Today's weather: unbelievably perfect
Today's exchange rate: 10,250 Rupiah per AUS $
I was awake at 6:00 today and headed straight outside to watch the hotel come to life. The sun was still just rising but I watched the staff going about their morning business of cleaning the pool and garden. I had a quick chat with Mum before going back inside to find Sam awake. The hunger pangs were beginning so we got dressed and when 7:30 came around, we headed straight to the restaurant for breakfast. Brekky is including in the price and is offered on an a la carte menu. You have a choice of the standard American breakfast, continental or Indonesian. All come with fruit, juice and tea or coffee. We enjoyed our breakfast before heading to the next door Circle K for a SIM card and returning to our room. I think housekeeping was in a much better mood today; not only did we have plenty of towels (including a promise of pool towels when they arrived from the laundry) but we had some friends waiting to greet us!! I had heard that the Rama Garden staff had a knack for turning towels into animals. It was a nice surprise for us:)
Having reserved some sun lounges earlier, we got settled quickly after breakfast. We were looking forward to have a morning by the pool. There weren't many people around and soon enough, the sun was beginning to peak over the building and trees. Once it was beaming down on us, it was into the pool. It was a lovely temperature and the hotel have heaps of pool noodles that guests are free to use. All morning, it was in and out of the pool, in the spa, enjoying the sun, reading our books and just chilling out. What a perfect way to spend a morning.
By 11:30, hunger had returned. We had already decided to head to Poppies Restaurant for lunch and then have a quick shop at the Discovery Centre. So once we were dry again, we walked up to Legian Road to get a taxi. He dropped us off at the Legian entrance to Poppies Lanre and from there, it was only a short walk to the restaurant. The restaurant was very quiet so we had our pick of tables. We ordered drinks (no Piña Colada's today!) and some Lumpia to share. I decided to try something different for my main and ordered a beef curry, while Sam got a cheeseburger. Our Lumpia were quick to arrive and were so delicious that I completely forgot to take a photo!! Whoops.
Our mains followed not long after and my curry looked delicious!! Although the flavours were definitely there, the beef was not; I found 2 small pieces of beef throughout the entire curry. The rest of the curry? It was potato and sauce. So I wasn't too impressed. Sam ate her burger all up, but said it was just ok. Poppies didn't do it for us this time.
We paid our bill of about $30 and made our way towards the beach. The Discovery Centre is within walking distance from Poppies but it was pretty hot, so we decided to walk along the beach. It was a gorgeous day to be out and about. The sun was beaming down, the beach was looking lovely and clean (for the most part) and wasn't too busy. We walked along with our feet in the water which was the temperature of a bath and were approached by lots of people along the way, offering surfing lessons, saying "hey, I know you" which I seem to get a lot of these days. I really enjoyed walking along, admiring the perfection of the day and people watching.
It wasn't a long walk to the Discovery Centre, so before long we were making our way up the stairs and into the shopping centre. It was straight to Bamboo Blonde for me. I had checked out their website last week and had my eye on a few outfits that I really liked, but I was so disappointed when I couldn't find them in store!! For the first time ever, I walked out with only 1 new addition to my wardrobe. Not like me at all. Sam bought a couple of things and we headed upstairs for a quick look through Centro but didn't find anything that caught our eye. It was our quickest shopping trip yet and I think it was mainly because Mum wasn't with us;)
We were both craving a bit more relaxation so we caught a taxi back to the hotel with plans to go to the spa next door; Ambiente Spa. After a quick lay down, we decided to go around to check it out. It looked quite nice inside, and we were very luckily able to get in right then for a treatment. We had already decided on getting the Ambiente Total Body Care treatment which for 220,000 Rupiah, you got a footbath, full body massage, body scrub with your choice of scrub, warm towel wrap and lotion. The treatment went for 90 minutes. We both chose to get a chocolate scrub because who doesn't love smelling like chocolate?! We were directed into our treatment room where we had our footbaths before stripping down to get into the oh so attractive paper panties and lay down on the massage tables. I had a male masseaus and he didn't an excellent job. He checked a few times throughout the treatment if the pressure was ok and I really enjoyed it. He was very respectful of my modesty too, carefully placing an extra sarong over my chest before pulling the main sarong down.
The scrub was excellent and left our skin feeling beautifully smooth and smelling like chocolate. It wasn't until after the treatment that we were told that the warm towel wrap was replaced with a shower and the lotion was in the shower for us to use when we were rinsing off. I wasn't entirely happy with that, because the shower was not a shower at all, but a hand held hose over a bathtub and we didn't even notice the lotions. It was a bit of a disappointing way to end an otherwise lovely spa treatment.
We had a quick look in the markets before heading back to the hotel where I had a proper shower. Tonight we were off to Motel Mexicola for dinner and I was really looking forward to it. Since it opened, it's built up quite the reputation for good Mexican food, strong drinks and an awesome atmosphere. It was one of those places I just had to try.
We headed off at about 6:30 to allow time for bad traffic but we arrived in no time at all. We were shown our seats but were soon moved to another table in a booth. I took some time to admire the restaurant while Sam decided on which drink to order. I think it's the decor that really makes this place; it is absolutely full of colour. It's got cool tunes playing in the back ground that have you tapping your feet and moving along to the beat. I was looking forward to trying the food, especially after having some great Mexican in January at Taco Beach. But first, we needed drinks! We both ordered a margarita and Sam, being the tequila lover she is, ordered what she thought was just a shot of tequila. You should have seen the look on her face when out came not one, not two but three shots of tequila, each with a different chaser!! And I wasn't about to share with her. Her chasers included the standard salt and lime, orange and cinnamon and Tabasco! She wasn't so sure about that one. She smartly decided to space them out throughout dinner. But first we needed to order!
The menu is designed as tapas, and suggests that you choose a couple of things from each section. None of the mains appealed to us so we decided to order guacamole, chorizo and cheese quesadillas, pork empanadas, tempura prawn soft tacos and a chicken ones too. All the food came out promptly. Maybe a little too promptly considering it's supposed to be freshly cooked. The food was nice, but not great. I did enjoy the Mexican at Taco Beach a lot more, but we were both loving the atmosphere of Motel Mexicola.
Sam was pacing herself with the tequila and was soon down to her last one, which had Tabasco as its chaser. She was feeling brave enough after having her other 2 shots but decided to shoot the Tabasco and use the tequila as a chaser. She somehow managed to get both of them down without a fuss and even finished with a smile on her face.
We ordered a serving of Churros for dessert and were left a bit disappointed. The Churros were not cooked properly, and although they were yummy, they lacked the crispiness on the outside and fluffiness on the inside. They were actually still a bit doughy on the inside. They caramel sauce they came with was also a bit of a let down.
Our bill came to just under $80 and since we didn't stay as long as we thought we would, we decided to walk back to Oberoi street for a bit of window shopping. After walking down the very dark street that a Mexicola is located on, the liveliness of Seminyak square was very welcome. We were also happy to see lots of places were still open, so we pottered along, looking here and there and naming places we'd be returning to tomorrow for proper shopping. We were both pretty tired by this point, so agreed to get a taxi back to the hotel. Another beautiful day in Bali and I've still got 8 more to go.
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