A local's guide to Bali, Indonesia

Natural-medicine practitioner Tjok Gde Kerthyasa is best known throughout Indonesia for his pioneering television show Nature Life, which aired on the Trans TV network. He is also the founder of Tirta Usada, a holistic clinic and research centre in Ubud that combines homoeopathic medicine with other traditions from traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, and kinesiology.

This interview is part of The World Made Local, a global collaboration between the seven international editions of Condé Nast Traveler in which 100 people in 100 countries tell us why their home turf should be your next destination.

What’s your connection with Bali?

I was born in Bali in 1978 – we didn’t have electricity and running water in Ubud back then. My family moved to Australia when I was nearly two years old and it’s an extreme contrast to Bali. People say you can smell Bali when you step off the plane. The air is dense, it has an ethereal quality; it’s like thick soup. It used to be a mix of kretek cigarettes, incense, and frangipani flowers, but now you can’t smoke in the airport.

Bali is such a community – Ubud is a town now but I still refer to it as a village – and everyone knows who you are. The Balinese belief is that your village is your family. I was educated in Australia and I even changed my name to Adam, but left Sydney in 2000 as I had a calling to come back. Two years later I left again to study natural medicine in Sydney before returning to Bali for good in 2009.

Tell us about your practice.

It’s quite eclectic. Here we have a form of natural medicine practice called Usada Bali. It’s indigenous but takes in elements of Javanese and even Vedic philosophies. The tradition is handed down through families, and I happen to come from a lineage: my father was a spiritual healer for 12 years and my grandfather was said to have had healing abilities. Our family are holders of many of the lontars, Balinese sacred texts written on palm leaves. Many of those are based on the Usada practice, a knowledge of how the energy systems in the body work, what can cause diseases, and which plants and elements are healing.

Most Balinese practitioners work intuitively but my study was much more scientific – what I do bridges the two. As well as naturopathy and homoeopathy, I also studied alchemy and I use alchemical extraction methods from indigenous herbs. The Balinese calendar is astrological and tells you on which day to do certain things: when to plant a tree, cut your hair, have a meeting. It’s based on the stars and symbolism of each day of the week – Monday is the moon, Tuesday is Mars, etc., and that is important in alchemy. I was astounded to see how similar Western alchemy is to what we practice in Bali. I call them golden threads, universal philosophies – those ideas that cross cultures, time, and space.

What places are special to you on the island?

One of my hobbies is hiking, and I love to head to the active volcano Mount Batur and its caldera and lakes. The lava fields remind me a bit of Australia with its eucalyptus trees. But I prefer hiking on Abang; it’s next to but higher than Batur, and there’s a beautiful walk through the forest all the way to the top. Batur is sparse and the monkeys steal your food! I like to go to the Tabanan region – what I call the real Bali. Up here you have the famous Jatiluwih rice fields, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so they’re quite well preserved. It’s called the rice bowl of Bali, because the irrigation system that feeds all the fields comes from that mountain. It’s cooler and wetter up here, and visiting the little villages is like going back in time. It’s one of the few places that still grows indigenous rice varieties such as the Bali red rice, which is unique.

Where would you recommend eating in Ubud?

Well, my grandma is the best cook, but there are local warungs, too, such as Men Juwel in Sayan, which serves traditional smoked chicken on rice. Ubud has become the vegan capital of Southeast Asia, and the vegan restaurants are really good: I personally love Bella by Sage, Sayuri Healing Food, and The Seeds of Life. Or there’s Moksa Ubud, set on a farm and run by an amazing Balinese chef. I also like Mana, an eco-hotel with earth-bag villas, which has a nice little restaurant.

Are there any other practitioners you’d recommend?

Ubud has also turned into the yoga capital of the southern hemisphere all of a sudden, and studios include The Yoga Barn, Radiantly Alive, and Intuitive Flow. There are western, Indian, and Balinese yoga instructors. It’s really become a holistic health and wellness hub.

Is there somewhere that people overlook in Bali?

Art and culture and the temples are being overlooked because of the recent Instagrammable tourism – eat, drink, party, and shop – that Bali has attracted. This is a real change to the country I grew up in, which drew artists, historians, and anthropologists. I would recommend any of the art museums: Puri Lukisan in Ubud is the most famous one. Also, the villages of the Bali Aga – the indigenous people – such as Tenganan over on the east coast, which I love to visit.