I apologize in my lack of timely updates recently. I've been soaking up the sun, and generally enjoying the ideal Bali winter climate (as opposed to the extremely hot and muggy Thailand summer, smoky Singapore, and overheated Dubai).
On June 30, we began our travel to Bali from Thailand. Again, we chose to go on the cheap (since our frequent flyer miles didn't cover this inter-Asia travel), and took Tiger Airways from Krabi to Singapore, then on a separate flight to Bali. As with our last Tiger Airways flight, we allowed ourselves to be hit up for almost every imaginable fee in order to ensure our massive amounts of luggage (around 160kg!) made it with us, and to ensure we had enough overhead space for our bags. Finally, on the flight to Bali, I shelled out the extra $11 so my wife and I had the extra leg room for the 2.5 hour journey (they are so strict about losing potential revenue, the flight attendants placed signs on the unoccupied seats effecting telling other passengers that the seats were available - even after departure! - for an additional fee...no switching to empty exit row seats after leaving on Tiger Airways!).
We had a three hour layover in Singapore. Since Leslie broke her Kindle by kneeling on it as it lay on her lounge chair (the blame for which was, naturally, put on me since she was trying to open the pool umbrella, and I obviously should have done it, saving the destruction of the device). I picked up one of the new Kindle paper white models. Unfortunately, it was Wi-Fi only, but with the great feature of being backlit for night reading. It cost just under $200 in USD, which is a premium over buying on Amazon, but what choice did we have with four weeks left in the trip, and no physical books for Leslie to read. The girls picked up a 220 volt hair straightener, which they had been without for the first part of the trip. Apparently, it's an important part of the female beauty regime.
As I documented in a previous post, we arrived in Bali and utilized a VIP immigration and transportation service which whisked away from a Bali airport that seems to becoming closer to the grand opening of its new terminals. Last summer, Leslie and I had to walk a long, long way to get to where pickups were made - even then, it took a good 15 minutes to get out of the airport. This time, curbside of the terminal served the chauffeured car services, which was a pleasant surprise. I assume this reflects a further completion of the airport's construction.
Nusa Dua appears to be a planned development of resorts and similar tourist construction. It's almost like a gated community. Well before reaching the Westin, our van (and cop car in the lead) left the busy, congested streets of the city, and entered a peaceful park like atmosphere. Normally, there'd be a security stop for cars entering the Nusa Dua community, but given our police escort, we just scooted by. Several resorts, from the high end of the St. Regis Resort, to the lower end Melia resort (and everything in between, including a sad, run down looking Club Med) are located within the planned community, and therefore the entire area is very chill and quiet. No clubs, no all night parties. Those are found in nearby Kuta where the 20s Australian crowds spend the night drinking (and likely, drugging in many cases). Kuta was also the location of an Islamic suicide bomber sending himself to Allah along with hundreds of innocent partiers in a club.
The Westin Nusa Dua
Frankly, I didn't have very high expectations for the Westin property in Nusa Dua. In my experience, Westins are pretty vanilla, built to serve the middle tourist market, and is typically not extraordinary. I was pleasantly surprised upon pulling up to the lobby. Two very beautiful Balinese women in full traditional dress were on hand to greet us (even at the late hour of our arrival), there was no line at reception (in fact, I never encountered a line with all my encounters with the front desk), and check in was quick and painless (it was one of the two hotels we had to prepay to ensure the best rates. The lobby was spectacular - large, airy and well air conditioned.
The hotel's general manager came to greet us, and personally informed us that in addition to the two bedroom ocean view suite we had booked, the hotel had added as second room. Fortunately, there was a double door entrance behind which lay the entrances of the suite and the second room - in essence, creating a super suite of rooms. Lily laid claimed to the additional room, while Liam happily domiciled in the suite's second room.
