This trip was a spur of the moment girls week away, my mother, two of my sisters and myself, we decided to go at the last minute, and this meant we had to stay 9 nights instead of 7 because of flight availability, we felt very pleased with this! and all agreed it was great way to start off our little get away.
We flew with Jet*, I figure all planes land just as hard when they crash and while I'm in the air that's the only thing I worry about, so I took my little pink pill and found Jet* to be just fine.
Actually our flight over was quite eventful but that's nottagens story to tell if she wants to, I'll just say we found the cabin crew to be absolutely wonderful and very caring when we needed them.
Our flight over was delayed by more than a couple of hours and it was around 12-1am by the time we emerged from the airport, thanks to my pills and a few dramas I don't remember the time, but it was very late. We figured if our hotel driver wasn't there we would just get a taxi, but I was very happy to see my name on a little sign, he had waited! so we set off for Ubud.
We had trouble booking accommodation on such short notice, all our usual places and others that are highly recommended were either full or only had one room. We ended up staying at the Saren Indah Hotel in Nyuh Kuning Village (thanks to those who recommended it),it is just on the other side of the monkey forest, near the Alam hotels. I love this area, it is so quite, yet only a five minute walk to the bottom of Monkey Forest road.
The Saren Indah is surrounded by lush gardens and rice fields,our rooms were spotlessly clean, the pool was perfect, the staff lovely and the whole place was unmistakably Bali. One morning mum was on the veranda when I hear this worried little voice "Debbie, ooh Debbie, quick!" I came running out to see the tail end of a huge monkey go around the corner, mum said he just jumped onto the rail, then down onto the ground in front of her, we watched as he went up and down stairs visiting different rooms, it was very entertaining.
HOTELS
As usual we we walked and shopped and ate, this trip we also looked at a lot hotels, I've only ever done this when we haven't booked and need a place to stay, so looking at rooms just out of curiosity and for future reference, was great fun.
We looked at places we had tried to book into, and places we opted not to stay at. I love out of the way small hotels, with a definite Balinese ambiance, and I am easily put off just by a hotels size, I have included my thoughts on the hotels we looked at mainly for myself so I can print it off and keep it for future reference. Most of the hotels we looked at I liked, but I wouldn't chose any of them over the Alam hotels, which I love, OK maybe the Tegal Sari Villa for a couple of nights!
# Gustis Place : didn't look at the rooms as the entrance really put us off, but once you got past what I assume is the family compound the garden and out look was beautiful.
# Ubud Village Hotel: my sisters are staying here for the first time in December so wanted to check it out, they liked it.
#Pertiwi: looked nice and clean but the gardens didn't have that lush Bali feel, and the room decor was a bit to modern for me.
# Cendana Resort: this place was a real surprise as we hadn't heard about it and just stumbled upon it while googling, it is really rustic with beautiful old gardens, full of Bali charm and character, the deluxe rooms near the salt water pool were huge and really nice, if I ever wanted to stay along Monkey Forest road I would stay here.
# Tegal Sari: this had the most beautiful rice field views out of all the hotels, along with Green Fields. It was a lot bigger than I expected and we seemed to walk and walk before we got to the room we looked at. It was the funniest thing getting up the giant stairs to the room, we were having fits of the giggles, those are big stairs!! The room was nice, but no better than Saren Indah, but the view was gorgeous. Then he took us to see the villa, OH MY GOD how amazing is it! nothing like what I would normally look at, so modern but we all agreed we would like to stay there for a couple of nights next girls trip away.
# Green Fields: the entrance to this hotel leaves a lot to be desired but it looks like they are working on it? the views were the same as Tegal Sari and the room we saw was absolutely beautiful, huge and so decorative, the pool was also gorgeous.
# Bali Spirit: by the time we got here it was dark so can't comment on the grounds or views, but from what we could see I would say they were really nice and lush, lots of stairs up and down to pool and restaurant, But the rooms we saw were so tiny and damp smelling, I wouldn't stay here.
# Alam Jiwa: I have stayed here before and love it, I wanted to show the girls, nottagen loved it.
# Alam Shanti: it is closer to town than Jiwa and not as old, could any one look at the Yamuna room and not lust to stay here?
# Alam Indah: I haven't stayed here before but had already booked into the gardenia suite for a week in December, with the hubby and kids. It is every thing I was hoping for, a place to totally loose ourselves in Bali, far away from the hustle, but still so close to every thing, it was fully booked so we couldn't see any rooms, but I know they are going to be beautiful, and we are going to love it.
FOOD
# my favourite was Cafe Wayan: Beautiful setting at night, little candles and soft lighting, scattered about the garden. We had the best chicken sate here, and caramel cream yummmm! we all stuffed ourselves and I declared I couldn't even finish my dessert, one little mouthful that I just couldn't eat! we asked for the bill and with it came four plates of ice cream and fruit "No no we didn't order that" we say, " No, but it is for you, from us" says the waitress, so so funny, we had to say thank you, that is lovely and eat as much as we could while trying to suppress our laughing and keeping it all in our over stuffed stomachs! Not sure why we got our free dessert, didn't see anyone else get it, is it normal? I was having a chat with the waitress about the Alam hotels and how much I love them so maybe that's why?
# Laka Leke (spelling?): Again a beautiful setting at night time, soft lighting with bales scattered among the garden, as with Cafe Wayan you could either sit at a table or on cushions on the floor.
SHOPPING
Did lots of shopping, favourite silver shop fixed price on Monkey Forest road: Rena's.
Most interesting for me this time was : Amnesia, down the bottom of Monkey Forest road.
What is with the stupid starting prices at the markets? dresses that were worth about 30,000 starting at 280,000! starting prices were really really high.
Favourite thing I bought in Ubud was a silver bird, very decorative, started at about 300,000 and I got it for 100,000, I later saw it for sale on the second floor at Geneva's for fixed price 675,000!!!!!
BUMI SEHAT BIRTHING CLINIC
Again thanks to everyone who gave me advice on visiting the centre, I had collected lots and lots of baby clothes for the centre and was quite worried about getting it through customs, all our bags were as full as we could have them, it turned out we didn't really go through customs anyway, so I needn't have worried!
It felt good to help the clinic as they do a wonderful job, they offered to give us a tour but we didn't feel comfortable with that, so just signed their visitors book and gave our baby clothes.
That's about enough rambling for Ubud next is Legian and I don't really like the Kuta/Legian area, so I guess it will be a different type of JBR.
Cheers Deb.