Ubud Hanging Gardens Hotel

When a friend of mine at Ngurah Rai Airport in August,2008, he read a bulletin. In the bulletin it was written that Ubud Hanging Gardens is one of the top 10 hotels in Bali. Wow, he was surprised. He was involved in the hotel construction. I went there once with Mr. Gordon Shaw the architect of Jimbaran Puri Bali 2 to see the rooms at Ubud Hanging Gardens. We met Mr. Nicolas Pillet the General Manager of this hotel. He gave us the permission to check the villas there.

Below is the photo I took from Cafe balcony, its taken from cellphone, I'm sorry that the image is not very good



The hotel is located at Payangan, Ubud. It's a very nice hotel, with natural plants and forest around it. The villas lies on the land with different elevation up to 60 m high. So they use 2 small elevator for the guest and staff. The rooms are very nice, each villas has a plunge pool with the wooden deck.

Ubud Hanging Gardens recently won the prestigious 2008 Asean Energy Award, in the Tropical category.
Jean-Christophe Moreaux (Commercial Director, Asia) and the property's architect, Popo Danes, accepted the award on behalf of the resort at the Royal Thai Navy Auditorium in Bangkok, during the 3 day Asean Energy Business Forum held in August.

Below is the cafe, the elevation is at the middle of the hotel, around 30 m high from the ground level, the hotel lobby is at 60 m from the ground level.



Popo Danes' roots remain firmly planted in his native Balinese culture and community. He maintains these by reinvesting in education and supporting young talent for the benefit of the island and its future generations, and always strives to ensure that any development blends into the surroundings, the community and the spiritual aspects of the space it occupies. As such, his design philosophy fully matched that of Orient-Express Hotels and was perfectly aligned to the group's responsible tourism strategy.

The resort was praised for:

1. Its low site coverage ratios
2. Its energy-efficient split of electricity and gas (the latter used for heating the individual cottages' private pools)Its use of natural vegetation as an umbrella for cooling
3. Its design with respect to the local topography, maximizing natural ventilation to obviate air-conditioning in public areas
4. Its energy-efficient and site-protecting use of an inclined lift, avoiding the need for roads and golf carts
5. Its heat transfer reduction through organically thatched roofs with overhangs
6. Its biotech sewage treatment plan
7. Its protection and promotion of indigenous flora and fauna

Ubud Hanging Gardens is set in the heart of the tropical paradise of Bali. The resort has 38 luxury private pool villas, each with a heated private infinity plunge pool set high in the rice terraces overlooking the Ayung river. Guests often choose to combine a stay here with several nights at Jimbaran Puri Bali, Ubud Hanging Gardens' sister hotel that offers individual luxury cottages and villas with private gardens beside the soft white sands of Jimbaran Bay.

If you want more information just visit the hotel website at http://www.ubudhanginggardens.com/

Ubud Writers & Reader Festival

Last week there was a festival in Ubud. Many writers and readers from all over the world gathering here to attend The 5th Ubud Writers & Readers Festival. This festival was held on October, 14 until October, 19, 2008. Many Indonesian writers also invited.

Why the festival held in Ubud? It's because Ubud is well known as the centre of arts in Bali. Many arts products are available here and the village is very tranquil. Accomodatian are very easy to get here. The climate also very friendly. It's goes with the Balinese concept of life called "Tri Hita Karana". It's how to keep the balance of three factors that will read the balance of life.

In the ongoing battle between tradition and modernity, globalization and localization, the radicals and the moderates, and tourism against agriculture, Bali is an island that struggles to stay in the middle. "Achieving modern progress without abandoning the traditional roots" is the ever-present mantra.

How did the Festival start?

The international Ubud Writers & Readers Festival began as a healing and economic development project after the Bali bombings in 2002. The Festival is an annual-ongoing event, held each October, in a month that commemorates the first Bali bombing. Now in its fifth year, the Festival promises to become the largest and most prestigious literary gathering in the South-East Asian region.

The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival is a respected international event, attracting authors, publishers, festival directors and academics from all over the world. In previous years our headlining guests were Michael Ondaatje [Canada], Amitav Ghosh [India] and the President of East Timor Xanana Gusmao, who each participated alongside over 100 other writers from New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, India Canada, the United States, France, the UK, Germany and Indonesia.

It's a world class festival and has a noble goal, so we all should support them. After all, how can we know about history, culture, etc. if there were no writers in the world.