My only goal in this trip was to go snorkeling. With the weather being unpredictable, it was difficult for me to figure out if it could be done on this trip. Windy cloudy weather is not a good environment for snorkeling. So I opted to spend the day relaxing at the hotel and enjoy the amenities. Breakfast is typically buffet style. There are several restaurant locations that will serve breakfast and I opted to go to Suku because it seemed to offer the most options with great ocean/pool views.
Regarding the food, it seems people in Asia like their bacon crispy. It almost had a smoke taste to it and I really liked the bacon. It's a big thing since I typically don't eat bacon. Another item that caught my attention was the pancakes and waffles. Many times, pancakes and waffles tend to get soggy but the waffles were super crispy (almost cookie like) and the pancakes had a good crisp edge. The Conrad staff were great and their English skills are very strong from the maid service to the drivers to the wait staff. Everyone also seemed happy and friendly which made the whole hotel feel very comfortable.
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| Suku |
After breakfast, spent the day at the lagoon pool until tea time. As part of the lounge access, afternoon tea at Rin is included. The assortment was basic but I still enjoyed the snack and drinks. Of course, happy hour started after tea time and I went to the lounge to enjoy some drinks and more snacks. I did not opt for dinner after afternoon tea and happy hour.
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| Tea time at Rin |
The next day, I woke up to find that the sun was out! I had checked the weather the night before and there was forecast of rain during most of the day. It actually rained overnight but by morning all the clouds were gone. Had I known, I would have planned an outing but had already planned to stay at the hotel again. I did wander out to the beach area of hotel but found the waters too shallow. The hotel was also performing some beach reclamation project and there was alot of activity on one side. The beach was nice enough but nothing spectacular. Repeated my afternoon ritual of afternoon tea at Rin, followed by happy hour at the lounge, and dinner at Suku. The restaurant has nightly themed buffets and tonight's was local dancing. I thought it would be interesting to see and do since I liked the breakfast options at the restaurant. Due to the weather, the dancing was done indoors rather than outside and half the restaurant had vendors selling local handcrafts. The food was good but it wasn't enough to make me want to come back.
The next day's itinerary was a brief exploration of the island. Since the weather was difficult to predict, I opted to do a land based activities and hired the hotel car for the day. I don't know if it is because Indonesia is fairly inexpensive by American standards but I found $87 USD a bargain for 8 hours of car service with an English speaking driver a good deal. Also, the driver will take you anywhere you want. The first stop was to the Gunung Kawi Temple. A gorgeous temple cut into the mountains of Bali. The walk is a little steep but the temple is phenomenal. As it is a Hindu temple, you do need to wear a sarong which the ticket entrance includes a rental. Or you can be attacked by the hawkers trying to convince you that you need to buy it from them before you get to the entrance.
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| Gunung Kawi Temple |
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| Gunung Kawi Temple |
After the temple, the driver offered to drive past some a rice terrace field. On the surface it doesn't sound very exciting but once you see the fields, it is fairly impressive. The mountainous terrain makes terracing a must for rice fields. The high water need of the rice makes terracing a practical way of farming.
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| Rice terrace fields |
Afterwards, drove to Monkey Forest. It is a preserve designed for the Balinese monkeys. There are paths within this park and the monkeys just roam around. The staff will let you buy bananas from them to feed to the monkeys but I preferred to watch them from afar. A couple of tourists tried to touch them and they got hissed at by the monkeys. It didn't seem like a good idea to really poke a monkey but what do I know.
Drove to Ubud for some local souvenir shopping but didn't find much. The village reminded me of an artsy town selling wares with restaurants and hotels lined up on the street. It wasn't my kind of thing and I quickly moved on. I did make some more minor pit stops for souvenir shopping before getting back to the Conrad after leaving Ubud. The level of craftsmanship in Indonesia is really high and I can see why people buy ship container full of furniture and decorations to bring home. One of the pit stops included
McDonald's just because I wanted to see what the food was like inside. I found it interesting that the chicken meals will come with servings of rice shaped as a hamburger. The Big Mac actually didn't taste like the Big Mac in the States. The halal meat definitely tastes different. I'm not sure if it was me or what but that is my opinion.
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| Big Mac Halal Style |
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| Chicken with eggs and rice at McDonald's |
The next day, I was going to try to get snorkeling done. Despite the heavy winds, took a drive to Sanur to check out the beach and get attempt some snorkeling. It seemed that this trip I will not be able to see the famed ocean life in the area as the amount of winds made the waters extra choppy. The little vendors tried to convince us that they can take me out to a calm area of the sea to snorkel but I think they just wanted someone willing to pay to get on the boats. A lot of boats were docked and hardly anyone was making a move out to sea.
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| "Secret beach" |
Sunar being a bust, the driver recommended another beach location, Pandawa, and headed back to southern Bali. It was actually a pretty good recommendation as the waters were calmer. I was able to test the new snorkel gear I purchased even though the coral presence was low. After visiting that beach site, headed over to Finn's Beach Club. I had not seen the "white sandy beaches" and Finn's promised to have it. It requires a $25 USD entrance fee which turns into food credit at the beach bar. The hotel was absolutely gorgeous as it sits on top of the cliff overlooking the ocean. The beach access is only available through a tram that comes up and down from the hotel to the beach below. You could tell that this was once a coral beach but it has long died.
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| Finn's Beach Club |
Returned back to the Conrad for happy hour at the lounge and opted to have dinner again at East. This time around, I had the chicken club because it was that good. I considered eating at 8 Degrees South but the lunch menu looked more appealing than the dinner menu.
On the last day of the trip, stayed at the hotel again to enjoy the last hours of daylight before returning home. I was able to get a 2 pm checkout which was close enough to the 4 pm departure I had to make to get to the airport. Spent the morning enjoying breakfast and the pool. After checking out, had lunch at 8 Degrees. The service was excellent and surprisingly the pasta entree, gnocchi, was really good. At least better than anything I had in Italy. The fish, tuna, was a little overdone but the service was impeccable. Afterwards, enjoyed my last afternoon tea at Rin before getting into the car back to Denpensar Airport.
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| Lunch at 8 Degrees (the gnocchi was better than the fish entree) |
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