Tegal Sari looked nothing from the outside but once you walked through the gate it's gorgeous. We stayed in the duplex room which looks exactly as it is shown on their website. A 4 poster bed upstairs, a balcony overlooking the rice paddies. We spent a lot of time here sipping a glass of wine& just watching the rice grow. Downstairs a toilet & vanity, a Jacuzzi & shower outside, very relaxing, bring your own bubblebath. These 4 days were spent going on long walks, getting lost, & just unwinding. Coffee at Tutmaks, meals at many different restaurants.
The gastronomic highlight was lunch at Warung Babi Guling opposite the palace. It was busy with lots of locals, not a westerner in sight. It is a bale with grass matting on the floor. You take your sandals off & leave them on the steps in muddy water with dozens of other pairs. There are long communal tables & you just find a space & squeeze in. It was very different & exciting, not knowing how to order or what you'll get.
We started talking to a few guys around us, they worked at the Four Seasons. We told them we were from Melbourne, they said 'Toorak?, St Kilda?' Then one said 'Zone 1', 'Zone 2', We said 'Frankston, Zone 3' This caused giggles all round. The staff at Four Seasons do get to share the service charge. This was something we wondered about.
We ordered 2 small bintangs & sipped on those while we waited for our plate of suckling pig. It finally arrived, 10000rp for a heaped plate, plenty for us to share. Rice, Balinese vegetables, roast pork with crackle, fried insides? & a sausage looking thing that turned out to be intestine filled with coagulated blood.. The flavours were fabulous, quite hot, it left your lips tingling. The sausage was disgusting, we both sat chewing with that 'I think I'm going to be sick look' & then quickly took a mouth full of bintang to wash it down. It was great food & a great experience that we wouldn't have wanted to miss. A must for our next Bali holiday.
We did the cooking class orgnised through Tegal Sari (150000rp ea) along with 5 others. We talked about ingredients then began making the spice pastes, very hands on. We learnt to make Tum Ayam, minced chicken in banana leaf; Ikan Pepes, steamed marinated fish in banana leaf; gado gado, nasi goreng, mie goring, a caramelized pork dish & Balinese pancakes. Went for about 4hrs, Anita & I were really relieved when finally we got to eat this banquet. It was delicious.
We had an afternoon at the Zen Body Holiday & had the Mandi Lular. Traditional massage, a body scrub & a bath filled with water petals. All up 1.3/4hrs of pampering (with a few painful moments thrown in) Glad we've done it but both of us agree we don't need to do it again.
We had a wonderful few days in Ubud, 4 days was not long enough. Finally it was time to leave. The staff at Tegal Sari were fantastic, nothing was too much trouble. When it came time to pay the bill they had undercharged us 1 million rp. We pointed their mistake out to them. Once paid up we walked across the road to Perama to catch the bus down to Kuta.They bought the luggage over in the car. A little later one of the guys came running over with a pr of bathers I had left in the room. Karma.