Having never been in HKG, both my wife and I were very impressed with the airport, it was hard for
MrsSFore to skip out on all of the fine shopping one can do there, but we have plans on passing though next March. As I mentioned earlier in the report, we were forced to stay in the airport as opposed to venturing into the city for the night due to the APEC conference in Bali which forced the closure of the airport during the afternoon for security reasons. It took me a while, but I happened to look at my ticket for our HKG-DPS segment and I noticed we didn't have the normal 01:20 departure time, it was now 20:45. Huh? So that makes it 2 changes and now we were scheduled to arrive around 3 in the morning. I started to get a little agitated because the hotel we were staying at, The Chedi Club in Ubud was supposed to pick us up at the airport around 6:00 am, not 3:00 AM. Good thing someone was checking emails there, because I was fortunate enough to get through to someone and they assured us we will be picked up at our new arrival time, phew!
So after traveling as long as we had been, it was time to shower and change our clothes and get ready to the final leg of our journey to Bali. We headed to the Wing F lounge and quickly asked for a cabana, which we were promptly shown to.
The cabanas are great! plenty of room for 2 people to change, shower and relax in complete privacy. The decor throughout the Wing is very black, I did forget to take pictures of the main areas, but there are plenty in other TR's. The lounge wasn't too busy and I'll try and explore more of it on future trips including the restaurant, The Haven.
Cathay Pacific (CX)2785 - Hong Kong to Denpasar Bali
Departs 1:20 AM Sched
Arrives 6:00 AM
Actual: 9:45PM-3:15 AM
Boarding was quick and smooth and I am not sure, but it seemed like we were on one of the refreshed regional 773. Since the flight had changed times again, there were no menus handed out, but were given a choice of 3 entrees, and I went with beef rendang which was actually quite good. In J class, most of the plane was occupied by American's which surprised me to say the least and it was a very pleasant flight into DPS.
Immigration was a breeze and there was a driver waiting for us upon arrival through customs. At this time, VIP on arrival was not being allowed due to the APEC conference and DPS using their brand new intl terminal. It took about 90 min to drive north to Ubud and we were disappointed to not be able to see anything since it was dark, but knew it would be beautiful to wake up to. We arrived at the Chedi Club at about 5:00 AM and went to bed for a couple hours, the sun was just coming up.
The Chedi Club at Tanah Gajah
We were blown away by this resort. As a club hotel, every villa or suite has a personal butler who does pretty much everything for you. When we wanted to iron our clothes, there was no iron in the room. Kadeck, our butler collected our clothes and in an hour or two, they were done! Also included was laundry service, free cocktail hour, afternoon tea, complimentary mini bar and a guided rice patty tour. I definitely felt there was very good value here. We booked a pool villa as
MrsSFore loves the privacy it affords.
We booked our accommodations with
DavidO and were extremely pleased with our villa, #9. I was the only one that jutted out into the rice patty and was directly across from the restaurant. The farmers had just harvested the rice before our arrival, so nothing was lush and green, but it was nonetheless beautiful.
Looking at our villa from the restaurant
The grounds:
The food:
We sampled their BBQ night with suckling pig as well as their crispy duck night. The food throughout our stay was incredible!
Next up, seeing the sights of Bali!