Bali, love at first sight - the Karma SPA, Ubud

Have you ever experienced a SPA treatment? Indonesia is said to be the birth place of SPA. In the ancient kingdom, only royal family members could enjoy such a splurge treatment. Nowadays, in Bali, there are so many professional SPA centers with a wide range of price.
I discovered an hidden dream cottage with a green garden - the Karma Spa.It has well-trained aromatheropists, fine-quality herbal oil, clean treatment rooms in good condition. The location is right behind the Three Monkeys restaurant on the monkey forest street.

My favorite spa in Ubud - Karma Spa



Green garden in Karma

The treatment room is set in the green rice peddies and there are a massage bed, a shower area and a bath tube. The featured treatment in Bali is Javanese Lulur. The procedure is feet wash->one-hour-massage -> body scrub->body yogurt mask(spread cool yogurt on the body for a short time:))->shower->flower bath. During the bath, you can enjoy ginger tea and fruits. It takes two hours and half. The products including massage oil and scrub are all made from natural ingredients, such as rice, herbs and so on. I went to Karma once arrived in Ubud from the airport. I felt so refreshed and energized after the treatment and it was a good start of my Bali trip.
By the way,I just received an email and Karma changed its name to Kayma. 

The treatment room in the rice paddies

Wall ornaments

Generally speaking, the SPA price in Ubud is somewhat higher than that of the south downtown. But it is worth every penny of it since in Ubud, the treatment room usually has a great view and is located in the rice peddies or mountains.
Luxurious brands such as Shisedo and L'OCCITANE also launched their SPA centers in Ubud. The price is at least USD 100><.  If you have enough spending power, an experience there will be unforgettable. But if the budget is a little bit tight, try a reasonable-priced one like Kayma, about USD 30 for Javanese Lulur(2.5hrs). There are other SPA centers even cheaper (<USD 20) for the similar treatment but you get what you pay for according to travelers' reviews.

Plus:
In Ubud, there is another famous shop called KOU whose owner is a Japanese. It sells handmade soaps made from natural coconut oil and herbs. It can be one of the best gifts for your dear friends.

KOU handmade soaps



Bali, love at first sight - all about restaurants, Ubud

I will continue my journey in Ubud. Ubud is a town of artists. Restaurants in Ubud are super nice both in setting and food quality. In Ubud, you can find all tastes, from local food at a warung to international cuisines. Delicious food is available over a wide range of price. Let me warmly introduce several great restaurants.
1. Naughty Nuris
Naughty Nuris is a street-side hangout opposite to Neka Museum. Its star menu including barbeque spare rips and sausages, martinis and so on. Many people reviewed the spare rips as the best one in the world. The restaurant is always busy and people just share large wooden tables and benches. For me, it was fun to share the table with an Indonesian family and an Australian couple. The price is very reasonable. A must-try in Ubud.

The open-air setting
The lady was doing BBQs:)

The star menu: spare rips.
It's so painful for me to look at it when I am in KAIST:(

My lunch set: Bingtang Beer, spare ribs, cap cay(Indonesian vegetable soup with chicken in it), rice and papaya juice!

2. Three Monkeys
Three monkeys is another favorite international restaurant of mine in Ubud. It is on the famous monkey forest street and waiter boys there are very cute^^. I don't have many nice photos of it, but I insist introducing it to you since it cannot be a wrong choice any time you go. The atmosphere is perfect for lovers.

Oh, the vietmese prawn spring rolls were mostly gone and the nasi goreng with shrimp was the best nasi goreng in Bali.
Do not miss its homemade peppermint lime juice!

Wall ornaments

3 monkeys in day time: mum enjoyed sitting right near the rice paddies.

3. Black Beach
Black Beach is an Italian restaurant whose owner's wife is an Italian. The restaurant is an open-air space on the third floor where you can overlook the Ubud town (there is no tall buildings in Ubud, 3rd floor, kind of on the top ). The food is in homemade style and you feel they are truely Italian. This was a small restaurant I found by searching hard and it was worth all my efforts. Love the style!






Homemade Italian: Pizza Margarita, pesto gnocci and caesar salad

Fresh strawberry tart was very fresh!

