Ubud shops I love

When we were planning to go to Ubud, shopping was the last thing on my mind. Seriously. All I wanted to do was…NOTHING. That’s right. I didn’t want a holiday where I had to explore museums and check out new places – I just wanted to chill and do absolutely nothing.

But then, we got to Ubud proper and we realised that we couldn’t simply sit back and do nothing. For starters, we had my mum with us and it wasn’t very nice to have her sit in the villa the entire day. Also, my boo boo would definitely suffer from cabin fever and drive us all nuts! So we decided that venturing out from the villa was a better idea for everyone.

The private villa that we had rented was about 10 minutes walk from Ubud centre and we decided to spend some time exploring the area one morning. And Cousin Ching and I were pleasantly surprised by what we found.

Here are the three shops that we would have happily spent the entire day in.

Blue Stone Botanicals
Both of us are pretty into aromatherapy and we were intrigued by this local shop. We are also snobs when it comes to retail decoration and Blue Stone Botanical‘s clean and minimalist look definitely appealed to us.

It sells essential oils, balms and soaps that are made using natural ingredients and do not contain any additives. I especially love their essential oils, which are 100% pure and steam distilled. Plus, the oils are so easy on the pocket! I am a big fan of essential oils (just not the MLM sort, if you know what I mean) so I was really happy with my purchases.

Blue Stone Botanicals
Jln Dewi Sita, Ubud 80571
+62 812-3611-9431

Nava
Oh. My. Gosh. I wanted to buy everything that was in Nava. It has a large variety of wooden wares, ranging from cutlery to serve ware to decoration. Everything was beautifully crafted, so elegant.

I was highly restrained, as husband can testify to, and only walked out of the shop with a few pieces of cutlery. But, oh my, I could have bought so much more when I was there, everything was just calling out my name. I wanna go back!

Nava
Jln Dewi Sita 6D
+62 081-2390-6251

KOU Cuisine
This is something that all cooks and bakers would love – a shop that sells handmade and locally produced sea salts and jams. Aidan is going through a phase where he wants jam on all his bread (“bread and jam, mama?” he asks) and I thought to oblige him by checking out this shop.

There were all sorts of tasty concoctions that you can try before buying, including mango, milk caramel and strawberry and banana. I ended up with a jar of apple and cinnamon, which we have been savouring since we got back. Think chunky pieces of apple and the aromatic fragrance of cinnamon oozing in your mouth with every bite…mmm.

I also grabbed a jar of herbed sea salt, which I have yet to try. I think I might use it on a roast one of these days.

(No photos of the shop’s interior because I was busy tasting all the jams on display and it was our last stop so we were all pretty knackered!)

KOU Cuisine
Jalan Dewi Sita and Jl Monkey Forest
+62 0361-9719-05

So there you go: the three shops that I would love to go back to if we ever return to Bali. I love that they are all local shops, it gives me a great sense of satisfaction to bring home a piece of Ubud with me.