Month: October 2018

At the end of the driveway was the grand arrival area for Mandapa. It had an elegant jungle-like feeling if that is even a style. As soon as we stepped out of the car we were greeted by a host who had beautiful flower leis to put over our head. Yes, after 2-days of travel, it definitely felt like a the end of a race when they put the medal around your neck – we made it.

The host led us up onto this beautiful large deck with a vista – there was no check in area or concierge, it was just this beautiful open grand terrace. At the end of the terrace was a rail where the host led us and then pointed down below to all of the different areas of the resort and you could also see the river flowing along the edge of the resort. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Suddenly a beautiful Balinese woman appeared with a tray and two welcome drinks – healthy mixes with a wooden straw. It felt overwhelming to take this all in. I felt straight up like I was dreaming and had landed back in the 70’s right into a scene of Fantasy Island. I wouldn’t have been shocked at all if Tattoo had walked up to me and said, ‘What is your wish.’

Then this woman named, Selly, was introduced to us and she escorted us to what they call ‘a buggy’ (more of a deluxe golf cart to take us through the property before leaving us at the room. They said Selly was assigned as our personal butler and would be available 24 hours a day to attend to any needs that we had. Say what?

After she toured us around the property she led us to our room that overlooked the property. This ‘room’ was more of a studio apartment with a living area and a grand balcony.  The tub and bathroom were outrageous. As was the actual toilet. One of those ‘heated’ numbers from Japan that does much more than the average toilet. I knew I wouldn’t press any buttons besides ‘flush’ the whole time I would be there and yet still, I would stare at those buttons everytime I sat down thinking about the different options.

They also had spelled out ‘Hepi Birthday’ in flowers at the foot of the beds. There was a welcome note, a tropical fruit basket, and a ‘Happy Birthday’ chocolate cake ready in the refrigerator. It felt like all too much to take in. Truly, I have NEVER stayed in a room like this and couldn’t believe we would be here for the next three nights. As all of the other hotels on the trip were paid for by Marriott points, we had decided to splurge on 3 nights here and we were already confident that the juice would be worth the squeeze on the wallet!

Selly took all of our information right there in the room and checked us in personally. She scanned our passports, showed us the safe, and asked if she could start to make any arrangements to make our visit more pleasant, starting with dinner in their casual restaurant as we were probably hungry and tired from the travel. We said yes to that and made reservations for 45 minutes from now. We actually, just wanted a moment to freak out in the room away from Selly. As in, WHAT!?!? We get to stay here? We hit the jackpot, this place is insane!

We calmed down during those 45 minutes and started to unpack a little before we headed down to dinner. The ‘casual’ restaurant felt like a tree top experience with beautiful lighting and you could see and hear the river below you. They also had well placed lights on the river.  They placed us at a beautiful table right on the edge of the treetop – overlooking the river. Selly said, she wanted to make this possible for us to complete our arrival. Yay, for our butler. Thanks Selly!

The options on the menu were plentiful and surprisingly the prices were VERY reasonable. We could have a very nice dinner there for about a third of the prices of our Hong Kong hamburger dinner. We really enjoyed our first evening there and didn’t make it a long night, we were eager to get unpacked, showered, and get a good nights sleep in that outrageous room.

We felt so thankful for these moments and the thought of the next three days there. It was an easy unpack and lights out. I also took one ZQuil to assure I was knocked out for the night. It usually takes me a few days to get on the right sleeping schedule and even as tired as I was, I knew the chances were high that I’d wake up at 2am wide awake. Amy was headed into the bathroom to shower as I was already getting settled in my bed. I said, ‘I’ll wait up for you.’ I think about one minute after I said that, with the Zquil hit me, I didn’t remember another thing until I woke up the next morning.

A 15 hour flight is NO JOKE, even when you splurge a little for premium economy – which we did! After you get through about 7.5 hours and realize, you still have another 7.5 hours to go, you just hope your body will pass out so you are woken up as the plane is descending in the final destination.

We mostly read and watched movies for the first half and ate every time they offered food, not because it looked particularly appetizing, but because it was something to do. I’m still staying true to no white bread or sugar – so passed on the dinner rolls and even Hagen Daas ice cream.

