Well the next time is end November / beginning December but as it's part of a 5 week trip our budget won't stretch that far unfortunately! We're going to be in Burma - staying at the Inle Princess and the Strand (currently being refurbished) and lesser hotels in Bagan and Mandalay and in HK - staying in a Harbour View Junior Suite at the IC (upgrade due to RA status) and then in our little local place in Ubud looking out onto the rice padis as well as the IC - again upgrade to Club Suite.

I understand what you say about Ubud but when you're away from the town it has little or no impact especially if you're staying somewhere like Amandari. What I like is that you can go out for a half day trip to the rice terraces or a local temple come back to relax at your hotel in the afternoon before going to a dance performance at the Palace or a shadow puppet performance in the evening. As Bali has become more developed the traffic has become atrocious so staying in the middle of the island makes sense for part of the time - obviously Amankila is also well situated to visit places like Besakih, Klungkung, Sideman etc but there are other places more accessible from Ubud.

When we stay in Ubud we do all our sightseeing and then when we go to Jimbaran we just relax in the bales at the IC or walk on the beach and in the evening walk out to one of beach seafood restaurants after cocktails in the Club lounge. We do venture out to Bumbu Bali in is it Benoa or Nusa Dua for the great rijsttafel there.