Gypsy Mom: Where We Stayed in Ubud

Villa Agung Khalia.

Technically we did not stay IN Ubud, rather just outside of the town in an
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G Villa. Somehow I did not take a picture of the outside! But it is necessary to show, so I found this picture on TripAdvisor (which is my go-to website for finding hotels):

This photo of Villa Agung Khalia is courtesy of TripAdvisor

(The caption under the exterior photo comes with the photo. No problem. I do not take credit for the photo nor do I know who the person or people in the pool are.)

Is that amazing or what? Honestly I have payed more money to stay in a nice hotel room than we paid to stay in this HUGE house. I only wish we could have brought a few family members with us, because we certainly had the space for them!

So do you want to see around the place?

We begin outside looking at the pool. Our own private pool. Is that crazy or what?

We could lounge on the patio in front of the pool, out of the sun:

or we could lounge in the sun on the loungers you see at the back left of the next photo, or we could enjoy dinner al fresco, which we did.

If for some crazy reason you didn't want to dine outside (which I cannot imagine!) there was an indoor dining room.

There was even a full kitchen. What?! I barely use those things in my own home - certainly not on vacation! But I know some people actually enjoy cooking and so I suppose this is useful for that type.

The master bedroom is on the main floor of the house. If we had had to, we could have put our entire family in this one bedroom. There was a king size bed AND a twin bed. Of course it had it's own spacious bathroom, which I didn't photograph.

The rest of the main level was living area. Expansive, beautiful living area.

I will be honest here and insert one caveat to my idyllic description. Beautiful, yes. Huge, absolutely. However, at the bottom of the doors there were large spaces of light. There are no screens and there is no weather stripping. What this means is that at night many things can and do enter the house uninvited. Lots and lots (and lots!) of geckos. In fact, while in Bali we became very well acquainted with the sound of a gecko. We now know where they got their name; the sound they make is "GECK-o". Anna does a very good imitation of it. The reason the geckos come in is to eat all of the bugs who have first entered. To tell you about that I will insert a funny little story from our time in Ubud.

Villa Agung Khali has 3 identical houses, one of which we were in. It also has 2 smaller suites. Near the center of the property is a wonderful pavillion where you can arrange to have a massage. Balinese massage - oh MY! I don't care for a massage any place else in the world, but in Bali it is wonderful. (And CHEAP!) There are 2 massage tables, so Eric and I went for simultaneous massages and left the kids in the house. I believe we instructed them to stay there and not fight. We went so far as to say they were not to come to us complaining about what the other was doing because that would ruin the relaxation of the massage. Our kids are old enough and obedient enough to follow that bit of instruction.

So there we are, deeply enjoying our massages and I at least was thinking how great that I didn't have to worry about the kids. But sounds began coming from our house. Voices. Getting louder. "Oh no, they're fighting", I thought. The voices continued escalating. I tried to ignore the noise. Soon I heard a door flying open and Anna saying something like "Not good, dude! Not good!" as she ran through the door. I had never heard her say anything like that before, so I wondered if they had started the house on fire or something. Our massage WAS interrupted, but it was quickly determined that one of the villa staff could help and we could continue our massages (albeit in not quite so relaxed a state.) What had happened? Lots and lots and LOTS of moth type creatures had flown into the house. Or skirted under the doors or something. They were dropping dead all over the place - I don't understand why. But behind the moths were the geckos greedily gobbling up their evening meal. Lots of geckos. Lots and LOTS of moths. The kids completely freaked out. I don't blame them. I experienced it on subsequent nights and I'm telling you there were a LOT of bugs coming in. And in the morning there were dead bugs all over the floors! But other than that, it was paradise. So let's get back to our tour.

It seems no detail has been overlooked. (Well, except for the aforementioned door issue.) The stair railing is a piece of art by itself. I would call in wrought iron but I don't think it was iron exactly. At least it wasn't just black. It had this wonderful coppery color about it.

Upstairs I have messed up the order of my pictures so I will have to jump back and forth. My apologies.

This is Ethan on one of the balconies, looking rather unhappy because I had interrupted his private game. I include this to show a bit of the view beyond the balconies - rice fields all around. It was very lovely and peaceful.

Upstairs was another huge living area. There was a daybed where you could watch TV. For the life of me I cannot imagine why anyone would watch TV on a vacation like this. But then I don't understand why you would cook either, so I guess that's just me.

This was Ethan's bedroom. I don't think he ever actually slept in it. He is not a person who likes to be alone, especially not at night. Nevertheless, he claimed this as his space and made use of the attached bathroom.

This is Princess Anna's bedroom.

And here, just to give you an idea, is one of the 3 bathrooms! (3-1/2 really, there is a tiny guest bath on the first floor.)

The upstairs living area included a little musical nook with local instruments. I love the sound of the xylophone-type thing (eek! Sorry I don't know it's real name!) There was also a rain stick - I tried to find one suitable to bring home but didn't find anything that I really liked - and there were drums. Rather fun!

More photos of the fabulous upstairs:

The hand-carved doors leading to one of the upstairs balconies. Oh how I wish I could buy some hand-carved doors to bring home. But where would we put them? And there is the issue of our continually moving so, sadly, it made no sense.