Soul Yoga & Craft — Yona
Born in Jakarta. Raised between Borneo and Bali. Based in the Netherlands, with roots stretching into West Africa and Southeast Asia.
This is not a wellness brand. There are no packages, no programmes, no before-and-after. Just yoga the way it was always meant to be — close to the ground, honest, and shaped around the person in front of me.
I was born in Jakarta — North Jakarta, where the floods came every few months and my family raised the floor of our house a little higher each year. I didn't know then why the water kept rising. Later I understood. I carry that understanding into everything I teach.
I am Indonesian — my roots are in Borneo — and I have been a yoga practitioner and teacher for many years. I lived the Indonesian way for 16 years before moving to the Netherlands. The contrast taught me what it means to live in alignment with the earth, and what it costs when we don't.
My practice is not about performance or perfection. It is about listening — to the body, to the land, to what is already there. I work without commercial products wherever I can. I make my own soap, balms and salves from what grows around me. Right now I am traveling through West Africa, learning, teaching, and living close to the ground.
Where the dunes meet the sea
Noordwijkerhout pulls me back every summer — a small town tucked between the Dutch dunes and the North Sea coast. The forests here are quiet and tall. The beach is wide and unhurried. It is one of those places that asks nothing of you except to slow down.
This is where I offer yoga in nature. On the sand, under the trees, with the sound of wind and water as the only backdrop. No studio walls. No mirrors. Just you, the ground beneath you, and whatever you carried in that needs to be put down.
Sessions are one-on-one or in a small group — intimate, unhurried, shaped around what you need. Whether you live nearby and want a regular practice in nature, or you are passing through and want one session that stays with you long after you leave — you are welcome here.
If you're searching for private yoga or outdoor yoga near Noordwijk, Lisse, Sassenheim, Voorhout, Hillegom, De Zilk, Katwijk or anywhere else in the Bollenstreek — I'm happy to come to you, or meet on the beach or in the dunes around Noordwijkerhout. Tourists passing through the region are very welcome too.
The earth is always the best teacher. I only help you listen to it.
What I offer
01
Private and group sessions rooted in breath, body awareness, and stillness. Suitable for all levels. Sessions adapt to where you are — not where you think you should be.
02
One-on-one work for people carrying tension, pain, or disconnection in the body. Slow, attentive, grounded in presence rather than protocol.
03
Outdoor practice in natural settings — forests, shores, open land. The earth is the teacher. I only help you listen.
04
for women
A slow, grounded session of yoga-informed body work — for women who carry a lot and rarely get to put it down. Held in safety, in silence, in care.
More about Skin & Soil →Handmade with nature
No two bars will ever be the same. Each one is born from a small batch — shaped by the season, the land, the oils that were there. The texture, the colour, the scent — all of it alive, all of it unrepeatable. That is not imperfection. That is soul.
Sometimes I carry beeswax home from my travels — raw, golden, offered by beekeepers I meet along the road. It melts into balms and salves that hold something of the place they came from. A little piece of West Africa. A warmth you can feel on your skin.
On request, I also make massage oil, body oil, and face serum — slow, natural, made only for you. Nothing is waiting on a shelf. Everything begins the moment you ask.
Ask me on WhatsAppHow I see it
"True wellness is not a product you buy.
It is a relationship you tend — with your body,
with the land, with the people around you,
and with what has been taken away."
I teach yoga because the body carries wisdom the mind has learned to ignore. I make things by hand because we have been taught to forget what grows around us. I am building a home in West Africa because the earth here is teaching me things I could not learn anywhere else. And I am sitting with women and men — asking honest questions about equality, faith, and what is practised in religion's name.
Stay free
As I travel through West Africa, I meet small lodge owners — families, communities, single people who built something beautiful with their hands. They are often invisible to tourists because they cannot afford to pay commission to the big Western platforms.
