‘Ultimate relaxing is our signature’

Who does not want to relax?

Most of us live busy lives. Full of tasks to do, from running a household, taking care of kids’ needs, fulfilling a job for your boss or your company, and doing some social things. That gives us planning stress. Then there is financial stress. Can we make ends meet at the end of this month? Living from bill to bill. But there is also relationship stress, medical stress, performance stress, etc.

Stress is part of living in Western society. Stress can be harmful to the mind and body. So relaxation is vital to destressing and creating conditions for happiness. One cannot be happy whilst living under stress, isn’t it?

Ultimate relaxing; what do we mean by it?

Stress originates in the mind and negatively influences mood and body. Stress causes tension in the body. Stress hormones are excreted, causing muscles to contract to prepare the body for danger. So you can fight or fly. Modern society and “work ethics” cause more and more chronic stress, which is detrimental to your health in general. Chronic stress is the foundation for most chronic diseases.

To escape from this state and rediscover a relaxed state, you must work on the mind, and all that negatively influences it. As a result, also the body will relax, and thus you will reach a state of ultimate relaxation. It brings you feelings of ease, joy, and bliss. Relaxed in mind and relaxed in body.

What can Gunung Paradis do for you?

You could call Gunung Paradis a ” Relax Retreat.”  We have all that you need to relax. Nature, beauty, atmosphere, serenity, energy, and our attention help you strive for ultimate relaxation. We take away all worries about your stay with us and provide relaxing treatments like yoga classes, relaxing massages, or energy healing.

We advise you on activities and places to visit and will bring you there.

We make your stay in Gunung Paradis a memorable one.

‘Healthy Balinese Food and how we prepare it’

Blending traditional Bali meals with contemporary healthy food concepts

The traditional way

The Indonesian cuisine is renowned for its tasty and sometimes very spicy dishes. They are cooked following a long tradition using all the excellent food ingredients, herbs, and spices the archipelago offers. From a long time ago, these ingredients can be considered healthy because they came straight from the land, and there was no significant pollution in land, water, and air.

That does not mean Indonesian people always eat healthily. The majority follows a poor nutritional diet consisting of rice and minor contributions of vegetables and meat (mostly chicken). Beef, pork, and goat are far too expensive for the majority. The Muslim population (90% of all Indonesians) avoids eating pork meat; for the Balinese, it is a delicacy (especially suckling pig, which is only served at certain ceremonies and in unique Babi Guling restaurants). When they consume fish, it is primarily tiny fish (Ikan tri), sardines, or mackerel. These are all wild-caught, which is good.

For the rest, the Balinese people are fond of sweet cakes and other sugary things that can cause, as we know now, significant health problems.

Most Balinese people are unaware of unhealthy eating and do not care about healthy eating. They also like to eat at fast-food restaurants if they can afford it. And they are fond of sweets and sugary things.

And there is also little to no awareness of the health risk that toxins found on land, in water, and the air can affect people’s health.

We have chosen to be an example in proving that traditional Balinese food can be prepared and served as Healthy Balinese Food.

Our focus on health and nutrition

A few years ago, we at Gunung Paradis Retreat decided to become an example for our guests and social environment and focus more on the health- and nutritional value of the meals and drinks we offer without losing the typically Indonesian/Balinese taste. Our focus evolved to turning our menu into a health-promoting directory so we defined what Healthy Balinese Food concepts, in our opinion, must be.

To increase the variety, we added some more general Asian/Western-oriented dishes based on the same principles.

We are not at the ultimate level we want to be yet, but we are on the right track and dare to share our meals without any doubt with our guests.

Healthy Balinese Food principles that guide us

  • Variety in meals and ingredients
  • Avoid toxic ingredients as much as possible (MSG or VeTsin, as it is called here, but that is just one example of a longer list)
  • Avoid the use of refined sugar for sweetening (and if necessary, limit it to natural sweeteners)
  • Focus on ingredients that have specific superfood properties
  • Buy and use always fresh organic produce as much as possible
  • Avoid so-called processed food and – ingredients
  • Cook only in and with coconut oil and/or real butter
  • Use toxin-free water in the kitchen (we are so lucky to have our private water well with the purest natural Earth water possible)

The result summarized

We are a “ boutique retreat” with a limited number of accommodations, but still, we have an extensive menu list that can fulfill the needs of any guest we have the pleasure to serve. But for some of it, we need to know your preferences at least a few days before you arrive:

  • Superfood smoothies
  • Kefir (natural probiotics milk drink)
  • Pure mountain spring water
  • Lovely Indonesian dishes made from fresh (organic*) ingredients
  • Wild-caught fish dishes from the sea surrounding Bali
  • Unique vegetarian or vegan dishes
  • We are constantly looking to add relatively unknown local vegetables
  • Gluten-free bread, pancakes, and -pasta
We consider it a pleasure to let you experience Healthy Balinese Food.