Well this is my first crack at a JBR so here goes:
We flew out of Perth on a lunchtime Qantas flight and arrived in Bali at a very sociable 4:30pm Tuesday 13 March. Through customs no probs and we were met by our driver Nyoman who organised our luggage and then we got under way towards Villa Wilsana 2 where we would spend the next 15 nights.
Kris or I had never been to Bali before, so the car trip to the villa was an education in itself! We arrived at the villa gates down a rocky little road just past the Living Room restaurant and were led through to the villa.
My jaw was scraping the ground as we walked past the sparkling pool with its big outdoor bale. I couldn't believe how incredible the villa was. The photos on the website don't do it justice.
We were introduced to the villa staff and were given the grand tour.
Two king size bedrooms upstairs, each with their own ensuite. Downstairs was the master bedroom, ensuite with shower toilet and huge half egg shaped bathtub. There is a large media room equipped with surround sound, cable TV and projector for those slow rainy days checking all your recently purchased DVD's. This room converts to a fourth bedroom as it has it's own ensuite also.
The kitchen was huge, equipped with all the creature comforts and a full size fridge, as well as a second big fridge just for the Bintangs!
There was a large dining area which could accommodate 10 people (we tested its capacity a few times), an indoor bale area with an open front which in a couple of steps had you stepping into the glorious pool. At the other end of the pool was an outdoor bale which overhung the end of the pool, always ensuring there was shade in the pool, no matter what time of the day it was.
After our tour we sat back in the bale and were brought our first Bintangs (there were 24 complimentary ones cold in the fridge). I took my first sip with great anticipation. After all, I have been reading on this forum just how great they are for the past 12 months. Well, I quickly came to the conclusion that I was in heaven, and if I was asleep, no one was to wake me up!
The staff suggested that on our first night we might want to eat out, and promptly booked us into La Lucciola's just down the road. On completion of booking the restaurant, wayan noticed that my bintang was nearing completion and had another in front of me before the end froth had settled in the last. I just looked at Kris and smiled!
The next three days were dedicated to preparing for our wedding on Saturday. We had used Bali exotic weddings (thanks to Deden and all his staff) for the majority of the wedding, but decided to organise the alcohol, flowers and cake ourselves, as their prices for these items seemed a little excessive. We met with Deden and his staff on the first morning, and it quickly became apparent that with Nyepi being on Monday, we were going to lose the Friday to organise things as we were advised that the roads would be blocked with the locals heading to the beach for the big cleansing ceremony prior to Nyepi. Because of this we decided to hand over the cake and flowers to Deden, that way all we had to worry about was the alcohol.
We had Bintangs, three cocktails, red and white wine as well as champagne for the wedding, so it was quite a feat chasing up some of the cocktail ingredients in Bali. We got some of the guests that were coming over to bring some Duty Free spirits for the cocktails, but try finding apricot brandy in Bali! No go! If we did it over, we would have brought all the little trivial things from home, and brought the main spirits in Bali, which to our surprise were rather cheap, and easy to find. Nyoman drove us around to various bottle shops and supermarkets in search of our alcohol list. We had most of it by the thursday afternoon, and what we couldn't find we substituted with something similar.
With everything organised by Friday morning, we decided to venture into Seminyak for a bit of pampering. We cam across a place called Esthetics, which gave Kris a full manicure and pedicure for 50,000. I was amazed at how they had three people working on her at once, and set to her feet with this thing that looked like a large cheese grater! She thoroughly enjoyed it, and we fought our way up the road through the precession heading for the temple to a lovely place called Cool. We both had full foot reflexology and massages that lasted for 1.5 hours. It was bliss! And totally professional. We floated back to the villa on new feet to see the staff cooking up a storm in the kitchen, getting ready for the dinner party we were having that night in the villa for all the family that had arrived for the wedding. We had given the staff 1.5 million to go shopping for the food at the markets. The meal was amazing! Prawns, squid, fish, beef and chicken satays, nasi-goreng, salad and fruit platters. We fed 11 people on the thursday night and still had enough leftovers to feed another 9 on the friday night. And after the dust settled, we got handed change and the receipt. We worked it out and we only paid the equivalent of 12 AUD per person!
The villa staff were so attentive to our guests needs, all we got were favourable comments.
Stay tuned for part 2, the wedding and honeymoon (G rated of course!).