Bali - Ayana Resort

In Shanghai "tagged" with the transfer sticker.  Well the transfer never happened..

When we landed in Shanghai, we had a huge problem - Our research was inaccurate - our guy who booked flight, our airlines, as well as our own searches on Google had all indicated that you could enter China for 72 hours without a visa..  What it had failed to say is that once you entered into China, you could not leave that city to go to another city on any domestic flights for any trip longer than a 24 hour time frame.  Why this is I have no idea as it doesn’t seem to make any sense, especially since I can be in Shanghai or Beijing, just not go between them for more than 24 hours??  It made a whole lot of sense to the immigration people in Shanghai, who denied us passage to Beijing where our tour guide, hotel, show reservations and everything were all waiting!  Quickly pulling some info up on the city of Shanghai, we spent 15 minutes looking it over and ended up deciding to say Adios to China and get on over to Bali as quick as possible.   Crazy enough, a flight to Bali awaited us with our airline, China Eastern, in about two hours time so we were soon on a plane heading to the island and country of Bali, only just a few days ahead of schedule.

Being a blessing in the end, we loved the time in Bali and allowed us to experience on of the best resorts in the world, the former Ritz Carlton and now called Ayana.  But first, arrival at 11pm in Bali with no lodging or anything set left us with a bit of a challenge to overcome.   I found us a place that was only a few minutes from the airport and as we checked in around 1pm, our reservation was good for the rest of the night, the whole day and the next evening as well!   This gave us a day to research Bali a bit, figure out our resort we wanted to stay at, which I decided to really treat ourselves to, do some shopping and get a relaxing meal in before getting to bed early and maximizing our time the next morning by heading to the amazing Ayana Resort & Spa.

Our 1 day hotel upon arrival:

I thought Candace's hair was cool

 The Island of Bali

Quite expensive, but the best resort in Bali, we thought it would be nice, if we are going to just relax in one spot and not be doing day excursions or leaving the resort, why don’t we really spend that time in style and maximize our experience at that spot.   The Ayana is a world-class spa resort with incredible rooms, service, food, infinity pools, activities, speakeasy-quality bartenders, cultural dances, perfume making classes, beaches, and a grounds to simply walk on that makes you grab your camera out at nearly every turn.

Its rare when you can call the front desk and ask for something and it comes in 5 minutes - every time.   Or when you show up to a restaurant and they just already happen to know what kind of foods you like or prefer and have the Chef come out to talk to you to prepare custom off-the-menu dishes for you at every restaurant.  Candace felt like a princess.  If you ask someone where something is: they don’t tell you, they escort you, every time.  This was the best resort I had ever been to.  They had amazing juiced drinks, waterfall cascading pools, a huge aquarium, custom dinners off of docks, in zen gardens or off the cliff, and the world famous Rock Bar, built into the rocks of the cliff and sporting its own gondola to take you down and up from it.   Most the people working there spoke 3 or 4 languages, wore a smile at all times, and were the perfect service for us and our introduction to Bali.

Check in cold towels and drinks

Waiting for our room to be ready:

Lunch!

We got settled in and took a walk down to the Rock Bar.   We were able to sit with a beautiful view of the sunset and enjoy specialty cocktails that were amazing.  I thought to myself multiple times that they must bring in bartenders from all over the world to learn from and exchange ideas.  What they were making was super innovative and skillfully crafted.   Enjoying the appetizers and awesome music, which I shazammed it seemed like half of the songs, we decided that we needed to come back to this place again one of the other nights.   Heading to our dinner reservations, we wove along the path of beautiful flowers and trees, to the Japanese restaurant.   

On Gondola to get there

Panoramic -

Like a Hibachi Grill where food is cooked in front of you, and unlike one because the entirety of the restaurants food was cooked on the two big Hibachi grills, of which we sat at one of them.  The action was non-stop.  The chef came out and talked to Candace for a bit and said that he knew what to do and what would be great for her so we just kicked back and enjoyed the typical hibachi entertainment of flying spatulas, food, art on the grill, volcano flaming onion stands, etc.   We ate some Sushi, Edamame, Unique Japanese Steak, Veggies, and soon found ourselves meeting a couple who were on their honeymoon and bought them a Sake Bomb, which was not on the menu and had to be “assembled” by the staff who were having fun doing it.  Soon food was being flung across the room into people’s mouths by the chefs and the gentleman/groom was even taken through the back and back out into the grill area with a big Chef had on.  He performed the egg flip on the spatula and was taught a couple of the tricks of the trade before our chef finally made us a huge “thank you” message on the grill and we were soon off to the next thing:  Shopping at the resort store and then back to the Rock Bar to enjoy more of the evening.   We ended up walking along the beach, looking into the dark water and waves coming in.  I had not been in the ocean in Bali yet so it was tempting.  But considering my current state, and it being rocky, 4 ft waves, and dark, we decided against tempting fate, instead climbing up to the beach infinity pool.  We shortly called it a night after security eventually found us and reminded us that the pool was closed.  

