JBR. (1) After a nice quiet Christmas day with family we flew out with Garuda on Boxing Day. Good trip but noticed that no alcohol was on the food trolley and not offered, suppose we where supposed to request it? No problems on arrival and we went straight up to the Champlung Sari on Monkey forest road Ubud.(Thanks Burti for your information on your experience there)The first room offered was totally un acceptable with water leaking through the bathroom ceiling and dripping near electrical outlets. After 'jumping up and down a little bit' we where given another room which was huge (like HELLO pass the salt) the new bathroom was also very large. It appears that all the rooms overlooking the pool side are very tired and need some TLC while the ones behind the reception area have all been renovated. The breakfasts where OK but not much choice
The hotel is right at the bottom of Monkeyforest road and the morning climb up was a bit tiring but we made it and walked a lot around Ubud, I would not recommend this location to anyone who has respiratory or walking problems. They have a free built in awake system in the hotel when the monkeys hit the roof at about 6.30am and put on a good show, one morning we lay in bed while a family occupied our verandah with the baby monkey staring at us through the window, like a reverse zoo with animals outside viewing humans inside lol .Did the markets and found the people there quite aggressive asking crazy prices initially, bought a bed quilt (queen size) there forRp 250,000, quality was excellent. Went to Sukawati market, our favorite, bought another quilt (double Size) for Rp 90,000(quality so so) the traders here are not so much in your face with the exception of the ladies at the entrance selling their hand made table cloths who reminded us of the Kintamani hawkers. As usual we filled our suitcases with clothing, this time with mature clothing for a change as these people need handouts too and we distributed them in little villages along the way to Pejaten village which is south of Tabanan town and if the price of a smile is a hat ,tee-shirt then so be it. This is a district that specializes in making roofing tiles and fancy ceramic goods, I enjoyed it but maybe not all would think so. The roofing tiles are pressed out of clay type material then laid out on rice straw to dry. When dry each one is hand painted and then fired in a huge kiln, the fuel being coconut shells. We went on to Tanna Lot which was so busy with tourists; they have smartened up the place generally since our last visit. On the 'eats front' we went to the infamous Naughty Nuris warung(he used to post here), this is neither a restaurant nor a café but a true warung supported by local ex-pats and a few tourists clean, cheap, good Indonesian food and yes I did buy his tee shirt !.We went to Café Wyan on Monkey forest road quite a few times including New Years Eve where they put on a great spread and also some Balinese dancing. Our biggest disappointment was going to the famous Café Lotus .The food and service left a lot to be desired, the waiter was trying to serve us the main meal while we were still on our starters, and the 'spicy' bit was very bland, we complained to the manager a European 'gentleman' who was so arrogant and self-centered believing everything was wonderful. A shame as the settings are beautiful, we presumed that the manager would walk on the ponds in his spare time. We enjoyed the Casa Luna. Next stop, Pelangi in Seminyak