Staycation at Best Western Premier Agung Resort, Ubud

Bali, out of so many beautiful islands in Indonesia, has a special place in my heart. It makes me wanna coming back for more. The nature, the people, and the wonderful places is so fascinating I feel like I want to explore each and every part of Bali. In fact, one of my wildest dream is to own a coffee shop in Ubud. One can dream, rite? And who knows...it comes true :D 

Whenever I travel to Bali, Ubud is on top of the list of my must visit places. I love how it is peaceful, the beautiful earthy landscape, rows of rustic coffee shops, vintage-looking clothing shops, and how it makes me happy just by strolling around the street and enjoy the surroundings. It is that good. 

Today I am going to share my experience during my staycation at Best Western Agung Resort. I arrived quite late that night. My flight got delayed, and I am thankful that one of my fellow foodblogger, Winda of gulanyagulali.com picking me up at the airport. And her friend, Fajar, drive us to Ubud. No hassle! Thank you both!. The drive from the airport to Ubud approximately took 1 hour. We got the address, but maybe because we are not familiar with our surroundings...we got lost. The map and the gps said we should take turn at the said street. But the road was closed. Apparently there was a traditional ceremony held on that specific street. So, we have to look for another way to reach the hotel.

Long story short, we finally arrived at our destination and we were welcomed with ginger and lemongrass drink and a warm wet towel to refresh our hand or face. My room mate is Winda, of course.

The room is comfy, spacious, and with a single glance at the bed, I just cant stand to throw my fatique-self to the comfortable mattress. 

I took my time and decided to make the bathtub a good use. And it was the best decision to just lazying around, loose all the tightened muscles (as if I have any muscles ;D) in warm water. I feel refreshed and relaxed afterwards,and that's my cue to hit the pillow and drifted into deep slumber.

Morning comes quicker than I hope. But it was a bright day and I am so excited to finally see what the resort looks like under the sunlight as I arrived pretty late at night I couldn't see the surroundings clearly. We went to Taman Lotus Restaurant, the place where we had our breakfast. Its a semi open restaurant situated in the middle of the resort, surrounded by ponds and garden. They serve typical resort breakfast. Varied from egg station, breads and jams, juices, salads and traditional food like nasi bali. The taste is quite decent, but honestly I expect more variety and taste given that the resort hold 4plus stars :) 

If you are a gym freak, worry not. All guests are free to use their gym. And if you love swimming, they have 1 swimming pool and 1 kids pool. If you take pictures from the swimming pool edges, it will look like an infinity pool. And there infront of you is outstanding scenery of trees, woods, all greeneries. Fascinating.  

Best Western Ubud features 75 spacious rooms with many types, adorned with wooden floor, traditional furnishings and of course free Wi-Fi. My first glimpse of the interior and exterior of this resort is super cozy, welcoming and classical Bali beauty that awaken all my senses. Surrounded by tropical jungle, and walking distance to Ubud main attractions such as cafes, galleries and so on. It is indeed the perfect place to unwind from our daily mundane life. 

So, if you're looking for a recommendation of a place to stay at Ubud, do consider Best Western Premier Agung Resort. I have a great time of my 2 nights staying at Best Western Ubud. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great day, you all! 

Best Western Premier Agung Resort Ubud

Jl. Sriwedari No.99, Ubud,
Kabupaten Gianyar, Bali 80571
Phone: (0361) 2091700

www.bestwestern.com

Bangkok Culinary Trip, Day 2

Good morning everyone....sawasdee 🏼

Warning : I'm a crappy writer, so this post is going to be photo heavy,enjoy :D

For watching the 2nd day Bangkok Culinary Tour on Diatabs Indonesia Youtube channel, click this link 

Read the story of : Day 1 Bangkok Culinary Trip 

We have to get up early today, eventhough me and my room mate Dina, slept very late. We both have a strange routinity to make sure everything is well arranged. So when we hit the hotel room, instead of sleeping or taking a bath, we were opening our suitcases and arrange all the clothes to the cupboard. As if we can't do that the next day. *eyes rolling* Good news for me, I am not the only person with semi-ocd sympthom *grinning*. 

I woke up with panda eyes *sigh* but feeling happy as we have a full and tight schedule today. Excitement is in the air! After taking a bath, we go to the restaurant for breakfast. It took place at the ground floor, its not too crowded by the time we have our quite breakfast time, I ate 2 omelettes, 2 small pastries and a glass of orange juice. And then we are ready to go to : Dumnoen Saduak Floating Market. One of the most famous and oldest floating market in Thailand. It took about 1.5 hours from Sukhumvit to that place by bus. Luckily, the traffic condition is on our side, smooth ride until we reach our destination.  

