Tegal Sari

Are you a fan of 'Eat Pray Love' movie?

Do you know where was the place the scene in Bali was filmed?

During my holiday in Bali, I get to stay in Ubud, the place where movie 'Eat Pray Love' was filmed. The movie was filmed in Green Field Hotel while I was just staying a door beside.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me bring you to the best hotel I ever stay in Bali....Tegal Sari.

Surrounded by lush green paddy field, patron greet every morning with fresh air and green view of paddy field. From time to time, you can hear bird chirping from the tree trunk. A morning walk along the paddy field will bring you to more exotic flora such and huge lotus.


You will be welcome with a refreshing lemonade with pandan leave drink. It was so refreshing that the super duper heat of Bali was just wash away in seconds!!! While waiting for the check in and resort tour, our camera just cant stop taking photos!!!

Swimming pool overlooking paddy field and open gym is also available. The staff is so friendly that I have to rate them as 'OVER FRIENDLY'. Just take out your camera and they will rush to you and offer you to help we guys take photo.

I make a booking 6 months earlier and I was left with only 2 room which was available. This is how famous the hotel are. Only 24 rooms available and about 14 of them are facing the paddy field.

Since we have 7 people and 2 room left, we have no choice but to squeeze ourselves into room of 3 and room of 4. Mind you that I have to put extra bed for both room due to the shortage of room.

If you are asking me why do I keep on changing hotel during my Bali trip, well the culprit is Tegal Sari Hotel. I plan to stay 2 nights here but despite my early booking, they only left with the 2 rooms I specifies just now.

We have one 'Wooden' Room with personal garden. The room was for 3 but we squeeze in 4 person with additional bed.







Another room is for the gals. It was a superior room for 2 and one extra bed also overlooking garden with some paddy field view. Sorry forgot to snap photo of the room. :-(


As we check in early, we were brought to visit some of the room such as the superior deluxe, the most expensive room available. From the bed that you lie down, you can see a view of 180 degree of green paddy field. It also come with jacuzzi over looking the paddy field.




I strongly have no regret spending more for this hotel as it was one of the most memorable place I ever stay in Bali.

Enough for grand mother story here, enjoy the photo that won't cheat you!!!! No editing involve. No photoshop involve.....

The sweetest family potrait we capture in Bali

Ubud Bungalow

Our second night in Bali, We stay at Ubud Bungalow at the Ubud district. Ubud, famous as slightly cooling area, isolated from busy town and beautiful green paddy field was make famous by the movie 'EAT PRAY LOVE'...

If you are staying in Ubud, one reminder....The town turn quiet as early as 8pm. Car can hardly been seen. Walking tourist reduced by 8pm. Shop start to close and what left are cafe and drinking bar which way too quiet if compare to Kuta or Legian. However, if you want to have peaceful night and relaxing mind, Ubud is the place.

Back to Ubud Bungalow that I stay. I book it through their website http://www.ubudbungalow.com./ It was cheap as the room cost between RM 150 - RM 200.

I booked 2 superior double room and 1 superior triple room. All fully air-conditioned and breakfast provided.

Room 1: Superior double room (with nicer deco) - too nice until forgot to snap photo

Room 2: Superior double room (slightly lesser deco)


Room 3: Superior triple room





Swimming Pool:

Breakfast:

Verdict:
Service - Good
Staff Friendliness - Good
Staff English - So So
Breakfast - Boleh Tahan la, but not full...end up sure go eat outside
Room - Spacious, well lit up, lot of plug point for our usage
Toilet - 3 rooms with 3 different design toilet...Forget about the bathtub, is dirty
Price - Very affordable
Ambiance - Relaxing at morning, spooky at night
Things provided: Soap, shampoo, bath towel, face towel, outdoor tea table, mosquito repellent bar, outdoor cloth drying area.
Nice things: Balinese architectural. Balinese paint. Balinese crafted furniture and accessories.

Tune Hotel Kuta - Review

Tune Hotel share the same idealogic of AirAsia. They offer no frill accomodation with 5 big promises

5 star bed
Power shower
Central and Convenience locations
24 hours security
Clean environment

above all, it also promise good rate hotel room.....

So what about the n frill accomodation?

Well, basically beside from the bed and the bathroom which is free for usage, other things in the room was not usable until you pay a sum of money. For instance, if you need hair dryer, you can buy for usage for 1 day at a cheap price of RM 2.

