There was free complimentary breakfast buffet at the hotel restaurant and we woke up quite early for our complimentary breakfast.
Here are some photographs of the buffet setting:
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| Sugar Spices - Buffet Setting 1 |
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| Sugar Spices - Buffet Setting 2 |
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| Sugar Spices - Buffet Setting 3 |
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| Sugar Spices - Buffet Omelette Station |
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| Sugar Spices - Dessert Spread |
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| Sugar Spices - Waffles Station |
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| Sugar Spices - Bar |
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| My Breakfast Selection |
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| Waffles |
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| Omelette |
After breakfast, we went back to our room for another 2 hours rest before going for our spa at Bali Green.
There are a few reasons why I chose this spa. Firstly, it is in Kuta, so not much travelling is required. Secondly, it is recommended by Tripadvisor and thirdly, the spa also provides free transportation to and from our hotel. Last but not least, the price is reasonable too.
The driver was very punctual and she reached before our agreed time. The journey was pretty congested as the roads in Bali are very narrow and a surprising number of cars on the road. It took 15 to 20 minutes just to travel from our hotel to the spa location but I have to say that I was comfortable with her driving skills so it was not too big an issue.
The spa staff can speak decent English and was very polite to us too - not pushy and let us have the option to choose whichever package that we are happy and comfortable with. In the end, we chose the 2 hr 30 minutes package, chocolate indulgence and coffee. The package cost RP220,000 or around SGD32 each.
The spa session started with washing your feet with flower warm water for a few minutes, then warming up your body, massage and scrub before ending off with a polish. In the midst of my scrub, when the masseur was applying the chocolate on my body, I could feel the weather changing and it felt like it was going to rain soon… oh man… and the chocolate was quite cold.
I thought that after a while, it should be ok but it got progressively colder and colder as it was raining quite heavily and the fan was blowing at us. I think the masseur know that we were cold and hence, they asked whether we wanted to turn off the fan. It was a welcome suggestion from them!
The masseur left the chocolate to harden for 5 to 10 minutes before she came in to rub on it which become the chocolate scrub. It was quite rough, but I am ok, since I have a tough skin. =)
The scrub is done one side at a time. After your back is done, the masseur will apply some chocolate polish on your body and similarly, she will leave it to harden for about 10 to 15 minutes before coming back. After the polish, we go to take a shower to wash off all the “polish” on our body and then immersed ourselves in a flower bath tub that is large enough to hold 2 people at once. After this, we were then served with biscuits and ginger tea.
The overall experience with Bali green is very good except that I prefer a strong warm up that will “crack” my body to relieve the tension in my body. And if the chocolate is warm, it will be better or perhaps, when the weather turn bad, an additional towel or blanket to cover our body will be great. We decided that we will come back on our 4th day.
We then had our spa driver drove us to Legion Street, near Kuta beach where the shopping was. =) Shopping time!
Kuta Street is a very long stretch of road where there are a lot of shops and restaurants, with a slip road to turn into Kuta beach. The road was congested with traffic and almost every few steps that you walked, you will hear, “massage?”, “Transport?” or the occasional horn to warn you to keep aside but most of the times, it will just be taxi drivers asking you if you require transportation. The footpath is narrow and very uneven. Hence, do remember to be careful and not just busy browsing over the shop.
Kuta Beach and Legion Street are one of the busiest tourist locations. As such, whenever you ask for price, you have to bargain hard. Bargain at least half or more of the price as they will ask you to give another price. But of course, to help Bali economy, you may want to consider bargaining lesser if paying another few cents (in Sing Dollars) doesn’t really matters to you. For me, as long as I can get this item at a cheaper price than what I will need to pay in Singapore, I am fine.
Along Legion street, there are many higher price shop like Billabong, Ripcurl, Bali Lace, Polo Ralph (I have no idea if they are real or not as their prices are almost down to 50% sales) etc… They are definitely marked down much cheaper than in Singapore, but I did not buy any as I am not a Surf brand fan and I don’t know if they are open for bargaining. I didn’t try at all and I doubt that the prices are negotiable too.
