Your last night in Bali

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Flametree retreat · Pondok Pisang, Candidasa · what to do with the day the retreat ends

Most people fly home early the morning after the retreat finishes. That leaves an awkward gap. You check out after lunch, and then you have about fifteen hours to get through before you are standing at a check-in desk at four in the morning.

The usual answer is a hotel near the airport, which costs money, wastes an evening and means setting an alarm anyway. There is a better one.

Spend the last afternoon and evening in Ubud, then go straight to the airport. One car, one driver, your luggage in the boot the whole time, and no hotel at all. You leave Pondok Pisang after lunch, you are in Ubud by mid afternoon, and you are dropped at the terminal at four in the morning having had a proper last day in Bali.

This is new. We have not offered it before. It came out of working out, in some detail, what actually stays open late in Bali and how the airport works overnight.

There are three ways to do it, and they suit different people. A night in Ubud, which is the big one. Staying on at Pondok Pisang and doing one of the half-day tours you missed, which is the cheapest and the easiest. Or Sanur, which is lovely on any night except the one this page is about.

If you would like to do any of them on this retreat, tell Chris.

Why it works

You are paying for a car to the airport whichever way you do it. That is the thing to hold on to. This does not add a car. It turns the car you already need into the whole evening, and it removes the hotel.

Three things make Ubud the right place rather than anywhere else.

It stays open. Three places in central Ubud run live music and a dance floor until three in the morning, seven nights a week. Almost nothing else in Bali does, outside Kuta and Seminyak.
It is a good place to be in the afternoon. You arrive with three or four hours of daylight, and Ubud is somewhere you can walk around, shop, and see something, which Sanur and the airport strip are not.
It suits the people on this retreat. Ubud is the yoga end of Bali. There is sound healing, kirtan, Balinese dance at the palace and a ridge walk at sunset, all within a few streets of each other.

The drive into Ubud in the afternoon is the price you pay. Two to two and a half hours, because the roads in are narrow and the traffic is unreliable. We usually steer people away from Ubud for that reason. It matters much less here, because you have nowhere to be. And the drive out at three in the morning is clear road the whole way.

The whole day, hour by hour

This is built around a seven o’clock flight, which is the usual Darwin service. Shift it if yours is different.

Late morning	Last practice, then lunch at Pondok Pisang, which is the final meal of the retreat.
1.00pm	Leave, with your luggage in the car. It stays there all evening.
3.15 to 3.45pm	Arrive in Ubud.
Afternoon	The market, the shops, the palace, the ridge walk. See below.
6.00pm	The sound session, if you have booked one. One hour, so you are out by seven.
7.30pm	Dinner. Eat properly, because you will not eat again before Darwin.
10.00pm	Music.
2.45am	Leave Ubud.
4.00am	At the airport, three hours before the flight.

If you would rather not be up until three, the same day works with dinner at eight and the airport at half past midnight. You sit landside for a few hours with a book. Some people would rather do that than pay for a hotel room they will be in for four hours.

The afternoon in Ubud

You arrive with roughly three hours of daylight. All of these are within walking distance of each other in the centre.

What Ubud actually feels like

Ubud is not Kuta and it is not Seminyak. It is an old market and palace town up in the hills, and it has kept a good deal of the feeling the rest of Bali had fifty years ago, before the coast filled up. Narrow streets. Carved stone walls with moss on them. A small offering of flowers and incense on nearly every step. Everybody walks.

Over the top of that sits the thing Ubud became. Yoga schools, vegetarian cafes, silversmiths, bookshops, batik and carving, and a lot of people who came for a fortnight and are still there thirty years later. It is laid back, a little bit hippy, and completely used to visitors. Nobody will hurry you and nobody will mind what you are wearing.

That mixture is why people like Ubud, and it is why a last afternoon here does not feel like killing time before a flight.

A rendering of the main street of Ubud in Bali, with sarongs and carvings on the pavement, a carved stone temple wall and scooters at the kerb — The main street in the afternoon. Sarongs, carvings and silver out on the pavement, and a temple wall running along behind it. A rendering rather than a photograph.

A rendering of a narrow paved side lane in Ubud, Bali at dusk, with paper lanterns strung overhead, small shops and studios, bicycles and mossy stone walls — A side lane once the lanterns go on. This is the older, quieter Ubud, and it is where the good shops are. Also a rendering.

The Ubud Art Market, Pasar Seni Ubud

Directly opposite the palace, on the corner of Jalan Raya Ubud and Jalan Monkey Forest. Baskets, sarongs, carvings, silver, batik. It is the standard Bali market and you are expected to bargain, so start at about a third and settle somewhere near half. It thins out in the late afternoon, so go here first. The shops along Jalan Hanoman and Jalan Dewi Sita stay open until about nine and are better quality anyway.