For the second half, we tried to sleep – and probably dozed in and out for about 4-6 hours. The set-up in the premium economy cabin is a little awkward on Cathy Pacific. In front of you is business class, separated by a curtain and behind you is economy, also separated by a curtain. The bathroom was on the right side of our class of cabin with no way to get there unless we were willing to climb over the folks sitting in bulkhead that were all stretched out, or walk back through premium economy and pass at a galley and walk back up into your class to go to the bathroom. A few of these trips made me wish we were on the right side of the plane.

On one trip, this older Asian lady walked up and the person in the bathroom was taking FOREVER. I was next up. The lady kept looking at my face with a pained expression. Finally the bathroom opened up and then a flight attendant came by us and said, I just need to get in there to change out the TP. So she goes in there and shuts the door and she is in there at least 5 minutes and I keep looking at the older woman uncomfortable. I say, ‘Do you want to go next, are you okay?’ She smiles at me and says, ‘Thank you for being kind to the elderly.’ Aww, that melted my heart and I thought, yes…we need to be more kind to the elderly in our midst, it takes so little. When the flight attendant came out and the older woman tried to enter, the flight attendant said, ‘No, you can’t go in here, this isn’t your cabin class, you are in economy.’ She just looked a little startled. I said, ‘Please it’s okay, please let her go. I can wait. It’s okay.” Begrudgingly, the flight attendant said okay. I felt so protective of this little woman, in some ways she reminded me of our own mother.

We finally landed at Hong Kong Airport and quickly passed through immigration. The airport was clean and they have an order to everything. It’s so refreshing. The hotel we booked was accessible just outside of immigration and baggage claim on what felt like was the airport property.

It was a really nice room and spacious (much more spacious than the tiny hotel room in the Paris airport that felt like we were in a camper – earlier this year on the way to Israel.) We were hungry through. So we headed down to the ground floor and picked one of four restaurant choices to have some dinner. We both felt like good hearty salads. When the salads came, we laughed. They were so tiny – but VERY artful and delicious. Every taste was incredible. I mean the avocado, YUM, like this is how an avocado needs to taste. And yet still, we knew it wouldn’t be enough. So we ordered to burgers (no bun – ha, ha) and it came with french fries – so we had those too. Something about traveling that long in a plane and eating what feels like tiny lean cuisines makes you ravenous when you land. The bill came and our eyes bugged out, it was $138 for 2 burgers, and 2 salads. No alcohol. Just a sparkling and a still water. Okay, alrighty then, Welcome to Hong Kong!

We headed back to the room to crash. I knew I was going to need to do something about my hair as it was a greasy mess by now. When it was my turn for the shower – I had just planned on using the hotel shampoo/conditioner – as my shampoo/conditioner for the trip was in my main luggage and checked through to Bali. I get in the shower and to my aghast all they have is body wash/shampoo. It’s a combo for both. Also, no conditioner. I had visions of my hair frizzing out to the max, but I felt greasy hair was a bigger offender, so there I was lathering my head up with body wash/conditioner. And guess what – holy moly, my hair looked fantastic when I dried it. I was stunned. It looks shiny, silky, and soft. No frizz. I thought, Why am I paying for so much expensive hair product back home? Who knew, all I needed was body wash/shampoo. LOL. Now how do I find this stuff back home? Is it actually Prell or something like that?

We crashed for a few hours (9pm – 2am) and then both woke up in the night. It is so weird to be so tired but to not fully be able to sleep like you want to. We talked for a bit in the middle of the night and we both felt WIDE awake (because back home…well, it was mid-day…that’s why). Finally we tried to crash again around 3pm…and I slept in and out for 3 hours. I kept dreaming about work! Need. To. Shut. Work. Brain. Off. Now.

We both decided to just get ready around 6am and head down to the free breakfast that they said we were entitled to when we checked in. After $138 burgers, free breakfast was needed to start evening out the food bill. When we got down there, the gentleman looked at his list of room numbers and said, ‘oh no, you aren’t on the list for free breakfast.’ I said, hmm, I’m quite sure I am, they told me when I checked in, can you please check again? Then he went away and came back and said, ‘Yes, of course, you’re on the list.’ And he showed us to a table.

