The family and I stayed at Sri Bungalows for 6 nights and all declared Ubud our favourite place in Bali. Ubud is probably the Creative Heart of Bali. We took a van from Seminyak and stopped at a Woodcarving family home, a Silver factory,a Batik factory and an Art Gallery. The driver then took us to a place for lunch. The outlook of the restaurant was very pleasant overlooking rice paddies. We loved the drive up into the mountains, certainly different than driving through Denpasar. We always tried to set off early to miss major traffic congestion on the Island. I bought some little animal carvings as souvenirs for children but that was all. The family there were lovely and their craftsmanship incredible. We walked through a silver factory and saw the artisans at work in their tiny cubicles. I will never take the findings I use for beading for granted again! Poor workers seemed almost like battery hens. I bought a few Pandora type beads for my daughter. The Art Gallery was a beautiful traditional family home with some large areas opened as gallery space. We loved the Balinese art works and the incredible detail and colours, however we did not buy.
The entrance to the Sri Bungalows was deceptively small and I was sure we were at the wrong place. However we were led to two standard double rooms overlooking the pool. Having booked twin rooms, I returned to reception to tell them an error had been made. I am always very polite, quiet, but firm when I need something corrected. After half an hour on the phone the manager offered two rooms at the rear of the resort. My brother chose to stay at the standard room above the pool so he could sit on the balcony and watch his 10 year old swim while he worked on his iPad. The wifi was very erratic but absolutely non existent down the back of the site. Peter described their room as a flash Losman. It was up two flights of stairs and I would say that the balcony fences on both rooms were no higher than 60cm! Very unsafe for little children or those inclined to be unsteady. It would never pass Australian safety standards. I thought their room looked charming with its shutters, very good mosquito netting a shower which had an awkward step which you tripped on everytime you went to dry your hands on a towel. We did use bottles of mosquito repellants and sun screen when were in Bali. The pool was smallish but a good size for a small hotel. It was never crowded and the 10 year old made friends for a few days with a boy from Darwin so he was happy. No TV in the standard rooms which was a good thing said father.
Our room was on a path through the paddy fields (lots of frogs) and down 4 flights of stairs. Good exercise but I have friends who would find them to steep to negotiate. The room was very spacious with two double four poster beds. The curtains were filmy and the lights in the spa area must have been on sensors so we would get a light show on a stormy night. Of course there was no protection from early morning light. I was ill on a couple of mornings so did not breakfast. The cleaning team would come in and leave the place immaculate. I sat on the balcony while a very lean young man cleaned all the windows, every spindle on the balcony, all the tiles and then slid under the very low beds to clean under them. Every day a different flower from the immaculate gardens would be placed on our beds. The gardens are an absolute joy. They even sweep between the flowers and shrubs! Our room looked over a ravine which unfortunately like many places in Bali was littered with rubbish. When it was raining it was beautiful and you could imagine you were in a tree house in the jungle as the trickle became a river gushing with water and the deep balconies sheltered you. Air conditioning was excellent. There was a shower over a bath. Bathroom was a bit dated. Lucky we had all our own toiletries. The walls were paper thin but we did not hear chanting which others complained of and which I probably would have enjoyed. The beds were very firm and I found the pillows too hard. The linen was yellowed but very clean. We had a TV with cable which was good for the days I stayed in due to food poisoning. Not caused by this hotel! There was no safe except you could put your valuables in a lockable wooden cupboard at the entrance.
The breakfast was fairly standard. Fresh fruit, juice, coffee, eggs done any way. Boiled is good!
Very sweet and attentive waiting staff. My brother had room service pizza for his son when he was feeling unwell and his son loved it. My niece and I stopped there for a snack/lunch one afternoon which was pleasant. Not going in The Good Food Guide but an immaculate kitchen and safe eating.
Laundry service at the hotel was good and cheap but took about 48 hours.
We went to the Monkey Forest which was about a 10 minute walk from Sri Bungalows. I am nervous about monkeys jumping all over my head, however the 10 year old loved them. He went there 3 times. He was bitten twice, gently. I walked around feeling like a goose with my hands opened in front of me so they could see I had nothing to offer. I did have to put my bag down at one stage whilst a monkey tried to pull the zipper open. The larger male monkeys can be very aggressive to visitors and to the smaller weaker monkeys.
My brother would get up at 4am most mornings everywhere we stayed in Bali. In Ubud he would go to the market up the hill on the right and to the right at the end. He is a photographer and got many great shots. He loves watching what the tourists and myself generally miss. This was a good place to shop. I bought Saffron and Vanilla beans at a very reasonable price and was allowed to bring them through customs. The children loved their musical instruments made from half coconuts at about $3 AUD. There are many elderly beautiful Balinese women selling here, who we asked to photograph and were happy to oblige. The shop keepers in this area do not hassle you. I bought a nice ring at the silver shop just to the right of the hotel when exiting. I bought some lovely natural coconut products from the lovely Japanese lady in the store across the road. A Japanese restaurant near the monkey forest was excellent, food and value. We were poisoned by a couple of restaurants to the right exiting the hotel. One on the same side, to the left of the restaurant that has live music. One across the road which has steep stairs and an hotel behind it. We were mostly never all ill at the same time as we ate different things. Load up on Lomatil as the drug I bought in Bali was not as effective. Good thing is the teenager and I lost weight and became very fast runners! It wasn't a laughing matter at the time.
The Green Room was good as was The Three Monkeys Restaurant. We enjoyed watching the rice fields being prepared and planted and felt sorry for the Happy Balinese women carting wheelbarrow loads of rocks down to a building site and the men carting loads of timber by hand. No CFMEU here. :) We would all recommend staying here.