It was a sunny day when we arrive at the floating market, better put our sunglasses on :*

If I were to describe Dumnoen Saduak, I think it is more or less the same as Indonesian traditional market. The difference is, they have river and boats. Many sellers selling souvenirs, traditional food and other interesting stuffs. We don't stroll around too long at the market as our boat is waiting. We were divided into three groups. In our boat : Dina, Sherlya, Jeje, Me and Kadek. It is one helluva crowded river! You can see a lot of seller on each side of the river offering their stuffs. If you want to buy something, you can move the boat closer and do the bargain.  Some of the sellers offer me too expensive price, I got too lazy to bargain and decided not to buy anything at all.

It was quite fun actually, eventhough I don't buy many things from the floating market. I finally get to try the famous coconut ice cream! Yeaaaayyy finally! 

Frankly speaking, it taste more or less the same as Indonesian Traditional Ice Cream, or famously known as Es Puter. The difference is that the coconut ice cream topping use pan roasted peanuts and colorful steamed glutinous rice. However, it is the experience of eating the ice cream in a small boat that keeps bumping one into another that counts! Unforgettable, that is!

Here are some pics from Sherlya and Jeje's camera :

It was hot and sunny in the floating market. But when we continue our culinary journey to Central Embassy, the weather switched immediately into rain mode. And the traffic jam is....bad. I guess it is more or less the same as Jakarta, traffic jam got worse every time it rains.

The Central Embassy mall is quite fancy, I can see many famous designers brand store there. Not too crowd, maybe because its weekday.

We are heading directly to Somboon Seafood. The place is famous for their Fried Curry Crab. Everything is already arranged by the travel agen, so in no time our orders arrived. Thanks God,   we are all starving! 

If we are talking about the food, it was oh so delicious. First,  tom yum gong, we were stunned at the first sight! It has this quite unique serving bowl, as you see on my pictures. Super hot spicy soup with prawn, mushroom and all. I love how the taste is very balance, everything is in place, just right, not overpowering one into another. 

Somboon seafood also very popular with their Fried Curry Crab. The meat is very sweet, you can easily tell that they use fresh and good quality crab, and that curry is da bomb! It doesn't taste heavy, but each ingredients is blend perfectly. You won't regret to make your finger dirty for this food! 5 points for Somboon Seafood ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Even though the food is full of spices, you need not to worry about your stomach condition #noworrywithdiatabs. 

Ok, our third stop of the day is : Or Tor Kor Market. Soooo very excited! When you travel anywhere around the world, traditional market is a must visit place. It is always fun to see, observe and experience near the local people. 

My first impression about this market is : clean and tidy! Even there are lotsa durian seller, I can't smell durian at all when I enter the market. 

Our purpose is of course to eat : DURIAN. Exotic fruit with a spesific aroma that makes people love and hate the most. Some people (including me) looove durian so much we eat anything that use durian as ingredients. And for some people, it is a big no no. I wonder why. 

We also got the chance to taste the famous Monthong and Kanyao durian. My favorite is Kanyao! Not too meaty, but the flavor is stronger than monthong. Me love it. According to Pak Bondan explanation, during one of the King of Thailand visit to Indonesia, our President, Bung Karno gave the king Durian tree. And then they make it a better version of durian as you can see now. Very interesting fact. 

We then stroll around the market, searching for anything interesting. The sad thing is, I don't know why I don't take many pictures inside this market. I remember we spend quite a lot of time at Or Tor Kor. I guess we were focusing on oleh2 shopping rather than enjoying the market itself. So, I really hope I will be able to visit Or Tor Kor Market once again *crossingfinger*. 

After fulfilling our tummy with durian, we are heading back to hotel, we have so little time to prepare for our scheduled dinner at Chao Praya Cruise. But then there was a change of plan. The dinner was cancelled. 

As suggested by Pak Bondan, we are going to Asiatique The Riverfront, a unique market with so many choices of food and beverages, clothing, spa products, bags etc. 2-3 hours surely not enough to explore this huge place with sooooo many interesting sellers and stalls. They also have some restaurants by the Chao Praya River, and a ferris wheel like the London Eye. 

If you are looking for Thailand souvenirs and food, you are in the right place ! You name it, from t-shirt, ethnic bags, shoes, spa and beauty products, keychain, refrig magnet, sandals, accessories, wallet, and also thailand food, for example nestea thai tea and durian, coconut and mango candy also available here, with good price! Some of the seller also can speak a little Indonesian. And they don't offer too expensive price, so it is really fun to shop here. But still, you must always bargain! Dina, Jeje and me didn't get the chance to explore the whole place, but at least we got everything we need. You can see that from our big plastic bag and the big smile in our face :D

And after a tiring day, we went back to our hotel and start to pack our luggage again.  We are going home tomorrow. Dina helped me to zip my luggage (Thanks, room mate!) as it grow big, fat and very difficult to deal with, you know the reason why, rite? :)) 

To be continue......