Located on the eastern shore of the southern Bali peninsula (separated from the main bulk of the island by the airport's runway), the trade winds flooding over Nusa Dua were wonderfully fresh, keeping temperatures and humidity to comfortable levels around the clock. In fact, we'd open the door that leads from our room to balcony simply to fall asleep to the strong trade winds blowing through the trees and rustling the lush vegetation.
The pool was the focal point of the property. A large circle surrounded by two rows deep of lounge chairs and ample umbrellas for shade, the water was a surprising two meters deep throughout. At one end of the pool, two narrow channels led to a shallow, kid friend end which featured a waterslide and a pool bar (which surprised me - why put the pool bar where the kids hang out...strange).
K
Between the pool and beach (where several warnings about stinging jellyfish and poisonous sea urchins kept most people out of the ocean), was a nice recreation area feature ping pong tables, a bar, a few restaurants and the towel station where, besides resupplying pool towels, also rented out beach cruise bikes to ride along the paved trail that ran the length of much of Nusa Dua, past the various resorts.
This is where the comparisons to Kaanipali seemed apt. Both areas have resorts lined up one after another facing the beach, and both areas feature a dining and shopping area which provides alternatives to eating at the hotel (The Bali Collection in Nusa Dua and the Whaling Village in Kaanipali). Moreover, both areas feature islands across the water. However, Kaanapali's sunset view of Lana'i is far superior.
The clientele are a mix of Asians (Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian, Sinapore, etc.), Australian, British, Russian and other Europeans. Americans were in the extreme minority. Independence Day, understandably, means nothing in Bali, and our family celebrated with simple toasts to our Fourth of July.
I did use the spa at the Westin, and it was a terrible disappointment. They are constructing a new spa complex, and have transformed several guest rooms into the temporary spa. It wasn't a very relaxing or indulgent as I would have expected from a resort.
To be honest, we didn't recreate a whole lot. Lots of pool time, lots of visits to the Bali Collection where I was able to get fairly drunk (the kind of drunk where I'll go up on stage and sing with the band), and enjoy massages and a pedicure (nothing like a foot massage to close a late night of drinking).
After a visit to the Bali Collection with Leslie one afternoon, I thought we were going back for dinner. She was tired, so I hit the night solo. First stop - my favorite restaurant, Pico Tapas. I downed a couple of liters of Sangria (for the second night in a row), and had my Kindle to keep me company while I enjoyed the band. After stumbling out, I headed to the grocery store and loaded up on candy, chocolate, chips and soda - after all, it's so expensive on the resort, and it all looked so good. Finally, I enjoyed a drunken foot massage and closed the place down (more sordid details of this evening can be found at this post). I just realized that I had written about most of this before (after I arrived back at the room drunk, naturally.
Before a final family visit to Pico Tapas (again, a night not to be forgotten, documented here), we headed down the beach and the four of us received impromptu beach side massages. At $15 a pop for an hour, it was an inexpensive treat.
All in all, we enjoyed the Westin. The drinks at the resort was reasonably priced ($8 for a cocktail) as was the breakfast buffet ($17 per person vs. $50 in Singapore).
Would I recommend the Westin to a friend, and would I visit again? Absolutely. The two bedroom suite was reasonably priced (in high season, no less) at $500 per night, and there were lots of things for kids to do (Liam even tried the kids club one of the days).
Little did we know, that our next destination would raise the bar on luxury, amenities and (especially) costs. But what a property. Next stop, the Ayana resort we're we will be spending four nights.
On June 30, we began our travel to Bali from Thailand. Again, we chose to go on the cheap (since our frequent flyer miles didn't cover this inter-Asia travel), and took Tiger Airways from Krabi to Singapore, then on a separate flight to Bali. As with our last Tiger Airways flight, we allowed ourselves to be hit up for almost every imaginable fee in order to ensure our massive amounts of luggage (around 160kg!) made it with us, and to ensure we had enough overhead space for our bags. Finally, on the flight to Bali, I shelled out the extra $11 so my wife and I had the extra leg room for the 2.5 hour journey (they are so strict about losing potential revenue, the flight attendants placed signs on the unoccupied seats effecting telling other passengers that the seats were available - even after departure! - for an additional fee...no switching to empty exit row seats after leaving on Tiger Airways!).
