Bali, Day 10: And Then There Were Two

Today's exchange rate: IDR 10,770 per AUS $
Today's weather: Beautiful, sunny morning. Overcast afternoon

Today was our last morning together. After Virgin changed our flight time from 6:00pm to 1:30pm, Mikhala and I decided to stay an extra night but Courtney and Sami had to get home. I was up at 6:00 again but decided to skip the morning walk and just hang out. The girls were up not long after. We all headed to the communal pool to use the WiFi and while we were there, our breakfast was delivered. We opted to eat it by the pool instead of going back to our villa.

Before long, Sami and Courtney had finished their packing and were ready to go. The holiday has gone so fast, it didn't feel like we had just spent 10 whole days together. Villa Coco had free airport transfers so that took care of how they would get there. We bid them farewell as someone came to collect their luggage and just like that, they were gone. It felt quite weird and unusually quiet without them.

Mikhala and I decided to make the most of our last couple of hours in the villa. We spent some time around the pool, enjoying the beautiful sunny morning until we both got bored and decided to go out and do something. I decided that I really did want a couple of those dresses I tried to buy yesterday so we walked down Double 6 to the shop. I did manage to get the "morning price" on the dresses but the lady just would not budge. I ended up paying about $40 for 2 of them and I'm planning on letting my sister choose one. If she's nice to me;)

We crossed the road so Mikhala could pick up some sunglasses for a friend and I spotted the recently popular soft drink/beer can speakers. I decided to get a couple for no other purpose than I wanted them. I bought 2 for 300,000 Rupiah. Fingers crossed they don't stop working!!

We walked up Double 6 towards Legian Road to get some more money changed over before we went back to finish packing. Even though we were allowed to stay in the villa until 2:00, we were both keen to move onto our next stop: Poppies Cottages. When I had finished my packing, we made sure we had everything and we were off. I think when we got into the taxi, it was the happiest I had seen the male receptionist. I had given Poppies a call earlier to check what time we could get into the room. I was told 1:00 so we planned on leaving our luggage at reception and going for lunch, but when we arrived, we were told the room was ready for us. We checked it out, got a bit comfy, then set out for lunch.

We walked down Poppies Lane towards the beach and stopped at Sandbar for lunch. I don't think the waitress even noticed we had come in and sat down until I got up to get our own menu's. We ordered drinks, salt and pepper squid to share, a club sandwich for me and chicken burger for Mikhala. The food was prompt, but the club sandwich didn't come with any bacon or any chips, even though there was a little bowl of tomato sauce in the middle of my plate. I checked the menu and noticed it didn't come with chips so I ordered some more. We finished eating and sat for a while wondering how long it took to fry up some chips. When none were coming out, I asked the waitress. She looked at me with a confused expression and asked if I had ordered chips. I told her I had, that I had asked her for some when I was checking the menu. She had obviously completely forgotten about them so I told her not to worry about them and we got the bill. It was about $35 for our meals.

We left and walked back to Poppies, stopping here and there to look. I made a new friend who claimed his name was Jack Sparrow so I told him my name was Elizabeth Swan. He thought I was funny. Back at Poppies, we were ready for a swim. The pool was nice an quiet, despite the few people laying around. There was no fight for lounges and the towels were in good condition. Into beautiful lagoon like pool which was a beautiful temperature. The pool is a bit small, but perfect for the size of the hotel. We went to try out the spa as well but the bubbles weren't working. As I was sitting there trying to turn them on, I hadn't noticed all the little red ants crawling around and onto me until I got bitten. They're nasty little buggers. I had a shower to make sure they were all gone.

We sat around the pool for a little while before Mikhala decided to head back to the room for a rest. I enjoyed the peacefulness for a bit longer before I decided to join her. I sat out on the verandah and took a moment to appreciate where we were. Poppies was lovely. It was so quiet despite being in the middle of Kuta. I could only hear the traffic if I really tried, and even then it wasn't enough to cause any bother. Our cottage was towards the back of the property and had a lovely little garden in the front, giving it plenty of privacy. The room was great with a lovely bathroom and exactly what we needed for our last night. I wish we could have stayed longer than just one night, but I'm sure I'll be back again.

While Mikhala was resting, I tested out my new can speakers and discovered I didn't really know how to work them. I decided to take a walk down to my new friend, Jack Sparrow, and see if he could show me how. While I was trying to find the right market stall, I walked all the way back down to the beach and went down to the Kuta Bazaar markets on the corner. I had seen a couple of necklaces in there I liked and after getting approval from my sister, I decided to get a couple of them.