On Friday, we started the day at the Resort Perfume store where Candace began a Perfume making class to learn the art of combining  scents and the multiple layers of smell, including time and descending scents as time passes after application, etc.   I thought I’d go explore the pool waterfall and swim around in a couple of different pools.   I swam underwater the length of the waterfall as it cascaded along my back above me, and shortly after found the Aquarium behind the waterfall.   Once Candace was done with her class, I loved her custom perfume and ended up purchasing that as well as their featured Bali one.   We were off to the beach!   Grabbing the shuttle, we were there in no time, soon taking the few minute journey steps down to the beach.  We ordered lunch, which was amazing and then walked along the shoreline enjoying the ambiance, ocean, and large waves.  It was low tide, so the beach was closed due to the rocky conditions and big waves.  I still hadn’t been in the ocean since arriving at Bali yet though so I gauged the waves, and payed close attention while we walked the beach, noticing potential entry points and timing.  I decided to go in.

On Friday, we started the day at the Resort Perfume store where Candace began a Perfume making class to learn the art of combining  scents and the multiple layers of smell, including time and descending scents as time passes after application, etc.   I thought I’d go explore the pool waterfall and swim around in a couple of different pools.   I swam underwater the length of the waterfall as it cascaded along my back above me, and shortly after found the Aquarium behind the waterfall.   Once Candace was done with her class, I loved her custom perfume and ended up purchasing that as well as their featured Bali one.   We were off to the beach!   Grabbing the shuttle, we were there in no time, soon taking the few minute journey steps down to the beach.  We ordered lunch, which was amazing and then walked along the shoreline enjoying the ambiance, ocean, and large waves.  It was low tide, so the beach was closed due to the rocky conditions and big waves.  I still hadn’t been in the ocean since arriving at Bali yet though so I gauged the waves, and payed close attention while we walked the beach, noticing potential entry points and timing.  I decided to go in.

I checked the rocks for coral and found that there wasn’t sharp coral anywhere.  Picking my entrance carefully and timing the waves, I entered into the water and began swimming out, with my mask around my neck ready to do some snorkeling.  It became pretty apparent right away, though, that visibility was going to be crap.  Also, with the waves the way that they were, I soon realized that I would have to swim pretty far out to be able to snorkel and not have massive waves crashing on me.   Normally no big deal, but what I failed to think of was that swimming that far out meant risking a rouge wave set that lingers further out, I had noticed, and can be pretty crushing at that size, sometimes keeping you under over a minute.   Anyways, as I managed the waves where I was at, I noticed a huge swell coming in my direction, twice the size of the previous waves I was in…  Realizing that I probably shouldn’t be swimming out here at this time, and that rules sometimes do apply to me, I thought heading in would be great to do.  But I also instantaneously knew that there was no way I could make it into the safety of shore in time.  I knew that if I tried to go in with one of these types of waves, that the ocean had hidden from my eyes while I was on shore, that I would be tumbled violently among the rocks as it sloshed me powerfully underwater towards shore.  I knew I was going to have to stay where I was at, actually move towards the wave slightly, and tough it out.   As I shred water and the the wave, huge over my head was about to crash down upon me, I quickly dove “under” the wave and towards it, holding my breath and swimming through and against the powerful wave towards the open sea, keeping my depth in the water at the right level to avoid rocks.   This was repeated as the long set of huge waves came in, past my underwater body, and towards shore.  Dealing with these monster waves, I thought about my decision to go out here without a surfboard or bodyboard of any kind and questioned my sanity momentarily.  It does get tiring managing the waves and I knew I couldn’t do it forever, so as I noticed the last large wave of the set was done, I caught the next two a smaller sized ones and rode them in, stepping out of the water ready to shower up and get ready for our first Balinese dance performance at the Rimba Resort! 

Rimba is the sister resort to the Ayana and is on the same property, just themed slightly different for perhaps a slightly younger crowd, or just to add variation.   We arrived and were blown away by the design of the place, water features, and incredible 5-minute walk to the restaurant Kampoeng Bali.