A rendering of the covered stalls at the Ubud Art Market in Bali, packed with rattan baskets, batik sarongs, carvings and straw hats — Inside the covered stalls. Baskets, batik, carvings and hats, stacked to the roof. A rendering rather than a photograph.

The Ubud Palace, Puri Saren Agung

Free, right in the middle, and takes twenty minutes to walk around. The carved gateways and the courtyards are the point.

Balinese dance is performed in the palace courtyard most evenings from about half past seven, and tickets are sold at the gate for roughly IDR 100,000, about AUD $8. Legong, Barong and kecak on different nights. If you want one properly Balinese thing on your last night, this is it, and it finishes in time for dinner afterwards.

Terraced rice fields and palm trees in the green hills around Ubud, Bali, in late afternoon light — The country around Ubud in the late afternoon. This is what the last few hours of daylight look like, and why the drive up is worth it.

Pura Taman Saraswati, the lotus temple

Free, and about two minutes’ walk from the palace, set back behind a cafe on Jalan Kajeng. A long rectangular pond covered end to end in pink lotus, a stone causeway straight down the middle, and a carved gate at the far end. It takes ten minutes and it is the picture most people come home from Ubud with.

A rendering of the lotus pond and stone causeway leading to the carved gate of the Saraswati temple in the centre of Ubud, Bali — The lotus pond at Pura Taman Saraswati. Best in the morning when the flowers are fully open, but it is worth the ten minutes at any hour. A rendering rather than a photograph.

The Campuhan Ridge Walk

Free, and the best hour in Ubud. A paved path along the top of a ridge between two rivers, with tall grass on both sides and no traffic. It starts near the Warwick Ibah hotel off Jalan Raya Campuhan, runs about two kilometres out, and you walk back the same way.

Do it between about half past four and six. It is too hot earlier and there is no lighting later. Take water.

Other things, if the mood takes you

The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, at the bottom of Jalan Monkey Forest. Last entry is about half past four and it closes at five, so only if you go straight there. Do not carry food, sunglasses or anything loose.
The Blanco Renaissance Museum and the Neka Art Museum, both on the Campuhan side, both close in the late afternoon.
A massage. Ubud is full of them, an hour costs about IDR 150,000 to 250,000, and it is a reasonable way to spend the gap between the ridge walk and dinner.
Sitting still in a cafe. Not a joke. Ubud does this better than anywhere else in Bali, and a good many people find it is the bit they remember.

A rendering of an open-sided thatched cafe on the edge of Ubud in Bali, with low cushioned benches and a view over green rice terraces — The other half of Ubud. Open sides, a fan, a coconut, and the rice terraces dropping away in front of you. A rendering rather than a photograph.

The evening: sound, dinner, music

Something with sound in it

A woman holding a hand beaten Tibetan singing bowl with a wooden mallet and rose petals inside, sitting outdoors with greenery behind — Tibetan bowls. Ubud is full of this, and an hour of it before dinner is a very different way to finish a retreat.

This is the part that makes it an Ubud evening rather than just a night out, and it is the part you have to book ahead, because the schedules change week to week.

BOOKED AND READY FOR THIS RETREAT: Sunday 13 September, 6.00pm in Ubud. Serendipity Sounds have agreed to open specially for a private Flametree group, run by their senior facilitator, Janice. One hour, lying down, in their own studio in the centre of Ubud.

Rp 480,000 a head, which is about AUD $38. Minimum three people and maximum twelve, so it only runs if at least three of you want it.

This is a one-off. Their studio is normally closed on Sundays, and they prefer not to run sessions in the evening at all, so this is an exception they have made for us.

We have to give them numbers by Saturday afternoon. If you want a place, tell Chris or Stuart before then. It finishes at seven, which leaves plenty of time for dinner at half past.

Several hand beaten brass Tibetan singing bowls of different sizes laid out on cloth, with a wooden mallet resting in the largest — A set of Tibetan bowls. Each size gives a different note, and a practitioner works through them in turn.

What Tibetan bowls actually are

If you have not come across them, they are worth two minutes of explanation, because the name puts some people off.

They are hand beaten metal bowls, traditionally from the Himalaya, and they are struck or rubbed round the rim with a wooden mallet. Each one holds a single deep note that goes on for a surprisingly long time, and because the sound is so slow to fade you feel it as much as hear it. A set is nested, largest to smallest, and each size gives a different pitch.

A session usually means lying down, warm, eyes closed, for forty minutes to an hour, while somebody works through the bowls around you, often with gongs and sometimes a didgeridoo. You do nothing. There is no chanting to join in with and nothing to learn.

What it is not. It is not a class, it is not religious, and nobody will ask you to believe anything. If you have enjoyed a long savasana, you already know most of what this is. People generally come out of it either very relaxed or asleep.