I walked back up Poppies Lane, found the right market stall but now the right person. Jack Sparrow wasn't there!! But his friends had a bit of a fiddle and figured out how to work them. All good. I felt like exploring a bit more so I walked past Poppies Cottages, around the corner and to Un's Restaurant. Many people recommended this to me for dinner tonight, so I had a peak and booked a table for 7:00. I continued walking down the lane and onto the street. I wandered down a little way, saw a nice looking spa that I thought we might go to after dinner before turning back and returning to the hotel.
The overcast had cleared up a bit so Mikhala and I decided we'd walk down to the beach with hope of seeing the sunset. As we were leaving the hotel, we came across the resident cat. He was a friendly little fellow which the strangenest meow I have ever heard from a cat. Another guest came down the path and told us how friendly he was. As she walked off, the cat went rushing after her to get into her room where he apparently liked to sleep. We set off down Poppies Land towards the beach. It sure was busy. So many people walking, sitting, drinking, chatting. The sunset wasn't great but it was lovely to sit, admire the sun behind the clouds and chat about the holiday we'd had. We only sat for a little while before we decided we were both hungry enough to head to dinner.

Un's is a lovely little restaurant tucked down a laneway off Poppies. The waiters were lovely as was the setting. We sat at our table and were given cold towels and complimentary mini margaritas to begin with. The drink was delightful! We ordered drinks and Voule vent to start with and we both decided on chicken "Maryland". The service was really good. When I couldn't decide what to get, the waiter made a few suggestions, the chicken being one of them. The food was really nice and we were both happy with the meals so we decided to stay for dessert too. It was our last night in Bali after all, so why not?! Mikhala ordered the toblerone chocolate mousse and I once again couldn't decide so I told the waiter to surprise me. I ended up getting a brownie with ice cream. We both enjoyed the desserts, and I think Mikhala fell in love with hers.

After dinner, I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted to go get a massage. I think all the decisions I had made about this trio and during had gotten to me; I just couldn't make a decision about the simplest of things. I told myself yes, I would go get a massage. After paying our bill, about $60, I headed off for my massage while Mikhala went back to the hotel. I walked down the road and went back to the spa I had spotted earlier. I walked in and was asked to wait a little while until a massage therapist was available. It didn't take long before I was being lead up stairs to the massage room. The room was unfortunately overlooking the street. It was quite noisy but I was hoping that I'd be able to zone out. I did for a while and the massage was lovely but that all came to a halt when I heard someone getting a happy ending massage. It's really not the kind of thing you want to listen to while trying to relax. I stayed for a while and tried to enjoy the massage but the two things combined, I just couldn't relax so I got up to leave. The therapist didn't speak very good language so went to get another staff member. I didn't want to say anything about the happy ending I had to listen to, I just said it was too noisy and I couldn't relax. They nicely didn't charge me full price.

I went back to the hotel, showered and we watched a movie for a while until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.

My holiday may be finished, but my blog posts are not. I will be writing individual reviews of hotels and restaurants we went to as well as the activities we participated in so stay tuned! Until next time Bali.

 

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Bali, Day 9: Rats and Cocktails

Today's exchange rate: IDR 10,750 per AUS $

Today's weather: overcast with a bit of rain

We were all asleep quite early last night which meant it was up early. I got out of bed at about 6:00 and went to use the wifi by the pool. At about 7:00 I decided to make the most of being up and go for a walk along the beach. I walk down Double 6 and walked North along the beach. I truly love seeing Bali at this time of day. There were lots of people out; walking running, surfing, walking their dogs. The sun was trying to break through the clouds which was a beautiful sight to see. I didn't walk far, I was more focused on just enjoying the sights and atmosphere. I turned back after about 20 minutes and got back to the villa just after breakfast arrived.

After my morning walk, I was hot and a bit sweaty because it was already so humid so it was into the pool for me. It's so nice having your own private pool and just being able to jump in whenever you like and not have to worry about anyone else. The water was great, but unfortunately with the lack of sunshine, I didn't stay in there long.

My friends and I were feeling a bit lazy today. It was Sami and Courtney's last day and we really just wanted to laze around. We decided on going to a spa, but me not being much of a spa person didn't know where to go. I had picked up a brochure for a spa down the road called Eden Green. According to their brochure, they opened at 9:30. We walked down the road, with me turning a different way to go and look at a dress I saw in the window of a shop, telling the girls I'd meet them at the spa. I stopped at a DVD store along the way and they had an amazing acoustics cd playing. Usually I'm not into that kind of thing, but this one was great. I asked the DVD guy what it was and he pulled out the last copy for me. Later that night, we went back again to see if there were more copies for the girls and they had 2 other albums that had gone unnoticed by me so I grabbed them too:) My friends then walked in and told me the spa was closed and the girl said they didn't open until 11:30. Well there goes that plan. We all looked a bit more in the DVD shop, before I walked down the street more to look at that dress. It was a green dress with a low back and pom poms around the bottom. I really liked it but the lady wanted too much and was willing to barter on it. Right now, I'm still thinking about that dress so I might go back and just try to push her a little bit more.

