19/6-20/6
Sunday morning, the villa staff cooked us a breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs and provided mixed fruits, an assortment of juices, condiments and tea/coffee. The first morning is the only time that they cook breakfast for you as a part of the villa cost.
As I explained in my previous post, I'm an earlier riser at home as I'm usually in my office by 8am. I am also such a coffee nut, I have a few during a day and really enjoy my first coffee to start my day. The villa has a percolator type coffee machine and even though I attempted to get it going, I was unfortunately, I failed!
We went to Tuban, exchanged some money (9025) on 19/6. We then went to the mini market next door and purchased a few of the Bali XL sim cards with some additional credit. All up, it was 118,000 for sim and 50k of extra credit. Following this, we went across the road to Dianne's shop to say hello, have a few laughs and purchase a few things. This is my mums first trip to Bali so she bought a few light clothes for the trip. Mum couldn't believe the prices and declared she will return when we go to the Dynasty to stock up on boardies and singlets for my nephew (her grandson). Dianne now has a tour booth operating from her shop with Gede taking the bookings. We booked a few activities with him (will elaborate further in subsequent posts). We booked with Gede last year, when he was working in the tour booth outside if Dianne's shop. When we were walking over to Dianne's, he was outside and recognised us instantly (as did Dianne). Mum being a newbie to Bali couldn't believe it. Mum whispered to me that it is so nice and the people are so friendly. I think I may have another Bali convert on our hands and don't doubt that she will return with my dad in tow.
From Tuban, we went to Carrefour to do a grocery shop for the villa. We spent 1.4 mill and most of that was on snacks and munchies. SIL is a chef and of Italian background, she couldn't help herself and bought ingredients to make Spag Bol. Mum decided she will make pancakes and French toast so grabbed things for those meals. We bought a heap of cup of noodles as snacks as the kids like those.
We then retuned to the villa and had some cup of soup with bread (French stick). The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, sunbathing and swimming in the villa pool.
Even though the Villa is located in Seminyak, it is at the end if Gang Mertasari. The address of the villa left here on a piece of paper says that we are in Petitenget. It's a 4 bedroom villa and there are 2 of the most lovely staff who come to the villa to clean, tend to the pool and have a chat with us. They are more than happy to help if required.
All of the bedrooms are quite large, large enough to swing a number of Balinese dogs around (as the cats have no tails). Please note: no animals were harmed or mistreated during this review. There are 3 bedrooms down stairs. Mum has one with a TV, queen sized bed and an outdoor bathroom consisting of a shower, basin and toilet. SIL room has no tv but a queen size bed. The boys are sharing a room with two beds pushed together to make it a king sized bed. SIL and the kids share a bathroom with access from both rooms. Their bathroom consists of a toilet, bath and basin indoors and the huge shower which enclosed but had an open roof. The room that my OH and I occupy is upstairs and it is the only room upstairs that is totally enclosed (no alfresco area). The bedroom has a king sized bed, tv, a walk through wardrobe and a huge bathroom (all enclosed) with a bath, shower and toilet. All of the bedrooms have air conditioners.
The pool is stunning, huge, very deep it is not heated but it does get warm with the day time sun. The pool is not fenced and as such, young children would need to be supervised at all times when outdoors as there are no provisions for their safety.
The kitchen/living area is open plan but this section, like the bedrooms, can be either closed, or the bifolds can be opened to make this area open air. There is no aircon in this area but there is a ceiling fan. The kitchen has a stove, a toaster oven, percolator, microwave, blender, rice cooker, utensils etc. The fridge/freezer is of a good size. There is a water cooler that also dispenses boiling water. The island bench seats 3 and the dining table seats 8. The living area has two large sized couches, an ottoman and can easily seat 8. There is also a powder room in this area. The living area has a large flat screen 3D tv, with a few 3D titles and 6 3D glasses. There is also an abundance of Bali copied DVDs for your use.
We paid USD $337.50 per night (inclusive of discount for booking 6 months in advance). SIL paid 50% via bank transfer at time of booking to secure the villa (and price). We took their offer to pay the remainder on arrival in USD cash. This meant that we avoided paying the bank transfer fee. OH and I paid the remainder and refused to let mum pay for any of it as this trip is her birthday gift from us.
The location of the villa is about a 10 minute walk to Jl Laksmana. The environment is so laid back, almost a village feel with villas, families and bulls grazing in what were once rice paddies. Even though the villa is only 10 minutes from the main road, it is so laid back and feels like you have no choice but to relax. It is a nice change as to some degree, previous trips felt a bit more busy and you almost need a few more days just to chill. This villa and the relaxing atmosphere is absolutely fantastic for my other half who works around 70 hours a week. He too did not engage the roaming on his phone, so he can't be contacted. Unfortunately, the nature of his work means that he will be in contact, however, it will be on his terms.
On our walks, we see plenty of local kids who say hello and wave with the widest grins on their faces. It's absolutely adorable.
There are a significant amount of dogs around and I'm not sure if they are strays as they appear to have collars. We have a mumma dog kicking back in our driveway and we have also seen her feed her four beautiful pups.
We have never stayed in the Seminyak area so we are unfamiliar with the area. We walked to Jl Laksmana in the evening and were starving by the time we got there. We walked down the street and decided to eat Greek as we were passing. The restaurant was called Mykonos. The food was good and our bill for 7 was around 750k.
I had a cracker of a headache all day today and a couple of nurofens didn't help. I knew that it will become a migraine unless I nipped it in the bud asap. Following dinner, we headed across the road to Magic Fingers for a massage. I, my OH and mum each had a 60 minute shiatsu massage for 100k each. This significantly helped but I still needed to take some of the good stuff when I got back to the villa, especially to nip it in the bud.
Back home, I have a massage fortnightly to help with this as it appears that I get tense muscles easily and more so when stressed. My massages are therapeutic and my masseuse really gets in there and works on my knots. Can anyone advise if there are massage therapists here that can do therapeutic massages? I'm willing to travel between Seminyak to Tuban if required.
After taking the good stuff last night, I feel much better this morning. OH leaves for work rather early so we were both up at 6am. At least if we go by Melbourne time, we both slept in! He made us both some instant coffee (Nescafe) and we are now awaiting the others to wake up.
My plan for today is to do some shopping and to try an locate a battery charger for my camera. I did leave it at home unfortunately, and cursed to myself when I realised that I had done so.
I do apologise if you snoozed half way through, I didn't realise this post would be so long!