Villa Umaju

Gang Pulau is one of the narrow lanes that thread off Jalan Bumbak, and the gate at number 43 opens straight onto water. Villa Umaju is arranged along a single lap pool, pale-tiled and edged in travertine, that runs the full depth of the plot with two timber loungers and a canvas parasol on one side and the white rendered flank of the house on the other. At the far end the wall lifts into a rendered arch with a bench seat built into it and a small cycad planted in pebbles, so the eye is given somewhere to stop. It is a quiet address for something so close to everything, with warungs and a coffee roaster inside two hundred metres and Batu Belig Beach under three kilometres off.

The ground floor is one long room behind timber-framed glass. A pale sectional and a pair of rattan-and-timber armchairs face a wall-mounted smart television at the near end, and beyond them a solid timber dining table, curved and live-edged, seats eight under two white pendants shaped like opened petals. The kitchen closes the far wall in dark timber cabinetry with a pale stone benchtop, a gas hob, an undermount sink and a long strip window that keeps the bench in daylight. Cooking is genuinely provided for here rather than gestured at, though most people drift out through the doors and eat within a metre of the pool.

A stone staircase climbs beside the living room through a double-height void where three lantern pendants hang on long cords past a glass balustrade, and at dusk the whole shaft glows violet. Both bedrooms are upstairs, both with a king bed against a fluted timber headboard wall, paper-globe pendants hung either side in place of lamps, air conditioning, a television and timber doors that open onto a balcony above the neighbouring rooftops. The en-suites are done in white glazed brick tile with brass rainfall showers behind clear glass, cast stone basins and full-width mirrors, and there is a long timber desk in one room for anyone who has brought work along.

The villa comes staffed, with daily housekeeping, a welcome drink on arrival, bath towels for everyone, fast Wi-Fi and a safe as part of the stay. The concierge handles the rest, from airport transfers, a car with or without a driver and scooter hire to breakfast, somebody to cook dinner, massages at the villa, a nanny, a pool fence, laundry and days out among the temples and rice fields. Two hundred square metres for four people is generous, and with two matched king suites this reads best as a villa for two couples travelling together, or a family of four who want Canggu and Seminyak both fifteen minutes away.

Villa Umaju does one thing very well: it puts a long stretch of water down the side of a compact, well-made house and lets everything else open onto it. Mornings are for the loungers, evenings for the timber table with the pendants lit, and the beach road is a short ride away whenever the mood turns.