An eight night trip with a few friends.
Tried to organise some extra kg allowance with Garuda prior to leaving and even phoned the GM's office. The answer was a resounding 'no longer possible' due the cost of fuel. Well out came all the shoes for starters. Checked in with about 7 kilos over our combined weight allowance. The staff member asked whether I had a letter of approval for the excess baggage; a question to which I thought best not to respond. It was suggested that we wait for our friends to check in and see if we could 'borrow' any kilos from them. Turned out we were still over by about 2 kilos which we were let off for. It seems all too hard now to take donations over now especially as we couldn't get a letter of approval. If we were travelling alone we wouldn't have been able to pool our luggage either.
The flight was only about 2/3 full. They had left every middle seat empty so we could spread out. About 6 rows at the rear were completely empty. Nice way to travel.
We had purchased USD at the airport and the bank clerk suggested if we all needed USD to buy as one transaction meaning the cost of $9.00 only applied the once. She gave us all a 20 and a 5 and we breezed through at Visa on Arrival counter.
We stayed at the Kumala Pantai. This was our first time here. For those familiar with the hotel we were in Y Block and our friends were all in B Block. The favourable reports out-way the negatives about this place but I'll make a few observations and start with the room:
The room safes do fit the Asus EEs!
Room large enough for shopping storage.
Bath towels very grey in colour.
Bed very hard but I didn't mind it. Friends asked for their's to be softened. This was done with a quilt underneath I think.
But - noticed when I happened to be in the room when the cleaners came in that they do not change the glasses daily. I saw one of the attendants start to wash out the glasses in the bathroom sink and when I said I wanted fresh glasses he looked a bit perplexed but made a call from our room to request them. (Next time I'm taking a packet of those disposable plastic cups along.)
For those who are expecting those little bathroom extras 'don't'. Take along your own shampoo etc. Also had to request more soap for the shower as this didn't seem to be replaced regularly.
When I said it was too dark for reading and could we have brighter globes we came home to the lamps with the shades taken off. Had to laugh.
Outside:
Pool towels always available.
Nice pool for doing laps if that's your thing.
Gardens well kept.
Plenty of sun lounges at the time of our stay but don't know where they are going to put everyone when that last block is finished.
Food and beverage:
First got to get it off my chest - I really hate animals hanging around food areas and think they should be discouraged. The breakfast area always had a cat hanging around the tables. Add to that it had an open wound on the last two mornings.
Breakfast not up there with the 4*+ hotels of course but more than we have at home so can't complain. Found the boiled eggs to be just the thing when you don't want to look in a bain-marie. Resorted to ordering a café late instead of the usual tea and coffee and these were always nice and hot. I think these were only about Rp 16,000.
We had some complimentary pizza bread one night and this had a sprinkling of sea salt and herbs and was nice with a Bintang. My partner had a burger from room service and said it was dried out and tasteless. We shared a pizza for lunch one day and that was really nice.
One of my friends ordered a cocktail of some sort from the pool bar but thought they may have just waved the bottle over the top as they couldn't taste whatever it was supposed to be!
Wireless access is available in the restaurant area but this service was intermittent. Three of the mornings I couldn't get access at all and on most other occasions it was very slow. I'm not up there with technology so don't know if it was me not having the right gear on the notebook, the hotel, the provider or an area problem.
All in all a great place to stay for the price and location and so glad we had already booked for June/July next year as they are chokers.
More later.