Time for me to
blog about the hotel that I stayed at for three nights in Bali but
before then, i must declare that i arrived only at about 10 pm which means I am
rather exhausted and pictures taken at night, as expected, were just not as
good.
Therefore, let's
start afresh the next day at the first point of entry for every hotel stay; the
reception area which was large, bare and generally wood-based in the Balinese
style.
You can feel its
age although the elevated bowl of water rangoli in front of the reception
counter put on a few touches of youth, just like makeup! It was made up of fresh
flower petals, by the way.
Grand Istana Rama
is actually located in an extremely prime area in Bali and takes up 1.7 hectares
with mainly one to two-floor buildings and greenery that would be considered as
luxurious in such areas.
Balinese
architecture that was lost on us when we arrived at night as the path was dim
and i think the operator would switch off the lights after 10 pm, likely for
energy saving.
There are five
types of room at Grand Istana Rama and if you choose the ones for Upper Superior
Upper A / B or some of the deluxe rooms on second floor, do keep in mind that
there's absolutely no elevator. The buildings are also not
connected via a sheltered walkway and you may need to dash if it were to start
raining!
Although I am not
that old to be defeated by the flight of stairs, I would definitely pay for a
ground floor room if i am bringing my parents. p.s. the above photo and the one
before were taken at night.
The reason why i
said the hotel was on prime land; it was literally a stone's throw away from one
of Bali's most popular shopping mall; the Beachwalk Shopping
Centre! See, H&M was directly opposite the corridor of my hotel
room!
Room
Now coming to the
room; 524.
I know from
the hotel's website that 524 is classified as the Superior Upper B
(With Balcony without Bathtub) room type; nothing impressionable and the style
looked like it belonged to the 80s with tiled rather than carpeted
flooring.
A few photos for
your viewing pleasure and reference should you want to book this hotel; it was
pretty clean except for a ball of hair i found on the bed. Shocked to see it yet
I merely flicked it only the floor so that I am all ready for bed after a nice
shower.
Mirror that faced
the bed; I still remember my first school trip in secondary school when we would
congregate in one room to share ghost stories and one of them was about the
superstition of sleeping on a bed that has a mirror facing it. Trust me; a lot
of us covered the mirrors with towels that night. Haha!
Two complimentary
bottles of mineral water would be given on a daily basis; so do make use of
them. I even purchased a few bottles of 1.5-liter distilled water as the tap
water in the hotel had a funny taste. Do also check the insides of the electric
kettle; call housekeeping for a change if it's rusty and you have the tendency
to use it.
Comb, sewing kit
and a bible in the drawer; another superstition i recalled from my secondary
school days! Hotels with bibles are always rumoured to be haunted but as my
colleague mentioned, it's not that uncommon to find bibles in most hotels
nowadays.
Inside the
wardrobe; the slippers, umbrellas, the safe and most importantly, i think
there's an electric insect repellent above the safe! Many of Alex's colleagues
who went on this Bali trip were disturbed by mosquitoes in their
sleep!
Our balcony which
was accessed only once as I am not those relaxed type who can just chilled
outside when my precious overseas time can be spent exploring outside the
hotel.
View from the
balcony; you would have thought you are in some quiet place and never would have
guessed the hotel has a crowded shopping centre as its immediate
neighbour!
Drinking beer is
a culture in Bali and there's even a bottle opener that's fused to the door
frame so that you can happily down bottle after bottle, until you concuss on the
bed.
Be warned, I have
a ton of complaints for the bathroom.
Before my
ranting, maybe you could take a look at what's provided in the bathroom. Well,
not much difference from what other hotels would
provide.
Kudos, the toilet
bowl worked and flushed well. However, take a look at the shower cubicle. I am
okay with not having a bathtub as i usually don't like to spend time staring at
the ceiling in a small pool of water.
The cubicle used
to have a sliding door but it was replaced with shower curtain! Now, it's hard
to maneuver in the small, constricted space and when you are wet, the curtain
was very fast to stick to your body!
Alex's colleagues
were also complaining about the water pressure for the shower which wasn't too
bad in our room. Having said that, the tap for the sink was disgustingly stained
and i sure hope the one in my house would never get to this poor
state.
Hair dryer was
placed on the basin counter as the holder was spoilt! Even though I don't use
hair dryer (unlike my mom), it's still an electrical
hazard!
The original
wooden door seemed to have another layer of material screwed to it and it
totally didn't gel with the overall decor. Did it make me uncomfortable? No, it
didn't. Can i still sleep? Yes, i could.
Amenities
Hotel was big;
however, i didn't have much time in Bali and hence, didn't manage to check out
everything that Grand Istana Rama has to offer.
For example, the
squirrel feeding and the fish feeding. There could be more interesting things
within the hotel's compound like the supposedly big banyan tree and a temple at
the back.
Hungry for a
snack? Need a few bottles of beer? Require that sun block before you walk to
the beach? Get them from the mini mart known as G-mart. Please keep
in mind that it is open from 7 am till 11 pm.
There's a tour
desk where you can arrange for tours; prices were on the high side and i am
unsure if you can bargain as we did at the sea-sports centre a few days
later.
Prices for the
Sailla Spa were not too bad in comparison to how much the same thing would cost
in Singapore! A traditional Balinese massage cost only 175,000 rupiahs (about
S$20) for an hour. Nonetheless, the prices along the streets can go down even
lower; the one i had at Smart Spa was 125,000 rupiahs, if i recall
correctly.
Swimming pool for
the hotel; it looked kind of secluded although it was in reality pretty near to
main road (the word main is an overstatement as roads at Kuta are
narrow)!
Live band at the
resident restaurant, Samudera, which offered all-day dining and even a view of
the sunset on its rooftop garden.
Samudera was
right next to the "main road" i mentioned earlier; we didn't opt for breakfast
so i can't tell you how good / bad the food is. Music from the live band was
pretty good though. As you can see from the above picture, Grand Istana Rama is
really very near to Kuta Beach (just right across the long
perimeter wall)!
Only problem is
that the main road isn't wide and as the road is one-way traffic, you would take
a long time to reach Grand Istana Rama, which is almost at the end of the main
road, if there's a jam! Sometimes, it's faster to walk!
In spite of my
complaints on infrastructure matter, i have to be fair to the hotel staff
members as they were generally nice, friendly and spoke good English. The
housekeeping team even made a bespectacled towel elephant for us after finding
Alex's glasses lying around the room.
=====
Location
Jl.
Pantai Kuta,
80361
Bali, Indonesia
Map
As
above.
Website
https://grandistanarama.com
For
my short 4 days, 3 nights' itinerary to Bali, please
click here.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét