Every year, Bali is celebrating what is called Nyepi, or also known as Silence Day — a big celebration in the religion of Hindu. For the Balinese, Nyepi is a celebration of a new year in their Saka calendar. As for this year, they day fell on 17 March 2018, where the silent period started at 6AM and ended at 6AM the following day.
During the silent period, the Hindus are prohibited from things such as electricity, entertainment, work, and even communication with others. As a non-Hindu living in Bali, I am also restricted from at least leaving the place I stay and being out in the streets. Almost the whole island is pretty much shut down anyway. Airport, shops, offices etc. are not operating. Only hospitals, in case of emergency — and of course, hotels 🙂
It’s my fourth Nyepi experience in Bali and I have always stayed in a hotel or villa to spend the peaceful period. This time is undoubtedly special since I spent it with Maria Christine Sadipun, my best friend since high school who’s also based in Bali — just the two of us. What’s more special is, we got the chance to stay for 2 nights in INAYA Putri Bali, a beautiful 5-star beach front resort located in the exclusive area of BTDC in Nusa Dua ♥
Friday, 16 March 2018
Arriving at INAYA Putri Bali at 4.30PM after 2 hours on the road by car from Denpasar was such a relief! I should’ve left earlier, I know. The traffic was pretty jammed due to Ogoh-Ogoh parade preparation for the Nyepi Eve. I totally skipped going to the parade this year, as I just wanted to enjoy the resort as much as possible for the weekend.
I met Maria at the lobby of the resort, which is situated in their iconic main building with the big dome overlooking the ocean. Check-in experience was super smooth, and we were assigned to one Deluxe Room in Puri #7. In total, INAYA Putri Bali has 457 rooms, suites, and villas — spread around 7 buildings, where each of them has an architecture inspired by 7 different Hindu goddesses. Our ‘puri’ was inspired by Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, art, spirituality, and music.
Our room was spacious, 48 sqm in size, with twin beddings and sofa area. Fresh fruits were nicely set up on the coffee table as a welcome delight, covered by a traditional Indonesian food cover (tudung saji) along with a welcome card and a welcome letter as well. You will see quite a number of Indonesian ornaments in the room, yet the room still feels very modern at the same time. Mini bar, coffee machine, and electric water kettle are provided — which are very essential. I might have to mention that I love the fact that the TV is placed in front of the sofa, and not the beds. It’s definitely a personal preference but I’m just not the type who watches TV in bed… so this is good for me.
I like the bathroom even more! It’s almost the size of the bedroom area itself…! Maria immediately made the plan to enjoy herself in the huge bath tub in the evening. We also love it that the resort provides proper toothbrushes and toothpaste… if you know what I mean! You notice that some hotels would just provide some frail toothbrushes with super tiny toothpaste? That’s not the case here.
I love spending time in bathroom to have long hot showers, to contemplate with my thoughts, or even just to sing along my favourite songs for hours — so I knew right away that I would have a lot of fun in this bathroom 🙂
Maria and I decided to explore the resort area a little bit, to see what we can do the next day. INAYA Putri Bali houses a large swimming pool area, spa, and even a kids land. It also has a big open space with well-cut-out grass and, of course, direct access to a clean sandy beach… In food and beverage department, the resort has 6 venues, and I will mention some later.
As the sunset was already over, Maria and I went to Ja’Jan Bistro, one of the dining venues under the lobby area, to get our welcome drinks — which was rosella tea. We then moved to Gading Restaurant in the other building to have dinner.
Gading Restaraunt is the all-day dining venue in INAYA Putri Bali. They serve Japanese, Chinese, and Asian-inspired cuisine. The venue is facing the open space of the resort, which includes the swimming pool area and the beach — and the large green field in between. Our dinner on the first night was à la carte. We ordered Tom Yum Goong for appetizer, Salmon Sushi and Cantonese Style Chicken for main course, and Strawberry Sundae for dessert. We really liked the coconut fusion drinks we ordered, though: Coco Passion and Coco Lava! We got a bread basket as well as a starter.
After dinner, we went back to our room, and Maria prepared the bath tub for her private self-pampering session, while I fell asleep not long after lying on my bed! I woke up around 2AM, and randomly took a long and relaxing hot shower! Ah, heaven.
