Checked out of the Komaneka yesterday and was very surprised that they had not charged us for the room service coffee we had ordered each morning. I do like this place.
Had a pretty uneventful drive down to Seminyak with the exception that mar missus nearly chucked. She is prone to this and had taken Kwells beforehand but they were obviously not Bali driving proof. Seemed to take an age but we did finally get here after a brief stop to let a funeral procession pass across the road. There were a huge amount of people in the procession along with musicians. C asked the driver if you had to be 'special' for this treatment, I responded, 'yes, you have to be dead', we never did find out if you did have to be 'special' or if this was just a normal funeral arrangement.
Got to the Sofitel and it looks good, lobby is beautiful, grounds are lovely and all very clean and plush looking. We get our rooms, which are all nearby and overlook the gardens to the garden pool, or should I say Le Piscine, avec La Jardin, as this is quite obviously a French hotel, with the room service menu etc all being in French before English and I have a sneaky suspicion that the staff have a better grasp of French than English, going off the guy that checked us in. The rooms are nice, very much along the lines of most hotels, you know the normal layout, but it's spotless and comfy, with a little balcony overlooking a lily pond. My friend J calls in and he is stressing, he doesn't like it here. I must explain that J is an avid Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel fan, in fact after a week here at the Sofitel we are moving down to the Kartika for the last bit of our hols. Anyway it's just not the Kartika he says. He looks fidgety and he quickly heads off for another look around, he comes back after and few minutes, still looking stressed. No he says, I've got to see if I can check out and move to the Kartika. At this I think I'd better leave the unpacking and go have a look, so we have a wander and it looks lovely to me. Yes the new hotel next door, does overpower the pool area a little. I must say after all the quite negative reports on this forum, I had come here expecting to be disappointed, however it looks like the building work is nearly finished, in fact the hotel next door is open. The two pools both look very nice, as does the grassed area overlooking the beach. The only thing is everyone looks really miserable, I wonder why? I must say the beach doesn't look that inviting, in fact mar missus and I took an early morning walk down the beach this morning and I can not believe the rubbish that comes in of the water, it is incredible, there seems to be a league of Balinese, sweeping and collecting it all up. It was very interesting walking down the beach, there was quite a mix of locals jogging, expats, tourists and dogs and the sand is very easy to walk on. We comment about how lucky we are in Oz to have such fabulous beaches, we do take it for granted. But this is different, it's a visual feast as my sister in law would no doubt say. (she has a way with words does my SIL)
I must go back to yesterday afternoon. J is still stressing and wishing he was at the Kartika, so we get a quick lunch and start walk up to JL Legian for a gander. Well J sets a fair pace and I'm struggling to keep up looking past T for J's backpack. I ask T if J is planning on walking to the Kartika, which I knew was not a walk I was relishing. I'm a pom and sweat like you wouldn't believe in this humidity. After a quick stop for wallet shopping, we convince J to get in a cab, phew, air conditioning. So after a quick look at the Kartika, which does look nice, J is looking more relaxed, I think he just needed to feel like he was back in his usual Bali territory. We pick up some Krispy Kremes (yes they are awesome) and head to 'Bloody Cold Beer' in Poppies II. The girls have taken their material to a tailors here and we meet up over beer. Mar missus must have nearly cleared out the local Textile Traders in Perth with material for clothes to be made here and she looks a little uncertain as to the likelihood of them working out as planned, so Saturday will be interesting, when they should be ready. She was a little stressed as the tailor had taken a half dozen attempts at measuring her inside leg and chest, commenting on what a good figure she had. Mmm????
Anyway back to this morning and after my beach walk I'm starving and I'm wondering what breakfast is going to be like, as this is so obviously a French hotel, because the French just don't do breakfast. We all meet up for breakfast and sat outside looking over the gardens. The buffet was great, fresh omelettes, French toast, pancakes. Lots of Indo food, good croissants, fresh bread, fruit etc etc. They even made us up some cappuccinos. Excellent, I'm happy as Larry. The outside area is only quite small and there seems to be a lot attention on the pond. There are two pretty big lizards in there. As breakfast progresses they are getting more inquisitive, which clears most out of the area. We being a party of Aussies though are not going to move because of a lizard, they aren't even poisonous. (are they?) J decides to see if the smaller one will lick his hand with his tongue. (you know where this is going don't you?) Yes, you got it, the lizard puts his mouth over J's finger, lightly touching it, then wham, he has a good chomp. Now J doesn't even flinch, as I say Aussies can take any bush type adversity in their stride. He calmly sits down and then shows us the damage. There are quite a few puncture marks. I'm thinking rabies (I'm a pom don't forget, we've always been paranoid about getting rabies in foreign climes, England being the only rabies free country in the world, he says feeling v proud!) or maybe gangrene. The girls start discussing the numerous medical treatments they have with them that may help, including antibiotics for Cystitis. (Eh!)
The others have all taken off to go shopping. I've got to pace myself I think, I'm heading to the pool, with my book. I need to get some relax time in before the WWR tomorrow.