We just got back from 5 nights in Ubud and 10 nights at the KP. It was our first stay in Ubud and we loved it. Don't know if we looked in the wrong places but we found the shopping there to be much like Kuta/Legain. There were certainly more art shops but I think there was a need to move away from the centre to get a better selection of arts/crafts etc.Ubud was at a different pace to Kuta, much more relaxed and a great place to unwind. I think that we are really over the shopping thing now and we both needed to be in quite place in a beautiful environment. So its more Ubud for us next time.
Kumala Pantai? We stayed there for the first time last year and loved it. The hotel and service is still great. But just a word about the new extentions. We stayed in B Block Our verander looked out to the pool and was lovely. B Block backs onto the extentions. The extentions consist of basically 3 new blocks built the same has the existing blocks. There are two blocks under construction and these have just the floors and pillars in place. The third block has the base completed and the re-enforcement in place for the other floors to be poured.
It looks like the hotel will basically double in size. It does not look like there is room for another pool in the new extention.
In regard to the noise levels, bear in mind this is Bali and the only machine noise is from the cement mixers. Currently most of the noise is from the banging of nails and sawing of timber as staging is constructed for the concrete.
Work starts at 8am and finish at 6pm every day. They then retire to makeshift huts on the building site.
Some banging can be heard at the pool and B Block is probably the worse for direct noise.Having said this I should say that the level of noise didnt bother us too much,we were out of the room all day and the work is stopped by 6pm every night.
Hope this helps