On our last morning in Sanur we had breakfast, packed, and sat reading on our balcony as we waited for our pick up from Putu Bali Villas in Seminyak. Our driver arrived at 10am and after we said a sad goodbye to Puri Gopa and it's wonderful staff he took us on a route to Seminyak that we have never traveled before. We chatted happily as we stared out the windows of the van, I really love going through areas of Bali that I have not been through before, there is always so much to see.
We arrived at Putu Bali Villas, the reception staff were very welcoming as had been our driver. We asked if we could see the room first and then come back and pay, we were told yes but were asked to fill in check in forms and to let the staff photocopy one of our passports first. What we could see of the hotel looked fine and we didn't think there would be a problem so we went through the whole process. As we went to go and look at our room our driver and another male staff member appeared and picked up our luggage and led us through the property. The gardens were lovely and the little villas looked really nice, I noticed that the balconies were very small. We came to the pool area and were surprised to see that the pool was empty and that there were a lot of men working in the bottom of it.
We continued on through the property, no one had mentioned the empty pool and I thought I could smell chlorine, I thought maybe there's another pool. We finally reached our room, we had been shown to the very last Villa/room on the property and there was no other pool. The bedroom looked lovely but quite small, the balcony was small and had two tiny legless cane chairs on it. We are pool people when in Bali, we love to take a book and spend a couple of hours at the pool in the morning. We swim when we feel like it and then leave for whatever else we plan to do as the day gets warmer, or coming back from shopping or sightseeing it's so nice to cool off at the pool.
We could see that there wasn't a lot of comfortable seating in the room or on the balcony. We asked about the pool and the driver who had picked us up said closed for maintenance and maybe finished in 4 to 5 days. We explained that we didn't want to stay the week here without a pool and off we all trudged back to reception. There was a lot of chatter that we couldn't understand and then we were asked to speak to the manager on the telephone. The manager asked what the problem was and I explained about the pool, he offered me a better price for spa treatments if we stayed, I declined. The manager then told me that the pool would be ready the next day,. I told him that we had been told that it would be 4 to 5 days, he angrily replied 'who told you that', I calmly said 'it doesn't matter, it will take you much longer than a day to refill the pool'. He then became quite rude and angry with me insisting that we pay 1 nights room charge for him blocking the room. It was obvious that the hotel was almost empty and even though we had both been prepared to pay for one night I now became annoyed. I explained to him that when we had booked only a couple of weeks before, he had not mentioned that the pool would be out of order. I also explained that we had received a phone call from them the previous day to inform us that they would pick us up and that when we had returned the call no one had told us that the pool was out of order. The manager then calmed down and repeated his offer of cheaper spa treatments, I again declined, he didn't request the payment again and I politely finished the call.
Putu Bali Villas really did look lovely and the staff we dealt with were great, they looked so unhappy that we were not staying and in a way with occupancy the way it is I can understand why we weren't informed about the pool. If we had been told beforehand we could have made an informed decision. The manager spoke very good English, there was no communication problem and I didn't like the fact that he became so angry. We thought later that maybe he should have tried to make an arrangement with another local hotel for his guests to use their pool while his was out of order. We gave the staff who had assisted us a much larger tip than we normally would and we dragged our suitcases out onto the road, here we stood and assessed our options. We could get a taxi and go to Hotel Puri Bambu where we were booked for our third week in Bali. I was sure they would have a room available for us, we could then return to Putu Bali Villas the following week after checking if the pool was open. Did we want to do that after the phone conversation that we had just had, probably not. I told H that I thought that Bali Ayu Hotel was not too far away. We decided to drag our suitcases down the road a bit to see if we could find it. We both started to laugh, what a great start to the morning.
Down around the bend we found Bali Ayu Hotel and as we dragged our suitcases in from the road a couple of staff members rushed over to assist us. We asked if they had a 'Villa' for a week and after much work on their computer they told us we could have a downstairs superior villa for two nights and then we could have an upstairs standard villa for the following 5 nights. We went to have a look at the rooms and decided that they were fine, nothing special but seemed okay. Our week at Bali Ayu was one of mixed feelings, the rooms were large and they were well cleaned each day. I have put a report on Mic's site if anyone is interested, there is a link to quite a few photos that we took of the hotel, it's a warts and all report, I wont repeat it here.
We unpacked our cases and settled in, we then decided to take a walk and become reacquainted with Seminyak as we hadn't stayed here for a few years. We walked down to the temple at the beach and then all the way along Jl Laksmana, checking out restaurant menus as we went. When we reached Jl Raya Seminyak we decide that since we had come this far we may as well walk to Bintang Supermarket to get a few supplies and then catch a taxi back to the hotel. When we reached Bintang I looked up and noticed Raja's new restaurant and remembered that Filo had mentioned that they had rebuilt here, we decided to climb the stairs and have some lunch. We had a few lunches at Raja's, it became the place to stop for a Bintang and a hamburger or a salad on a few of our many long walks in the area, the food was always good and the staff were always cheerful and funny. After lunch we went over to the supermarket and we bought our supplies including three new books for H. H had enjoyed the Davinci Code so much that he purchased 3 more books by Dan Brown. At about 90,000Rp each, they were cheaper than at home and read them all before leaving Bali two weeks later. We caught a taxi back to Bali Ayu and had a couple of hours reading and swimming at the pool and then decided that we would try that restaurant that we had noticed down the road.
If I had not read a report on the forum about Purnama restaurant now being Venue @ the Moon, I would not have realised where I was. We had stayed at The Intan many times back when there was nothing but Rice Paddies in this area, the only restaurant in the vicinity was Purnama. If we had not been happy with Purnama we would not have eaten there as the Intan had a good shuttle service to Kuta in those days. The last time we stayed at the Intan the breakfasts had deteriorated to the point where we and other guests that we had met would forgo the free breakfast and walk outside to Purnama for a great Breakfast.
On our first night in Seminyak we walked down to Venue @ the Moon wondering if the food was going to be as good as Purnama had been. We needn't have worried, we ate there a couple times over the next week as we found the food excellent to the point of being comparable to some of the best places we have eaten at anywhere in the world. (We even came back to Venue from Jimbaran on our second last night in Bali for another culinary delight.) The service is the best, attentive but unimposing, the tables and chairs are really comfortable, you settle in and don't want to move on. The staff were wonderful and Luigi the chef is brilliant, you get all those little extras in service and presentation that make a meal special.
We walked back to Hotel Bali Ayu saying how pleased we were that we had decided to stay in the area. After getting of to a bad start we had finished up having a great day and one of our best meals ever......
Next our week in Seminyak.
Coco