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| Waiting for our flight at Krabi 'International' airport |
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| Liam, apparently having just ingested some type of methamphetimine |
We had a three hour layover in Singapore. Since Leslie broke her Kindle by kneeling on it as it lay on her lounge chair (the blame for which was, naturally, put on me since she was trying to open the pool umbrella, and I obviously should have done it, saving the destruction of the device). I picked up one of the new Kindle paper white models. Unfortunately, it was Wi-Fi only, but with the great feature of being backlit for night reading. It cost just under $200 in USD, which is a premium over buying on Amazon, but what choice did we have with four weeks left in the trip, and no physical books for Leslie to read. The girls picked up a 220 volt hair straightener, which they had been without for the first part of the trip. Apparently, it's an important part of the female beauty regime.
As I documented in a previous post, we arrived in Bali and utilized a VIP immigration and transportation service which whisked away from a Bali airport that seems to becoming closer to the grand opening of its new terminals. Last summer, Leslie and I had to walk a long, long way to get to where pickups were made - even then, it took a good 15 minutes to get out of the airport. This time, curbside of the terminal served the chauffeured car services, which was a pleasant surprise. I assume this reflects a further completion of the airport's construction.
Nusa Dua appears to be a planned development of resorts and similar tourist construction. It's almost like a gated community. Well before reaching the Westin, our van (and cop car in the lead) left the busy, congested streets of the city, and entered a peaceful park like atmosphere. Normally, there'd be a security stop for cars entering the Nusa Dua community, but given our police escort, we just scooted by. Several resorts, from the high end of the St. Regis Resort, to the lower end Melia resort (and everything in between, including a sad, run down looking Club Med) are located within the planned community, and therefore the entire area is very chill and quiet. No clubs, no all night parties. Those are found in nearby Kuta where the 20s Australian crowds spend the night drinking (and likely, drugging in many cases). Kuta was also the location of an Islamic suicide bomber sending himself to Allah along with hundreds of innocent partiers in a club.
The Westin Nusa Dua
Frankly, I didn't have very high expectations for the Westin property in Nusa Dua. In my experience, Westins are pretty vanilla, built to serve the middle tourist market, and is typically not extraordinary. I was pleasantly surprised upon pulling up to the lobby. Two very beautiful Balinese women in full traditional dress were on hand to greet us (even at the late hour of our arrival), there was no line at reception (in fact, I never encountered a line with all my encounters with the front desk), and check in was quick and painless (it was one of the two hotels we had to prepay to ensure the best rates. The lobby was spectacular - large, airy and well air conditioned.
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| Westin Lobby |
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| Costumed Welcome |
The hotel's general manager came to greet us, and personally informed us that in addition to the two bedroom ocean view suite we had booked, the hotel had added as second room. Fortunately, there was a double door entrance behind which lay the entrances of the suite and the second room - in essence, creating a super suite of rooms. Lily laid claimed to the additional room, while Liam happily domiciled in the suite's second room.
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| Messy living area of suite |
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| Even messier master bedroom of suite |
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| View from our suite balcony (with one of the ubiquitous squirrels) |
Located on the eastern shore of the southern Bali peninsula (separated from the main bulk of the island by the airport's runway), the trade winds flooding over Nusa Dua were wonderfully fresh, keeping temperatures and humidity to comfortable levels around the clock. In fact, we'd open the door that leads from our room to balcony simply to fall asleep to the strong trade winds blowing through the trees and rustling the lush vegetation.
The pool was the focal point of the property. A large circle surrounded by two rows deep of lounge chairs and ample umbrellas for shade, the water was a surprising two meters deep throughout. At one end of the pool, two narrow channels led to a shallow, kid friend end which featured a waterslide and a pool bar (which surprised me - why put the pool bar where the kids hang out...strange).
