Tasmania to Tokyo – At Sea – Day 33 can be found here.
We awake to find ourselves drifting in to Benoa, Bali:
A welcome sight after almost 4 days at sea
I first visited Bali more than 30 years earlier, so this feels like an unlikely homecoming. It was a Grade 9 school trip and the most exotic trip I had ever taken. I think the seeds of many of these far-flung trips were planted those decades earlier.
Who takes a bunch of 14-year-olds to Indonesia? Amazing, bored teachers, apparently
But first – more practical matters. We have already repacked our bags and gotten the QR-code clearance for our arrival in Indonesia, so now it’s just a matter of making sure our snorkelling kit is ready to go. (Though given the rains over the past few days, it’s unlikely to get much use.)
We’re also prepared for a potential delay in our arrival, having pre-scheduled a driver – Gday Rasiana, as recommended by @MrsWaldo – and warned him that we may not clear customs til well after 9 am. But the announcement is made right on time: We have been cleared to go ashore.
We’re docked, so no need to worry about tenders or anything like that. Hotel Director Ozgur has even arranged for the gangway to be positioned on Deck 3 so as to make the descent easier for those guests with mobility challenges.
It’s perhaps a 200 metre walk from the ship to the cruise terminal. Despite the 1,978 reminders we’ve had about the QR-code based arrival system, not everyone has their QR codes pulled up and ready to go. Thankfully, those frantically searching their phones kindly get out of the everyone else’s way so we can scan our codes and get going.
It’s funny how you can arrive somewhere and immediately get a sense of how your visit is going to go. We were thronged by people the moment we left the cruise terminal – and all of them were helpful.
I was awaiting a hard sell on taxis, batik, massages, you name it, but it was really dead simple. Oh, you booked a car? Turn to the left and follow the yellow line until it crosses the road. Oh, you already have a driver? Let me show you where he is.
And there’s Gday, waiting with one of my most favourite things – a sign with my name on it.
We all pile into his clean, comfortable vehicle and head off for Nusa Dua. Bali’s traffic is notorious, and this drive can easily run between 20 to 40 minutes. Thankfully, our trip is on the shorter side.
I was expecting sweeping changes, but urban Bali’s roadside doesn’t seem to have changed that much in the past 30 years. Stores, workshops, fast food places, and the ever-present KFC. Wonder if they still sell skin fries? (Yes, that was a thing.)
Passing into Nusa Dua is like entering another world.
Your vehicle is stopped and given a perfunctory check for explosives, and then you are into a lush, manicured universe of hotels, restaurants and upscale boutiques. How perfunctory you ask? They did not even attempt to open our army green, oddly-shaped duffle bag.
Among them, the Grand Hyatt:
We say our fairwells to Gday and reach the front desk, half wondering if our little charade is about to be exposed.
To recap, we had originally been booked on Silversea’s ‘Beach Escape’ at the princely sum of US$299 (or possibly higher) per person. We then decided we would make our own arrangements, but were unable to find a hotel willing to issue day passes.
Instead, we used our soon to expire Grand Hyatt points to book a single four-person room for one night, granting us immediate access to their beach, the Grand Club pool, and the Grand Club lounge. It all seemed a little too good to be true – not the least of all because the room we booked only has one king bed and a sleeper chair.
The moment of truth – and not only are we set to use the beach, but they offer to comp us breakfast this morning and tell us that our room should be ready shortly. Nice.
A staff member takes us off through the Hyatt’s ornamentation:
And past the cool, luxuriant pools:
We have a beach cabana starting at 11 am, but in the mean time we just spend some time hanging out by their beautiful pools. Our daughter particularly enjoys the water tube slide, and the lazy river:
But our room is already available, so I need to deal with that.
Reviewers had mentioned that the Grand Hyatt is labyrinthine – they are not joking in the least. Even with a map, I still manage to get lost.
(Though it’s difficult to be truly ‘lost’ as a photographer, as there is always something pleasant to photograph – like this Balinese pool.)
Also, the Grand Club pool:
Now with 73% more grotto:
I said more grotto.
That’s more like it.
I eventually find our room somewhere on the one millionth floor:
And I lock up our various important documents, along with my camera.
Some reviewers found the Hyatt’s rooms to be tired, but they seem perfectly fine to me:
Okay, time to return to the family.
Here I learn of the first little hitch in our plan – staff don’t believe we’re staying there.
