“Villa Sabandari, Bali Hotel Ubud?”

Not a day goes by without a taxi driver calling me to ask for directions to Villa Sabandari.

In Bahasa Indonesia of course.

In the beginning I used to ask ‘Maaf Pak, bisa bicara pelan pelan ya? Saya tidak bisa bicara Bahasa Indonesia baik baik’, meaning ‘Sorry Sir, can you speak slowly? I do not speak Indonesian well’.

Big mistake.

As soon as the driver hears the ‘Maaf Pak’-part, he switches to overdrive and starts speaking at double the speed.

I am now very well trained to notice the word ‘Alamat’ (Address) though and give him my standard ‘Location Speech’.

It goes like this:

“Dari ujung Jalan Raya Ubud ke timur, ada patung besar Arjuna.
Dari sana, terus ke timur, Jalan Gunung Sari.
Dan di ujung Jalan Gunung Sari ada rumah makan Prabanan dicat oranye dan hijau.
Lurus ke timur kira- kira 100 meter ada restoran Warung Mina, dan di sebelah timur restoran Warung Mina ada balai banjar Ambengan.
Disana belok kiri ikuti terus jalan itu menuju Pura Masceti dan di depan pura ada jalan paping kira-kira 200 meter menuju Villa Sabandari dengan papan nama dari batu putih. ”

If you happen to read this before staying at Villa Sabandari, please do me a favour and show the above to your driver.

It will save me from having to give my “Location Speech’ for the nth time 😉

Terima kasih = Thank you

p.s. You can also show the map below to your driver.