Well we got back from bali on the 22nd april and the bali blues are here to stay! On our 4th day we headed of to Ubud today....what an awesome place! We stayed at hotel Tjampuhan....It is set on the side of a hill overlooking the river below and is set amongst jungle like gardens...which took my breathe away! You step out of the shuttle into their reception area and right in front of you is this spectacular view...its quite high up you feel like u are amongst the tree tops! You stay in these villa type rooms which all have ensuites and they are set into the side of the hill. We had one with a balcony which is great for having that late afternoon drink while you soak in the view and the atmosphere. You can choose from a fan cooled or air con room. The only downside for some people may be the many stairs which lead throughout the beautiful gardens but after a few rice wines and/or bintangs theyre a piece of cake! It has two swimming pools one which is spring fed, which are surrounded by lush greenery and lots of frogs and monkeys carved out of stone. There is two bars and two restaurants. Our package included a free candlelight dinner...this in itself was truely amazing....we had the whole restaurant to ourselves, and had a four course meal and two free drinks. There is always the soothing sound of the river running below the resort and in the mornings you can look out from either your balcony or bed and see lots of squirrels in the trees, which were intrigueing to watch. Breakfast is included in the package and the banana pancakes and coffee are to die for! The restaurant you have breakfast at is open on one side where you can sit and look out over the valley and tree tops. There is one little old man at Tjampuhan who is very cute and in the mornings he goes around placing red hibiscus flowers every where which makes a lovely contrast to the greeery. This man the staff told us is 85yrs old and has worked at tjampuhan for 60yrs!!! Thats dedication!
There is also this amazing grotto type cave where you can go and have massages or relax in the spa pools there, but that is a little exspensive. None of the villas have a fridge but if you ask at reception they will bring one to your room which is great for keeping the complimentary water and bintang icy cold! They also have a free shuttle into main ubud which you can go on any time, just tell the driver where u want to go and when ready to go back just ask the restaurant to ph or u can ph them to pick u up! But it is also a very easy pleasant walk into main ubud, which we did many times because there is just so much to look at. There is a pizza place in ubud called Pesto Bali and you can order take out to your villa and they will deliver 20mins later free of charge...how cools that and they make wicked pizzas and also lots of indo type food. If you ever get to ubud....and i stress anyone going to bali should make a point of staying at least a couple of nights there....Tjampuhan is THE Place to stay....everything about it is amazing, the staff are so friendly and caring...its not a budget hotel but definitely worth paying slightly more for the Tjampuhan experience. Anyone who plans to stay there in the future....please say hello to Narda who works in the main restaurant...tell him Denise and Chris from NZ say hi, he is a hell of nice guy and for those who need a driver around ubud he is the man! Sorry this is sooo long but i am very passionate about ubud. The people there really touched my heart, they have so little but have so much to give. I will continue at a later date about other things we did in ubud and restaurants we went to....thanks for reading