| Staying at Murni's Villas, Ubud, Bali
John Braine
I am a photo-journalist based in San Francisco and travel. I have stayed in many places around the World from straw huts in Tibet to Maharajas’ palaces in Rajastan but Murni’s Villas is at the top of my list. Why?
When I go to a foreign country I look for a sense of place. In other words I’m not interested in large lobbies, groomed staff in uniforms and carefully packaged rooms in hotels which could be plonked down anywhere in the World. Beautiful but boring and usually very expensive. In these places contact with the locals is restricted to the receptionist and the bell-boy, if you are lucky. The money you spend goes off abroad and doesn’t benefit the local people. I prefer local establishments and tend to follow the recommendations of like-minded people and it was on such recommendations that I stayed at Murni’s Villas.
It was actually my boss who arranged it. He did it on the Internet. Murni’s Villas is on her wonderful web site – www.murnis.com. There are just two Villas – it’s rather exclusive and peaceful. They are set in jaw-dropping countryside in the hills about 15 -20 minutes’ drive from Ubud on the way to Mount Batur. A very nice driver called Wayan, arranged by Murni, collected me at the airport. This was my first opportunity to chat with a real Balinese person. He gave me some useful background, which set me in good stead for the rest of my stay.
To get there, you drive through ancient villages, where you don’t see tourists and there are no tourist shops. Instead there are village people going about their daily business, preparing for temple ceremonies, drying rice outside their houses, children going to school, women selling fruit from stalls. Everywhere I looked was a photo opportunity. That small drive from Ubud to the Villas paid for my trip!
Suddenly we turned left, off the main road, into Murni’s private driveway between sparkling green rice paddies. They extended in either direction as far as the eye could see. The driveway was flanked by volcanic stone Buddha statues. Their kindly expressions complemented the tranquil atmosphere. According to Murni there are thirty three of them and there are other statues dotted around the grounds. I spotted Javanese boundary stones, East Sumbanese statues and Balinese water jars. A photo collage emerged in my mind’s eye.
Made, who lives in the nearby village of Ponggang, gave me a refreshing lime juice, with a flower in it, and showed me around the Villa. Wow! A large bedroom with a veranda, filled with wood carvings, very comfortable and impeccably furnished with a mix of modern and antique furniture, massive living room, a huge jacuzzi and shower, and incredible views of unobstructed rice terraces up and down the hills in every direction. And just in case I needed to keep in touch with the World, a television inside an unobtrusive wooden cupboard. Architectural Digest sprang to mind.
Apel, the pool boy and one of the gardeners, showed me the pool. This is no ordinary pool – it’s fifty meters long, set into a rice terrace, with views off the edge into infinity. The pool has its own small garden. Murni told me that they often have weddings there. It’s such a beautiful setting.
Wayan, the cook, made me a different tropical breakfast every day. I especially liked the bubur mebasa which is a Balinese rice porridge flavoured with leaves from a rare Balinese tree which grows in the garden, accompanied by fresh mango juice. The mangoes also grow in the garden. Finally Kopi Bali, local Balinese coffee, roasted in the next village. Murni took me along to a local village temple ceremony that evening, which takes place only once every twenty five years. She was playing in the women’s gamelan group for the local dancers – and the gods. That was a fantastic opportunity. The ceremony went on for days and you could hear the women’s chanting and the Balinese priests’ mantras throughout the night. Magic.
Would
I recommend staying at Murni’s Villas? You bet! It’s
at the top of my list. John Braine
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