Friday, October 19, 2012

Villa Raja

It's been almost a month since we got back from Bali and the wonderful Villa Raja, a 4 bedroom house we rented in Canggu.


via villaraja.com
It was a wonderful oasis of calm and relaxation in an otherwise hectic place.  The traffic in the southern tourist part of Bali is absolutely horrible which did restrict our movements a bit as every trip into Seminyak had to be weighed up against the possibility of getting stuck in a traffic jam that could make the 15 min drive into over an hour!


Combine that with the lovely pool, good food and company and we ended up staying in the Villa more than I thought.
Our bedroom!  via villaraja.com

The staff were wonderful and our chef's cooking so good that we ate in six nights out of seven. 
Eoin banging the gong for breakfast

The slippery slide and pool were a hit with both adults and kids alike.


We ended up having lunch in Kuta (not as bad as I thought but no desire to go back),  trips into Seminyak (fancy shops mixed with broken footpaths and uber-exclusive beach hotel and bars).

With Catherine at the Legian Hotel
We had a wonderful morning at a beach bar called Potato Head relaxing in a day bed and trying out cocktails and tapas.

Cocktails at Potato Head
We did manage to tear ourselves away for a couple of day trips.  The first one didn't go quite as planned.  We'd read in the guide books about an out-of-the-way beach called Geger Beach just south of Nusa Dua so we headed off with the driver for an afternoon of lounging in beach side deck chairs and warm blue waters.  Unfortunately two things went wrong.   Firstly the way there is through the worst of Bali's traffic and secondly Bali's largest resort is currently being built at Geger. 

We were expecting this.....


But we got this!


The most frustrating of it was that the driver was obviously aware of both issues but neglected to mention them till we got there.  So the whole afternoon was a bit of a debacle but we managed to laugh it off and enjoy a nice lunch of nice campur at a beachside warung about 10m from the building site!


Ulun Danu temple at Lake Bratan

Our second excursion was into the mountains and the north of the island passing through some lovely countryside, stopping off at a coffee plantation and ending up by a temple on a lake amidst lovely gardens.
Lex, Di, Me, Kara and Karl at the coffee tasting
Overall we had a wonderful trip.  Some things about Bali were better than I expected and some worse.  You hear so many mixed accounts of Bali and differing opinions.  But that's part of what I enjoyed about it.  It's enchanting, frustrating, aggravating and vibrant.  Love it or hate it certainly isn't boring!