Roger and Stephen in Singapore

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Seminyak, Bali

My previous stays in Bali have always been in the Seminyak region as it was quieter and also contained many good restaurants and interesting shops. We visited the area and I could not believe the development of new hotels and shops. Seminyak has certainly gone ahead and now if you want somewhere quieter on that side of the island you need to look in the area of Kerobokan and Canggu.

We went to breakfast at an old favourite and Bali institution -La Lucciloa as it has a great location on the beach and it feels like you are dinning on your own patio. The service and quality of the food remains the same and makes a great breakfast spot. Many years ago it was so hard to get a taxi back from La Lucciola as it was so far out - not any more !

We also visited a new place called the Potato Head Beach Club which is an impressive building with its facade covered in old window shutter of various sizes. The complex is huge and has 3 restaurants and a couple of difference bars overlooking the beach.

Other highlights of the greater Seminyak area were the Sarong and Mamma San restaurants. Both restaurants severed great food and service was of a high standard.

Mama San

Sarong

La Lucciola

Potato Head Beach Club exterior

Mama San

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Bali

It was Roger's first trip to Bali and about my 6th time, so for me it was going to be interesting to see how Bali has changed since I last went 7 years ago.
Arriving at about 10.30 pm the first change was the airport - as a new airport is being built beside the old one many diversions are in place so the walk to the waiting transport seem to take forever.
Our main stay of the holiday was at the InterContinental Resort at Jimbaran Bay which is about 15 minutes from the airport .

Jimbaran Bay is a quite area of Bali and the InterCon backs on the the beach which is really nice as the sand is clean and the beach is quite empty during the day. The beach is also suitable for swimming which is a change from the other side of the island.

The hotel was very well set out and is a huge resort but plenty of space to spread out.
Further up the beach are the many seafood restaurants that are set up on the beach and they cook fresh seafood on BBQs.
We had a great meal of red snapper, prawns and calamari watching the planes flying in and out of the airport nearby.
Last time I was there the tables and chairs were plastic and now they have been upgraded to wooden ones.

Jimbaran Bay is being developed and now has a small shopping centre but still maintains a village like atmosphere. It was easy to get taxis to visit other areas of the island and the road works taking place on the main highway will reduce travel time in the next year or so. I found there are certainly more cars on the road compared to the amount of motorbikes there used to be.