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<\/p>\nOur last day in Bali was nominal: we made our way slowly from the island center – Ubud – in a south-westerly direction, going through Gianyar, Sanur and past the airport first for a stopover in Jimbaran to pick up the two freshly baked mugs the kids had painted a week earlier. Then it was a largely forgettable quick A&W lunch – the kids’ first and only junk food experience on the island – at the Discovery Shopping Mall just opposite Waterbom Bali before returning to the airport for our Scoot flight home at 2:30PM. The Mall was home to many familiar brands also found in Singapore: including KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Bread Talk, Guardian Pharmacy and heck even Sogo, the Japanese department store that left Singapore in 2000.<\/p>\n
Many of the drivers we had sounded surprised that we were spending all nine days of our Bali trip in Ubud, and also staying in the same villa too. I reckon most visitors to the island would stay on different properties if not areas for somewhat longer than average trips like ours to their island. The villa we stayed in is called the Ananditha Villa, and we booked it through Airbnb after scouring the Ubud area for private villas that met our desired criteria: a swimming pool if possible, facing padi fields, child-friendly, and within the budget we were working with. Our overall opinion of it is that it deserves a qualified recommendation \u2013 i.e. yes there are some caveats. As before, our blog is entirely non-affiliated to influencer agencies and we pay our own way in everything we write about here – and\u00a0 we can be totally candid with our comments.<\/p>\n
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Firstly, the good bits.<\/p>\n
The communication<\/strong> with host Lucy was incredible. She was always prompt in her replies \u2013 whether it was in the early morning or fairly late in the night \u2013 and also frequently sent us reminders and confirmations about upcoming events in the stay. As it seems to be the norm, the villa owner doesn\u2019t actually reside in Ubud (Lucy lived in Jakarta), but the property was administered and kept up locally by her housekeeper Putu.<\/p>\n Putu would come by every morning to clean up<\/strong> the house, and her timing depends on whether you\u2019ve requested breakfast (additional charge @ IDR30,000 per person). She didn\u2019t have much culinary range though \u2013 she said that much herself \u2013 and we tried everything she could whip up over the four mornings we had breakfast at the villa: sausages + scrambled eggs, mee goring, and omelette. Still, she did these breakfasts well, and we needed just something to fill our bellies before heading out for each morning\u2019s activities. To be sure too: breakfast in the villa is simple and no-frills. You get toast, the main item you’ve asked for above, and also freshly cut fruit. If your idea of a breakfast is a hotel\/resort-styled buffet spread, this villa is not for you.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re doing a long stay, doing laundry<\/strong> might become a necessity. Putu can handle that for you, and at no additional cost apart from what the laundry shop will charge. The cost of cleaning items was cheap by Singapore pricing standards, with most items ranging between SGD0.20 to SGD0.40. The freshly laundered items came by clean, neatly folded and nicely scented too.<\/p>\n The villa can accommodate six adults<\/strong>. There are three bedrooms with a queen size bed in two and a king-sized bed in the largest. All three bedrooms have their own ensuite bathroom. Two of the bedrooms are on the second floor with a commanding view of the rice padi fields, and the first floor bedroom has a very pretty view of the villa pool.<\/p>\n Its pool<\/strong> isn\u2019t big \u2013 how large can it be in a property like this \u2013 but it was still roomier than the one we had in Santhiya during our trip to Koh Phangan 3.5 years ago. It\u2019s quite deep<\/strong> too and goes to maybe around 1.3m at the deepest end i.e. young children need to be supervised when in the pool area. The pool water was pretty clean too and generally free of leaves and such, as the surrounding flora were largely shrubbery and plants that don\u2019t shed. The kids loved the pool and swam in it thrice over the nine day stay. The villa pool floats were apparently damaged after a previous visit, but Lucy had them promptly replaced in time for the kids to use them.<\/p>\n The view<\/strong> of the padi fields is incredible, and as the villa faces the east-west direction, you are treated to daily morning sunrises and sunsets<\/strong>. Unlike Cassia Phuket, there is no green-house effect caused by the afternoon sun, and we returned each day to the villa to reasonably cool bed rooms.<\/p>\n Our host got the housekeeper to prepare flower baths<\/strong> for our last day; a very gracious gesture indeed!<\/p>\n As for the challenges:<\/p>\n Several of the Airbnb<\/strong> reviews write that the villa is very clean<\/strong>, and we agree: Putu did an amazing job every morning returning the house to a pristine state. However, there are bits of the house that are showing wear: including paintwork, the locks for the full-height windows, the sealant joints between vertical and horizontal edges for the steps in the staircase, and parts of the kitchen.<\/p>\n The exterior<\/strong> of the property looks and feels like a Balinese villa, but the inside is quite modern. This suited us just fine, but if you\u2019re looking to stay in a property that is both out and in done up in the Balinese-style, you\u2019d want to consider other options too.<\/p>\n About mid-point in our stay, the padi fields were worked on and harvested \u2013 and the workers also started burning<\/strong> to create compost. That create small but steady streams of smoke that unfortunately got into the villa, and lasted typically from early afternoon through the night. The rooms were fine with the air-conditioning switched on and doors closed, but the non-air-conditioned areas \u2013 e.g. living and dining rooms – smelled hazy<\/strong>. Not as bad as Singapore on its most hazy periods when the Sumatran farmers do their island-wide massive burns next door during the hot season, but it’s there. Still, Ling was extremely displeased with this, and said that the host should have mentioned this in their brief. I was more forgiving, as I don\u2019t think our Jakarta-based host would have any kind of schedule that tells her when the farmers are going to burn, nor any control over it even if she knew!<\/p>\n Our summary: Ananditha Villa gets a recommendation<\/strong> on account of its overall cleanliness, attractive rental rate, a very engaging host and diligent housekeeper. In return, you also need to be mindful of the challenges involved getting in and out of the property, and also that if you\u2019re unlucky, you might experience field workers burning to create compost. I also took some night pictures around the premise that I’ll write about in a separate post later too.<\/p>\n Our further advice:<\/p>\n Make absolutely sure you can live with the transportation<\/strong> options in and out of the villa. I cannot stress this enough. If being able to walk out of your front door to reach cafes, restaurants and shops within 5 minutes is important to you, go with a villa or resort located inside Ubud Central. With its steep inclines, very tight corners, little street lighting, it is too far and difficult to walk to\/fro from Ananditha Villa if you have young children. Adults can probably manage the distance, but your legs will still get a good workout. I recommend either getting your own driver to bring you in and out, renting your own scooters, or going with the local Ubud-based driver that Lucy may recommend. The local contact she got us was Wayan<\/strong>, and he\u2019s as good, honest and helpful as they come \u2013 including helping us get out of a tight transportation spot on Day 7 when we couldn’t get a taxi who wasn’t charging our finger\/arm\/leg to bring us back after dinner. I’ll write about this little incident in our final retrospection post too.<\/p>\n A few of the drivers had difficulties finding the location<\/strong>, and also thought that dirt road that leads to and past the villa offers no possibility of doing a 360 degree turn to get back to the main road. There is: just about 150meters further down, there is another property with a small access way that allows vehicles to turn the car around.<\/p>\n Our last day in Bali was nominal: we made our way slowly from the island center – Ubud – in a south-westerly direction, going through Gianyar, Sanur and past the airport first for a stopover in Jimbaran to pick up<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/blog-2018-bali-day-06-A7_05680-villa-morning-padi-workers.jpg\")
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