Monday
Well today went perfectly to plan, so this will be pretty brief for a change as we really didn't do a great deal. Breakfast was great, but by now I would have been very disappointed if it had been anything other. We shared the Bread basket (croissant, poppy seed bagel, cinnamon scroll and German rye bread - still warm, served with whipped butter and banana/ginger jam), scrambled eggs and mushroom duxelle on rye toast, apple, raisin and cinnamon "Dutch style" pancakes and Bali lime Madeleines with a mango flower honey sabayon.
Following breaky we found a comfortable position around the pool. One that would be in the shade all day long and thankfully chairs that you could sit and read in all day long. I somehow managed to get a little burnt from sitting in the shade, but only really belly burnt. If I didn't think otherwise I'd be wondering if someone wasn't trying to teach me a lesson for eating so well this holiday.
The hotel is pretty full so soon enough the area around the pool becomes quite busy and interesting. I'm in the middle of a good book but every now and then I have to take a little peep over the top of my Dick Francis and speculate about the people around the pool. (Does everyone do this?)
There's the couple who are sitting on opposite ends of the pool, her next to us and him as far away from her as possible, which I fully understand when she starts shouting to him across the pool to ask him questions like "where's the kindle?", "shall we book in for dinner?" etc. There is of course the obligatory family with four kids and dad, mum probably lying comatose somewhere. I have a stopwatch going on how long they have been in the pool without getting out for the loo and I can tell you I think I have some justifiable worries on this front. Is this something parents monitor or do they just 'cock it a deaf un'? Then there's the odd looking round man, who is as round as he is tall and has the most amazing waddle. He is making very loud phone calls in a European tongue I can't quite make out. If we were the cast of an Agatha Christie novel, he'd be the one getting it, as there would be loads of suspects based on all the hostile glances he's getting, mostly from the younger buff guys.
Then I wonder what everyone is thinking as they look across the pool at us. First of all there's me a slightly (hope I can get away with the slightly!) overweight Wallace look alike (Wallace and Grommit - so everyone tells me. And I do like a bit of cheese I have to say). With major ear hair problems and a burnt belly who has a penchant for thrashing up and down the pool Ian Thorpe style. Then there's Duchy who is sporting her new and very fetching 1950's style classic bathing suit. But she won't show it off, no she stays remarkably static with her hat, sunnies and earphones on reading voraciously. She chews books up and spits them out when on holidays. Libraries quake in fear as she walks past them. She raises her head every couple of hours, discards her last book and says 'feed me' in her deepest voice.
That reminds me, last week when we were down in Seminyak we were both sitting in bed in the late afternoon drinking Margies, reading our books under the air con (well we have been married nearly 18 years now!) and we both look at each other and say 'let's order room service'. A few minutes later the room service chap brings in his tray with a club sandwich and sets it up as dinner for one on the dining room table, all the while there is a little voice emanating from the bedroom 'feed me, feed me, feeeeed meeeee'. Poor guy must have thought I had an alien in there or something. Duchy had no idea he was in the room next door and thought it was very funny when she realised it wasn't just me mucking about.
Back to Alila.... The complimentary ice tea that they bring around to everyone occasionally is very well received, so were the bloody mary's (with chili infused vodka), Nasi Goreng and Rambutan Martinis we chowed down on during the day. The only disappointment being the thimble sized Martini glasses. Very unsatisfying.
We retreat for showers and more reading in bed and of course the turn down service guys show up around 5ish and I have to get up, go to the door in my pyjamas and politely tell them to 'bugger off'. One thing I miss about the Cicada was, given its small size, they noted when you went out in the morning and they'd clean your room straight away and they again do the turndown when they noticed you'd left for the evening. Here they clean your room at 4pm and come back an hour later to muck it up again! Whinge ends!
We argued long and hard about what we would do for dinner tonight but ended up going with the lazy option, staying in the hotel again for a nice bit of Italian food this time and then back to our room to watch Captain America (a good holiday movie by the way) on our Ipad.
The breakfast menu changes daily so I'm pondering what morning delights I'm in store for today as I watch a group of monkeys casually wander through our little garden terrace thingy with the Ayung valley and Mount Agung in the distance.