I met the girls at the DVD store again where we all walked back to the villa, me being empty handed and slightly disappointed. As we were walking through reception, one of the receptionists asked us when we would be leaving tomorrow. I told her we had the villa until 2:00pm, as agreed to by one of the managers. The receptionist told us we would need to leave earlier so someone else could check it. I think it took us a second to process before Sami and I just said no. We reminded her that we had to wait in another villa so someone else could have late check out so the next people could wait like we had to. I told her I had emails to show that the manager had agreed to give us late check out. I guess the receptionist wasn't use to being told no and she just said ok. We decided to just hang out at the villa until we figured out our next move. Sami and Courtney needed to pack so we just put on a DVD in our freezing cold bedroom (Sami likes to keep it that way to ease her sunburn) and just chilled out.

After a bit of a nap, we all agreed we were starving so we decided to go out for an early lunch. Poppies Restaurant was our destination. I had visited in July and had a taste of their famous Piña Colada's. Mum had given me some money before the trip to buy the girls one each so Poppies was a must. We got a taxi to take us to the Legian Road entry to Poppies Lane 1 and it was only a short walk down. The restaurant was empty but it was so nice to walk in and have the Kuta noise fall away behind us. We chose a table and I straight away ordered 4 Piña Colada's. They arrived promptly, in the hand carved coconuts. They were a bit on the strong side, but they hit the spot.

We decided on entrees of guacamole and chicken satay to share. I ordered Mie Goreng for my main, Sami had a prawn boat that came in a papaya, Courtney got calamari and Mikhala ordered a club sandwich. We enjoyed our cocktails until the food arrived. With the cocktails being so huge, there was barely room for it. We all really liked the satay and guacamole and before our mains arrived, we were already quite full. Serves us right for ordering so much food. My Mie Goreng was good, but not great, the club sandwich was good, Sami enjoyed her prawn boat to begin with but then decided she didn't like it. We didn't finish our meals because our bellies were just so full.

After paying our bill, which came to about $90 (Mum paid $40 for the cocktails), we walked a bit further down Poppies Lane to have a peak at the cottages. Mikhala and I will be spending our extra night here so we wanted to see what it was like. The property just kept on going and it was so quiet. There was absolutely no one around the pool so we were looking forward to hanging out there.

We walked back up along the laneway to Legian Road. We decided to go to a spa we had seen from the taxi that was just down the road. The spa is called Smart Day Spa. We checked out the brochure before deciding to go in. I was after a massage and a pedicure, the others just wanted a pedicure. I decided on a Virgin Coconut Oil massage. After a quick foot bath, I was lead to the massage room and asked to take everything off except my underwear. I did as I was told and lay down on the massage bed. Turns out I woukd have a male giving me a massage today. I was a bit concerned about it because obviously I was practically naked but decided to see how it went because I had read about many people having their best massages from males. Boy was I glad I had done that. It was one of the best massages I had ever had. The pressure was perfect and he was very respectful of my privacy. He first checked if I wanted my stomach massaged and when I said yes, he put a towel over my chest before removing the sarong. I loved having the massage done with coconut oil because it just soaked right into my skin rather than sitting on top of it. It was divine.

I walked out from the massage a very happy and relaxed girl. It was then time for my pedicure. The girls had already had theirs and went for a walk along the street while I had mine. The room is kept dimmed so the staff had little torches on their heads. I was really enjoying it and was feeling quite relaxed until I looked into the lobby and saw a rat. A real rat. It was climbing out of a hole in the ceiling and onto the offerings on the wall. I was quite grossed out. I watched the rat come and go and was surprised that no one else seemed to notice it.

Nevertheless I enjoyed the pedicure. For both treatments, it came to about $30. While I was paying, I mentioned to Sami that a rat was coming out of the ceiling and the staff member that was processing my payment just ignored it.

We walked out, got a taxi and back to the villa we went. We chilled out for a bit more until we heard the doorbell go. It was one of the staff members coming to light the mozzie coils and spray the villa. I asked her if the manager, Claire, was around who we had not seen since we had our issues checking in. She was indeed on the premises so I decided to go chase her down. She had promised to make our check in issues up to us but we had not seen her since. The end result was $20 off each night ($80 in total) but I was so surprised when she said she thought the free drinks would be enough. A couple of free cocktails does not fix the fact that we we're technically paying for someone else to use the villa. Although we've enjoyed our stay at Villa Coco, the management issues has really put a damper on it. I don't think I'll be returning.

