Bali’s Newest Spa Transformed Me Inside and Out

A SINGLE TINY TEAR SLIPS OUT of the corner of my eye as the heartwarming tinkling of a Balinese Hindu ghanta temple bell fades to complete silence. The ever-so-subtle sensation of hands moving gracefully in the air above my supine body—on the most comfortable massage bed of my life, I might add—ceases. Nia, with the widest smile and quite possibly a tear of her own, lets me know she has closed my energy. “Your energy is so good I had goosebumps,” she tells me.  

Here, in a textured, light-drenched spa suite at Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan’s Sacred River Spa, I’m experiencing something different: a warming tingle of bliss that starts in my heart and emanates outward. Physically, I feel amazing, more relaxed than I have in years (I have two daughters under four). Emotionally, I’m at peace. And I smell incredible. Somehow, this silky, flowy treatment leaves me feeling more whole and united in my body, something I’ve been struggling with nine months postpartum.  

There’s a web of ancient golden pis bolong coins draped across my chest, a jade mask cooling my eyes, and an Indonesian moss agate stone etched with sacred geometry pressed into my skin. Nia had massaged me with several of these stones, some burning hot and others ice cold, during my two-hour Restu Bumi treatment, in ribbonlike strokes that created a swirling yin-yang sensation on my skin that felt divine.  

“Did she show you the engraving on the stone?” Luisa Anderson, Four Seasons regional director of spa, asks me when I emerge. “That is part of the biogeometry, and that is an energy imbuement that holds harmony.” I’m always interested in woo-woo wellness, but I know nothing of this concept, so Anderson tells me about the Egyptian professor who decades ago advocated for the power of biogeometry in a Swiss village. It fits into the spa’s overriding concept of niskala: the unseen. I do feel harmonious, so maybe there’s something to it, but credit is also owed to Nia’s intuitive healing abilities, the grounding gong and other vibrations, and the oil that’s filled my nose with absolutely delectable native ingredients including my favorites, cempaka and kananga flowers.   

This therapy could not happen anywhere else in the world, and if it did it wouldn’t make sense. It’s a ritual of Bali, for people to have in Bali, to feel the island more deeply. And that’s true of much of the brand-new spa menu (with whimsical custom art, too) at Sacred River Spa, which just reopened in October 2024 after a complete overhaul to the spa bales, reception and boutique. The beloved chakra ceremonies are still on offer, now set to beautiful recorded chants sung by the resort’s former Buddhist-nun–turned–wellness mentor Ibu Vera and using Synthesis Organics products; the Byron Bay conscious beauty brand’s founder Theme Rains worked with Anderson and her therapists to create both refreshed and new treatments.  

And yes, you can get a strong Balinese massage or relaxing rubdown at Sayan Sacred River Spa. But why go basic when there are other choices promising to “Awaken. Transcend. Harmonise.” or “Purify. Sanctify. Renew.” The freshly dreamed-up sessions—ranging from bioenergetic gemstone wraps with sound healing to 150-minute intention-setting tributes to melukat ceremonies, Tirta Empul water temple, and the ancient subak irrigation system—are simultaneously soulful and sublime. And there are powerful Balinese traditional healers, too, including I Wayan Linggen, whose Hasta Siddhi Healing Massage feels like a very specific mapping and rooting out of tension and deep-seated issues in my body in order to mitigate stress.  

Ensconced in the spectacular singular Royal Villa (so royal it’s where President Barack Obama and his family once stayed), stress seems a distant memory. I slumber sweetly in that signature sumptuous Four Seasons bed and awake each morning to chirping jungle sounds and the Ayung River cascading by in front of our large infinity pool. At night, from the balcony, I smile at the moon, balancing upright on its curved edge exactly like the rice bowl design of the resort’s main building. This is a true garden of Eden, a resort within a resort, or a tiny universe inside Bali.    

Still, it’s impossible to not venture out. My stay is well-rounded: There’s a deep, intense yin yoga session after which I feel expansive; a lighthearted mixology session where I pluck herbs from the garden before shaking up delightful cocktails with a sweet young Balinese man named Karang, and a seven-course heritage Balinese dinner at the Sokasi chef’s table that’s like an edible journey across the island.   

It may be rooted in vanity, but another one of many high points comes as a grand finale: the most intimate facial of my life, also known as the 90-minute Holistic Buccal Lift & Sculpt Facial. Buccal lift, as it turns out, is a fancy way of saying the therapist—a beautiful, gentle woman named Ariasih—is going to put her fingers inside your mouth and press, knead and seemingly attempt to pull one side of your face away from the other. Momentarily, I wonder if my lip might split into two from the intraoral massage, but the wild sensations give way to the excitement of knowing that this is probably doing something. Something good.  

So often spa treatments feel lovely in the moment but leave no lasting effect, at least when you’re someone with chronic neck and shoulder knots and stubbornly dry skin that no single massage or facial could remedy. However, I’m a glutton for punishment so I’m weirdly thrilled when something feels strange, intense or, sure, woo woo. And this is all of the above. The Synthesis Organics products are luscious and soft, the way Ariasih paints a cooling mask onto my face including over my closed eyelids makes me feel almost mummy-like, and the sweeping, curling strokes of her fingers doling out lymphatic drainage massage help me relax knowing they’re filled with intention.  

I rouse slowly, hyper-conscious of all sensations. My cheekbones feel higher, more prominent. My jawline, too, is tighter. And, I can barely believe it, but a glance in the mirror confirms: My face has shifted a bit, in just 90 minutes. It’s not only pampered, hydrated and plumper, but the shape is different. And I, the tired mama, struggling with self-confidence and forever in need of self-care, can think of no greater gift to receive.  

www.fourseasons.com/sayan/spa

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Images courtesy of Four Seasons.

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