Ok time to letta rip again and sit back with a drink and relive pieces of our holiday.
As far as accommodation we stayed at two hotels. The first 5 nights in Melasti Beach Resort at Legian and the remainder of our holiday at Puri Dalem Hotel in Sanur.
We stayed at the Melasti Beach Resort about 5 years ago and decided to do the same agaain this time. LOVE the location of this hotel as it is bang on the beach when you are sitting back having brekkie or some late afternoon cocktails (happy hour is buy 2 get the third free).
Another reason I loved staying here this time was that I decided that while in Bali I would take advantage of the fact that I could get up early in the morning and go for a walk on the beach.
Have to say that those 5 mornings were brilliant. Beautiful way to start the day. Normally there would be only a couple of people walking but by the time I had walked from the hotel to Discovery Mall...had a little kiddy play looking and picking up some gorgeous shells....and then heading back to hotel, the amount of people doing the same thing was unreal..
Was great to see all different nationalities all enjoying the first rays of the day. Some people up and doing their morning walk and others pretty much just heading back to their hotels from a seriously looooooooooooong night out...lol
Brekkie was enjoyable. Coffee/ Tea, toast, fruit, egg station, and then a variety of hot foods. Pretty much enough there to satisfy most people. Didnt have any other meals at the hotel so can't comment on what they are like. We took advantage of the fact that their are sooooo many great places to eat in the area.
Have to say that overall the hotel needs some TLC...We were last there about 5 years ago and seriously I dont think they have done any real renovations there in that time. The rooms look tired and in need of some new paint, furniture etc. The pool areas could also do with some renos.
Most morning I would see the "pool hogs" drop towels and books etc on the lounges around the main pool. Dont really know if they stayed on the lounges all day (doubt it) but they were there in the afternoon at happy hour.....lol. Have to say where our room was located we could hear everything from around the pool...lol.
I think people need to realise that if you are around the main pool there ,that if anyone is in one of the rooms especially along the bottom level where it all echoes, we can hear you...LOL.
After our stay at Melasti we moved over to Sanur to our home away from home Puri Dalem Hotel.
We have stayed at this hotel for many years now and love getting there and slowly walking down to our room (same one every year) and noticing the new plants or any alterations or painting they have done on any of the bungalows. Normally we unpack and pretty much acquaint ourselves with the back pool.
Most mornings we had brekkie at the hotel but every few morning we would work our way down to the bach and staring the day down there.
Puri Dalem is a great hotel as it is small and very friendly. The staff are always smiling. Like I said there are two pools so not everyone is around the one pool area.
About the only time we had a problem with anything was when a tour group were at the hotel for a few days and on the first morning the kidlets decided that 6am was a perfect time to test out there screaming and squealing abilities ....NOT HAPPY JAN.
Our friends in the room next door were woken and went and sat outside on the verandah, hubby was up and sitting outside on our verandah when I was awoken from my sleep. I dont do "woken up by screaming" very well I have to say...lol. Considering I had earplugs in and still heard them screaming tells you how loud they were. Needless to say that even though they didnt speak English and I didnt speak Chinese I "nicely" got my point across about the noise.
Now onto the Bamboo Shoots Cooking School
Firstly Hi to flying high, moccha and bloodyron that we met at the cooking school. Its always good to put a face to the name fom the Forum.
Have to say we thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. We were picked up at 7am from our hotel and firstly taken to the local Market. Hubby and I havent been in this market for years and we couldnt believe how different it looks now compared to what it was like last time we walked through it.
Irma and Dewi picked up the chicken, fish, vegies, spices etc that we would be using for the recipes. Was great to see the different sorts of vegies, fish etc that we would never really come across at home.
We then went to where the cooking schhol was set up and had a lovely brekkie. Once we had been fed and watered the class started.
It was great as you could be as involved in it as you wanted to be. I think we did about 6 or so dishes ranging from spring rolls through to beef rendang and once the meal was cooked we were iinvited to taste them. Have to say the first dish we cooked which was a spicy chicken dish was my fave. My mouth is actually watering at the moment at the thought of it...lol
All up the class lasted til lunchtime and was relaxing but also learnt soooooo much. Have made the spring rolls so far since we've come home. And will probably try another one of the dishes in the next couple of weeks.
Seriously do yourselves a favour and give the Cooking School a go. One of the best things from our holiday this year and a way of bringing back a little bit of Bali into your home.
Sorry again if anyone has been bored brainless. Will cover Restaurants in the next instalment.