| Bali Weddings
Get Me to the Villa on Time
by Andrew MacKenzie
"Go and take a look at the new chapel in Uluwatu"
was the surprise brief for this month's article. Knowing
full well that Uluwatu is the site of the sencond most
important Hindu temple on the Island I wondered why
anyone would want to build a chapel up there...its already
spiritual enough. Besides, I write about villas for
the lucky few...not about houses for Gods. The explanation,
totally anticipated, came rapidly. "It is a villa...with
a chapel attached, a sort of hybrid. Its called Villa
Tirtha Luhur", it sounded vaguely familiar.
"This I've got to see" I thought as I prepared
to drive up to Bali's hilly southern cape known as the
"Bukit", which in that wonderful no frills
language, Bahasa Indonesia, simply means 'hill'.
I've come across 'spa villas' and 'villa retreats'
but a 'chapel villa'? Sorry, this is a first. Obviously,
some deeply religious family decided it was too much
hassle to drive for half an hour to pray in Nusa Dua
so why not build your own, right next to the living
room. The landed gentry in Europe built chapels within
the grounds of their estates, St. Georhes Chapel in
Windsor Castle, England for example, so why not on Bali,
indeed? Maybe Her Majesty has invested her after all,
taxpayers' money...honestly!
Perhaps I was on some sort of divine mission because,
quite by accident, the day I scheduled to visit Villa
Tirtha Luhur was on a Sunday, and after a week of dull
rainy weather (not complaining by the way, the rain
heeps this magical place green and fertile) the sun
came out in all its brilliance and I was reminded why
so many people love this Island as well as the Balinese.
Turning left off the Uluwatu road in Nyang Nyang (about
3kms before the temple) I realized I did not know this
place. The entrance is shared with Tirtha Uluwatu which
is a hugely sucessful wedding venue built right on the
cliff's edge overlooking the Indian Ocean. I remembered
though that you could get married there but you couldn't
stay overnight, is it had no bedrooms. Probably the
managers got so fed up being told "shame you don't
have a pridal suite" (as tired, slightly tipsy,
couples prepared to make the journey to the Four Seasons
at midnight to sleep) so they built one next door.
And they certainly did. Villa Tirtha Luhur is a villa
you can stay in. It has three bedrooms...the catch is
you have to get married there first before you can stay!
Hang on a minute, three bedrooms? Are they after the
group wedding market? 'No', the intention isn't that
the honeymoon starts at Villa Tirtha Luhur because in
addition to the palatial master bedroom there are two
more modest en-suite bedrooms, one for the bride's family
and the other for the groom's family. It just means
that you can really enjoy the party, stay to the end
and get going on honeymoon the following day.
The property consists of 6 separate pavilions, each
topped off with a wooden shingle roof; which is sensible
in this cliffs because it will last longer than a thatched
roof, what all the salt air and off-sea wind.
The centre piece of the villa is the chapel itself;
in fact, it's the first structure you hit when you cross
the large water hazard, which is the front entrance.
With an enormous pitched roof, pointing to heavens,
the chapel can seat a hundred of guests. Three of the
four sides are glass, so to avoid the greenhouse effect
they have built in large air-conditioners to keep the
guests cooll the views of the endless ocean are incredible...what
a place to tie the knot, its worth getting narried just
to enjoy this vista!
Just to the left of the chapel is the reception pavilion,
which acts as an arrival waiting room for guests. A
lot of wood has been used in the construction of this
room (and in the rest of the property actually), the
flooring is either beige marble or white stone tiles.
The indoor wallbricks caught my eye, they weren't solid
stone but made from padded green Thai silk, sewn together
to give the impression of brickwork.
Heading cliffwards from the reception area, you reach
the large indoor dining pavilion. This air-conditioned
space can comfortably accommodate forty guests but for
the maximum one hundred capacity, the surrounding lawns
can be utilized as a sort of tented village. My impression
was that the forty to fifty person-size-wedding was
ideal; you don't want canvass spoiling the amazing views.
The catering doesn't need to be bought in from outside,
the villa's large hotel standard kitchen can deal with
the most demanding of menus.
Of course no villa is really complete without a swimming
pool and Tirtha Luhur doesn't disappoint; although I
suspect that this pool doesn't get swum in much. It's
actually been built as eye candy than anything else.
The shallow depth and infinity edge creates an amazing
cliff to ocean water effect, a sort of endless aquamarine
horizon.
A few paces south and you are at the cliff's edge...and
this is a serious cliff, not a sand dune. It's over
two hundreds meters down to the pure white sand beaches,
which unfortunately is inacessible from the top...unless
you jump! There is an iron railing around eighty percent
of the edge but then a bit adjacent to the pool is left
open so as not to spoil the 'infinity' effect.
The bridal suite is comfortably furnished and offers
such hotel standard amenities as a mini-bar, hairdryers,
an en-suite bathroom with a romantic stand-alone marble
bath tub. Unlike a five star hotel bedroom, no TV is
offered...it wasn't imagined that guests would want
to watch 'Desparate Housewives' on their wedding night!
The large ocean facing windows do afford the great view,
but in my opinion, I wouldn't have put the bale bengong
(gazebo to you and me) between the cliff and the bedroom
as it spoils the impact of the ocean and the pool; they
could have been a planning restriction to be fair.
Tirtha Luhur offers a variety of packages, the one
that cought my eye is the 'Infinity Wedding'. Depending
on the number of guests invited, the facility will cost
up to US $8,800 to rent, (excluding dinner, which is
between US $50 and US $90 per head) but you do get a
French Champagne bath in the master bedroom! Another
reason why you need to stay the night!
Further information at www.tirthabali.com
Freely taken from HelloBali vol. 11 No. 3 March 2006 |
