SenS Hotel and Spa

A special post of a special place.

Our selection of this hotel in Ubud was kind of accidental. We had been looking at places and I got tired of looking and decided on this one because no one give it a bad review in some time. Well, it's easy to see why this hotel would not get a bad review. I had inadvertently cancel our reservation on Booking.com. I called the hotel and told them we were still coming we would just be later than we originally planned. We finally arrived just before midnight. The staff acted very happy to see us even excited that we were there. We apologized to the mix up on the cancellation and they said it was not a problem and that we would actually get a better rate than we had on bookings.com. Indeed we did.

Once checked in the room was quite lovely. There were plenty of multinational plugins. There were two plugins that did not shut off when you too your key out of the electricity slot. You could actually leave the room, leave some things plugged into these outlets and they would continue charging when you took your card from the slot. Here's the list of the good things:

The air conditioner worked great. Four pillows for two people and we didn't use all of them.The room was spotless. The writing desk with light overhead. There was a chase with light overhead for easy reading. We had light switches by the bed to control everything except the air. The air conditioner panel that actually worked and you could set the temp. We had plenty of hot water. All the bottled water you wanted. Four were in the room everyday and you could request more if needed. The telephone included free local calls. Used the phone a couple of times to talk with airline folks.The was  laundry service, the fee was small and we used it. The service was prompt and well done. We had a comfortable king size bed. The Wifi is free and worked great even for video calls. There was an in room safe. The was an exercise room with equipment. There were spa treatments (did use it). The pool looked great (didn't use it). The staff was friendly and helpful. The staff called my wife and I by name after the second day. They had an excellent breakfast with great variety and eggs to order. Room service was great, they were prompt and courteous with great food. Dining room service was excellent as was the food. We never felt rushed. Did I mention that the staff was very helpful and courteous?

Now for the bad points. Oh wait, I didn't see any. Yes, there were a few bugs. Many less than one would expect with open air approaches to the rooms. It is the tropics folks and there are many bugs. It was hot and muggy in the halls. That's because the halls to the rooms are in the open air.

We spent 6 days here and have to move on. It would have been easy to stay here the whole time but it's a long day trip to the other islands. We will miss this place.

If any of the hotel staff read this I would like to thank them and the management for a wonderful stay and I hope to be able to return some day.
 

Day of Rest

Sculpture Entering Ubud

Day 19 - January 29

Rest is the order of the day. After waking this morning we kind of just laid in bed and pretended to sleep. Nothing was on the schedule so there was no particular reason to rise. I was days behind in writing. I had notes jotted down but no real writing done since we arrived in Ubud (pronounced oo-bood). So while Bonnie did her exercises this morning I got started.We also had to select a hotel for our time in Medan yet too.

Exercises done and we were off to breakfast. As usual breakfast was great. We ate leisurely this morning. There was not rush at all. Once done we returned to the room. I sent Meg a text to see if she would be able to Skype with us. She answered a short time later and we chatted with her for the better part of 45 minutes. All is well in Anchorage, Alaska.

After chatting with Meg we got serious about hotel reservations in Medan. We finally got tired of looking and just booked a room for the 5 days at the Marriott. It’s probably twice as much as we need to spend but it’s still less than $100 a night. The have an airport shuttle so we let our contact in Medan know that we wouldn’t need a ride from the airport to the hotel.
I sent a text to Mel to see if she was available to Skype but didn’t hear back from her quickly so we went out for a walk. Went for a walk during the hottest part of the day. But we did get some post cards. While we were out Mel sent us a message while we were out that she could chat with us in about 45 minutes. We putzed around a while longer then headed back to the hotel. By the time we got back we were drenched in sweat. I changed my shirt and we sent it along with a bunch of other stuff to the laundry after we were assured they could get it back to us before we left.

We contacted Mel on the computer and chatted with her for about a half hour. She is in Colorado and will be going to Italy  for some skiing before she goes to Kuala Lumpur for a wedding. She was quite tired so we let her go.

Started working on the writing again in earnest this time. Along with writing for the blog I did evaluations for TripAdvisor and kind of killed two birds with one stone. Have a little smithing to do on the blog writing but mostly it’s up-to-date.

Went to dinner at 7:15. Came back to the room did some initial packing and wrote some more. While I have been writing Bonnie has been doing a bunch of reading. I think she nearly finished two books today. The hotel we have been staying is has been most exquisite. Will write more about that tomorrow. Hopefully.

Ubud Palace

Day 15 - January 25

I personally had the best nights sleep since we have been on the trip. The bed was comfortable and we left the air on at 21 C. Nice for sleeping but cool for just sitting around. Yes, we are acclimating some to the climate. It’s still hot out but not as hot as it was on our arrival. The name of the city we are in is Ubud, that's pronounced oo-bood. Both of the oo are promounce like the oo in moon.

Breakfast at the hotel was very good. There were eggs to order and real bacon. There was a great variety of other food as well, including fruit, pastries, and other things, very tasty.

After breakfast we decided to go for a walk. We got about a quarter mile from the hotel and Bonnie miss stepped on an anomaly in the sidewalk and went down hard. She is okay but we turned around and went back to the hotel so she could clean up. After that was taken care of we were again on our way. Walked around for a couple of hours. We went through a market, but didn’t buy anything. We stopped in a Hindu Temple not sure which one but it was very interesting. Turns out this was not a temple after all. It was Ubud Palace that we happened on while we were here. Wandered to where we no longer saw tourists wandering around and decided to head back to the hotel. Stopped for gelato on the way back. Nice break and very tasty.

Once we got back I discovered we had walked about 4 miles. It was very warm. We stopped for gelato on the way back and settled down in a chair to cool off with a nice snack. We stopped at a mini-mart also and picked up some Coke and tonic water. Back to the hotel. Bonnie laid down to rest for a time and then turned on the TV. I fixed a Beam and Coke and started writing. We have an appointment for manicures and foot care at the spa. Looking forward to continuing our relaxing day.

At 4 today we had set appointments for manicure and pedicure for both of us. Actually mine were called foot and hand care because I got no polish. Turns out Bonnie got the same because she didn’t want polish. This took nearly two hours and truthfully I didn’t think it was that great. Not sure why this is something people like. Bonnie did say the process was much different than in the States.

We got back to the room and putzed around for a while. We then went to dinner here at the hotel and had a lovely meal. It was very tasty, the staff was attentive and helpful. It was a very enjoyable meal. We then went back to the room to try to decide what we would do the next day and what our next destination would be in SE Asia or Indonesia. No firm conclusions on anything. But regardless our driver would show up at 8:30 AM.