Air-condition come with a price tag of RM 12 for 12 hours....
Towel and toiletries cost RM 10 with RM 5 refundable deposit...
TV channel cost RM 10 per day
Luggage storage cost RM 2 per luggage....

and the list just go on....

Well, for those who plan to stay budget and you have everything under your control that you do not required any services or facilities from hotel, basically TUNE is consider the best choice as you pay for each item you use.

For me, I like to travel budget and I carry almost everything with me thus I do not required towel or any toiletries. Breakfast is totally not a problem during travel as I prefer eating local breakfast rather than hotel. No entertainment required as I was spending my time holidaying rather than sleeping in the room watching TV.

Thus I choose Tune Hotel during my trip to Bali.

Basically in term of the 5 promises that they give, I would say I give them pass for 4 except 1.

The bed is sofy and nice to sleep.
The location was excellent as it was in the middle of the town and minutes away from the beach.
Security is good as security guard standing in front of the entrance and whole hotel was guarded with CCTV
The powerful shower is good but just that the temperature wasn't stable.
The only setback is cleaniness. No doubt the bed and toilet was clean, but the floor wasn't that clean as we spoted some ants.

Overall, it was a nice stay. Will definately stay at Tune if I go for freaking tight budget trip like London and so on...


We are so thrill with Bali that we forgot to snap a proper double bed room photo...


Standard Toilet for single room. Double room toilet is slightly bigger

Single room

Nature Photo from Bali - Version 1

Bali Information

Once i come back from Bali Trip, a lot of people ask me to share my schedule and information regarding Bali Trip with them.

Hereby I list down the important information and schedule of our Bali Trip for public references.

Participant:

Eddie Lim: Tour Manager
George Tan: Tour Treasury
Nicholas Chung: Blur and sesat participant
Shyan Hui: The victim of hardcore seller
Yen Thoong and Choi Ling: The lovely couple
Oi Mei: Orang paling kaya for the trip..hehe

Budget per person (RM):
Air ticket (promo) - 141
Hotel (3 nights)- 175
Driver & MPV - 70
Makan Makan - 200
Entrace fees & Water sport - 150
Spa - 80
Bali Airport tax - 55
Souvenir - 50
Grand total 921


Driver & Transportation:
Gello Tour & Transport
gelo82181@yahoo.com
+62 81 999 115 999
Suzuki MPV - 7 seated
4 days unlimited travelling, unlimited time
Driver can speak decent English
Only disadvantage is the driver is not a tour guide thus he won't explain much about the history although he does it for few temple.


Summary Schedule:

Day 1 - Bali City Life
Arrive Denpasar Airport (2pm)
Check in Tune Hotel
Lunch at local Warung
Kuta Beach, Legian & Seminyak Shopping
Warung Made for Dinner
Kuta Beach at night
Kuta town shopping
Video Day 1

Day 2 - Balinese Relaxation yet adventurous

Nasi Pedas Ibu Andikas (Kuta)
Nusa Dua water sport / turtle island - We do parasailing and banana boat
MoonTee Spa & Aromatherapy House
Lunch of Ayam Betutu
Nusa Dua Beach (Beside St Regis Resort)
Uluwatu Temple
Jimbaran Beach sunset dinner
Stay at Ubud Bungalow
Video Day 2

Day 3 - Holiness of Bali

Early Run + Swimming
Breakfast at Ubud Bungalow
Check out and move to Tegal Sari Resort
Pasar Ubud for shopping
Ibu Oka Babi Guling
Pura Taman Ayun, temple by the garden
Tegal Sari coffee and spice garden - Kopi Luwak (world most expensive coffee)
Pura Ulu Danu, temple by Bratan Lake
Tanah Lot, the holy temple by the sea
Dinner at Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck Diners)
Video Day 3

Day 4 - Nature walk of Bali

Wake up with paddy field view
Early jog + swimming
Check out with tear
Pasar Seni Sukawait for shopping
Breakfast at Warung Kapriani- cheap cheap
Pura Tirta Empul, Tampaksiring - Sacred spring temple
Kintamani overlooking Mount Batur, a volcano
Tegalalang Terrence
Warung Murni for late lunch
Denpasar for Kuih Lapis and local delicacy
Airport for flying back - duty free shopping
Video Day 4

Hotel :
Tune Hotel Kuta
Ubud Bungalow, Monkey Forest Street
Tegal Sari, Ubud
(More blog post on the hotel soon)

Food:
Please refer to my food blog,HarkauSiemai which will be updated with Bali food soon

Airline: AirAsia, Now Everyone Can Fly

Stay tune for more posting.....

