Heavenly Bali

The luxurious hill resorts in Ubud are highly recommended for total seclusion and relaxation. Just close your eyes and pick any of them. All of them must have something great to offer.

Balinese food - Babi guling (roasted pork rice) and Bebek Bengil (dirty duck). Very tasty! Most of all, Balinese smiles. People are very friendly and helpful there. They provide top-notch service with top of the world smiles. You'll love them and wonder why terrorism could ever happen to people as lovely as them?!

Quick Tips:

Best handicraft shopping can be found in Ubud. I managed to haggle the price down 60%! Best Balinese furniture shopping can be found in Seminyak. Best Kecak dance show is none other than the one at Uluwatu (6pm everyday), with spectacular background of the Uluwatu cliff and sunset. It is also cheaper than the ones staged in Ubud.

Best Way To Get Around:

Bali is not really huge but it is very hilly, and the road system is not very developed. The best way to travel around Bali for sight-seeing is to hire a taxi with a driver. It should costs around per day including petrol and parking fee. For short trips, cabbies are easily flagged down by the road, if they have not made their presence known to you yet.

We were very lucky to be able to grab the great deal from Komaneka ; a 2-day, 1-night stay at Komaneka Tanggayuda that only cost $185 (this promotion is no longer valid now). For this great price, we got the best room of the resort (the valley pool villa), where we had a private villa with spectacular view of the valley from our plunge pool and gazebo—privacy guaranteed. The interior of the villa consists of typical Balinese furnishings; like the four-poster, king-size bed, and comfortable daybed. There is also a CD and DVD player, and we could borrow CD or DVD from the resort library. The washroom is huge, it can probably fit one and a half bedrooms in my apartment. There are two vanities, one dressing table, one shower, one toilet, separated into two more rooms.

The most attractive of all is the hand-carved volcanic stone bathtub for two, right beside the lotus pond (separated by a glass window to prevent mosquitoes from coming in). The water in the bathtub was delightfully scented with frangipani flower petals right when we checked into the room. Absolutely wonderful!! The resort also provide free shuttle service to and from Ubud at certain time, and free tickets to Neka museum and tour to white heron village. In the afternoon we just relaxed by the hotel infinity pool looking down at the valley, with free afternoon tea and local cakes. The flawless service and the perfect setting of this resort made our stay the most memorable and pampering one in this trip.

If you are looking for a vacation away from it all, and dine-in meals at your resort instead of in town, this resort is the ideal place to be. Situated at a cul-de-sac near the Uluwatu temple (about 1 hour bumpy ride from Kuta), it offers a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean below. Especially spectacular is the infinity pool that gives the optical illusion of flowing water into the ocean far below the cliff. This resort also has a beautiful glass wedding chapel, a smaller version of the glass chapel at Tirtha Bali Uluwatu.

Room rates vary from a $120 standard studio, to a $680 presidential ocean view villa. The staff here is very friendly as well. We just visited the villa to spend the time gap before the ideal time for sunset at Uluwatu temple. However, the staff happily showed us around and showered us with more information than we need! For this, I must compliment their enthusiasm and we do appreciate their kindness very much.

This hotel is situated in a perfect location, within walking distance to Kuta beach (only 200m away!) and within the bustling shopping district itself. For $25 per double room per night (breakfast included), it is truly a bargain. The double room is equipped with air-conditioning, a private bathroom, a telephone, and an in-house cable TV. There are cheaper rooms with less amenities. Ask at the reception for choices of rooms, and it is perfectly okay to bargain for lower prices than the published rates. There is also a swimming pool in the hotel if you have had enough of the hassling in Kuta beach.

The hotel provides free airport transfers, as well as free transport to the seafood restaurant at Jimbaran Beach. However, for the latter, the Bali Summer driver dropped us off at a designated restaurant in Jimbaran Bay and the restaurant charged us a commission for the driver, on top of the food price (this is just my guess, as it was not written anywhere on the bill). The driver got a free meal, and then he waited for us to finish dinner and drive us back to the hotel. For the convenience, I guess I shouldn't complain. It also saved us trouble on deciding which restaurant to go to because Jimbaran Bay has countless seafood restaurants by the beach offering exactly the same menu.

Overall, I would recommend Bali Summer hotel for the strategic location and good value.

Dewangga Bungalows is centrally located in the heart of Ubud, the cultural district of Bali. Set amidst a lush tropical garden and trickling water features, the bungalows are all individually designed with Balinese furnishing and original carvings by a renowned Balinese artist.

