Rumah Bali score by the 5D Sensograph of placescases.com: 4.7 out of 5.

June 2018

Seen                  

Felt                    

Heard                                                       

Smelled                               

Tasted                          

Rumah Bali is located in Nusa Dua, which is the southern part of Bali Island.  In local language Nusa Dua means “the two islands” and this is exactly how this territory is formed. It is a beach resort and is full of hotels and villas, located app. 20 km from Dempasar, capital of Bali. There’s a part where the five-star hotels are concentrated. There you enter through a barrier only by taxi or on foot, and it is required to check trunks. We were on the so-called Stripe Benoa. There are also many hotels, without special a barrier entrance, there is local business and quite a lot of traffic.

Rumah Bali is a small resort village of Benoa, consisting of 4 villas and 27 family apartments. The villas are super comfortable. Our villa name was Hibiscus and there were two rooms- a bedroom with an extra bed, a normal size on the first floor and one bedroom with king size bed on second, plus a wardrobe room. They both have separate bathrooms with toilets. There is an open living room with a shed and a table for 6 people, i.e. you can dine in the villa with your friends. A toilet and a summer kitchenette. Separately, there is a wonderful seating and resting area with sofas. To our delight, again we had a pool in the courtyard as it was in Ubud. If I have to compare with the possibilities for a holiday in Halkidiki, Greece and Bali, on Bali we had a larger area and comfort with a private pool for the same money. The costs per night for the whole family with breakfast went appr. EUR 230. I booked our stay here on my site placescases.com, through the box of booking.com.

See ….

…. Huge comfortable rooms, lovely courtyard, super comfortable rest areas and lots of greenery;

…. The colors of the Frangipani beautifully floating in the pool;

…. Welcome fruit and mango juice;

…. Very well equipped kitchenette- gas hobs, oven, large fridge, utensils, glasses, plates, pans, pots- only one decent cutting knife for cooking was missed, so for cutting larger objects I used the one for bread;

…. There was a sort of chrysalis or poo of an insect on the wall in the bathroom, which the staff never noticed and cleaned, it annoyed my eyes and I always forgot to tell them;

…. I couldn’t help noticing the rusted holders with which the glasses were fastened;

…. The furnishing is in traditional style with a lot of woodcarving– on the island there are many skillful craftsmen who make wonderful carving, it is good to visit such a studio and to buy something to remember;

…. In the center of the village there was an empty space that looked like a construction site. It wasn’t pleasant for the eye and I was wondering what it was. It turned out that there were villas that were demolished and at the time there was made a vegetable garden. Chief Heinz, the owner of the place and the restaurant Bumbu Bali, wants to have at hand fresh spices and vegetables. I’d really like to see it ready!

…. On the territory of the village there was a huge banyan tree, which is a very interesting species of fig. You can find such on the Maldives too. Even the hotel we were staying in there bore the name of Banyan Tree. For it I have written in one of my older articles Amazing Beautiful Nature Day and Night at Vabbinfaru Island of Maldives, Banyan Tree Hotel.

There was a tree with star fruit, any other interesting shrubs and trees that are typical only for these latitudes.

Felt ….

…. Again for our convenience we could choose between 4 types of breakfast with the option of serving time in the villa or restaurant– we ordered in the villa- we woke up and the French press full of aromatic coffee was waiting for us on the table with a delicious breakfast, plus local pastries from rice dough, but also authentic French croissants from the local best bakery, owned by a Frenchman, freshly baked in Bumbu Bali;

…. You can use the laundry service which costs EUR 1 per piece. You receive your garments on the next day ironed and folded or on a hanger, as you wish, only tell them explicitly that they are in the basket and are for washing, or otherwise they may not notice them;

…. In the living room, outside, there is a stereo system, but it never worked with any of our phones, although we tried it not only wireless, but also through a USB cable, it worked neither with Samsung or iPhone. It was supposed to be compatible with iPod, but we didn’t carry it to check out;

…. There is TV in all rooms and in the living room, but who watches TV on such a beautiful island;

…. We left all the electronic devices to charge in the open living room when we were out and no one touched it– we absolutely trusted the staff and they justified your trust;

…. There was something unpleasant- on the island people often burn the garbage, so from the neighboring courtyard behind the fence, when they lit it once, there was a lot of smoke around. Good that it rained, so this thing stopped;

…. Wi-Fi of the was not always available– we just bought a data card with 4G. This time we tried XL – a local operator. 25 GB was a lot and we couldn’t use them. It cost IDR 210 000, which is app. EUR 13. So with this card I compensated for the lack of network in the villa and we used internet on the move.