It is a common thing to do in Ubud and easy to book, which is why it sits well in an afternoon there.

Pyramids of Chi, a few minutes north of Ubud. Sound healing inside two purpose-built pyramids, with Tibetan bowls, gongs and didgeridoo. Sessions run at set times during the day and by appointment. We have dealt with them before.
A private session for your car-load. There are practitioners in Ubud who will run a session for a small group at a time that suits you. It removes the timetable problem entirely, and it is what we have arranged for this retreat. See the box above.

Tell us if you want this and we will book it. Session times move around, and turning up on spec on the night is how you end up standing outside a locked studio. Ask Chris, or ask us before you fly.

On a retreat that does not finish on a Sunday

Worth knowing for future years, because the Sunday closure is the awkward part. Serendipity Sounds are open Monday to Saturday, ten in the morning until five in the afternoon, and their latest session of the day starts at 5.00pm. The same terms apply: a private group, one hour, minimum three and maximum twelve, at Rp 480,000 a head.

A five o’clock start still leaves the evening clear for dinner and music, so on any day except Sunday this slots into the plan above without needing anyone to make an exception.

Dinner

Eat properly in Ubud. This matters more than it sounds. Our experience is that the airport is not the place to eat, and at four in the morning it is certainly not. Have a real meal at half past seven and you will be fine until Darwin.

All of these are open in the evening and all take bookings, which is worth doing on the day.

Where	What	Open until
Hujan Locale, Jalan Sri Wedari	Upmarket Indonesian and Asian street food, in an old colonial house. A very safe choice.	10pm
Restaurant Nusantara, Jalan Dewi Sita	Proper Indonesian food from the Locavore kitchen. Book, it is small.	from 6pm
Waroeng Bernadette, Penestanan	Sumatran home cooking, famous for its rendang. Cheerful and inexpensive.	10pm
Indus, Jalan Raya Sanggingan	Indonesian with a long view over the Campuhan valley. Go before dark for the view.	11pm
Arcadia, Jalan Raya Campuhan	Riverside, contemporary, and there is a live band on Sunday evenings from seven.	11pm
Pasir, Jalan Monkey Forest	Mediterranean, in the middle of everything, easy to walk on from.	11pm
Mozaic, Jalan Raya Sanggingan	The serious one. French and Indonesian, tasting menus, book well ahead.	10pm

Music, and staying out

Three places in central Ubud run to three in the morning, every night of the week. That is what makes the whole plan work.

CP Lounge, Jalan Monkey Forest. Open 1pm to 3am daily. Live band every night, pool tables, plenty of outdoor seating, and a mixed crowd rather than a young one. This is the obvious one.
L.O.L Bar, Jalan Monkey Forest. Open 1pm to 3am daily. A live band at the front and a club at the back, so you can pick your volume.
The Blue Door. Open to 3am on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and to 4am on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. DJs and an actual dance floor, behind the blue door it is named after.

If a club is not what you want, No Mas on Jalan Monkey Forest has the best live music in Ubud and runs to one in the morning, and Laughing Buddha has a band most nights until about half past eleven. Either fills the evening pleasantly and gets you to the airport by half past midnight.

None of these charge to get in and none of them care what you are wearing. You pay for your drinks and that is all.

The airport at four in the morning

Check in three hours before your flight. For a seven o’clock departure that means being at the terminal by four. Do not shave this. Denpasar is slow.
The terminal is open all night on the public side, so arriving early is not a problem. There is nowhere to lie down, but there is seating.
Do not plan to eat there. A couple of outlets are said to run close to around the clock, but at four in the morning that depends on who turned up for the shift. Treat a coffee as a bonus. This is exactly why you eat properly in Ubud.
Your luggage has been in the car all evening, so there is nothing to collect and no storage to pay for. If you did ever need it, the terminal does have lockers, but they are dear and not much liked.

What it costs

The car is the main number. From one in the afternoon to four the next morning is fifteen hours, including all the waiting.

	Four sharing	Three sharing
The car, fifteen hours, about AUD $150	about $38	about $50
The private sound session, Rp 480,000	about $38	about $38
Balinese dance at the palace, IDR 100,000	about $8	about $8
Dinner with a drink, IDR 250,000 to 400,000	$20 to $32	$20 to $32
Drinks out, IDR 200,000	about $16	about $16
All of it, sound session included	about $120 to $132	about $132 to $144
All of it, without the sound session	about $82 to $94	about $94 to $106

These car figures use about AUD $10 an hour, which is roughly IDR 125,000, and they include the waiting. They are a planning guide, not a quote. Wayan gives the real price, and an overnight finish may carry a premium, which is fair enough for a driver who gets home at five in the morning.

