. C’est impressionnant !

Son travail consiste à élaguer les arbres, en coupant les feuilles un peu trop encombrantes. Et bien sûr à cueillir les noix de coco.

Tropical fruit in the permaculture garden

In Jiwa Damai's organic garden many different fruit trees are growing. Look at these Papayas high up in the tree. Our gardener Ketut brings them down with a long stick, he created for this purpose only.

Papaya tree

Check out our Banana trees.

Banana tree

These bananas are not ripe yet, but will be soon. And then our cook Astri will make delicious banana pancakes! yammi....

Here we see some ripe Jackfruit. Jackfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, reaching 80 pounds (36 kg) in weight and up to 36 inches (90 cm) long and 20 inches (50 cm) in diameter. The flesh of the jackfruit is starchy, fibrous and is a source of dietary fiber. The flavour is similar to a tart banana.

Jack fruit

And of course we have lots and lots of coconut trees at Jiwa Damai.

Coconut tree

Besides that we also have guava trees and we grow avocados.

We'll tell you more in one of our next posts!

Lumbung construction in Bali

The construction work at our two new Lumbungs is advancing rapidly. Within a matter of 3 weeks a huge progress can be seen!

Lumbung

These new Balinese houses will turn out beautifully.

A wooden staircase is leading to the 'top floor' where our guests will sleep. The 'ground floor' will be the living area, a private bathroom is attached to the back of the house.

Lumbung inside

We only use natural materials to construct the Lumbungs - wood and bamboo. The walls are made out of  braided stripes of bamboo.

Lumbung wall

Our guests will enjoy an authentic sleeping experience in the middle of nature.  You will fall asleep to the sounds of quacking frogs and geckos - a truly calming sound and a deeply relaxing environment.

One Balinese Lumbung will accommodate 2-3 persons.

Cremation ceremony in Bali

This  february 10th in Ubud we witnessed an important cremation ceremony. It was a king’s cremation. The body of each dead Balinese must be burned so that their souls can join the spirit’s world. This kind of event is very important for Balinese people .There are ceremonies for every stage of Balinese life but often the last ceremony-cremation-is the biggest. A Balinese cremation can be an amazing, spectacular, colorful, noisy and exciting event. In fact it often takes so long to organize a cremation that years have passed since the death.

Kings cremation

The funeral ceremony is generally led by a priest and punctuated by a lavish offering of gifts. For the occasion, a large bullock-shaped wooden structure is built . The tower is carried on the shoulders of a group of men, the size of the group depending on the importance of the deceased and hence the size of the tower.

King's cremation

At the cremation ground the body is transferred to a funeral sarcophagus. Finally it all goes up in flames - the funeral tower, sarcophagus, body and the lot.

Cremation king

Apart from being yet another occasion for Balinese noise and confusion it's a fine opportunity to observe the incredible energy the Balinese put into creating real works of art which are totally ephemeral.

Health Room at Jiwa Damai

After some weeks of work,  our Health room is finished and awaiting our guests. It turned out very beautiful.  You enter through a beautifully carved, Balinese wooden door.  This door was carefully refurbished and painted - it looks amazing!

Health room

The Health room features a bathtub, the walls are made out of green shimmering glass stones.

We offer holistic body therapies, individual therapy sessions as well as massages and body care.

Health room_new

Relax and enjoy your massage!

Massage

Health room

After the massage you can take a refreshing swim in our pool.

This is the perfect way to spend your day at Jiwa Damai....

Two french wwoofers in Jiwa Damai

Salut, Nous sommes Raphael et Audrey de France. Jiwa Damai est magnifique, tellement relaxant et idéal pour faire du wwoofing. Nous allons y rester un mois.

Deux de nos projets sont :

Le premier consiste à numéroter avec de la peinture tous les cocotiers de la propriété, et ce n’est pas une mince affaire, il y en a  plus de 300.

Le second projet est de venir en aide à Ketut, le jardinier. C’est interessant de travailler avec lui, il nous apprend beaucoup de choses. Ça donne envie d’avoir son propre potager !

Hi,

We are Audrey and Raphael from France. Jiwa Damai is a really wonderful place, very relaxing and ideal to do Wwoofing.  We’re going to stay one month.

Two of our projects are :

First, to paint numbers on all the coconut trees. It’s a big project, in fact, there are more than 300 coconuts trees in Jiwa Damai !

An other project is to help Ketut, the gardener. It’s interesting to work with him because he’s teaching us many new things.

This stimulates us to create our own garden back in France .

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Ketut

Flowers, beautiful flowers at Jiwa Damai

In our organic garden numerous beautiful flowers and trees and bushes are growing. We took a walk through the center and photographed some of the most beautiful flowers we have here.

See for yourself!

Purple flowers

Red flower

It is always a pleasure to stroll through the extensive garden. Each time you can detect something new, a new plant growing, another flower blossoming, a cute little animal crawling or flying around. ....

Yellow flower

For people interested in the tropical vegetation, we offer guided tours through our organic garden. Just call us and schedule an appointment (min. 3 people).  Our gardener will take you for a walk,  explaining about permaculture and showing you the abundance of the tropical plants and flowers.

Yellow flower

Hibiscus

New Lumbungs at Jiwa Damai

We are currently constructing two new Lumbungs in our organic garden. A Lumbung is a traditional Balinese house, made out of bamboo and wood. We build them in an elevated part of our garden, overlooking the pool, right next to the ceremonial garden.

View pool

We  offer these Balinese houses to guests, wanting to experience nature closely. These Lumbungs will  offer rural comfort and can accommodate two or threee people each. They are covered with mosquito nets and will have their own private bathroom.

This is our Lumbung Kunang-Kunang. Isn't that nice?

The two new Lumbungs will look similar to this one......

Lumbung

The construction started - phase one ......

Lumbung construction

Lumbung construction

We will keep you updated on the construction process !

Water lily

Look at this beautiful water lily right after a heavy rain shower. What an amazing plant!

Teratai indah !

Water lily after rain_1000px