Eat, Pray, Love on Bali Tour

Email

Print

share/save

rss

So you’ve done Paris as part of a Da Vinci Code package. You’ve seen the south of France on a Toujours Provence tour. And sampling life Under the Tuscan Sun is so, well, 2005.

This year’s hot ticket for the travel-lit crowd is bound to be Bali – one of the key settings in Elizabeth Gilbert’s much-admired memoir Eat, Pray, Love.

If you think Bali – and EPL – are going to fade from the spotlight anytime soon, guess again. A massive international bestseller in 2006, EPL will hit theaters this spring as a major studio release starring Julia Roberts.

And now, a few lucky searchers will have a chance to join the first Eat, Pray, Love guided tour of Bali in May 2010.

The trip is being organized by Spirit Quest Tours of Las Vegas a boutique spiritual travel company – yes, there is such a thing!

In case you’ve forgotten, Eat, Pray, Love chronicled author Gilbert’s year-long emotional and spiritual odyssey on the heels of a crushing divorce. Gilbert headed to Naples (to eat), then an ashram in India (to pray) and finally to the Indonesian paradise of Bali, where, fittingly, she found love.

The Spirit Quest tour is open to 35 travelers only. And while the company can’t promise you’ll fall for a dashing, well-mannered and sexy foreigner, there’s lots on the itinerary that echoes the book.

Guests will sample both Italian and Balinese food, and get in touch with their spiritual inner selves through meditation, yoga and an introduction to the practices of Balinese Hindus.

And when it comes to love, come prepared to be swept away by the power of the Kecak dance. This Balinese dance involves 100 shirtless men in sarongs, simulating fire and wind while chanting simultaneously with one huge voice. The Kecak dance is hot, literally, as some include the man in the middle of the circle playing Hanuman, the monkey god, dancing over fire.

One other difference between Eat, Pray, Love the book, and EPL the tour: forget about sleeping in barren cottages – the Spirit Quest guests will enjoy four-star accommodations. In Ubud, guests will stay at the Alila Hotel, which boasts a stunning infinity pool overlooking the rice paddies, in an eco-friendly room with a private outdoor shower and even an iPod and dock to use on their stay.

To learn more, visit Spirt Quest at www.spiritquesttours.com/bali

Related Articles