Compare it with the alternative. A hotel near the airport is generally AUD $60 to $100, you still have to pay for the car to get there, you still have to eat, and you spend your last evening in Bali watching television in Tuban. For roughly the same money you get an afternoon in Ubud, a proper dinner and a night out.

Arranging it

Wayan will do this, or he will put one of his co-operative drivers on it. A fifteen hour shift ending at four in the morning is a long day, so a few things matter.

Ask well before the last day. Not on the morning. He has to arrange the driver and the car.
Agree the whole price up front, including the waiting hours. Waiting and driving are not the same thing to a driver, and this is the one place these arrangements get expensive by surprise.
Make sure the driver is fed and has somewhere to sit. Build it into the price. He is going to be in Ubud for eleven hours.
Fill the car. Three is fine, four is better, and the cost per head halves against doing it alone.
Tell us your flight number and time, so the airport drop is worked backwards from the right hour.

If you would rather we set the whole thing up, including the sound session and a dinner booking, say so and we will.

The simplest one: stay on at Pondok Pisang and do the tour you missed

Not everybody wants a night in Ubud, and this is the cheapest and easiest of the three. Several people every retreat would probably rather do this than anything else, once they realise it is possible.

The retreat finishes at midday. Instead of leaving Bali behind at lunchtime, you do one of the half-day tours you did not get to on the free afternoon, come back to Pondok Pisang, have dinner, sleep in your own bed, and leave in the small hours for the airport.

There are twelve half-day tours and you only did one of them. Bukit Asah, the Kusamba salt farms, the Liberty shipwreck at Tulamben, the mother temple, Padangbai. The whole list, with maps you can download for the driver, is on the free afternoon page. On this day you are not tied to four hours either, so the five hour ones are easily done.

This one is not part of the retreat. The free afternoon tour in the middle of the week is the one Flametree pays for. A tour on the last day is yours to arrange directly with Wayan and yours to pay for, along with your own entry fees. We are simply telling you it is possible, because most people do not realise it is.

How the day runs

Again built around a seven o’clock flight. Shift it if yours is different.

Midday	The retreat finishes. Lunch at Pondok Pisang as usual.
1.00pm	Away on a half-day tour, four or five hours, luggage left in your room.
5.30 to 6.00pm	Back at Pondok Pisang.
Evening	Dinner there, a swim, and an early night.
About 2.00am	Away to the airport. Wayan will confirm the exact time, because it depends on your flight.
4.00am	At the airport, three hours before the flight.

Why people like it

It is the cheapest of the three. Pondok Pisang is very good value for an extra night, and you are already there.
Nothing to pack twice and nothing to carry around. Your room is your room until you leave.
You get a proper sleep before a long day of travelling, which the Ubud version does not give you.
You see something you would otherwise have missed. Most people leave the retreat wishing they had got to one more place.

What it costs, and all of it is yours to pay. The car for the tour, roughly AUD $40 to $50 for the four or five hours, split between however many of you go, arranged and settled directly with Wayan. Your own entry fees in rupiah. One extra night at Pondok Pisang, booked with Mr Yande. And the airport car, which you were paying for whatever you did. None of this is included in the retreat price.

Two things to arrange early. Tell us before the retreat if you want the extra night, so Mr Yande holds the room. And ask Wayan for the tour car a day or two ahead, not on the morning.

The Sanur version, and its problem

Sanur is the other candidate. It is much closer, about an hour and three quarters, it has dinner on the beach, and Casablanca on Jalan Danau Tamblingan has a live band every night from nine, no cover charge and no dress code.

The beach at Sanur, Bali, with the sun low over calm water and outrigger boats moored offshore — Sanur. Closer, quieter, and the right answer on any night except the one this page is about.

Two things count against it for this particular evening.

Casablanca is closed on Sundays, and our retreats finish on a Sunday. So on the night you would actually want it, it is shut.
It closes at one in the morning. That leaves three hours to fill before check-in, in a town that has gone to bed.

Sanur is the right answer on any other night, and it is well worth doing if you are staying on. For the last night before an early flight, Ubud is the one that fits the clock. There is more about Sanur on the evenings out page.

Before you book your flight home

If this appeals, it is worth knowing before you book, because it changes what a good flight looks like.

An early morning departure is the one that suits this. The awkward flight becomes the good one.
You do not need a hotel for that night, which is money back.
You do need to be reasonably happy being up until three. The shorter version, home by half past midnight, is there if you are not.
Tell us early. Cars, drivers and sound sessions all need a few days.

Where to next

Evenings out during the retreat, including Sanur in full, are on the evenings out page.

The free half-day tour in the middle of the retreat, which Flametree pays for, is on the free afternoon page.

Bigger days out at your own cost are on the full day trips page.

Adding an island at either end is on the islands page.

Everything about the retreat itself is on the retreat information page.

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