Day 260: Goodbye Pererenan — Back to Ubud — A Rice Terrace Pool Playdate with Nyoman and Emi
I slept much better on night two in Pererenan. I did a quick swim for exercise and took this pic of our two bed heads playing early AM legos.
We went back to Monsieur Spoon for breakfast, possibly setting a record for this trip with the third meal there in 24 hours. It’s a really comfortable place with insanely good croissants. Fun fact: three meals, but we never went inside the restaurant. No need to leave the patio.
This morning we chatted with Sammy, one of the owners and the manager of this location. Super friendly French guy who had backpacked around the world for a year with his wife (without kids). He had strong opinions about many of his destinations including an interesting (and debatable) take on South America vs Asia, stating that he prefers Asia over South America because of the visible wealth discrepancy in South America that fuels the crime in those countries. Hmph.
On the way back to Ubud we made a quick stop by the Four Seasons Bali at Sayan. It’s a pretty unique place that has been written up in a bunch of travel mags as one of the best hotels in Asia. It looks like the Millennium Falcon landed in the middle of the jungle. We just wanted to see it. Seemed like everyone there was on a honeymoon.
For our last three nights in Ubud we’re staying at Villa Origin. It has a good mix of what we like: small, boutique place where you get to know the staff and two bedrooms with a little splash pool the kids can be in and out of while we’re hanging out. Also the design of this place is very sparse… it’s basically a concrete box with big floor to ceiling sliding glass doors that make up one of the four walls of each of the two rooms. Margaret and I laughed that *finally* we found a place that is completely minimalist. So many hotels just have too much stuff all over the place: big binders about the hotel, menus, coffee machines, tea kettles, huge land line telephones, marketing brochures, vases of flowers (or petals placed carefully on everything) clunky containers for all the bathroom amenities. I know, complaining about hotels is such a high class problem, so I’ll shut up. But it was nice to just have a clean place with absolutely zero clutter.
They also have a family room that someone else had booked — but not with a family. So they brought over this little tent and a bunch of toys for the kids.
We quickly got back in the car and headed to Tis, the restaurant / pool where Margaret had her coffee post rice terrace hike a couple days ago. We made a reservation for lunch and asked Nyoman and his 11 year old daughter Emi to join us.
Emi is adorable. The language barrier didn’t stop her, Willa and James from playing on rafts in the water, sufficiently ruining the “vibe” for the 3 other pool-side guests sunning themselves and taking insta-selfies. Nyoman didn’t seem to feel comfortable actually “joining” us in the seat we pulled up for him and instead sat off to the side or wandered around the property.
This place is yet another hotspot for Instagrammers. Baffling. I’m starting to feel sad for these people. What do these pictures do for them? Are they lonely? Why all the effort — just for likes on a photo?
We headed back to the villa and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. I swam with the kids for a bit, then walked up the street for a solo dinner at Warung Titi. I had their perfectly spicy pork ribs, a Bintang beer, coconyet water and coconut ice cream while reading Barbarian Days. All for about ten bucks. Very pleasant.
The walk back home along the pitch dark no-sidewalk road was a bit treacherous but I made it.
Margaret and the kids were having room service dinner out in the separate little dining room.
MISC:
Conversation du jour: Is college necessary? Will it be by the time our kids go? Our current thought bubble: nope.
