A Quiet Valley, a Radical Career Change
Sidemen sits in a fertile stretch of East Bali that most package tourists never reach. Rice fields terrace down toward the Telaga Waja river, and Mt Agung dominates the skyline. It is in this setting that Samanvaya, a boutique resort whose name is Sanskrit for "harmony," has taken shape over the past several years under the ownership of Tracey and Rob Rackliff, two former New Zealand detective sergeants who left careers spanning decades to build something entirely their own.
As first reported by Stuff's House of Wellness magazine, the couple's pivot began not in Bali but in the Solomon Islands, where they were on a two-year deployment from Masterton, Wairarapa. Working in a compound secured by barbed wire and commuting in a bulletproof truck, they found themselves unexpectedly energised by the shift from frontline policing to mentoring. The tropical climate helped too. By the time they returned, they had settled on Bali as the place to build a new life.
What Samanvaya Offers
The Rackliffs spent six months in Bali in 2017 scouting the island before Samanvaya came up in the final weeks of their search. The existing property had 18 standalone wood and bamboo villas perched above the Telaga Waja ravine. The couple retained and renovated those, now called the Lifestyle Villas, then purchased adjoining land to add ten Wellness Villas, each a two or three-bedroom standalone pool villa. The expanded resort also includes a spa with a dedicated water-therapy area, restaurants, and a gym.
The design choices reflect the site's character. Villas are built from charcoal-coloured stone quarried from Mt Agung itself, and interiors combine traditional Balinese craft with a clean contemporary aesthetic. Careful placement of walls and dense tropical planting gives each villa full privacy, with plunge pools and, in some cases, outdoor natural stone baths overlooking the river valley.
A structural engineer was brought in to manage the steep, terraced terrain, but the layout and material selections were the Rackliffs' own. Tracey has noted that their constant on-site presence, a consequence of the resort being their full-time life, is what guests most often credit for the attention to detail.
Community Ties in Sidemen
During the pandemic, when tourism across Bali effectively stopped, the Rackliffs established Support Sidemen, an initiative that has continued beyond the crisis. It provides school supplies to local communities and relief assistance after natural disasters. Most of the resort's staff come from the surrounding villages, so the connection between the property and the valley it sits in is practical as well as philosophical.
Tracey has spoken openly about the perspective Bali has given her, describing how living in a place with deep spiritual traditions and visible daily hardship recalibrates what matters. That outlook appears to inform how the resort is run, not as a luxury bubble sealed from its surroundings but as a business embedded in a specific community.
Why It Matters for Hosts
Samanvaya's trajectory offers a concrete lesson for independent operators in Sidemen and similar off-the-beaten-path destinations across Bali: a community-support programme, even a modest one, can become a genuine differentiator. Guests who choose boutique properties in quieter valleys are often specifically seeking authentic local connection. Formalising that connection, as the Rackliffs did with Support Sidemen, gives those guests a tangible story and gives the property a reason to be trusted by the community it depends on for staff, supplies, and goodwill. Operators who invest in that relationship before they need it are better positioned when disruptions, whether a pandemic or a natural disaster, arrive.
Details about Samanvaya and the Rackliffs' story were first reported by Stuff's House of Wellness magazine, written by Anna King Shahab.
First reported by Bali Travel.