In 1990, when we first stayed at Amandari, Ubud was basically one little street, a few cafes, a handful of losmen, and a fancy art gallery selling paintings for about $100. Amandari was hosting a group of Canadian cyclists and a very well known rock star. And Mr and Mrs Pausanias.

It was sheer chance that we stayed there. We had been staying on the Banda Islands for a week and thought it was just about the most beautiful place we'd ever seen. After Banda, we had booked for a few days into the Sengiggi Beach Hotel on Lombok but we really didn't like it at all, so we flew back to Bali without any reservation. Somehow I recalled an advertisement in Conde Nast Traveler for this new place, Aman something, so we called them from the airport, took a taxi and our world changed, hotel-wise.

It was $250 a night and we did two nights in one standard room and two nights in a duplex thing.