The vision - up early, run to the gym, do a workout, return for a swim and spend the day shopping. The reality - I swam & shopped.
Up early to a clear sky and the sun shining. Had a swim & lay in the sun before Yanti arrived to make up a fruit platter of rambutan, watermelon, mandarin & pineapple. The villa provides you with breakfast on the first day of your stay. Lovely way to start the day & the fruit made me feel better about bailing on the gym. After my exploration of the southern part of Seminyak yesterday, today it was time to check out the north. Went for a wander past Bodyworks, located Sea Circus, La Lucciola, the Living Room, H'uu Bar and Biku. Also found AMO Spa which I had heard is good so picked up a brochure & made an appointment for an Oxygen facial tomorrow. Cab back to the villa & purchased a few more supplies at CoCo supermarket before heading off for another walk down Jl. Drupadi. Found Kreol Cafe & Delicious Onion and kept on walking until I made my way to the very end of the road and then headed back up to main road. Jumped in a cab as my feet were exhausted & went to Tommy's leather store just near the Padma. I had bought over an old handbag that I love and wanted to have it copied. The guy tried to act like he was interested but really looked like he had no desire at all to take on the job so I thanked him for his time & headed off down Garlic Lane to Dolphin Leather who jumped at the job & quoted far less than Tommys.
Had lunch at Mozarella restaurant and was very disappointed with my meal. Seafood grill of snapper (very nice), tuna (overcooked) and prawns (very overcooked & not cleaned properly) served with steamed carrot, broccoli and baby corn. Mozarella scored a 6/10 for a very average dish that was not up to scratch.
Looked around the Legian are for a couple of hours, checked out Miss Debby;s and Ketuts. Both pretty low on stock and didn't have the colours I was looking for but managed to find what I was after in another store & got my bartering mojo on. Managed to get two nice sundresses for under $20 so was happy with my efforts.
Stopped off at Poser's Pub on the corner of Jl Padma for a beer as I was a touch parched, definitely no posers at this place, just loads of Aussies & a few Germans. Once hydrated, I walked down to Santai Spa which I had read about on a forum as being quite good. It lived up to expectation & I enjoyed a thirty minute reflexology treatment, one hour deep tissue massage & a manicure & pedicure. Very professional operation, relaxing environment, spotlessly clean & friendly staff. I would highly recommend. Cannot say I enjoyed the reflexology though as I found it really painful in some areas of my feet. I expect these areas are linked to my liver so really, it is my own fault that it was so painful!!
After the massage I caught a cab back to Seminyak, had a swim and then headed out for dinner at Ultimo. The place was heaving with customers & I had to wait at the bar for about fifteen minutes until a table became available. Ordered the bruschetta as a starter which I think had been prepared earlier in the evening as the bed was completely soggy from the tomatoes. Despite this it was very tasty. My main meal was spinach & ricotta cannelloni which was reasonable but had so much cheese on the top I scraped about 80% of it off and it was still cheesy. Did taste good though. Ultimo gets an 8/10.
After dinner, back to the villa for a swim, movie watching and a couple of sneaky vodkas.
Day 3
Up early again, I seem to be waking up around 7am each morning as I am not going to bed very late due. Had a bowl of fruit for breakfast that was leftover from yesterdays massive fruit platter, followed by a swim & a couple of hours in the sun reading. It is really hot today and very humid so rather than walking, I jumped in a cab to Biku. I was really keen to check this place out as I have read so much about it on the forums and was not disappointed. What a wonderful old teak building filled with eclectic furnishings. Almost every table was occupied but the staff managed to find me a small table for two just near the cake table. It looked like the place is very popular with ex-pats too as there were many people there that seemed to know the staff really well as well as other diners. I had the vegetarian mie goreng and a strawberry and mulberry smoothie followed by a pot of peppermint tea. The meal was excellent, the service spot on, toilets spotlessly clean & I would rate it a 9/10.
After lunch I walked down the road to AMO Spa for my thirty minute oxygen facial. It was a great experience & my skin felt fabulous afterwards. I still look my age unfortunately but I felt great. I walked back to the villa past Sea Circus, The Legian, Ku de Ta & the Oberoi for a change of scenery. Two young local girls came up to me trying to sell bracelets which I declined as I have absolutely no use for them. They asked me for an Australian gold coin which I said I did not have (and I didn't) and one of them proceeded to tell me "you don't come from Australia, you come from a effing dog. I said retorted that is not a very nice thing to say to people and she ran off. Disappointing.
Wandered down the main drag of Seminyak, sticking my head in a few dress shops but didn't see anything that I liked. The remainder of the day was spent sitting around the pool reading & swimming. Due to the large lunch, I was not really hungry tonight so I ducked out to Cafe Zucchini for some take away salads. Had their potato salad, chickpea salad & tabbouleh. There was so much I could only eat half of it. The salads were nice but pretty bland so based on this Cafe Zucchini is rated 7/10. The rest of the night was spent watching dvds with the odd swim. Tomorrow is gym day!!