Video for Bali Day 4

Bali Day 4 Video

Bali Day 4

With Day 1 label as The busy Bali City Life, Day 2 as Balinese relaxation, Day 3 as The holiness of Bali, Day 4 will be a conclusion of our Bali Trip with the theme of 'The Nature Walk of Bali'. Reason why it was call as such is due to the place we visited are mainly natural sightseeing.

Day 4 start with normal routine of morning walk around Ubud. We then headed back to our resort swimming pool for a nice swim to start the day with the refreshing mind.

We then pack our luggage and snap thousand of photo around the hotel as remembrance of such a nice hotel.

After a sad bid of good bye, we venture ourselves to Pasar Seni Sukawati which sell local souvenir. There is also one wet market opposite Pasar Seni Sukawati. We start our day with a good and cheap breakfast of Nasi Campur Ayam and Teh Botol for the price of Rupiah 10,000. That is dirt cheap...

Lot of bargain take place in Sukawati and the hardcore seller use what ever tactic to ensure you buy their product. So be extra careful.

Next we headed to Pura Tirta Empul at Tampaksiring. A scared spring temple. It was so holy that ladies with period are not allowed to enter the holy water area. The first Gabenor of Indonesia owned a residences at the hill beside the temple. The spring water is so cooling that it feel like waterfall water. There is some local residences take a dip inside the holy water to clean away all sin and get blessing from the goddess.

Next stop is to Kintamani to have a spectacular view of Mount Batur also known as Batur Gunung Berapi. The view is stunning and we snap photo non stop that some of our camera run out of battery or memory. The volcano is still active although it had not erupted for many years. We just wont know when will it erupt again. However, the left over lava from the previous eruption is still clearly to be seen.

The stunning view left our jaw dropping and we hardly want to say good bye to this area. However due to shortage of time, we even have to cancel off our buffet lunch overseeing the volcano. The only annoying part about Mount Batur visit is the seller keep on hardcore selling their product to us even we have decline zillion of time. Well, we do have some victim who is kind enough to buy something from them....hehehe..

We then headed to Tegalalang Terrence for the paddy field over the hill. The road from Kintamani to Tegalalang was actually very near but due to closure of the main road for repair, our driver have no choice but to use a hilly, and isolated road that taken about 1 hour of our time. Time was wasted and we are extremely hungry by the time we arrive Tegalalang that we snap few photos and settle ourselves for late lunch.


It was already 3pm when we left Tegalalang and we must be at airport by 6pm. The journey from Tegalalang to Denpasar Airport will be around 2 hour depending on the traffic. I know last minutes shopping at Legian or Kuta sound impossible already thus we arrange for Denpasar shopping for local delicacy to be brought back. What else if not Kuih Lapis. As I am not fan of Kuih Lapis, I didnt buy any but the others buy at least one Kuih Lapis to bring back. The price is 90,000 Rupiah for Kuih Lapis that weight about 500gram. It taste good from the sample provided. Maybe it was still popping hot from the oven.

We arrive at Airport at 5.20pm and we snap the last photo with Mr Bagus, our driver for the whole trip. If there is one things i purchase during Bali trip that I really treasure the most, I would say the amount pay to engage Mr Bagus as driver and the MPV is something I will never ever forget. It was the best things we ever hire in Bali.

As we check in and do last minutes shopping at Denpasar Airport, Shyan Hui and Oi Mei that depart much later than us when to Kuta Shopping Mall and shop in Sogo. Shyan Hui manage to do last minutes manicure and pedicure before headed back to KL.

Flight with AirAsia is always pleasant. It depart on time and arrive slightly earlier but the landing for this flight is kinda bad as it was too shaking. The plane also park super far from the arrival hall that by the time we walk and complete our custom, it had already been 1 hour wasted and by the time we arrive KL Sentral, all public transport already terminate their services.

Conclusion

Video for Day 3

Video for Day 3