When was the last time you’ve actually stayed and slept on a palace? When was my last? Well, never, of course. I have never slept on a palace before like the rest of the proletariat. But checking in at Ubud’s Puri Saraswati Bungalows, I’m finally getting to sleep on one. And it’s not just any palace, it’s one with a history too.

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PURA SARASWATI BUNGALOWS’ OPULENT VERANDA

I actually have zero inkling that Puri Saraswati Bungalows is part of Ubud’s Puri Saren Agung, a royal palace built during the 1800’s in the heart of Bali, until reading their in-room menu while munching on a Tim Tam chocolate bar on our room’s very Balinese veranda. It turns out that that the ground we’re standing on used to be the playground for the children’s royalty before it was converted into bungalows which then served as residence to the royal family.

Wow. Just, wow, I said to myself as I reached for another bar of chocolates.

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THE ROYAL PALACE OF UBUD

The bungalows were then opened to the public for lodging in the mid-seventies, with the exception of a few where three generations of Ubud royalties still live up to this day.

ONE OF THE KORI AGUNG GATES INSIDE THE ROYAL PALACE

As I was munching on the last of my friend’s Tim Tams (okay, they’re not really mine but he left them on our table), a lady in full Balinese regalia passed and smiled at me. A princess? I thought, as I tried my very best sawasdee krab. I found her the next morning serving us Balinese pancakes on the open-air pavilion in front of our bungalows.

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THE RESORT IS A MAZE OF GARDENS

We were supposed to stay on a hostel too far away from the center of Ubud downtown when a few of our friends from Manila decided on a whim to drop by Bali for the weekend—we have rich friends like that. Planning the night before to surprise mine and C’s mom, we transferred to Puri Saraswati Bungalows making up lame excuses that they thankfully believed before being greeted in surprise by our friends in the lobby of our new lodging.

THE BUNGALOWS, WE STAYED ON FOUR OF THESE

The royal resort has a total of fifteen bungalows and we occupied four of those, our friends indeed has lots of moolah but the nightly rates at Puri Saraswati Bungalows are unbelievably affordable. Really, like half the price of regular hotels in Manila.

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THE ROOMS LOOK BEAUTIFUL IN A DATED KIND OF WAY

Considering the spaciousness of our room, its authenticity—you just have to see the intricate gilded double-door to each of our bungalows—and its lush garden setting, it’s definitely a steal.

THE LOTUS TEMPLE AT NIGHT

But there’s more. Its location is supreme. It’s right in the middle of downtown Ubud, a few minutes’ walk away from two of the best babi guling restaurants on the island, two minutes away from the shopping haven that is Ubud Market, a stone’s throw away from the Royal Palace proper, and right next door to the Bali Lotus Temple. In fact, we were able to enter the inner courtyard of the temple, something most tourists in Bali are not able to, since there’s a private entrance right on the grounds of Puri Saraswati. Definitely sweet.

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TWILIGHT AT THE PURA SARASWATI BUNGALOWS

We were definitely rarin’ to stay longer and chance upon a gamelan and dance performance on the Lotus Temple, a weekly spectacle, but our friends came on our last day in Ubud and we’re transferring to Kuta the next day. Oh well, sleeping like a royalty, it was fun while it lasted.

Puri Saraswati Bungalows ►RATES
Address: 14 Jalan Raya Ubud, Ubud, Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia
Contact Number: +62 (361) 975-164
Email: info@purisaraswatiubud.com
GPS Map: -8.5060787,115.2588963

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