I returned to the pool to use the wifi after sorting this issue out and the girls came to join me. I filled them in on what had happened and they weren't too impressed either. By this time, it was time to start talking about dinner. I wasn't much in the mood for eating, more so for drinking a very strong cocktail. We decided on just going around the corner to Sang Ria Bar and Grill. It's another restaurant that's very well known for its ribs. I ordered a cocktail to begin with and it really hit the spot. I was feeling much happier.

We ordered bruschetta to start and I decided on the ribs. I needed to compare them to Naughty Nuri's. The girls ordered a beef burger, chicken burger and chicken sandwich. The food came out in good time. The bruschetta's were delicious and we were looking forward to our mains. They too arrived in good time, we got right into it. My ribs came out on a huge plate because the ribs were so huge. Yum! I needed to ask for more sauce, but it was delicious. The meat was coming off the gone easily and I'm sure I had sauce all around my mouth but it was worth it. I don't know if they were better than Naughty Nuri's ribs, but both were delicious. The girls also enjoyed their meals a lot. It's definitely a restaurant I'd return to.

The meal came to about $65. We walked back to the villa very happy. The girls continued onto a mini mart to get a few things while I went onto the villa. Sami had a couple of friends who happened to be in Bali too so they were coming to join us at the villa for some drinks. They were lovely people but I was VERY tired so I said my good nights and went for bed, ready for my last full day in Bali tomorrow.

 

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Bali, Day 8: Quad Bikes and Teppanyaki

Today's exchange rate: IDR 10,700 per AUS $

Today's weather: gloriously sunny morning, overcast afternoon

We were all up early today to get ready for our next adventure; quad biking with Aussie Bali Adventures. I had booked this a few weeks in advance when all the girls agreed that they definitely wanted to do it. It was another thing we were all really looking forward to. I woke the girls at 6:15. We had ordered our breakfast for 6:30 even though it doesn't officially start until 7:00. We had let the staff know the day before that we had an early start and they were happy to oblige.

Our breakfast arrived right on time, and we scoffed it down before going to reception to meet our driver. We made a stop at another hotel to pick up a girl who was going horse riding. The drive took about an hour and once we got past the Seminyak traffic, it was quite scenic. We drove along huge ric e fields and saw all the ladies bending over to plant the rice. Even though it was early, it was already quite warm. After a bit of a bumpy ride, we arrived. The company is up near Canggu at Yeh Gangga Beach and with an Australian owner, it's very well run and most importantly, the equipment is all kept in good condition and services regularly. The owner, Shifty, introduced himself and we were directed to the lobby area where we were offered a drink, given the safety instructions to read and a waiver to sign. Shifty explained to us, and a group of boys that were there to ride motorbikes along the beach, to just be sensible. He was very clear about things, that this was something to do just for fun and not extreme sports at all.

After a while, we were lead to the quad bikes and shown how to use them. Because the bikes are all automatic, it was straight forward; accelerator, front break, back break. After that, we were off. We went straight onto the beach and rode North. The beach was sadly pretty dirty; there was rubbish everywhere, but the further north we rode, the cleaner it got. We all used this time to get comfortable with the bikes. We started to speed up a bit and chose our own paths along the beach. We them turned onto a road for just a minute before turning onto dirt tracks that run along side the rice fields. Oh my, what an amazing view it was. The fields were so green and seemed to go on for ages. The track here was quite narrow so we barely went above 10 kilometres an hour during this part.

We stopped along the way for a quick drink (included in the price) before continuing. We went through a local village and once again, went quite slow. There was barely any traffic going by, but there was a couple of times that we had to squeeze past a truck on the narrow roads. There were a few kids around, waving to us with big smiles on their faces.

We made our way back to the beach and once again rode North. We were feeling much more confident by this point so Sami and I were having a bit of a race. Even at this time, the fastest we went was 25-30 kilometres an hour. It turns out Sami is much more of a daredevil than I am so she won. We looped around and rode North again with another quick ride on the roads before pulling back in to the company's head quarters. We were once again ushered into the lobby area where we were given cold towels and drinks. We chatted with Shifty while we waited for the girl doing the horse riding to return. We all had a great time doing the quad biking and once again, it's another thing I'd happily do more than once. At $85 per person for a single person quad bike, it's pretty good value for money. We had a good 1.5-2 hours ride, and it included hotel pick up and drop off. It's an awesome way to see a bit more of Bali and it was such a beautiful, scenic ride. If you're not into extreme sports, I'd still recommend this. I personally felt it was quite tame in regards to the speeds we went, but it is meant for fun and a bit of sightseeing so that was fine with all of us.

