Bali, hi again

[bPeteb]

Had dinner at what is apparently a Nusa Dua institution Mr Bob https://mrbobbarandgrill.com/. Literally five minutes, or less, in a car from the hotel. Known for its ribs apparently. The 195k for the ribs at Copper made the 190k ribs at Mr Bob seem expensive even when $19 for ribs of any kind is an absolute bargain

Bit later breakfast the following morning. Lounge breakfast is from 6:30-10:30. I'd tried to keep to savoury so far but finally succumbed to a little doughnut

Yet more from around the beautiful grounds of the hotel


Our room is either eight or nine along from the lounge. It's lovely to just walk out from balcony to go have breakfast, arvo tea or early evening drinks


Room numbers carved into the stone steps

 

[bPeteb]

Our friend J is on her fifth trip to Bali and on the last two trips had been to Cuca. Before we left home she'd asked us if we wanted to go with them to dinner or lunch and we said yes. I love a surprise and didn't even bother giving it a google search. What a surprise it was! Cuca Restaurant - Best Casual Fine Dining in Bali

Originally booked an early dinner but decided to change to a late lunch. For most of our time we were the only people in the inside dining space.

Greeted at the entrance and escorted inside. Beautiful walled garden

During our lunch the staff were quietly rearranging tables for evening dinner service. They literally get down on the ground to make sure the table and chair legs are aligned

The tables are set with menus as place mats. Although J didn't remember it being asked when booking, we're having the tasting menu

When asked if anyone had been previously and J said twice, a second tasting menu was then brought out

Given the choice we went with the second. I started with the scallops from the first as Colin is a no mushrooms kinda guy.

Very much about sustainable and eco friendly. Loved the table flower

We gave the coughtail menu a serious nudge

Moongria before the pour

And after

The big apple

Sungria

 

[bPeteb]

Amazing amuse bouche of savoury candy floss. Cinnamon flavour I think

Mushrooms

My scallop

Lobster roll in its beautiful little bag

I think it was my favourite but the good was just so good it was hard to pick

Fish tartare

 

[bPeteb]

Time for more coughtails
ginger tonic

Tokyo mojito

vitamin c

those three plus a coconut ice (I'd had one to start). bAlt pouring his mojito

broccoli caeser

ricotta gnocchi


spicy crab

Turkish meatballs

 

[bPeteb]

Time for dessert
Ridiculously huge moo

snow white

digestive

last piece of cake

I realise a lot of you eat in places like this often but for us this will possibly be one of the best meals we will every have

The team getting ready for dinner service

and prep under way

AMAZING

 

[bPeteb]

For some reason we decided we needed more food later in the evening and ended up at our only choice, Tamarind. cough disorganised service again but the pizza was ok. How can pizza take an hour?



Thursday.
After an early breakfast we headed north along the path to Benoa. Total walk just over 13km again

Happy hour at The Westin with some new friends, one of whom has had a relative of Colin with him for seven years.

bAlt saw Steve go into the pool with his bag uncovered and a little while later he ended up on the stool beside us at the swim up bar. Great to meet something who has been through exactly what I am now coming to terms with. Steve went from uc diagnosis to total colectomy and ileostomy in four months. Yikes!

 

[bPeteb]

Dinner last night at our other neighbour the Sofitel.


Three of us had the seafood bbq


and bAlt some teeny tiny but apparently delicious ribs and beef tartare croquettes

Plus of course some more pina coladas


We finished off yesterday with espresso martinis in the lobby bar

 

[Pushka]

What an amazing meal you had. Wonderful presentation - almost hard to start eating it. Must see if we can get there in August.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Had dinner at what is apparently a Nusa Dua institution Mr Bob https://mrbobbarandgrill.com/. Literally five minutes, or less, in a car from the hotel. Known for its ribs apparently. The 195k for the ribs at Copper made the 190k ribs at Mr Bob seem expensive even when $19 for ribs of any kind is an absolute bargainView attachment 336932

Bit later breakfast the following morning. Lounge breakfast is from 6:30-10:30. I'd tried to keep to savoury so far but finally succumbed to a little doughnut
View attachment 336939
Yet more from around the beautiful grounds of the hotel
View attachment 336934
View attachment 336935
Our room is either eight or nine along from the lounge. It's lovely to just walk out from balcony to go have breakfast, arvo tea or early evening drinks
View attachment 336936
View attachment 336937
Room numbers carved into the stone steps
View attachment 336938

Though we eat mostly "local" dishes, Mr Bob's is also the place for a reasonable steak @bPeteb , it is a favourite haunt for us in Nusa Dua.

 

[bPeteb]

Just finished packing. Definitely not ready to go home.

Friday and Saturday very lazy days. More walking. More coughtails more beer. More disruption of chair hogs

Chicken wrap for lunch. Another miss from the kitchen at Tamarind. Dry

More hotel

They are a number of Bali Kayumanis properties with a villa complex at the back of the Sofitel. They have a small beach area with bar accessed by a path between the Sofitel and the NDBH. This is it looking back from the breakwall.



bAlt and I had a couple of beers one day and Friday afternoon we returned for happy hour


Super strong, super delicious coughtails

Dinner at Maguro. How sad that this hotel is let down so badly by its food. Nice tempura with ordinary sauce. Tasteless nigiri. We are not gourmands by any means but we know the difference between good, bad and ordinary food. Everything here was very ordinary

 

[bPeteb]

Slippers that just about fit. First time ever!