We watched the sun dance around the grounds and then had a seat, ordering some local beverages.  The chef was soon out to talk to Candace and prepare her something special.  I was content exploring the huge buffet, taking multiple trips there to get seconds of my favorites as the performance began.   This was a two story performance, sharing their heart and soul of their culture to us it was quite touching and impressive to see their spirit laid so bare… These people truly live lives different from most of the world - the largest percentage of Hindu’s in any population in the world, the Balinese are 95% Hindu, believing ultimately in Karma and the Golden Rule.  We were able to learn about the origins of Shiva and their other cultural origins, as well as be entranced by their chant during the back and forth stage experience.  

Afterwords, we walked around Rimba and found a rooftop lounge restaurant, which was recently completed a few years ago.  It was pretty awesome, with the room containing a pool in the center, a great view out across the land, excellent atmosphere, great music, similar drinks to the Rock Bar, attentive service, food that was again prepared specially for us to our tastes, interesting furniture and overall a nice place to hang out for a while!

The next morning, we ordered breakfast in bed!   It was a delicious meal, and, of course, always extra fun when in a robe as well as the comfort of your own room =).  Afterwords, we got freshened up and walked around the resort grounds just exploring.  We found the Villa pool, which architecturally was the most unique pool, or I should say set of pools, I’d seen yet.   It was multiple levels in elevation, all different shapes and a totaled 5 in all, plus a Hot Tub.   We checked out the Library and then grabbed a spot back outside at the pool to relax and go for a swim.   We swam an “obstacle course” through the various pools, led by me, at one point jumping down from one pool about 6 feet to another level.   Ending with some relaxation in the hot tub, we returned to our seats and ordered lunch and did some reading for a bit before continuing on with our exploration.  

We found the Spa Cafe and grabbed a special juice drink from there and relaxed a bit before checking into the worlds largest Aquatic Spa.  This spa does a full body massage in a salt-water pool with water pumped up from the Indian Ocean.  We signed up for the experience for the morning and went on with our day by crossing the Putting Golf Course and ending up down at the Ocean Pool, an infinity pool overlooking the beach and ocean.   We met our newly wed friends there and hung out with them and another couple for a bit before taking a long walk out on the dock to check out the view and see the waves coming in at low tide.

Ceiling in the gift shop

Heading to Rock Bar for an appetizer we were very patient when they forgot to call us and we waited quite some time.  Soon the the GM came over and said that he had noticed us there for a while and that he would take us to somewhere special.  He took us up to a private and seclusive seating area where we had our own space and view of the sunset.   After a couple of world class drinks and yummy apps, we were off to our 8:30pm reservation at a place true to the locals food - an Indonesian and Balinese dinner spot.   After meeting the chef, he prepared for us a few special meals including some unique food including a special Balinese soup, some great seafood and some legit Indonesian.   This night was an early night and we were soon up and at the Spa.

The Spa was not what we expected, but was amazing.   We got into the water and started out by running against a current and then swimming against it to get “warmed up”.  After our warmup, we entered into a series of about 10 “spots” along the walls in the water in which a series of Jets that pushed water at our bodies, thereby massaging us.  We moved from spot to spot, about a couple of minutes in each space and finished all 10.  We then moved to a series of spots with “seats” in the water that were massages specifically designed for the back and then yet another series after that designed for just the feet.   The jets continued as we had a couple that cascaded from out of the water with tremendous force onto our back and neck and head, and ended as we entered onto lay-down chairs that bubbled up and massaged us from underneath.  Best way to describe it is take an almost olympic size pool and turn it into a huge Hot Tub with walls and jets crossing all over.  After the lay-down chairs,  we entered into a circular pool containing jets specifically for the legs and we made our way around the perimeter.   One more pool for a “swim” and then back to the center, elevated pool around which all the series of jets were lined and we finished up in there, having spent about 2 hours in the experience total.  We finished with a shower, and some amazing ginger tea that we bought 4 packages of because it was my favorite tea ever.

Thus concluded our stay at the Ayana Resort, as well as our beginning our trip out to mid-Bali and Ubud area.  The US Dollar is strong over here; and things are generally cheap anyways, so our Taxi, that took us on quite the ride, which I’ll detail in the next post, cost us only $30 for the 3 hour time it took us to get to our Ubud Airbnb Villa.  Like entering another world, away from the shelter of our world class resort, this was the true Bali we now entered…