Saturday, 17 March 2018
First thing on our mind when we woke up in the morning was… BREAKFAST! I think a lot of people would agree that breakfast can be the most anticipated thing when it comes to staying in hotels. Maria and I were no exception — we’re definitely breakfast hunters. We quickly got ready and went back to Gading Restaurant, fully equipped with our passion for food…!
The breakfast buffet provided a wide selection of breakfast menu, from eastern to western style… Some not-to-miss classics for us were bread with butter, pancakes with maple syrup, fruit platter, sausages, baked beans, grilled potatoes, and crispy bacon! Other stuff we had in the first morning were waffles, donuts, muffins, omelette, grilled tomatoes, pasta, ham, cheese, and sushi!
Fresh plain milk is essential for me, as much as how coffee is for Maria. We love it that Gading Restaurant has a dedicated counter with live servers for coffee, by the way. We could comfortably approach the counter and order a cup of hot latte and a cup of cappuccino, and have them fresh and ready in a couple of minutes!
Full of food and joy, we came back to our room. At first we wanted to hit the beach, and so I already put on my bikini, but then I remembered I had to do a little work… We ended up staying in room with our bathing suits, just working and relaxing on the beds…
Good times always fly so quickly. We reached lunch time. I decided to change my swimsuit and we went, again, to Gading Restaurant, for a buffet lunch. We got ourselves some soup, Indonesian fried noodles, grilled chicken, grilled potatoes, and a lot of olives! For dessert, we had some fruit platter, chocolate pudding, bubur kacang ijo, and es campur. For drinks, we had Lychee Ice Tea and Coconut Ice Tea! It was such a peaceful lunch as we were almost the last guests in the restaurant, since it was already past 3PM.
Finally we hit the swimming pool and it was just the perfect time as it was still sunny but after 4PM, the sun in Bali is not so scorching anymore. We swam, did a bit of workout, took some photos, and just enjoyed ourselves being in the open space, soaking in a big refreshing pool. Ahem, I’m going to show a lot of photos of myself now, excuse me 😀
We came back to our room after sunset to relax a bit before dinner. Our second dinner was totally different. This grand Nyepi dinner was held in INAYA Putri Bali’s ballroom, so it felt like we were attending an Indonesian wedding — you know, they normally have buffet dining with lots of meal options!
Star gazing is definitely a thing to do during Nyepi. After the dinner, we went outside and admired the starry night of Bali, and even trying to take some photos of it — though we completely failed 😀 We could’ve continued watching the stars at the huge field in front of the swimming pool as the resort has sun beds there, but somehow we just wanted to take a rest in our room. We were so overwhelmed already after so much fun (and food) the whole day!
We spent such quality time in the evening… talking about love, life, future plans, and everything. Twelve years of friendship don’t lie. It feels amazing to have such great friend to go through difficult times and definitely enjoy amazing moments together. Basically, to grow together and always keep supporting each other. We called it a night…
Sunday, 18 March 2018
Nyepi was over after 6AM. We woke up quite early this morning and went to Gading Restaurant for our last breakfast. We had the same classics like the previous day, but we added some new stuff such as scrambled eggs, chicken katsu, sautéed vegetables, macaronis, chicken porridge (bubur ayam), and yoghurt! Delish!
It was time to go. We checked out at noon, felt all refreshed and energized after such blissful weekend. I would also like to add here that all the staff in INAYA Putri Bali played a big role in making our stay as comfortable as possible. They were all very welcoming and lovely. We’re totally looking forward for another wonderful Nyepi staycation ♥
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Have you been to INAYA Putri Bali?
We recommend this resort if you enjoy tranquility and luxury that this BTDC area in Nusa Dua offers. What makes INAYA Putri Bali stands out is the fact that it’s an Indonesian brand that is run 100% by locals. Indonesians from throughout the country gather here to provide a true heartwarming Indonesian hospitality for their guests.
If you will be in Bali next year, note that Nyepi will fall on 7 March 2019. You may want to plan your Nyepi staycation on 6-8 March 2019, in advance! 🙂
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Note: Photos by Maria Christine Sadipun and Misha Johanna
Advencheer! 