Bali –
So we’ve come to the vacation portion of the vacation and if you have been along for the ride we’re up to 8 flights and a tad over 16,000 miles, we’ve slept in Munich, Tokyo, Bangkok and Singapore. I should let you know that my wife wasn’t fond of traveling all that way to get to Bali, but in the end I won that battle.
After all the city excursions, the walking, the site-seeing, the touristy things it was time to leave the world. We are SPG Platinum and booked cash and points stay at The W Bali Resort at 8k points and $150USD. We applied some suite night upgrades to ensure the slight possibility of getting upgraded. I knew what type of room to expect however we wanted to be alone and enjoy each other’s company however, I knew that might happen in a sea view room, but I wanted a pool villa. I hatched a plan to ‘bribe’ the check in agent to see if we could get an upgrade. When we arrived at the hotel I had the money all lined up in my pocket and a speech ready to go, but we got someone who must have been in training and in swooped a manager and another check in agent. My plans went down the toilet while going up in flames at the same time. Knowing that we had a sea view room I hung my head in shame and asked ‘how much’ for a one-bedroom villa. I got quoted a rate of $150USD a night and I accepted it, but since we were arriving late we chose to move the next day. Now I explained to my wife before we left that the one bedroom villa was around $400USD and we should just PAY for it, but she only saw the $400 portion. Sigh so now we’re paying 8k points AND $300USD, by FT terms I just made a HUGE mistake. Again another theme of this TR…I’m on vacation and I could care less.
After check in was complete we were sent off to the 5th floor to our Sea View room.
You’re expecting the view now:
Now the room was great, I could easily survive in there for a few days if I needed to. That night we decided to check out one of the restaurants on site. Dinner was excellent, and while I’m talking about food, I never had a bad meal at any restaurant there. Each time we ate the food got better and better. The first night I had some sort of fish, don’t remember, and a cocktail, again, don’t remember…sorry I was on vacation and I stopped caring. Dinner was over and we went back to our room to sleep? Yeah…sleep. I woke up the next morning to the sound of waves crashing heavily outside and just sat on the balcony and made my family jealous by calling them so they could hear. My wife woke up an hour or so later and we went down to starfish bloo for breakfast. As platinum at SPG breakfast is free, but I would have happily paid for the spread they put on. Again I am no small person and I got that way by learning to cook as in a prior life I wanted to be a chef, but I learned quickly that they make crap, the hours are terrible and you’re on your feet for too long. That being said I went to culinary school and put in my time on many cook lines. One thing I particularly disliked was brunch/breakfast, you need to be up at the wrong side of the sun and boil eggs all morning. Where is this story going? Well whenever I go out I make it a point not to order eggs benedict, why you ask? Have you ever tried to make 300 in a morning? No? Well try it and then go make someone do that for you, it’s hard. I wouldn’t subject that to anyone.
So what did I do? Well if you said order Eggs Benedict…you win
I felt bad, and then I ordered another. I still stand by what I said above, but the person cooking these has a gift. These were so good I ordered two every day I was there although I made it a point to apologize before my order. Long story short (too late) if you’re there, order it. You aren’t here to read about me and breakfast you’re here for the pretty pictures. After all that’s why I read trip reports.
The view from Breakfast:
Stitch (not good) of the hotel:
We went for a massage across the street from the hotel at AMO Spa, I won’t go into details, but it was alright and served its purpose. After the massage we grabbed some provisions (beer) from the convenience store and headed back to the hotel to find out if our villa was ready.
It was ready…:
So that’s where we stayed for 2 days, we didn’t move, we woke up, ate breakfast got a tan, swam and ate dinner.
What else would you do?
Life was rough, but sadly we had to check out of the room as they we were fully booked so we went back to the sea view room for the last night. That day we decided to book a tour through the hotel as we wanted to go purchase some local paintings, but somehow another lost in translation moment and we went on some grand tour of Bali. After visiting some ‘traditional Balinese house’ I asked the driver what was going on as this was cutting into my relaxation allotment for the day. He asked what we wanted to do and we said well buy paintings. He ignored our request and took us to the ‘rice paddies’ where we needed to pay a toll (?) to use the road but it was I believe 1USD. It was super touristy but nice to see. We walked down a slope and snapped a few pictures and left.
Rice Paddy
We eventually got to go look at some art at a collective that the hotel usually sends tourists to, we looked around for something that we liked and purchased two paintings for our new home. The day was over and we made our way back to the hotel. Needing more provisions we asked to stop at another convenience store where I could buy anything that looked odd.
I assumed this was made with Rhino Tears:
Sadly I soon found out that it wasn’t rhino tears but it was a drink for a sore throat, no matter, I drank it anyway. We spent the rest of the day taking pictures on the beach until the sun went down, so here you go.
Beach Front:
I did go in the water and it was ROUGH
It happened to be 5pm
Last bit of Sun:
That night we happened to venture out of the resort and go to a restaurant called Sardine. It was excellent; it was set in a rice paddy. I believe I had kingfish…that sounds like a fish species, I just checked the bill and yes…yes I did have Kingfish
See for yourself:
I sent that picture to my parents, they weren’t sure about the exchange rate and I got a stern talking to, that was until they realized how much I spent. Not sure why they cared, it’s my money? It provided a good laugh.
Over dinner we talked about how bad it was that our vacation was ending but how much fun we had. We agreed to try it again next year but we’ll do someplace different. My final rating of Bali, good, but not great, food was excellent, however I didn’t really experience Bali and that was because I didn’t feel like doing anything. There was a ton of construction going on as well so it was losing some of its charm? If I went back I might go up into Ubud and stay, although with all of the places I still have yet to go I don’t see myself going back. The W was excellent although I felt out of place…again it’s not the hotel it’s me, I am neither hip nor a ‘hardbody’. If you’ve stayed at a W you know what I’m talking about. We tried to get one last night’s sleep before traveling for close to 2 days.
For those or you that wanted to see me in a swim suit…sorry to disappoint…I couldn’t put it online as I believe the internet would break.