First, which of these is correct?

Answer, they both are. This is “design”, I think. OK, but how do you hold them, fill them and set them down? It makes you feel on edge.

Another faskinatin’ day in the land of surprises. We had a big wind storm last night. This was the view a few days ago:

This was the view this morning. All the camouflage netting blown away. I was woken during the night by the noise of rain on the windows but I didn’t realise how strong it was until today. Trees were down causing traffic chaos, as I found out. No worries in Bali.

Anyway, I moved from the Harrad’s to the Aston in Denpasar today and wow, this is 5 star. All glass and marble and murals and bas reliefs and corridors like airports, wide, vast, endless. Beautiful paintings everywhere, for sale too. They’re originals, not prints.

That’s the facade. The room is less salubrious than Harrad’s was, narrow, dimly lit, chipped paint.  But the window opens! This means I’ll be able to sleep with the beautiful night air wafting in. Aaaah! And the beds are the softest I’ve ever felt. Can’t wait.

But there’s no wi-fi in the room!! I protested, to no avail. I have to go to the lobby. This is not good and I’m going to protest again to the manager. I’m paying top dollar for this 5 star room and I’m going to stamp my foot for once. It’s ridiculous in this laptop age.

The counter staff are ice cool, slender, beautiful, dressed in immaculate black, embroidered style conscious uniforms. And that’s just the guys! No, it’s the cool wanitas, the girls. Not nearly as friendly as Harrad’s, but maybe they’ll warm up.

OK, once I’d been brought here by the scenic route: right up over the top road through rice paddies and villages to try and avoid the traffic chaos, taking about 45 mins and costing Rp75,000, I settled in.

I texted Yudi, the Hibiscus villa owner and sales guy and asked him to collect me in Denpasar. Wow, traffic jams on a rainy day. Anyway, he eventually arrived at 4.30pm and we set off, I thought, to Sanur to see the villas I saw yesterday. But I soon realised that Yudi likes to talk, and talk, and talk, and show me his studio and his restaurant and his art and sculptures and how well off he is. He’s a developer and architect, he says, and if it’s true, he really is.
So we went by an amazingly circuitous route to his premises, which really are terrific:

Yudhi, the architect/designer/developer of Hibiscus Villa.

He has an office, restaurant, art studio and a huge parcel of land in his own 10,000 sq.m rice paddy location near Sanur. Wow.

He served me coffee, or rather his girl Weewill did (don’t know the spelling). What a gorgeous lady. It seemed to be an attempt to impress on me how creative he is – why, I don’t know. He has lived and studied in Perth and his father lives there, in Fremantle, and he wants me to deal with his father in this villa sale, so I have to wait for his dad to arrive on 5 January from Perth. Maybe his dad’s the enforcer.

Anyway, after rushed coffee we set off to the villas I saw yesterday, the subject of all this waffle. These are the Hibiscus Villas in the map yesterday right near the Mercure Hotel.

It turns out that the one I would have wanted, the smallest one, is already sold. The other two are for sale but one is two storey and the stairs are external. I just couldn’t cope with them. If they’d been internal, I might have installed a chair/stair lift but I didn’t waste time on this. That left the middle one:

Yudhi, Komar the housekeeper, Hibiscus Villa.

Hibiscus kitchen/dining/living

The bathroom of bedroom 1 is completely open air! There are no walls except the one you see.

 It’s just occurred to me that if I bought the two storey villa, I wouldn’t actually need to go upstairs. It’s only the two spare bedrooms up there – the main and one other are at ground level. Anyway…

Look, if this was all I was offered in Bali, I’d be happy. It’s beautiful, it’s amazing, it’s brand new, it has fantastic potential to be furnished and decorated and I could live here very happily. But somehow, despite the location, it has oddities. Yes, it has four bedrooms, but each main is a pair with a smaller one and they share bathrooms. There are only two bathrooms, not four as the brochure says.

I was surprised to find, too, that the housekeeper is already in employ and on the premises. Her name is Komar (above) and she speaks no English. She wouldn’t suit me, I don’t think.

This video is 1m 39s and shows the drive, Yudhi and Komar and the villa. I hope the quality comes though this time.
 
So despite the great location and all, I didn’t feel I had to grab it, which is lucky I suppose. He says he has other rental properties to show me, so I’m sure we’ll be talking again. Nice enough bloke, despite the silver tongue.

All in all, a nice day, nice and cool and wet, with lots to interest me. Even the drive to Denpasar in the morning via village routes to avoid the traffic jams, was cantik. Love this place.

Btw, property in Bali is appreciating on average 20% pa and there’s a new second airport planned. Due to restricted finance and conservative banks, it’s also not subject to wild speculation. Hmmm.

I’ve just done a first: ordered a room service dinner. Too tired and disshevelled to go out. Appetiser and Tom Yum Goong soup – Rp84,000 or $9.33. I may never leave the room again!

Oh no! I’ve just discovered – there’s no spoon for the soup!!!

Malam.

Wed morning: despite being a dog lover, the local hounds set up a performance of A Christmas Oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bark last night at 1.10am. I couldn’t get back to sleep again, so watched the trash CNN and Discovery American rubbish for a while. There’s no light over the bed! Couldn’t read in bed.

And I reckon my CPAP mask is introducing bacteria into my nose. I’m constantly sneezing and coughing and generally feel crap with a sore throat and slight fever. I have anti-biotics here, but I’m reluctant to start as they’ll upset my gut bacteria. I may have to visit the BIMC on spec to try to get to a simpler fix. It’ll be a good experience.

Again, the shower recess is like wet glass. I’ll complain again and try to get a mat. There are only two bath towels, no hand towels or face washers! In a 5 star hotel! And at 8.30am, the door bell rings and it’s a guy asking if I have any laundry. What??!! If I’d still been in bed, or in the shower, I would have been even more annoyed.

Now, at breakfast in the restaurant, I’m even more irritated. It’s vast and very noisy, full of Asian/Chinese kids. I have to walk a good 20m, even 30m to reach the food tables. I picked up a tray to save walking back and forth, but a hotel employee took it off me!!! I’m not allowed to have it evidently. He took my OJ and delivered it, but I had to collect all the fruit plate, toast and the eggs/veges on two plates stacked in my left hand. Couldn’t find the butter – hidden from view behind a pillar. Got back to the table (25m walk), found the papaya had stuck to the underside of the top plate and some of it fell on the floor.

Sat down and found I had no knife!!!!!!! Another 25m walk to get one. This time I grabbed every utensil I thought I could possibly need, whether I did or not. But I forgot coffee. Grrrrrrr. A waiter got it for me, but despite me asking for milk, he didn’t bring any. I sent him back. But the coffee’s cold anyway.

And the mini-bar fridge in the room was empty. I put water in the ice cube tray, but despite 4 hours yesterday, it didn’t freeze. I got a bowl of ice sent up, but it’s clear the fridge won’t freeze it. This morning, the ice cube tray was still water.

And the road outside is a three lane each way highway. There’s a hotel employee there just to stop traffic for guests to cross. Take life in hands.   Would I recommend this hotel? No way, Jose

Calm, calm, karma.