“It’s about going back to basics, about having the intent to go back to the root of who you are or who you want to be,” says Yvonne de Suñer Beltran, assistant vice president of experience development for Banyan Tree Group. “I’ve always had a deep desire to retreat inwards, and this is the essence of the naked experience, that we are stripped to our core selves so that we may reconnect to nature and renew our sense of meaning.”
In the lush mountains north of Ubud in Bali, a Banyan Tree resort opened in June with 16 spacious bales, or private villas, that have no walls or doors. There are room numbers, but no room keys. Upon arrival, each visitor is invited to strike a kulkul—a vertically hanging wooden slot drum that’s used in villages as a traditional means of communication and that unleashes a gonglike thud—hailing their arrival to the property and their welcome to its “naked experience.”
No, it’s not a free love commune, although there’s plenty of talk of nature and peace and happiness. The naked experience is an expression of Buahan’s aim to remove any type of physical or mental barrier that may impede an unobstructed connection with nature.
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