We left Perth lunchtime today, flying Virgin - myself, hubby Miss nearly-6 and another family of 4 - Mum, Dad, Mr 6 & Mr 3.
Flight over was uneventful (as all good flights should be!), slight delay of about 1/2 hour leaving Perth due to a minor fault but we made up time & arrived only 15 mins late, at 4pm.
VOA and immigration was a breeze - all the families with young kids on our flight were directed to the lanes for Indonesian passengers & we were through in no time (not that the queues were long in the usual lanes). Longest wait was at the luggage carousel.
Found our driver(s) easily - the hotel had sent 2 separate vehicles - and it was off into the late afternoon traffic to head to Seminyak.
Our driver knew some great shortcuts to avoid the worst of the traffic jams & it only took 1/2 hour to arrive at the hotel (tipped him quite generously - was grateful that I did not have to spend longer than 1/2 hour in the car with Mr 3y & Miss 6 asking "are we there yet" every 30 seconds LOL).
First impressions of the hotel were great - check-in process was quick & easy, rooms were ready immediately & we were given hands down the best "welcome drink" I've ever had (a ginger "Nojito" - a virgin Mojito made with fresh ginger juice, mint & a hit of black pepper. So refreshing & with a nice spicy hit). Far better than the sickly sweet reconstitued orange juice with grenadine that I've experienced elsewhere!
We headed to our room (Executive "suite" on the 1st floor. Had requested a ground floor room if possible as they have a nice little patio & garden area but the hotel is fully booked & none available. Maybe tomorrow or the next day one will be available if we don't mind moving. We had also requested the 2 suites booked (one for us, one for the family of 4) be next to each other, but we are quite a distance apart. Oh well, I'm not really too bothered - I'm in Bali!
The room (although it is called a suite, it is only 1 room - a very large room, with an extremely spacious balcony) is really nice, what I call "modern tropical" in style. Lots of sandstone, natural timber, marble etc. Great bathroom, with a separate shower, fantastic deep (clean) bath, and double vanity basins. Very comfy king sized bed with fluffy doona & awesome pillows! Miss 6 will sleep on the daybed in the room although they will do a roll away bed if preferred.
The kids were eager for a swim so we got changed & headed down to the pool. No complaints here either, the pool area is really nice too. Extra wide sunlounges with nice thick cushions, temperature of the water is perfect (warm but not too warm to be refreshing). There is also a row of bales/cabanas along one side with daybeds for those who like to be out of the sun in the heat of the day. 2 Dads had a couple of beers, I had a Moscow Mule and other Mum another ginger Nojito. Our holiday is off to a great start!
We intended eating dinner at the poolside bar/restaurant but it closes at 7pm and when we asked at 6.40 if we could order food were told "kitchen closed". We head upstairs instead for a quick change & have dinner at The Deck which is the restaurant at the front of the resort. We had booked our stay through Travel Online & it included some bonuses, including 2 main meals at the restaurant so we decided to use these. Hubby had duck & lychee red curry, I had beef rendang & Miss 6 a kids fish & chips. The food was OK, nothing to write home about - the Rendang was tasty but not a patch on the one I had at the Bamboo Shoots cooking school in January!
After dinner I take Miss 6 for a short walk to find a mini-mart - we need water & she has been promised an icecream. Was hoping to find a money changer but the only one I spotted looked to be of the dodgy, sleight of hand variety. That's going to be a job for tomorrow - along with buying a couple of SIM cards.
Hubby & other Dad are still sitting down in the restaurant having a few cold beers - I put Miss 6 to bed, cracked a can of my favourite Nescafe Mocha and am sitting on the balcony with the laptop enjoying the warm Bali air. Paradise :-)