Although I’d checked in, my wife didn’t know our room number. Nor did she have a key card. I’d locked up her phone along with the rest of the valuables, so there wasn’t any way to communicate that information to her.
Normally you would show your luggage hold tags – but she didn’t have any, because we didn’t have any luggage on hold.
No one gave her any serious grief, but something I would recommend for next time – make sure each person has either a physical or electronic copy of the booking available.
Or apparently there are wristbands you can get? No one mentioned these, so I’m not sure where they come into play, but a fair number of people are wearing red wristbands.
No matter. Time to check in for our beachfront cabana:
And the beach in question:
The cabanas are typically for two people, but they had no issues with pulling over a couple of extra loungers for the kids. There’s no charge for the cabanas, though they do require a minimum spend of 1.5 million Indonesia Rupiah, or roughly USD$90.
(Let me check my math… yup, still well ahead of the US$1,196 Silversea had wanted for our beach day.)
But this is a private cabana on a beautiful beach. Surely they’ll charge US$35 for a hamburger, and more if you want ketchup?
Nope, the prices are actually quite reasonably – by Canadian standards, at least.
They do offer pre-packaged deals for anyone who wants to immediately hit their $1.5 million Rupiah limit. We elect to order a la carte instead.
We start with a round of drinks. I order the ‘Kung Fu Pandan’, a play on words on the pandan flavouring:
‘Kung Fu Padan’ is also appropriate as it hits me like a roundhouse kick to the face
There’s even a locked cabinet at the bottom of the cabana’s daybed for anyone who wants to lock up their belongings. They really have thought of everything.
We then head into the surf. It’s immediately apparent that we’re not going to get any snorkelling done. The water’s been churned up by the rain, and the waves are quite high.
No matter. The kids love getting pounded by the waves, and relish the experience of swimming in the Indian Ocean for the first time. It’s lovely and warm, yet still refreshing relative to the sweltering Balinese weather.
Lunch time – our son gets a reasonably-priced hamburger:
Our daughter gets a cheese pizza:
And my wife and I each get an order of chicken satay:
All very tasty. (And nowhere near expensive enough to meet our minimum spend.)
And – this is pretty much how the day goes. We spend some time in the pool, we visit the beach, we order food, we order drinks.Eventually the surf dies down and we go out for what feels like ages to the edge of the water, and we watch fishes swimming around.
Just what we wanted – a beach day.
There’s a brief investigation into Kids Club / Teens Club, but the focus seems to be much more on the younger children so we elect to give it a pass. Time marches on – as does our bar tab – and we are soon approaching 5 pm, having only barely met our minimum spend.
Bills are settled, towels are handed back, and we retire to our room to shower, brew a Nespresso pod, drink some water and collect our belongings. Well worth the $0 the room cost us.
(This may be an unpopular opinion, but we are firm believers that any kind of reward points do not have value until they are used.)
Speaking of reward points, ours also give us access to the Grand Club Lounge:
So we swing by to pick up a few snacks:
As well as a pair of Aperol spritzes:
We return to the lobby, and begin the delicate task of sussing out how we’re going to check out if we’re not here tomorrow. We settle on gently asking whether we can check out via the app. It turns out they need to refund our credit card hold for expenses, so it’s good that we’ve asked.
The clerk inquires if anything is wrong and we simply explain that we are in Bali on a cruise ship, and that we’ve elected to return to the ship tonight due to our early start tomorrow. (All true.) We add that we had a fantastic time at their beach, and we hope to return again soon for a longer visit. (Also true.)
With that settled, Gday picks us up from the front of the hotel at 6 pm on the dot. Then another quick 20 minute drive back to Benoa. We pay (and tip) Gday and tell him we’ll be in touch for a tour next time we’re in Bali – perhaps in advance of our forthcoming Borneo trip in June / July 2027. He was a great driver, and we’d love to travel with him again. Highly recommended.
Back aboard the Moon, then off to dinner Atlantide.
Tonight’s menu:
Mostly old favourites this evening, though my wife and I both order the chicken samosas:
They’re good, though I prefer mine without green peas inside. Ah, well – still quite tasty.
This is followed by various combinations of shrimp, steak and potatoes for our mains.
It’ll be a very early start tomorrow for our ‘Natural and Spiritual Harmony Tour,’ so it is definitely time for bed.