K
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| Main pool area |
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| Kids pool area |
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| Liam in the deep end |
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| Enjoying the slide |
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| Link between deep pool and kids pool |
Between the pool and beach (where several warnings about stinging jellyfish and poisonous sea urchins kept most people out of the ocean), was a nice recreation area feature ping pong tables, a bar, a few restaurants and the towel station where, besides resupplying pool towels, also rented out beach cruise bikes to ride along the paved trail that ran the length of much of Nusa Dua, past the various resorts.
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| Nusa Dua Beach |
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| Recreation area leading to the beach |
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| Warning of the strong currents |
This is where the comparisons to Kaanipali seemed apt. Both areas have resorts lined up one after another facing the beach, and both areas feature a dining and shopping area which provides alternatives to eating at the hotel (The Bali Collection in Nusa Dua and the Whaling Village in Kaanipali). Moreover, both areas feature islands across the water. However, Kaanapali's sunset view of Lana'i is far superior.
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| The paved path that follows the shoreline past numerous resorts in Nusa Dua |
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| Since the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, signs like these are *everywhere* in Bali and Thailand |
The clientele are a mix of Asians (Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian, Sinapore, etc.), Australian, British, Russian and other Europeans. Americans were in the extreme minority. Independence Day, understandably, means nothing in Bali, and our family celebrated with simple toasts to our Fourth of July.
I did use the spa at the Westin, and it was a terrible disappointment. They are constructing a new spa complex, and have transformed several guest rooms into the temporary spa. It wasn't a very relaxing or indulgent as I would have expected from a resort.
To be honest, we didn't recreate a whole lot. Lots of pool time, lots of visits to the Bali Collection where I was able to get fairly drunk (the kind of drunk where I'll go up on stage and sing with the band), and enjoy massages and a pedicure (nothing like a foot massage to close a late night of drinking).
After a visit to the Bali Collection with Leslie one afternoon, I thought we were going back for dinner. She was tired, so I hit the night solo. First stop - my favorite restaurant, Pico Tapas. I downed a couple of liters of Sangria (for the second night in a row), and had my Kindle to keep me company while I enjoyed the band. After stumbling out, I headed to the grocery store and loaded up on candy, chocolate, chips and soda - after all, it's so expensive on the resort, and it all looked so good. Finally, I enjoyed a drunken foot massage and closed the place down (more sordid details of this evening can be found at this post). I just realized that I had written about most of this before (after I arrived back at the room drunk, naturally.
Before a final family visit to Pico Tapas (again, a night not to be forgotten, documented here), we headed down the beach and the four of us received impromptu beach side massages. At $15 a pop for an hour, it was an inexpensive treat.
All in all, we enjoyed the Westin. The drinks at the resort was reasonably priced ($8 for a cocktail) as was the breakfast buffet ($17 per person vs. $50 in Singapore).
Would I recommend the Westin to a friend, and would I visit again? Absolutely. The two bedroom suite was reasonably priced (in high season, no less) at $500 per night, and there were lots of things for kids to do (Liam even tried the kids club one of the days).
Little did we know, that our next destination would raise the bar on luxury, amenities and (especially) costs. But what a property. Next stop, the Ayana resort we're we will be spending four nights.
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| A much needed pedicure |
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| Lily (and the rest of us) enjoying a $15 massage down the beach |
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| Beach bike cruising |
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| Lily and her beach bike |
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| Funny looking dude |
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| Perfect Bali Weather |
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| The requisite shot of 'feet at pool' |
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| Balinese Dance Performance at the Westin |
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| The kids hanging out at the hotel bar during happy hour (25% of drinks from 5-7!) |
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| Happy Hour |
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| Liam with glowing orbs |
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| One of the rare shots of me |
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| Friendly Balinese Chef |
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| The Constant battle to keep Liam lubed up with sunscreen |
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