Green colonialism is real. Airbnb and Booking.com present themselves as helpful tools, but they extract significant income from local hosts while keeping the platform — and the profit — in the West. A small lodge in The Gambia paying 25% commission to a Dutch company is not progress. It is the same old structure in a new interface.
Each lodge below has a direct Google Maps pin so you can see exactly where it sits on the land, and a direct WhatsApp number so you can book with the owner personally. No forms. No platform. No commission taken from their livelihood.
This directory grows as I travel. If you own a small lodge in West Africa and want to be listed here, reach out to me directly.
Kartong, The Gambia
The Gambia
A handpainted wooden sign on an empty Atlantic beach says everything you need to know about this place: therapy, time to relax. Yaya offers massage, pedicure, manicure, local and European food, fresh juice for D100, coffee and tea — and wooden beach houses for rent, right on the sand in Kartong. Built with hands, run with heart. No reception desk. No booking form. Just call or WhatsApp.
Abéné, Senegal
Senegal
A peaceful lodge in Abéné, southern Senegal — just across the border from Gambia, close to the beach. Run by Lamin with warmth and simplicity. Abéné is a village that moves slowly, surrounded by forest and the rhythms of Casamance. This is not a resort. It is a corner of the world that feels genuinely human.
The Gambia
The Gambia
A small, quietly beautiful lodge in The Gambia — the kind of place you find by being in the right place at the right time. Built with care, run with heart. No platform. No middleman. Just a place on the land.
The Gambia
The Gambia
Beach garden bar and restaurant right on Paradise Beach, with rooms and camping for rent. Run by Bakary — sea views, good food, and the kind of place that exists because someone loved it enough to build it.
The next lodge I meet on the road will appear here.
Are you a small lodge owner in West Africa? Contact Yona to be listed here — free, always.
What I am building
I grew up surrounded by Indonesian Muslim women who run businesses, lead communities, raise families with authority and joy. They are treated as equals. That is not despite their faith — it is part of it.
Here in the smaller villages of West Africa, I see something completely different. Women are seen as homekeepers and nothing more. Good for the household. Not much else. And when I sit with people and listen carefully, I start to notice things — things that are practised in the name of religion but have little to do with what religion actually says.
Having multiple wives, for example. It is presented as faith. But a woman with no voice, no choice, no equality in her own marriage — that is not faith. That is control dressed as tradition. I talk to women and men about this. Not to judge. To notice together.
This is a conversation I am having slowly, with respect, from the inside of these communities — not from the outside looking in.
Listening to women in West African villages talk about their lives — what they want, what they carry, what they have never been asked before.
Honest conversations with men about what equality actually looks like in practice — including the hard questions about polygamy and women's authority.
Exploring the gap between what religion actually says and what is practised in its name — with curiosity, not judgment.
This is still the beginning. I am learning as I go. If this speaks to you — or if you are one of the women or men I have sat with — reach out.
Talk to meRight now
Traveling through West Africa with my partner — putting down roots, building something here. And after this, Indonesia. Different land, same intention: to travel slowly, build a home, and stay long enough to actually be part of a place. Between these worlds, we return each summer to Noordwijkerhout in the Netherlands — a quiet town by the dunes, where the light is soft and the pace is slow.
Wherever I am — West Africa, the Netherlands, Indonesia, or somewhere still unnamed — I am available. Online, or in person, close to the earth.
Book a sessionHandmade soap and balms from what the local land and beekeepers offer. Each batch is different. Each one is honest.
April 2026
It started with soap. Then one by one, the bottles disappeared. This is what nobody tells you about shampoo — and what your hair actually needs.
Read moreMay 2026
Weeks in a treehouse on the Gambian coast — watching a factory empty the ocean and the Atlantic slowly swallow the shore.
Read moreJune 2026
No studio, no mirrors — just sand, wind, the ocean, dogs wandering through, and Dom beside me on his own mat.
Read moreGet in touch
Whether you are looking for yoga guidance, curious about handmade natural craft, or simply want to connect — I am here. Reach out slowly. I will respond in kind.