We arrived in Bali around 3:00 this afternoon.  Surprisingly, we had a decent bit of traffic driving from McLaren Vale to Adelaide.  Usually, we get to the airport about 2 hours ahead of time.  This time, we only had around 20 minutes before the flight boarded.  Of course, this was the flight that I would get chosen for the random body scan!  I usually don’t care, but we were already running behind schedule.

The flight was uneventful.  We flew Virgin Australia in economy.

When we got to Bali, there was a man holding a sign with our name waiting for us to arrive.  Justin paid for a service that helps expedite the immigration/customs process (I think it was around 25$).  The man took our passports and got them stamped for us, so we were able to skip all the lines and chaos.  Then, we got a cart and he loaded up our bags for us and escorted us through customs.  Once we were through customs, another man (from the Chedi Club) met us and walked with us (along with the other man pushing our luggage cart) to meet the driver.  At one point we had three different people helping us!

When we got in the van, there was bottled water and cold towels to freshen up.  That was really nice.  The weather is warm here with alot of humidity (sort of like New Orleans…..sticky hot!).

In Bali, we are staying in the city, Ubud.  It is inland and surrounded by rice fields.  It took about an hour to get to the hotel.  The hotel is called Chedi Club.  When we first arrived, we were introduced to our butler.  One of the benefits of this hotel is that each villa is assigned a personal butler for the duration of your stay.  Our butler’s name is Japa.

Japa told us that we were upgraded from the suite villa to the spa villa.  This came as a surprise.  Justin doesn’t have any point/rewards/perks at this facility.  He just read good reviews about it and booked it.  Japa told us that we were upgraded because the smaller suite villas were being renovated.  While we were checking in, they brought us some lemongrass/ginger tea and banana fritters (yum!).

After that, Japa gave us a tour of the property (in a golf cart) then showed us to our room.  The room is HUGE.  I’m sure that the pictures don’t do it justice.  When you first walk in, there is a couch/coffee table on your right and a breakfast table/ lounge area on the left.  Straight ahead is an armoir that has the minibar, coffee, tea, and a couple of snacks.  The contents of the mini-bar is included in the cost of the room and gets refilled as needed.  The fridge has soft drinks, juice, sparkling water, tonic, and beer.  There are also glass bottles filled with whiskey and vodka.

The spa villa has a private attached spa room with two massage tables.  If you paid for this room, it comes with a 90 minute massage per person per day in your private spa room.  We aren’t paying for this room, so we aren’t getting this benefit.  The bedroom is nice with a big comfy bed.  The bathroom is really neat.  The sink and toilet are inside, but the shower and tubs are outside on the patio.  Yes, I said tubs.  There is a regular tub and a “cool” tub.  I guess it just has cool water.  I don’t know, we haven’t tried it yet.  The outside portion also has a sitting area with a fountain and a private sauna/ steam room.

One nice benefit of staying at the Chedi Club is that there is complimentary laundry service– 6 pieces per person per day.  This is a major bonus since we have been traveling for so long.

Ater we got over the shock of the size of the room, we walked around a little bit and took pictures.  Then, we headed to The Restaurant.  Every afternoon from 4-6, they offer complimentary tea or coffee.  Because it was still pretty hot, we each had a couple of iced coffees.

From 6-7pm, they offer complimentary cocktails, so we also took advantage of that!  We ate dinner in The Restaurant.  It was very good.  They had a special menu tonight consisting of satay skewers, crispy duck, and a lemongrass granita.  We enjoyed it all.

I can tell that we are really going to enjoy our stay here.  It is very different from any other hotel or resort that we have ever been.  The grounds are extremely spacious, and they only have a total of 20 villas.  Rice fields surround the restaurant, and everything is very picturesque.  As with all the Asian countries that we have visited, the service is unbelievable.

We can’t wait to explore Bali and relax in this beautiful setting!

XOXO Alyce