Listen ….

…. Cool singing roosters from the neighboring courtyard- there were two who identified to be with different voices- one was hoarse and the other sang in its own specific way, it was fun listening to them;

…. It was very quiet in the village, I even felt that there were no guests, but it was not so- we met people on the alleys. The on-site restaurant generally does not offer dinner and usually we see it empty. But one night there were 80 guests from the 5-star Westin Hotel.  A special folklore program with the traditional local dance Kechak dance was organized for them. Even then, it was still not noisy. You can see the dance in the film about Rumah Bali on the YouTube channel of placescases.com.

Smell …

…. The mango juice was very fragrant- Cheff Heinz, the owner told me that juices are bought by a local producer who has the care to squeeze them and bottle early in the morning and deliver to the hotels;

…. Caramel flavor of palm sugar syrup in the dessert rice balls, add a generous amount of coconut cream and this is a hell of a comforting thing;

…. The pleasant smell of anti-mosquito sticks put by the staff in the courtyard of the villa, we added burning sandalwood sticks for extra flavor;

…. Unpleasant smell of metal of the tap water– I shared with the owner that the water from the tap has an unpleasant smell (it’s not that we drank it). He took a very serious remark. I also shared that Bali has a problem with drinking water, especially in the dry season, and that many neighbourhoods remain for months without water supply. The hotel is required to store in containers some of the water that flows in the showers and fountains to have enough to bathe.

Tasted ….

…. A great and rich breakfast in several variants, from which you choose- American with a choice of eggs, prepared in all kinds and options of bacon, ham or sausage, Balinese style– with noodles or rice, additives from egg or chicken, pancake, healthy with muesli. They always wore fresh fruit, juice, as much as you wanted a French press coffee. They served us local pastries from rice dough. Of them most liked the rice balls in the syrup of palm sugar, mung beans in coconut milk and pancake with coconut filling-pure green in color 😊

Rumah Bali is not a luxury 5-star hotels on Bali. Some years ago I stayed in such hotel- the Ritz Carlton, but just as the name of our holiday village name says (Rumah in Indonesian means home) we felt at Rumah Bali like at home. Well, right, there’s no beach to it, but you have a private pool in the villa or a public one in the village. Besides, if you want to go to the beach at the ocean, cross the street, walk through the hotel across the road or just down hotel Nikko and hang out on a huge coastline with a pretty serene ocean coastline. Inside there are either rocks or artificial dikes to stop the tsunamis, so the waves are not big. If you don’t want to go through the hotel, walk through the small alleys from the main street, which also lead to the beach. Keep in mind that there’s a lot of wind blowing because you’re on the ocean. If it is sunny, it is not unpleasant, but in overcast weather, there is a chance that you will become cold. The unpleasant is that in the water swims plastic waste, otherwise the sand is relatively clean.

Our friends were staying in a villa with three houses, which had a huge pool, so they were bathing there. This is also a very good option.

I personally prefer the view of the waves. In addition, the beach in front of Nikko Hotel is slightly inland in the sea forming huge sandy area, which is reached by foot and that was very cool. Interestingly, the jets flew through the extremely shallow waters there and even one of them got stuck abruptly, so the people fell out injured. They shouldn’t have ridden the jets with such speed in the shallow water, especially with “pedestrians” walking around.

It’s very nice in Bali. That’s where a man really rests. If we decide to go again with friends of Nusa Dua, definitely the first in the short list of accommodation options will be Rumah Bali. Well we loved it there and the owner is a unique person. I joined his cooking class. It was a very interesting experience, especially learning so much about cooking traditional Balinese cuisine and about Bali in general. Chef Heinz was quite a reputable Cheff who worked for Ritz Carlton, Hayatt and Hilton. It owns aslo the restaurants Bumbu Bali.

Don’t hesitate to book your stay at Rumah Bali. Do it right here.

Booking.com

How to get there?

Check-up for promotions of Qatar Airways with the QR code below. This is how we booked our tickets at very affordable prices.

Once on the island, to get to hotel Rumah Bali, use the placescases.com and the google maps guide, hit the red pin on the map and then tap directions:

A: Nusa Dua, Jl. Pratama, Benoa, South Kuta, Badung Regency, Bali 80361, Indonesia

T: + 62 361 771256

E: info@bedandbreakfastbali.com

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