You’d be surprised how few people get to experience Bali (and Indonesia) in its honest form, beyond the quick cultural shortcuts designed for tourists.

Even if you don’t know much about local culture, you can feel it: this mysterious island holds profound wisdom, preserved through centuries of ritual, ceremony, and art. A sacred knowledge inseparable from daily life. But how do you actually access it? Do you follow an IG-sponsored post of a “Bali priestess” with hundreds of well-crafted reels? Do you ask on forums and cross your fingers it’s not a marketing manager ghostwriting the answers?  Authenticity in Bali has become both the most overused and the hardest thing to experience. 

Bali today is a mecca for all things wellness and spirituality. For every lineage-backed healer, there are twenty fresh graduates of a three-day “Level 1 Teacher Training Intensive,” peddling expertly marketed transformational experiences.

If you came to Bali looking for something real, something deeper than what you left at home – let us tell you – Usada is where it lives.Usada Bali, is a cultural and intellectual beacon. Here you’ll find serious talks by historians, philosophers, spiritual elders, and activists – think Agung Rai, Franki Raden, Ibu Robin Lim, Rio Helmi. You’ll witness music and dance carried from remote tribes, film screenings that reveal the heart and history of Bali and Indonesia, and conversations that aren’t afraid to tackle the difficult questions: the commercialization of spirituality, the shifting role of ritual, the threads between Buddhism, Ayurveda, and daily life. Here you’ll find yourself speaking with families who have called Bali home for generations, people who carry the island in a way no guidebook or glossy retreat ever could. It is here that we discovered our teachers and forged deep friendships that actually lasted