Travelling in South Asia definitely has it’s perks but it also has it’s down sides. I thought it would be smooth sailing after the time share experience we had in Kuta. Oh what a dreamer I am! The rest of our time in Kuta was definitely smoother. We explored some of southern Bali by scooter, visited some gorgeous beaches and ate some delicious sea food. The entire week minus our accommodation cost us about 100$ USD for the both of us. Pretty decent if you ask me! The hotel we were staying at played a big role in our satisfaction with Kuta. They made our lives a lot easier. The rooms were super clean, staff were helpful and spoke English and the morning buffet a complete delight. We didn’t need to eat lunch as our breakfast each morning was so grand.

Given our experience at the Kana Kuta, our expectations were naturally high. But as all good things must come to an end, we were ready to move from Kuta and explore Ubud. A favourite for tourists, and a place most people recommend. Given these impressions, we were naturally excited about our stay. For our accommodation, I booked through Agoda. After much research I found (what I thought) was an amazing deal of 42$ a night at the Citta Villa in Mengui which included breakfast. Now, when I book hotels, I always check the review on the booking site as well as trip advisor. In this case all reviews were 4 or 5 stars. What I failed to notice at the time of booking, is that there were only 7 reviews on trip advisor. The photos online are gorgeous and the reviews straight forward. The only downside I read was that it was 30 minutes away from the main city centre of Ubud however renting a scooter is easy. I figured we’d just rent a scooter to get into town and we’d be in what looked like a gorgeous oasis away from the chaotic tourist traps.

And so with much anticipation we arrived at the Citta on Sunday afternoon at 3pm. The staff present barely spoke any English, and it was the hotel driver that was doing the talking. They showed us two villas, one on the ground floor, another on the top. As we started to explore the villa grounds, I immediately noticed the lush landscape and with it, its biodiversity. I figured so long as the rooms are clean, we should be fine. We opted for the room on the second floor (thinking we might be safer from all the crawlers on the floor). Ya right!

Now, the villa itself is beautiful. One bedroom, one living room with sofas attached to a balcony surrounding it. High ceilings, glass windows all around, with fields for miles at each end. A changing room, with closets and a beautiful bathroom with a tub. With a little bit of attention and everyday cleaning, this villa would be perfect. Of course, this is not the case. (If you look at the photos posted on trip advisor there are very misleading)The first thing I noticed was spider webs and some sort of animal dropping everywhere in the room. See photo attached. If you know what it is, please do enlighten us. (Our guess is it’s a lizard) There was also a ginormous wasp hive on the balcony. We asked the staff member to clean the room and remove the hive. The hive was promptly removed by the staff jumping up and ripping it apart.😳 I am still waiting for them to clean the room. The website stated there was a spa, daily yoga and walks. When we inquired about this, the staff member actually laughed and said ‘no, we don’t have that here’.
We took a deep breath, and decided to go into town, rent a scooter and eat dinner.

We managed to find a scooter for 5$ a day for 7 days. So far so good. We scooted our way around Ubud for a bit to get a feel for the town and sat down for some local Balinese cuisine. After having food in our bellies, and energy restored we explored the local market where we quickly realized how everything was double the price from Kuta.

We decided to head back to the villa, before it got too dark. Equipped with google maps in hand (thank god for cheap Asian SIM cards!) we set off on our 30 minute journey. A very stressful 30 minute ride. As we got closer to the villa, about 1km away, David mistakenly took a wrong turn. As he tried to turn around, we heard a loud sound. PAF!!! Our back tire was flat, kaput, dead! With the loud sound, the street dogs freaked out and started howling and chasing us down the street. David quickly scooted off, in an attempt to rescue us from the chaos. I held on to my dear life as I clung to David’s waist. I cannot even begin to express the frustration and anger I felt. Why was this happening to us? What lesson were we meant to learn here? After escaping the dogs, I got off the bike and ran towards the hotel on a pitch dark street with rice fields on both sides praying that some wild insect or animal doesn’t jump on me or worse, I get run over by a car. All the while, David pushed the scooter to the hotel.

A few minutes later we finally arrived and I thought, okay, it can’t get worse.. And then it did..
Coming soon..