Poppies Lane I and II are small streets that are linked to Kuta Beach. There are small little stalls there that I prefer as they are selling dresses, jumper suits, a lot of other souveniors and fake brands. I bought a jumper suits at RP$60,000, a tees at RP60,000 and a dress at RP70,000. Note that if you think that these prices are still too expensive, do not buy at Kuta and Legion. You can get something cheaper at Ubud!
After walking in such hot weather for 2 hours, we got really tired and decided to flag a cab to go back to our hotel. This time, we waited till there was a Blue Bird Taxi before we flag our hand for it. From Kuta Square to our hotel, it only cost RP$14,000 and the meter started at RP$5,000.
Putting our shopping loots down, we proceed to have a light wash up and rest for a while. By this time, the sky is dark again and it was only 6pm+. This time, for our dinner, we walked out to try to find the restaurant that the hotel receptionist recommended to us for seafood. The restaurant name is Ma Legion.
He told us that it was at most a 10 minutes walk and yes, indeed, we reached the restaurant after a 10 minutes walk, but it was situated at a very dark lane. Along the way, we were once again asked numerous times if we needed transport. One of the private drivers was so pushy and rude that he even scolded us “Ba Ka” when we said no and kept walking. This constant pressure of people offering us transport is something that I really hate in Bali.
Finally we saw Ma Legion and unfortunately, this is not the kind of restaurant that we wanted. The restaurant is located near the sea from where you can enjoy the sea view and breeze with a romantic dinner. Yes, the view does come with a price and which we confirmed after looking at the menu.
The restaurant setting is more western style, and what we are looking for is a restaurant like Savoury in Phuket. Just to side track a little, I really love Phuket as eating lobster at Savoury is so cheap and the ambience is good too!
For what it’s worth, Ma Legion is also a place that is suitable for guys that wanted to propose to their girlfriends. =) I believe they can set up a place where you can immerse your feet in the sand while you dine just beside the beach. If my memory didn’t fail me, I believe the lobster was priced at RP120,000 per 100g.
We walked out from the restaurant and the sky became darker. What make it worse was that we had to walk pass the driver who scolded us Ba Ka previously. And yes, he was looking at us and grumbling something to himself which I doubt was anything decent. Well, I might be wrong.
We were really clueless on what to eat as Kuta beach is quite far from our hotel and all the restaurants that I have researched on before I go to Bali are way too far. We passed by SA Café (Wana Segara 31 Tuban Kuta, Bali, Indonesia) and there are a few groups of Caucasian dining in the restaurants. Looking at the menu, the prices are reasonable too, and so we walked in.
This is a casual, homely, restaurant that serves both Western and Indonesian food. We ordered a tenderloin and fillet at only around SGD$8 each. It was served on hot plate with a fresh vegetable salad serve before the main course. However, the portion of the meat was very small and it did not taste like tenderloin at all. The quality of food was more like the steak from the Western stall in any foodcourt or coffeeshop in Singapore.
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| SA Cafe - Tenderloin on hotplate |
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| SA Cafe - Tenderloin with Salad |
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| SA Cafe - A Glance of the Cafe behind me =) |
But I have no regret dining there as I really do want to try something different and in order to do that, I have to try a different restaurant. Moreover, we don’t really have too much of an option too. I noticed that while we were dining, more and more people started to walk into the restaurant. I believed they could be having the same dilemma as I do and when they look at the crowd in the restaurant, it would seem to them that this restaurant might not be that bad a choice. I had to say that for the price that we were paying, it was indeed not that bad! After dining, we walked back to our hotel and what surprised me was that there was a Birthday Cake from the hotel for me. Yes, it was my birthday and I was so happy! It was indeed a very pleasant surprise. Thanks Aston, Kuta for the cake! =)
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| Aston Kuta - My Birthday Cake! |
Just for information, we had room service that night too, as the dinner that we had in SA café was not enough to fulfill my big stomach requirements. We ordered Ayam fried Bee Hoon and Seafood Fried Mee. The food tasted really good and the price was reasonable too. In total, we spent around RP107,000 after 21% tax + service charge. And well, there was really nothing to complain about as we can have our supper by the bed. I forgot to take a photo of that however as I am just too hungry. =P
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