Fireflies at Bali’s Buahan, A Banyan Tree Escape
New Bali escape's 'no walls, no doors' concept lights up the jungle
Buahan opened in mid-2022.
I call the project "bring back the light" Wayan Wardika tells me as we nimbly navigate our way down steep muddy steps, over a rudimentary bamboo bridge and around the mossy edge of a waterlogged rice paddy.
"My dream is to bring them back," he says, "because I know they were here before, but … environmental issues have pushed them away."
The "light" he is referring to is that of fireflies or "kunang-kunang", those enchanting lamp-lit winged beetles (yes beetles) that were once a common sight in Bali zipping in and out of banana palms and sweet-smelling cempaka trees, dancing across water subaks, and skimming the rocks under burbling waterfalls.
Ask many a Balinese local, especially those from the cooler inland climes around Ubud, and they will, with childlike wonder, retell stories of how, as kids, they chased those luminescent blinks through moonlit gardens and around the inky green night-time jungle.
Such anecdotes often finish with "but the fireflies have all left Bali now" and similarly melancholic refrains, which is why I'm trailing Wayan to a firefly conservatory in the natural jungle surrounds of Buahan, A Banyan Tree Escape, a resort north of Ubud in the small village of Buahan.
Since opening in mid-2022, Buahan, with just 16 luxury bales, or villas, has proven popular thanks mostly to the panoramic views stretching from its main dining area across the pool towards seven enigmatic mountain peaks that materialise majestically from the mist most mornings.
The resort's "no walls, no doors" concept has also garnered attention.
For us it’s a win. The pilgrimage is on my bucket list while I’m here in Bali, but 10 days is a major logistical undertaking, especially with kids. One night sleeping out, however, with food, beds and activities included, is easy. It’s kind of like camping, but Bali-style, without the hard work.
Tim’s idea is that families, or friendship groups, get the opportunity to connect with our hosts Pak Wayan and Ibu Titak, and the surrounding Badung region community of Subak Uma Lambing, the 87-hectare rice farming co-operative that Astungkara Way supports. It’s not difficult. Soon after arrival, staff are on hand to show the kids how to make boats out of banana leaf stems. They are off floating them down the canals before we grown-ups are even part way through crafting ketupat – little rice casings made from young coconut leaves.
Later, at the permaculture garden, the kids are first again to mix compost for planting little pots of rice. Hands readily shoot up with responses to ‘what can we make with rosella and lemongrass?’ (tea) and ‘what do we call cooked rice in Indonesian?’ (nasi).
Dinner is courtesy of Ibu Tatik and her daughter Kadek. It’s a spread of typically delicious Indonesian dishes made from veggies picked in the garden earlier. It includes tofu satay, a soya bean treat known as tempe and one of my newly discovered favorites, sayur urab, a salad of beans and greens mixed with bamboo shoots and grated coconut. Our plates are lined with banana leaves (so there’s no need to do the dishes) and we eat crossed-legged on bamboo mats in the family’s outdoor compound.
The resort's "no walls, no doors" concept has also garnered attention. Guests reside in the cooler mountain air, with just a mosquito net separating the king-sized bed and beautiful copper bathtub from the jungle. The concept has been lauded not only by guests, but by the industry. Being open to the elements is considered a bold move in the luxury space, but it is one that fits with the times, says resort manager Puspa Anggareni, who hails from the village of Selat in East Bali.
"People are looking for real connection in deep nature, and this can't happen behind walls," she says.
Puspa can take credit for luring the resort's inspirational chef Eka Sunarya away from a similarly luxurious five-star resort in Uluwatu, to Buahan, his home village, to head up the kitchen. Eka's approach is true zero-waste, farm-to-table style. And it's not just about micro garnishes, here 70 per cent of the menu is plant-based, with herbs, fruits and flowers often plucked straight from the resort's organic farm and ungentrified landscape when not sourced from farms and producers in the region.
Fireflies use light to communicate.
The resort's "no walls, no doors" concept has also garnered attention. Guests reside in the cooler mountain air, with just a mosquito net separating the king-sized bed and beautiful copper bathtub from the jungle. The concept has been lauded not only by guests, but by the industry. Being open to the elements is considered a bold move in the luxury space, but it is one that fits with the times, says resort manager Puspa Anggareni, who hails from the village of Selat in East Bali.
"People are looking for real connection in deep nature, and this can't happen behind walls," she says.
Puspa can take credit for luring the resort's inspirational chef Eka Sunarya away from a similarly luxurious five-star resort in Uluwatu, to Buahan, his home village, to head up the kitchen. Eka's approach is true zero-waste, farm-to-table style. And it's not just about micro garnishes, here 70 per cent of the menu is plant-based, with herbs, fruits and flowers often plucked straight from the resort's organic farm and ungentrified landscape when not sourced from farms and producers in the region.
The firefly conservatory was Puspa's idea too. She met Wayan in his home village of Taro four years ago and they started talking about his firefly passion.
Since the resort opening, the firefly project has been happily humming along in the background, but the annual Balinese Nyepi [Nyepi] celebration, an auspicious 24 hours of silence and Bali's Caka New Year, falls on March 22. The resort plans to symbolically release the fireflies to mark the day.
The conservatory is as enchanting as the fireflies themselves, the little bamboo hobbit house is tucked into the side of the hill and has a welcoming front door. Inside the fairytale terrarium, water spouts from a bamboo pipe into a lotus-covered pond, epiphytes clad the crosshatch ceiling, and a garden is crowded with ferns, flowers and grasses. Little black gauze boxes are the "honeymoon suites" where Wayan controls the fragile breeding cycle of the fireflies with the perfect combination of pristine soil, water and air.
It is the pollution of these three elements that has seen the demise of fireflies across Bali, says Wayan, who works with biology experts from Bali's University of Udayana. Along with the fourth element, light pollution.
"Fireflies use light to communicate," he says. "Twenty to 25 years ago we can find fireflies almost everywhere because everywhere is dark. Now everywhere is bright." He believes fireflies are an indicator of how nature is faring.
In the ecosystem around the conservatory, it is well and truly alive. Synchronised pairs of yellow butterflies twirl around each other, cicadas buzz and birds lark and coo. The small hillside rice paddies, free of pesticides and agricultural chemicals, nod to Bali's burgeoning regenerative rice movement. On the edge of the property, water gushes from on high into the Agung River.
As I look from the conservatory up towards the resort, I note it is brilliantly camouflaged, the human-made elements hidden in a festival of tree trunks, palm fronds, vines and oversized leaves. On Nyepi, when the lights are out and not even a candle is allowed to flicker, the resort will be immersed in darkness. All the better to see fireflies that here, at least, still glow strong.
Penny Watson travelled as a guest of Buahan, A Bayan Tree Escape.
THE DETAILS
Villas at Buahan, A Banyan Tree Estate from $1870 a villa a night. This is a half-board rate that includes breakfast, dinner, a sarong for each guest, use of villa mountain bikes and daily fresh juices, infused local drinks, daily snack and fruit, and shuttle bus to Ubud.
FLY
Qantas flies daily non-stop from Sydney and Melbourne to Denpasar's I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport. From there it's a two-hour taxi ride to the resort. See qantas.com
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