The saving grace for the hotel has been the Palace Club Lounge. Wonderful staff. Great breakfast. Excellent afternoon coughtail hour and a half. We will miss it very much

Another break from Nasi Goreng. The French toast was yum

Hired bikes for an hour yesterday morning and headed south. St Regis quite spectacular. Another hotel we'd considered, the Mulia. Ginormous. Nothing near it. Not for us

The path ended and we turned to the road and found this hill. This is the last hundred metres of a good kilometre climb. We are so unfit

The ducks in the ponds that the palace club rooms look over have brought us great joy. They are hilarious



The hydroponic and herb gardens

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The novotel benoa is also let down by its food… such a shame. You’d never want to leave the property, except the food is not great

 

[bPeteb]

We had a late lunch at the Kayumanis beach bar. Food is prepared back at the villas' restaurant and brought down to the beach by golf cart. Fantastic meal




Some afternoon canapes at the lounge

Star fruit tree just off our balcony
After drinks had finished the ducks mounted a raid on the lounge.

They were initially repelled

but immediately returned for a second attack

We went for an evening walk down to the the Melia and back. The Westin had a fire show on the beach in front of one of their bars


Night time view from our verandah
Some beers given to us by our new English friends before they flew off home yesterday. Very nice indeed

 

[bPeteb]

Back to the present

Our last brekkie. I returned to Nasi Goreng


About to go and settle the bill. The car is booked for 12:15. Flight still showing on time. Fingers crossed. When we get to the longer might even have a look for the lounge that noone recommends

 

[drron]

Dinner at Maguro. How sad that this hotel is let down so badly by its food. Nice tempura with ordinary sauce. Tasteless nigiri. We are not gourmands by any means but we know the difference between good, bad and ordinary food. Everything here was very ordinary
View attachment 337318

My goodness what on earth is this dish meant to be. Meat and potatoes in brown water. Looks terribly uninviting.

 

[bPeteb]

No luck with the lounge. Only access if flying QF. No loss. Delicious lunch at Wolfgang Puck


Flight still showing as on time departure. 10 minutes to boarding

 

[SYD]

Flew

No luck with the lounge. Only access if flying QF. No loss. Delicious lunch at Wolfgang Puck

SYD+1 was insisting we try the lounge flying JQ this morning but I pushed back saying I’m 99.9% sure we need QF code or JQ Biz. Alas, QF rewards on JQ always book into JQ codes (not QF).

Anyway, one advantage (possibly the only) flying out on JQ117 to PER at 9am was the extremely quiet airport and quick checkin, security and immigration process! We probably could have had a good 30-45mins sleep in.

 

[bPeteb]

My goodness what on earth is this dish meant to be. Meat and potatoes in brown water. Looks terribly uninviting.

A bit what it tasted like too

 

[Pushka]

No luck with the lounge. Only access if flying QF. No loss. Delicious lunch at Wolfgang Puck
View attachment 337347
View attachment 337348
Flight still showing as on time departure. 10 minutes to boarding

If it's the lounge I'm thinking it is, it's rank! We preferred the area downstairs.

 

[bPeteb]

No boarding call for the flight. Gate had also changed.

Got to 2 and it was a flight to Singapore. Off we went to 1A. We got there right on 1:50, supposed boarding time, but flight had clearing been boarding for quite a while.

Selected exit row 23A/B. Even with bump of for heaps of space. Door was closed at 2:35 for 2:50 dep. Then we sat there. The Captain came on and explained delay was due to needing space in the line to push back. That happened at 2:48. We then slowly taxied to the runway in a long line of planes. Took off nearly 30 minutes after push back

Last views of Bali

Pre-purchased food was plonked in front of us within 30 minutes of take off. Neither of us were hungry so we just hung onto the meals until we were.

bAlt's sandwiches were better than the doorstop toasties on the way to Bali
my chicken curry tasted better than it looked, definitely tasted better than the lamb curry thing at Maguro!

Landed about 20 minutes late.

Exit row had us first out the door after the up front and business cabin. It was an uneventful flight with a disinterested crew.

We're always surprised at how few people get the arrival tickets before going to immigration. They race past the terminals then join a great long line.

First time seeing the new tickets with photos.

Picked up duty free and walked straight to photo confirmation and out to bags. A customs person asked us if we'd been to farm land or had anything to declare. We said no and our arrival cards were stamped for immediate exit.

By the time we got to the carousel, all of 15 minutes after landing, our bags were out. We were in a cab on our way home 20 minutes after landing.

I'm super glad we went back to Bali. I'm glad bAlt loved it. We'll do more research next time and more than likely go the villa path. But it won't be for a while. Africa next year then Europe 2025 for J's 50th.

Five weeks and we're off to the Kimberley with a couple of nights up at Trinity Beach for a wedding before then.