By Andrea Our last few hours in Seminyak consisted of another great breakfast at the W’s other restaurant, Fire, and our final round of showers in the glass cube. We were a bit surprised when our driver showed up and wasn’t actually Ketut, but his brother-in-law (sorry, but I don’t remember his name). He was nice enough, although his English was pretty minimal. Not to worry, we had Ketut on WhatsApp and were still able to use him as a translator.
Uluwatu Temple
First stop was the Uluwatu Temple. Another glorious Balinese site, with the temple perched at the edge of a jutting cliff overlooking the crashing waves below. Stunning.
We were warned that the monkeys here were very aggressive, and it was strongly suggested that we remove our sunglasses and keep our phones in our bags. We saw one poor woman that did not heed these warnings trying to negotiate with a monkey to get her glasses back (the park workers came to her rescue with bribes of sweet potatoes and bananas).
Padang Padang Beach
The plan was to stop at a couple beaches before ending in Nusa Dua. First up was Padang Padang Beach, which apparently was featured in the film Eat, Pray, Love. The extremely steep cement steps leading down to the beach were quite treacherous and I was very impressed with the surfers carrying their boards up and down the stairs with ease. The beach itself was on the small side, filled with a younger crowd, vendors selling food, beers and souvenirs, and surrounded by craggy rocks. We bought a couple batik sarongs for 60,000 IDR each (~$4) and set ourselves down on the sand.
Arriving at the St. Regis Nusa Dua
After about thirty minutes, we decided we had seen enough and were ready to get to Nusa Dua. We were going to spend our final two nights at the luxurious St. Regis. Once again, I had cashed in some Suite Night Awards and our upgrade to a Pool Suite room was already confirmed. It would be the perfect place to seriously relax before the very long flight back to reality.
We got our workout in for the day trekking up the stairs from the beach, found Ketut’s brother-in-law and promptly headed to the St. Regis.
Our butler gave us a wonderful tour of the expansive property via golf cart. After, we didn’t even bother getting settled into our room and headed straight for the beach. White sand, blue skies, crashing waves… it was perfection. The lounge chairs were probably the most comfortable beach lounger I’ve ever experienced (lying on my back, at least). Nina had been saying she was craving a Bloody Mary and while I typically don’t think that Bloody Marys are an afternoon drink or a beach drink, the St. Regis is famous for their Bloody’s (or should that be Bloodies?) so I gave her a pass.
The scene at the St. Regis was very different from both Ubud and Seminyak. I had been noting all week that we hadn’t seen any other American tourists and I quickly realized that they were all here. As I’d expect, it was a lot of couples and a few families. The resort wasn’t at full capacity, but it wasn’t deserted either.
We were ready to stay put for the evening. After freshening ourselves up, we headed toward the lobby to watch the fire dancing performance (worth it), then swang by the King Cole Bar for champagne. Dinner was at the oceanfront restaurant, Kayuputi. Fresh salad and bread, yummy seafood pasta, great Australian wine special. Sadly, being at a luxury American resort, we were no longer in the land of inexpensive Indonesian prices, but we were prepared to splurge on our last couple of nights.
While we were only staying at the St. Regis for two nights, our flights out of Bali were in the late night/early morning (via Seoul and Detroit for me and Nina, Sydney and Los Angeles for Gina – don’t ask). So, we still had two full days in paradise.
The next day, my plan was to hit the gym (decent), then hit the beach. Nina and Gina had saved chairs closest to the ocean and our day consisted of reading, prosecco, lunch at the swim-up bar, dipping our toes in the ocean and trying to avoid jellyfish, more prosecco. Rough, I know. We finally had to tear ourselves away to get ready for the evening. We wanted to head to Rock Bar at the Ayana Resort in Jimbaran to see the sunset. Knowing it was a popular place, we needed to get there early to get a seat.
Sunset Drinks at Rock Bar
Arriving at the Ayana, my first thought was that it was beautiful, but massive… and crowded. The St. Regis property was large, but it felt calm, peaceful and private. The Ayana felt busy and over-run with people. We walked down to Rock Bar, where we had to wait in a short line before riding the mini gondola down to the bar/restaurant.
We nabbed a table overlooking the ocean and baked in the sun (thankfully, umbrellas were provided for shade) while entertaining ourselves with the people-watching. The crowd was a mix of Australians and Chinese and I have to say, the people may have been more fascinating than the sunset. We watched one girl chasing a server around to find out what drink someone else had ordered. Later, we saw her arguing with the hotel staff at the taxi stand (it’s unclear what they were arguing about, but she and her friend seemed to be in a rush to get somewhere. Chill, girl. You’re on island time.) Five to ten minutes later, we came across her again. Her taxi was stopped on the street and she was running back and forth, trying to get someone to answer her questions (she seemed lost). Her friend was still in the taxi so we weren’t too worried about her, but hopefully she made it home safely.
After a glorious sunset and several weak, over-priced drinks, we were ready to go back to our haven. We grabbed a quick bite at the more casual Boneka restaurant in the St. Regis and headed back to our room. Unfortunately, we quickly realized we were not going to be getting a good night’s sleep there. Oddly, the room smelt of gasoline. We trudged back toward the lobby and politely informed the man at the front desk about the problem. While it was annoying because we were tired and wanted to go to bed, we stayed positive about the situation. I wasn’t about to let this ruin my stay. Fortunately, the St. Regis handled the issue well. They let us know they had been doing some work in the room above ours and didn’t realize the fumes could be smelt downstairs. They then moved us to an even bigger room, a one bedroom lagoon villa. Okay, I’d take it.
Final Day in Paradise
It was now our last day in Bali and we didn’t have much planned. More time at the beach, more reading, more prosecco. We were given a check-out time of 5pm (late check-out is one of my favorite perks of being SPG Platinum Premier Elite; it is so nice to have when you are flying out on a red eye). We still had plenty of time to kill after checking out, so we hung out at the Gourmand Deli for an embarrassing game of pool (Gina finally won) and then headed to the spa. I was able to select a gift upon check-in and one of the options was two 30 minute reflexology massages. Yes, please! The St. Regis was nice enough to give us three massages at no charge, and I added on a 60 minute signature massage as well. After 90 minutes of pure relaxation and pampering, I was kind of ready for the 24+ hour trek home. First, we took advantage of the showers in the spa to freshen up before our long flights. Gina’s flight was a couple hours before ours, so she headed out first. Nina and I had a final dinner at Kayuputi, then got in our complementary shuttle to the airport. We had a long way to go, but were looking forward to having a full day at home to settle back in to life in NYC before returning to work. Another successful trip in the books. Now we just had to figure out where to go in 2019.