There are other restaurants and cafes I would like to introduce.They will show up in the later posts. I guess I probably made some of you hungry. Bali is really a heaven and Ubud is the heaven of the heaven. Once I have a chance to travel back there, I will take Indonesian cooking classes. Delicious food is one of my religions! I believe in it,haha:P

Bali, love at first sight -Green Field Hotel, Ubud

Ubud is a town located in the central mountain area of Bali, Indonesia. Different from vivid and exciting downtown in the South, Ubud is a very artistic and subtle place where the charm shall be explored by peaceful mind and humble attitude.
The hotel I lived was 'Green Field' owned by a local artist. There were two types of room I actually experienced during my stay.
The first one was the economical room which cost 250,000 Rupian per day. It was cheap but clean and spacious.  


The cute 2-floor house looked beautiful in the sunlight.

In front my room, please notice that the street lamp has a black cap.

Painting work in the room

Signature on the picture

 The second type I lived was called the Bale Sukat which cost 500,000 Rupian per night. People who love to experience traditional Balinese house should try this.




Sitting in the fancy balcony, I enjoyed it a lot. The fancy door and windows were right behind.There was also a daybed which was my favorite!

View my door and windows from inside

Wooden furnitures



Balcony view: one side was pool and pavillion, the other side was green rice field

 Breakfast was the most joyful thing in the hotel. Friendly staffs would bring what you'd ordered through phone to your room and I prefered to eat my rich breakfast in the balcony. One side was the pool view, the other was the green rice fields. No hurry, just be slow and slow, listening to birds' song, watching farmers take care of their crops.
An interesting thing about breakfast is whenever I started to enjoy breakfast, Balinese ants also began to share the food. Then I found a solution - to squeeze some juice of a lemon ; ants would not come. In fact, in a place like Ubud, I would never feel uncomfortable to share food with these lovely creatures.

A typical American breakfast: fruit platter +pineapple pancake + Bali coffee

Pineapple pancake


 

Or another set: fruit platter with yogurt and honey + nasi goreng/scrabbled egg with toast+ Bali coffee

 In short, Green Filed is a hotel of high value. I would like to return as soon as possible. Certainly, in Ubud there are many featured places to stay, I hope that I could try more of them!

My tea life

I was born and grew up in a city named Hangzhou which is famous for Longjing Tea, a branch of Chinese green tea. A cup of tea is a very nice and elegant way to start a brand new day, isn't it?
Hey, friends, what kind of tea do you often enjoy?
Having been back to KAIST for a week, I feel used to the tough academic schedule here. Tea is my great friend in my busy life. I will share two of my favorite tea recipes in my first post.
The first one is Jasmine + rose: my favorite jasmine tea is actually a combination of green tea and jasmine flowers. During stir-drying process, people placed a layer of jasmine over a layer of long leaf green tea then another layer of jasmine and so forth. The pleasant scent of jasmine can effectively remove bad smell in your mouth, therefore it is perfect for breakfast tea. Roses are called flower king and can be freely added to many kinds of teas. They help us enhance blood circulation and contain anti-oxidants that prevent cancer diseases and keep skin healthy.
The other one is Pu Erh +chrysanthemum. Pu Erh is kind of 'black tea' and it is really black in color. Different from green tea whose price is in accordance with its freshness, Pu Erh becomes more expensive as it becomes older like some wines. So it might be a good investment. Pu Erh has a good fame in Korea too probably since many of its benefits were studied recently. In Yunnan province where Pu Erh tea originated from, traditionally people cook rice with Pu Er tea. Nowadays, we prefer a cup of Pu Erh after a meal. It not only helps digest food in stomach, prevents constipation but also aids for deep sleep. Chrysanthemum tea adds a light aroma to Pu Er tea which makes the tea more refreshing. Chrysanthemum is beneficial for liver and eyes. I like drinking a cup of Pu Erh chrysanthemum tea after dinner.
So...do you like my recipes???
The first post was not supposed to be this long. I just cannot stop advertising my favorite teas. If you also like tea, we can talk more about that.