THE MEN AND WOMEN OF TEGAL SARI

l to r: Pak Nengah & Pak Sudharta

In the semi darkness, we read a signage that pointed inwards “Tegal Sari Accommodation 20M --->”. “Sudoh!” For some reason, I was expecting the hotel to be by the roadside. We pulled our suitcases on a narrow, cobbled path towards the pointed direction. We came to a sign that said “Greenfields”. Where is Tegal Sari? In the dark and in fatigue, 20 metres seemed to be very far. We came to a bend, and suddenly, a surprised but pleasant voice greeted us. It’s the reception clerk of Tegal Sari Accomodations. He asked for my name and confirmed our reservation, and quickly briefed us our room number, the breakfast hours and menu, and other facilities; all of which can also be found in a folder in our room. He sent for a porter to carry our bags, and he walked with us to the room, which is on the first floor of a bungalow, that houses 4 rooms.

I was very, very happy with the room. It was beautiful and clean and honestly true to the pictures posted on their website www.tegalsari-ubud.com. Before I flew in, I didn’t know of this website. I chanced upon the hotel when I surfed one of the middle-men sites, so I was relying on second-hand information. The “hotel” has not been rated, not even a one-star, so I was not expecting much. I now recommend it to everyone, especially for the excellent service of the staff. Their staff, are very courteous and like many people in Bali, speak at least one foreign language. Throughout my 4-day stay on the Island, I heard the Balinese speak fluent English (of course!), Japanese and French and some German.

Pak Sudharta took the time to explain to us how to use the secured safe. This is a first, I tell you. No hotel staff has ever done that before in all my travels. But it was actually rather unnecessary as we do not have valuables to make use of the secured safe. We were actually praying that he would finish so that we can take a bath and hit the bed.

Tuesday, 11th April 2006.

We woke up the next morning to the soft sounds of the traffic. Lucky for us that Tegal Sari is not by the main road. I went to the balcony, and before me was a vista of green. Beauuutifuuul! The hotel is right smack in the middle of a sawah padi.

We went down to the café for the complimentary breakfast. Tar and I both chose avocado ("adpokat" in Bahasa Indonesia) juice. I also ordered banana lempeng and she chose the banana jaffle, which is two pieces of toast with slices of banana in between. The avocado juice was simply delicious.

After breakfast, Tar enquired whether the masseuse has arrived as she had booked one for 9am. The masseuse was not able to come, so the urut session was postponed to 4 pm. We talked to Pak Nengah on hiring the hotel’s car with driver to take us sightseeing to the villages surrounding Ubud. Each village has their own unique specialty, the very concept what Malaysia is trying to emulate. The car charter rate was Rp60,000 per hour. Pak Nengah said he himself will drive us.

One thing I noticed at Tegal Sari is that they seem to have this policy that the male staff attend to female visitors, and; vice versa. I noticed this one American gentleman, who arrived that morning asking for a certain female staff, and when she appeared; embraced her. Apparently, he is a returning guest. I was sure there’s no hanky-panky going on, but to me that is evidence my alleged policy works. Guests keep returning! In my case, I was hardly speaking to the female staff during my time there. All my questions and requests were attended by the male staff. I still remember the attention and the smiles of Pak Nengah, Pak Sudharta and Pak Pande.

Later, Pak Nengah told us that he was needed to man the reception counter, and his colleague, Pak Pande (who looked twenty but is actually 32) will drive us instead.