We got back into the car and made our way back to Seminyak. The ride home was much quicker and by 11:30, we were back at the villa. We were so happy we still had the entire afternoon free. We had had an early and quite small breakfast and we were starving. Mikhala and I decided to walk down to Werkudara road to a place called Swich which is similar to Subway but with tasty, fresh ingredients. It was about a 5 minute walk down Double 6 from the villa. We ordered for ourselves and Sami and Courtney and waited for it to be made. It didn't take long before we were walking back again. The all sat down at the table in the villa and dug in. The sandwiches were delicious!! I'd definitely reccomend going there if you're feeling like a meal a bit closer to home. The 4 sandwiches, drinks and 2 serves of fries it cost us about $30.

When we'd finished eating, we had a bit of chill out time. We all got comfy in the aircon of one the bedrooms and watched TV. We agreed that at about 3:00 we'd get up, and head out. The girls wanted to do a bit more shopping along Legian Road so a bit after 3:00, we made our way out. We had a quid stop at reception to ask them to make a reservation for us at a restaurant. Sami loves this particular restaurant and it was her one request for our trip. I'd heard many great things about it so was keen to give it a try. The lady called, and made our booking so dinner tonight would be at the Padma's teppanyaki restaurant.

We walked along Double 6, stopping to look at a few shops here and there before crossing over to Legian Road, changing some money and then starting the real shopping. We got some DVDs and CDs before popping into a few other stores before going to one of my favourites; Somwhere. After having a good look around, I settled on a top for a friend and a black maxi dress for myself. There was a very similar dress at Bamboo Blonde that I had been eyeing off and considered going back for. This one had nicer material and it was $30 cheaper so I was a happy girl.

After Somewhere, I popped next door to a jewellery store called Filthy Gorgeous. They have two stores; Legian Road and Garlic Lane and have recently been becoming more popular thanks to a Bai Facebook group. Mum had seen photos of some of their products and they were right up her alley. I ended up buying a pair of earrings and a matching pendant, but she won't be getting them until Christmas;)

I had had enough of shopping by this time. Courtney and I decided to walk back and leave Sami and Mikhala to shop a bit longer. We cut through The Haven and spent a bit of time at the communal pool to use the WiFi and FaceTime our families. The mozzies were going mad, so we went back to the villa to chill out. Sami and Mikhala got back not long after and shared their shopping goodies with us. Dinner wasn't until 8:15 so we agreed to go down to the Padma a bit early and visit the markets before dinner.

We left at about 7:45. There was a bit of traffic on the street so we got out and walked the rest of the way, looking here and there but not buying anything. It was a short walk down the road to the Padma. We walked through straight to the restaurant. We were welcomed in and shown our seats. Because we were wanting teppanyaki, we were seated around one of the teppanyaki grills where all the cooking would take place right in front of us. We ordered drinks, were given our special teppanyaki aprons and our chef came and introduced himself. The cooking began. First up for an entree was an Asian salad and grilled vegetables. I'm not much of a veggie eater but I gave the asparagus a go. Sorry mum, I'm not going to start eating it regularly anytime soon.

Next up was the seafood; prawns, snapper and tuna. I love my seafood so I was very excited for this part. The prawns were cooked beautifully and the chef even cut off the heads and legs. He actually kept the legs and fried them so they were crunchy and served them to us. He told us it was like a prawn cracker but I was very hesitant to try it. When the other girls all have it ago, I told myself to toughen up and do it, so I did but only 1 bite. It's not something I'd eat again because, hey, it's prawn legs. He set the grill on fire with the help of a bit of wine. If you want to see the video, go here to my Facebook page. The snapper and tuna were also delicious. Each time after the chef had cooked one of the components, he told us which 3 of the dipping sauces in front of us to have it with.

After seafood was the chicken and beef. With his very sharp knife, he cut them to precision. The chicken was a bit on the dry side, but the rest was great.

To finish up was fried rice that was once again cooking right in front of us. The garlic went on first with a sizzle, then the rest like spring onions and carrot. He cracked a couple of eggs onto the grill and scrambled them up with his knife. I loved watching the knife action. Just a clickety clack, tap tap and scrape and there was a meal in front of us. After our meal, we paid the bill ($150 for 4 of us, including the teppanyaki, 8 drinks and a big bottle of water) then got in a taxi back to Villa Coco. We were all very tired from our early start so we spent a bit of time watching TV until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer.

 

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