The Bali Chronicles, continued

From Bali 3

So Day 4 of my Bali holiday saw my traveling bud Stephen and I move from our traditional Balinese villa (mosquitoes included) to our new swanky-looking boutique hotel, Casa Indigo Bali. My loud and crazy friend Stanley had recommended the hotel to me - a friend of his friend owns it, and at USD36/night, it was an amazing bargain, and half the price of our villa.

And then we found out why it was so cheap. The boutique hotel was tucked away in a relatively remote stretch of houses, complete with padi fields (with heavy grains of the lovely stuff), collections of cows and lots of tiny mom and pop shops flung out few and far between. The road to the new hotel was winding and it seemed to take us far far away from our familiar stomping grounds of Jalan Dhiyana Pura in the heart of tourist-heavy Seminyak.

But when the van we were in finally arrived at our destination, it was heartening (and a relief!) to see that the online pictures were the real deal. The hotel was beautiful, with 2 rows of well-decorated, single-story rooms.

The lawn that led to the rooms were well-manicured and very tastefully decorated and looked very Wallpaper (as Stephen put it). The hotel's design and ambience was in stark comparison to the surrounding houses and puras (Balinese shrines) and seeming random town planning.

More importantly, we did not have any mosquitoes to monitor, chase out or kill.

Between the 2 rows of well-designed rooms was the most beautiful swimming pool I've ever seen in any hotel. It looked like an expanded canal lined with green slate rock (i think) and a smattering of beautiful azure tiles, but the swimming pool was sexy and cool beyond words. The water came up to my neck, so this was strictly an adults-only pool. And hotel.

But heavens to murgatroyd, this beautiful boutique hotel did not have wi-fi or broadband connections, even... (ugh). I had to sit in the lobby and borrow the reception area's main PC internet cable, and even that main vein couldn't offer up anything that could be remotely termed 'broadband' (double ugh).

The area we were in, Petitenget, didn't seem to have any serious broadband action, which we discovered after a 25min trek to the nearest internet cafe. So we decided to grab lunch (Nasi Padang, yums) and then walked around the area to explore a side of Bali that we had not seen since we'd arrived.

We were definitely not in tourist-trap territory, but Petitenget looked set to be the next luxury villa/spa/condo area for the affluent in Bali. So come visit quick, kids.

Oh, go check out Stephen's blog for more pictures at http://www.satoristephen.com.