We stayed at Dewangga Homestay, the cheapest category of Dewangga Bungalows, which cost us only Rp140000 per night for a double room with ensuite facility and hot shower, breakfast included. There is only fan in the room and mosquito coils are provided. The room is basic but comfortable. What I like most is the patio outside the room, where we could relax and laze around on the bamboo arm chair. The only complaint I have was that we had to share the toilet with a huge army of black ants at night. However, they vanished on its own in the morning. Weird!

The friendly staff at Dewangga Bungalows also made the stay a true Balinese experience.

We booked this hostel online, not knowing what we'd gotten ourselves into. The Ratna Room, with a fan and cold shower, costing only $10 per room, including breakfast, was a real eye-opener when I saw it online and immediately booked it. Indeed, our stay was an eye-opening experience, with horror. The room and bed sheet were very dusty, and it looked as if no one has stayed there for months. The room is very small and hot, and there's a fan provided, but it's still too hot to bear. There are two windows in front of the room that comes with just a very thin, tiny curtain. That means there's no privacy at all in this room. The toilet was another horror story. There were cockroaches running around, the toilet flush wasn't working, and the toilet-bowl condition was enough to make you lose your appetite for days.

I wouldn't recommend the Ratna room to anyone. However, they do have other types of room with higher prices that might be in better condition.

Although it is voted best restaurant in Bali and reputed with a Balinese cooking school, I think this restaurant is definitely over-rated. The ambience of the restaurant is typically Balinese. The food is traditional Balinese style but somehow I think the Balinese restaurants in Malaysia tasted even better and with lower price! The set dinner(BALINESE RIJSTTAFEL Rp185,000) offers a huge variety, with three appetizers, one soup, seven dishes with rice, and four types of desserts. It is enough for two moderate eaters. Bumbu Bali scored in terms of variety, but not taste, service, nor value-for-money. If given a choice, I would rather eat in a cheap 'warung' for authentic Balinese cuisine.

The specialty of this warung (hawker stall) is the nasi babi guling (roast suckling pig).This dish is an all-in-one platter of rice with pork meat, fried pork skin, pig intestines, gizzet, and vegetables. This dish is not recommended for people who do not eat pork.

For pork eaters, this is the mother of all pork dishes. The pork meat is nicely marinated and very tender. The fried pork skin is very crispy and delicious. Finger licking good!

This shop is loved by the locals and tourists alike. The atmosphere is very casual, everyone sits on the floor, sharing a long low table while Ibu Oka, the owner of the stall I presume, shaves the tender juicy meat off the pig hanging on the kitchen.

Highly recommended just for the experience of a local food stall, and also for the lovely pork dish! Most of all, the food and drinks combined will only set you back around Rp30000 or less.

 

Bebek Bengil, translated to English, means Dirty Duck. The signature dish of this restaurant is none other than dirty duck, done to perfect crisp. Highly recommended to be eaten with your hands. It might be a bit dry for French connoisseurs, but what the heck, we are in Bali! Other than the dirty duck, they also have local cuisine like nasi goreng (fried rice), nasi campur (mixed rice set). The mixed rice set is very delicious, and satisfying too.

This restaurant also prides itself on having the most unique ambience in the whole of Bali. It was built right next to a padi field, with open air huts spread out near the padi field and lotus ponds. The huts have low tables where we sat on the floor with many comfortable pillows to enjoy our meal, and the scenery. To get a place at the limited huts, reservation is highly recommended. Other than the sit-on-the-floor huts, there is also another section with cafe style decor, and another section with daybeds and sofas for pre-dinner cocktail. There is also live traditional music performances at one corner. This place looks amazing, especially during sunset, as the footpath around the restaurant to the padi field will be lit up with oil lamps. This restaurant has become a tourist attraction. Do pay a visit there, if not for the food,  for the beautiful place.

Cycling in Ubud is highly recommended for those who don't mind a combination of uphill and downhill roads. We rented our bicycles from our resort in Tanggayuda, and cycled along the road towards Kedewatan. A recommended stop is the viewpoint just beside Kupu-Kupu Barong resort. We locked our bicycles near the entrance to the view point(it was safe) and started our trek to Ayung River. At the mid point, we had a good view of the valley of lush green padi fields and the flowing Ayung river glittering in the morning sun. There are some recommended treks which might take half a day but as we did not have enough time, we did not take the trek. You might bump into a 'freelance' trekking guide who would volunteer his service of taking you for a tour around the valley, I'm not sure if it'll be a rip-off as we did not take his service. We trekked down to the ayung river, walked across the hanging bridge to cross Ayung river. It was a very easy track.

