The silence of Nyepi day ended 6am morning and I can hear the engine of motorbike roaring from nearby.
Few more hours and we will be leaving this lovely island. All of us woked up early. As usual, I make my first cup of coffee to start my day. Breakfast was served at 7:00am so that we can have enough time to do some last minute shopping. We requested for the hotel transport to take us to Ubud art market.
Is 8:30am, the stalls in Ubud market just started operation and busy moving out goods for display. I checked around pottery stalls trying to find the round pot that used for mosquito coil (you can find the similar item provided for mosquito coil in Tegal-sari's room, I was told by Ketut, the driver who drove us to Art Market that is called "Tempat untuk Ubat Nyamuk yang dibuat dari tanah", the direct translation will be "place for mosquito drug and is made of clay", although I felt that it doesn't sound quite right from my interpretation in Bahasa Melayu, but anyway, I used what was told and the stall understand what I wanted). I find the pot quite unique with the cover having a frog design on it, and we were unable to get the similar type back in Malaysia, so we decided to look for it this trip. Finally we found one store with the item, but they have the last 3 pieces left. 2 black and 1 brown. The stall owner wanted RP100K per piece which we think the price is too high, we told her we don't have a deep pocket but later she was willing bring down the price and offered all 3 pieces at RP100K. She told us that her first business for the day and also the first in their year (after Nyepi), so we bought all the 3 pieces.
My wife was looking for square pillow covers for our living room back home, this trip, we noticed more varity of pillow cover can be found interms of design and it also come in different colors like green or purple, very "Zen" feel and is suitable for if you are using the "Zen" theme at home. Those coloured ones were quite expensive. My wife bought 8 rustic looking (beige cotton) Balinese square pillow covers at RP16K each, consider a good buy. We also bought a few packets of the Balinese Coffee (brand is : Kupu Kupu Bola Dunia) from a convenient shop nearby. Is RP16,000 for the big pack and RP13K for the smaller one pack in 3 small packet per pack. Also I walked into a music CD shop and bought a Gamelan collection. I found that the CD at Ubud is quite expansive....
Around 10:30am, we are all set and got all items as planned. I borrowed the phone (RP1,000 per call) from a restaurant and requested the tegal-sari's van to pick us up at in front of the polis hut at the corner of Ubud Art market at 11am. While waiting for the van, the mini bus driver came to me to offer his transport back to hotel at RP20K, I rejected him politely but he kept on harping us to take his transport.... I guessed they must be very desparate for tourist business...
Back to hotel at around 11:30am and did the last round of packing and luggage is ready to go...Ketut waited at our terrace and help us load our luggage to the reception. We took a final check of the room to ensure we did not left any stuff behind....Take a last look of the progress of the sparrow building their nest above the entrance pilar, still the same as the first day we checked in...... ;-)
At the reception, thought if we could thank Nyoman who worked during Nyepi for his delightful service but he was off, and another Nyoman was on duty. Check out is quite smooth, we also booked the hotel transport to send us to Airport (RP175,000). The same price as what the airport charge and is reasonable.
On our way to Airport, was chatting with the driver, Ketut and he told me that he had worked for Tegal Sari for 7 years and he like his job... I noticed all staff in Tegal Sari, they are passionate in their job, as you can see the way they handled your request, and they really have a good team of people and that is why I think it bring out the success for Tegal Sari in the hospitality business....Hope the hotel will keep up the phase and continue to grow their passionate team of people.
Travelling back to Bali within this year is not possible in our schedule, but really looking forward to my 4th trip to Bali again next year...
Thanks again to all forummers who have contributed their valuable experiences in this forum and also the informations for our trip plan.
Thank you for reading my JBR.