The breakfast was buffet style with all of these different stations that offered both Western and Eastern options. Amy even had some kind of brothy soup with noodles and herbs made for her, and said it was really good. Everything was so artfully displayed and delicious. Really good quality and exotic fruit selections all pre-sliced up. Let’s just say,  not your typical non-ripe cantaloupe and honeydew melon bowl that I see at most hotels. I had a little omelet and bacon and fruit (watermelon, lychee fruit, and papaya). It was all delicious.

We hurried and ate and headed back to get through security. Our hotel desk person said to arrive 2 hours before our 10:10am flight, so we did just that. Turns out NO NEED. Even though it was a Monday morning and it was 8:10am, you might think there would be more business travelers. Regardless, the Hong Kong airport was so efficient, we were through security and near our gate in less than 10 minutes. So we had about 2 hours to wait for our flight.

I saw the LONGEST Starbucks line I had ever seen. I was like a Disneyland, Fantasyland right with all of the zigzag ropes to keep you in order. Amazingly, as long as it was – it went super fast. And it felt just like the experience in the US, they write your name on the cup they ask what you want. I spoke so slowly like they wouldn’t understand what I wanted, ‘Hi, can.you.make.a.grande.breve.latte?’ I felt foolish after it came out of my mouth as the guy obviously knew what he was doing and nodded, as in ‘no problem.’ And sure enough, just a few minutes later they were yelling out, ‘Lisa, grande breve latte!’

My first impressions of Hong Kongers is that they are all so very kind and polite. They offer smiles easily and they are orderly and efficient. I felt very comfortable in the Hong Kong Airport. It was clean and modern and the demographics don’t feel too different from Southern California. Only their airport is 100x better than LAX.

We boarded the flight for Bali and waited to be one of the last to board.  We sat next to a women about our age from Brooklyn. She had been traveling straight through from New York, to Vancouver BC, to Hong Kong, and now to Bali. Amazingly, she looked fresh! Hats off to you sister, I couldn’t even imagine all of those flights strung together without a little rest in between. She said she had only 2 weeks vacation and wanted to maximize every minute in Bali.

As we approached Bali, our plane was early so we had to circle the island about 3 times before we were given clearance to land. After landing we proceeded through immigration easily. It almost seemed like a formality there, they only briefly looked at your landing card or your passport before letting you through. Then we waited at baggage claim…and waited….and waited. It seemed like maybe they had one cart they were shuttling to and from the airplane as about only 10 pieces of luggage came at a time before another batch came. ONE HOUR later our luggage showed up. It literally took an hour for the luggage to arrive. We were happy to see our luggage for sure.

A representative was waiting for us in the arrivals area with a big sign that said, ‘Mandapa’ the name of our resort. He grabbed one of our carts and led us towards the car. After the car was loaded we began the journey towards Ubud, the driver said it would take between 1.5 and 2 hours depending on traffic. It was about rush hour so there was a lot of traffic getting away from the airport.

They drive on the left side of the road and the cars have the driver on the right side of the car – like in London. AND, there about what feels like a million little mopeds or scooters driving all around us and cutting in and out of lanes. It is literally like an army of these scooters – some riders have helmets, some don’t. Sometimes you see families of 3 or 4 riding on the same moped. It is all very cringeworthy.

Amazingly, we felt energized and chatted most of the way to Mandapa in Ubud. Our driver would interject every now and then…do you need a driver while you are here?…do you like duck fat?…want to see any of these sites?…as he passed back a laminated book. He also had an extremely long pinky finger nail that was pointy, I just couldn’t figure that out but kept staring at it hoping it wasn’t a personal cocaine scooper.

He was a great driver though and did the job to get us to the resort safely amidst crazy traffic. As we entered Ubud central, a little village-ish town. It felt very Eat, Pray, Love. The architecture is so different than anything I have seen. It’s how I imagine Thailand might look or any other country in this part of the world. Lots of colors and ornamental buildings. At long last he slowed down and made the turn down this tiny ally. Ahead was Mandapa…