After our trekking, on the way back to our resort, we stopped at one high-end resort to check out the interior and spa. We picked Royal Pita Maha Resort and Kirana spa, which is right next to the resort. This resort was incredibly large, from the top of the hill all the way down to the Ayung River valley below. The view was splendid. The price per room was also magnificent—it'll burn a hole in your pocket. Maybe it was the low season for the resort and spa, the staff in both resort and spa was very friendly, courteously showed us around the resort and explained to us the facilities, hoping that we would come back to the resort one day as their guests. Especially worth a visit is Kirana Spa, the mother of all luxurious spas. The spa is as big as a small hotel, you have to see it to believe it! It is definitely a good place to splurge when you need a little bit of pampering.

From Royal Pita Maha, we cycled uphill all the way back to Tanggayuda, where we branched out from the main road to the padi field. We jumped down from our bicycle and took a leisurely walk around the padi field just to soak in the atmosphere of a Balinese village.

The whole journey took us around 4 hours, including the stops in between. If we had more time in our hands, we would love to cycle a little bit more and explore more resorts along the Ayung river, which are all the luxurious resorts and offering magnificent views of Ayung river valley.

We hired a driver for 2 days to bring us to the sights of Bali. Our driver is Made (pronounced as Ma-De), a cheerful, reliable and honest driver. He is contact-able through his mobile phone 08123608229. I do highly recommend him as he charged a very reasonably price, was punctual and very accommodating.

Unlike my usual tight travel schedule, I decided to slow down to Balinese pace this time and only visit a couple of sights each day. We started out to visit the Four Seasons Resort in Jimbaran, en route to Uluwatu. There was a strict security check at the entrance to Four Seasons due to the recent bombing within the vicinity. We got in all right and had a look around the luxurious resort. The staff were all very friendly and made us feel really welcomed although they did realize we are not guests of the hotel. I even received a little souvenir flower from the little girl who dressed in traditional Balinese dance attire.

After Four Seasons, we drove to Tirtha Bali where my dream wedding location is. Tirtha Bali did look as good as what I've seen in magazines, if not better. It has a glass chapel overlooking the Indian Ocean below. It was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful.

We still had some time to kill before sunset and the Kecak Dance show in Uluwatu, so we visited some other small hotels around that area. We headed to Uluwatu around 5pm to stroll around the temple first. Do beware of monkeys when you go to Uluwatu as the monkeys are more cunning than snatch thieves! They snatch away whatever that can be removed from you, cabs, glasses, even cameras! Some of the monkeys are as big as a dog! No kidding!

Perched on top of a cliff with magnificent view of the open sea, Uluwatu has the perfect location to house the Kecak Dance performance. The show starts at 6pm everyday. If you only decide to watch one cultural performance in Bali, this should be it! I would recommend watching the show in Uluwatu because the open-air theatre here did really make the show even more interesting, especially when you can watch the beautiful sunset over Uluwatu while enjoying the show. It was cheaper too, as compared to Ubud.

After the Kecak dance show, we headed to Tanjung Benoa for a famous Balinese restaurant - Bumbu Bali. From my opinion, I think this restaurant is totally overrated. It was a complete waste of time to detour all the way to this part of the island for the overpriced yet disappointing food in Bumbu Bali.

Made brought us safely back to our guesthouse in Legian for the night, where our nightmarish accommodation experience was about to begin...

Early in the morning, our good driver Made was already waiting for us at the guesthouse lobby. We went directly to Tanah Lot temple before it gets too hot and too crowded. When we reach there, we almost have the whole place to ourselves, except that the sea around Tanah Lot was full of surfers! There are 2 temples in Tanah Lot, one on an island maybe 20m off the shore and none of them permitted tourists to its interior.

During low tide, visitors could walk to the island from the shore and receive a blessing ritual from the priest, of course, with a price.

From Tanah Lot, we continued our journey to Tegalallang to see the tiered padi fields on hills. It was not worth the trouble to go all the way to see this. I would recommend to skip this. Our next stop was Ubud, where we had one of our best meal in Bali - roasted pig rice. This humble shop was recommended to us by our driver Made.

Ubud is a relaxing village filled with artists. There are many world-class hill resorts around this area. Central Ubud which is bustling with handicraft market/shops, nice cafes/restaurants is best covered by foot. Souvenir shopping in Ubud is very rewarding. It is the cheapest in Bali and full of varieties, definitely a heaven for shopaholics. Ubud also boasts of many Balinese spas that fit every budget, from the very high end Kirana Spa to low key spas even backpackers can afford.

Of all the places I visited in Bali, I love Ubud the most. The unmistakably Balinese relaxed pace is felt here, even in bustling Central Ubud. Just 1 or 2km outside the town centre, lush green countryside welcomed us with open arms. I would definitely return to Bali again, not for the sights, but for the lovely people, the relaxing atmosphere, and for the love of Balinese handicraft!