I mentioned in my last post that we stayed in an airbnb right next to the Campuhun Ridge Walk and today I wanted to show you a little more about it!  It was an amazing, relaxing experience and I felt so lucky to have snagged such a perfect place!  Psst. I have a cool video to explain just how perfect it is, and a link to book it at the end of this post 🙂 .

The Grounds

The grounds of the Shimha Jungle retreat were so lush.  You’ll walk through grounds filled with flowers and plants galore and past a shared pool to your own private villa!  We had the entire bottom floor of this house and overlooked the jungle.  It was the perfect mix of seclusion, relaxation, and boho luxury.

The Villa

We had the entire bottom floor of a stand alone villa to ourselves, complete with a huge wrap around balcony.  Our place had lounge seating, a full dining table, large bed with mosquito net, adequate bathroom and lots of outdoor lounging space.

We were served a hot homemade breakfast on our balcony overlooking the jungle each morning in cute robes provided by the villa.  That was the only time we saw the staff, unless we came to them with questions.  It was so tranquil!

That’s David sitting on the balcony!

Hi villa and Campuhun Ridge

We would hang outside almost the entire time we spent in this beautiful villa.  They also burn incense for you which keeps the bugs away and smells heavenly.

An Earthquake

Fun fact: Dave and I experienced our first earthquake here in the villa!  Indonesia is known for being on the ‘ring of fire’, meaning the tectonic plates are very active and they get lots of earthquakes and volcano eruptions.  Before the trip the volcano was erupting, which is about a 3 hour drive north of Ubud.  We were joking that we might get to experience an earthquake or volcano eruption while we were in-country for 8 days.

Sure enough one morning around 04:00 David woke me up  saying very matter-of-fact, “hey Julie, it’s an earthquake.”  I opened my eyes to see the wall of windows gaping from the actual wall by about 6 inches, then closing and opening again as we were really getting shaken!  For a split second I wondered what would happen if the villa were to collapse into the jungle below us, but I was too tired for any more thoughts and promptly fell right back asleep.  When we woke up two hours later for morning yoga, we pulled up google and saw it was in fact a magnitude 6.4 earthquake in the Bali sea to the north!  We were shocked, but to all of the Balinese it was just another normal morning as usual and nobody even mentioned it. 😂

The Location

The villa is right next to the Campuhan Ridge Walk, in fact we could see the tops of the palm trees from our balcony.  But mainly it overlooked the lush jungle!  I loved this because as I mentioned before the jungle life was a new experience for me.

From the villa you can easily walk downtown, although I highly recommend getting your own motor bike.  You can rent them from the Villa, just tell them you’d like to rent one at least a day before you arrive and they will have it ready and waiting.  We did this on the last day and it was so much faster than walking, we wish we had done this from day one!

Also just to note, we stayed here during the full moon, meaning there were TONS of weddings downtown Ubud and the traffic on the main road was insane every day.  I think the traffic isn’t as bad when it’s not a full moon, but just something to be aware of!  It di

We made this video to show you how ideal the location is. Enjoy 🙂

 

You can find Villa Shimha Jungle Retreat on Airbnb here.

xx