Remember Ubud, rice terraces and crazy macaques stealing bananas and Coca Cola from tourists visiting Monkey Forest? Time to change the location! It’s going to be climatic, very Balinese and definitely romantic! 🙂
We’re leaving Ubud to go to Seminyak and Canguu beach. It’s there where our next relaxing destination is: charming and full of sculptures Tugu Bali. There’s 30 km from Ubud to Canggu which one of the local girls from Amori Villa describes as: ‘it’s a long trip!’ (sigh). Was it a long trip??? 30 km?? That’s how you will react before ever driving in Indonesia. If you’re already past whole Java and a bit of Bali, you know that sometimes it takes an hour to do 5 km and 200 which is nothing in Poland may stretch to a whole day trip here! So yes, 30 km is quite a lot! An Indonesian would nearly fall of his chair after hearing that in Europe a ‘long trip’ means 1200 or 1400 km drove in one go! Here 2 hours for 30 km shouldn’t be much of a surprise! That’s what happened on our way to Tugu! 🙂 The road conditions are so bad that most of the locals we met shook their heads when they saw tourists driving a car. They couldn’t believe that we reached Bali by car, driving from Jakarta 😉 Therefore if you’re lacking patience, race driver skills and nerves of steel, don’t try it 🙂
Tugu hotels is a small Indonesian chain: they have their hotels in Jakarta, on Bali and on Lombok. Earlier we visited charming Tugu in Malang – there’s nothing interesting in the city itself but we decided to make it a starting point for a trip to Bromo (and we did go there, however the weather prevented us from seeing it!). Tugu Malang had a charming little swimming pool, colonial architecture and great Chinese food! Spicy calamari where one of the best things I’ve eaten on our trip to Indonesia, even though they almost burned through my guts. There’s also a beautiful story behind Tugu hotels but a completely different one than in Amori Villa’s case. The owner who once was a medicine student and then a lawyer, is one of the biggest art and antiques collectors in Indonesia. He calls his hotels boutique museum-hotels since it’s there where he ‘stores’ his collection 🙂 He simply built his hotels to share Indonesian art with others and you have to give it to him – it looks pretty impressive.
In Tugu Bali already the lobby was decorated with a huge Balinese sculpture and many smaller figures that altogether looked mind-blowing. It’s a hotel with a charm – even though it’s quite large and offers plenty of rooms or houses of various sizes, even though theoretically it’s a chain, you can really feel the vibe. Each element fits perfectly – even the door handles in the toilet aren’t regular but – to Maks’ delight – they are in the shape of elephants.
Some of the houses are practically in the water, among the nenuphars with palm trees in the background.. like in a dream! Our place is located on the first floor but the interior is very cosy and we have our own little SPA – a stylish bathtub in the floor and a special bed in case we would like to order massage in our room.
We’re planning to spend two days in Tugu Bali including Valentine’s Day. The place seems perfect for such occasion – charming, with plenty of places for a romantic dinner – in the garden, in the water or with a beach view. Tasty food, nice breakfast sets, a swimming pool and a small SPA. Judging from the number of couples holding their hands it must be a popular spot for romantic trips, honeymoons or other special occasions. Seems like a Balinese specialty after all! 😉
Tugu is located right by the beach which is known for good surfing conditions. Is it a good place to go sunbathing? Not really, at least for me, a mother of a 3-year-old. Firstly: large waves, secondly: not so clean, thirdly: quite a few (homeless?) dogs running around the beach. We don’t need the beach though since we can use a large swimming pool with a wading pool for Maks which is good enough for us 🙂 We’re going to the beach in the evening – Maks is having fun running away from the waves.
We’re staring the Saturday lazily with Maks while Łukasz still sleeps. Late breakfast since you can have it anytime you want – a great advantage: we hate the need to hurry for breakfast on vacation! Filled up, we relocate to the pool while Łukasz is ‘doing some business’. Ok, it’s Valentine’s Day he probably went to buy me some flowers! He walks out, takes the car and disappears for a while, but well it’s Indonesia, here driving 10 km may take an hour… An hour passes, 2, 3… and we start getting restless. Since I’m a known foodie, I’m guessing he went to find me a young coconut which are not available at the hotel and I love them. Another trail: maybe his looking for a Thai restaurant and mango sticky rice?? The only the dessert I really liked in the last month and a half. Another hour – he sends an SMS that he’s coming back but he’s still gone and we’re getting really hungry. He’s finally back. No flowers and no coconut (sniff, sniff) and he doesn’t even want to go for lunch: ‘Let’s wait a minute, I’m tired’. He turns on a cartoon for Maks – why the hell now? We’re supposed to go for lunch?!?!?! I’m starting to get a little angry! But I keep cool, it’s Valentine’s Day and I shouldn’t get angry… even though I’m raging inside and finding it hard to keep calm… girls, you know the feeling, right??? 😉 And then he goes like it’s Valentine’s Day, and he decided that… and he produces a ring… Wow! What else can I say? Happily ever after 😉
This way, we will remember Tugu Bali forever 😉 We spent the rest of the day taking advantage of all the pleasures the hotel could provide on Valentine’s Day: swimming pool, dinner with candles in the garden and celebrating in our own private SPA while Maks was already in his bed… 🙂
PRACTICAL INFORMATION:
adres:
Jl. Pantai Batu Bolong
Canggu Beach
Bali, Indonesia
More info on hotel’s website or on Booking.com – where we found it 🙂
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