padma resort ubud travel diary
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 1
Our home away from home
***
After a week of skyscrapers, we flew to Bali and headed on a two hour drive to Puhu village Ubud to be surrounded by a panoramic view of luscious tree plantations. According to our cheery driver Gede (who drove us to many different places in Bali later, so recommended), Padma is the only resort currently in an area that's untouched by tourism so when you finally wind up in the village and head down the long road, you know you're heading to a peaceful slice of Bali away from it all. And you are. Even Ubud central is about a 40 min shuttle away. But it's all good because chances are, you won't really be leaving. Whether it's sunset yoga overlooking the forest, lounging by the endless infinity pool, enjoying a spa treatment, heading down the jogging track or more, there are so many things to do to keep you well occupied. Here are some images from our stay here..
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 2
The hidden infinity pool most people don't know about.. (just down some steps from the main one). Wearing: ASOS blocked striped midi bandeau dress | Country Road colour block hat.
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 3
Buffet breakfast at Puhu restaurant serving fresh juices daily - I think this line up is something like pineapple, honeydew and mango
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 4
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 5
Breakfast overlooking the resort and its famous infinity pool. Wearing Gorman Giant Squid beach dress
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 6
In early mornings you can see both Mount Batur (smaller left side one) and Mount Agung (right side) from behind the forests. Magical.
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 7
Afternoon tea for two with sweet and savoury bits, Balinese style.
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 8
The little corridor that leads you to the pool! Wearing Alice McCall Waiting for the Sun dress
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 9
Bali's longest infinity pool (89 m long) from the balcony of the Wine Lounge. It's so long that unfortunately I can't fit it all in one picture!
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 10
Lunch at the Pool cafe. Wearing Love Bonito pleated cami.
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 11
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 12
By the main pool, below is the jogging track which is dotted by bales along the way & ends up in the bamboo forest. On a clear day, you can see Sanur beach behind the hills towards the right side of the pool!
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 13
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 14
The bamboo forest and little river that is found at the bottom of the jogging track. Wearing Mister Zimi Laguna Tina dress.
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 15
Learning how to make canang sari with Sukri - a free activity you can book yourself in at the resort. These Balinese Hindu blessings are scattered every where and play a big part of the daily life of the Balinese - it was so great to learn how to finally make these. Sukri let us know she makes many of these every morning and night and places them in bedrooms, temples, outside and more. The base is made of young coconut leaves cut into strips and then fanned out and secured in the middle to create a flower like shape. After that, you use the same coconut leaves to create the basket it sits in. Then, you put in a little folded Durian leaf (which symbolises the God and is essential in every canang sari) and then
fill the flower tray with all sorts of colourful flowers to make it look beautiful. In the middle you put lots of shredded
pandan leaves. We used staplers instead of bamboo sticks (what's normally used) to secure everything together to keep things simple.
See our finished canang sari here
!
bike image
One other activity we loved signing up for was the cycling tour. Our guide was Wibawa. He took us around on a nearby cycling track which I originally had misheard him, thinking he had said it was 'not difficult for beginners' when really he said it was 'difficult for beginners'. Probably the hardest trail I've ever done (as I generally only cycle casually) but still doable for beginners. We cycled through rice paddies, visited a farm, passed banana, durian, jackfruit, snakeskin fruit and papaya trees & ended up visiting a Balinese house complex which happened to be owned by a friend of Wibawa's. It was so nice to learn about Bali from a local and it was so interesting to learn about Balinese living. Wibawa told us that in each housing complex there are multiple buildings housing the sleeping area, kitchen, temple and other rooms.
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 16
Evening cocktails (or in our case, mocktails because we don't drink alcohol) & snacks in the wine lounge. So sweetly presented for two!
Padma Resort Ubud Bali Puhu Travel Diary Guide Review TripAdvisor 2016 17
Evening by the pool. Top floor of the building is Puhu restaurant (where they serve buffet breakfast and dinner) with the wine lounge on the right side. The floors below it are where guests stay. One night when we were sitting in Puhu having dinner, we saw fireflies flying nearby. It was magical :')
I hope you enjoyed this travel diary! We got a little snap happy when we arrived at Padma as it was not officially opened yet and only a limited amount of guest rooms were available to book. The grand opening is this month so congrats to the Padma team and thank you to Yohanes, Ari, Aggya, Ary, Ellis, Wibawa, Sukri, Sudarya, Ketut and everyone else who met along the way for making our stay so beautiful.
See my Padma Resort Ubud check-in post here.
Photography: Rowena Cao & I