Thursday 26 May 2011

Here they start ...

... the first of the holiday pictures.  Warning!  This is pretty much photos only so is heavy in them (click to enlarge for more detail).  For the first 5 nights we were based at a villa complex, Villa Infinity, in the Canggu area of Bali.  Can't pinpoint the villa exactly on Google Maps but have found the general vicinity and, although not a beach front complex, it was not far from the famous Echo Beach.  In fact it was in the country and overlooked rice paddy fields.  Beautiful setting with a small stream running along the lower boundary and a wonderfully large infinity pool. The complex is also where the wedding took place.

L-R: 3 rooms - more mini suites and the start of the dining room.


Dining room, lounge area and master suite with pool in front.


Part of lounge, side view of master suite (room 1) and the media room (low, flat roofed building).


Part of the inside of master suite.



Pool with bit of lounge area and master suite.


Mine & Jackie's room - another mini suite although no lounge furniture as in most other rooms.


Inside of our room (bedroom 2) - huge bed which we shared but sometimes not quite huge enough - *lol*!  There were no twins unless we wanted to sleep in a giant room filled with bunk beds and that room looked very creepy! 


Outside bath.  Brilliant idea and really exotic.  Just as well there was an inside shower though 'cos bath needed cleaning out of bugs before it could be used.  Didn't like that idea - *lol* Note the umbrella plants growing behind.  I used to grow them as pot plants years ago *grin*



Bale - where the wedding ceremony took place.  Only criticism I had of this was that the PVC cover of the 'mattress' was torn in places (can be seen in a subsequent photo) and there was nothing to replace it for the ceremony.


View from the bale towards the media room.  Mine & Jackie's room was just below to the right and another room was attached to ours.


Wooden riverside pavilion - Room 8


View on arrival, although we arrived in the dark and this was all lit up.  It's the view from the entrance - dining room to the right across a 'bridge' from the lounge area.


Around the grounds (note paddy fields in the background of this first photo)



Bananas and there were a lot.  Apparently the flower at the bottom is edible and we actually saw some for sale at a local market we visited.


The villa temple.  Every home has one and they are dotted around all over the place when you're out and about.  There are, apparently, more temples in Bali than there are homes.


Coconuts also growing on palm trees in the grounds.


Huge leaves! Very large plant.


Lounge area at night.


Dining area viewed across the frog ponds from the lounge - and yes, there were frogs.  Very melodic frogs that sang to us at night.  The dining area was reached, either by going down the steps to the lawn and then back up again or via the slightly raised pathway between the 2 ponds.  Generally OK but sometimes we did meet the odd frog at night.  There was no sign of them through the day.  


Unfortunately, our first night there was spoilt by a very unmelodic frog serenading us from somewhere very close to our room!  We got to bed around midnight, tired from the very long journey (over 21 hours).  Out like a light and then, 1am and the frog started.  Monotone and long ..... Initially 'twas OK but after ½ an hour it became like water torture.  The same note, continuously repeated with no pause for breath.  Every time we thought it had stopped it gave us a minute or 2 respite and started again!  We got very little sleep that first night but nobody, except us, heard the blooming thing.  If we could have figured out where it was it would not have lived that long but we couldn't, so it did.  Fortunately - for it and us - it did not repeat the performance for the rest of the time we were there.

 A very large statue that Jackie and I saw every time we went to our room as it was situated between our room and the media room (can be seen in daylight in the pool photo above).  Very impressive, particularly at night when lit.


Well, that's the first lot to set the scene for the first week .... ish! More will be posted in due course *grin* 


Thanks for dropping by .....

5 comments:

Cally said...

Great pics Pam. Seems a lovely place. x

Trace said...

The pics look fab Pam...it looks a lovely place and I too would have been looking for that damn frog to squash it....lol

Daisycat said...

Piccies are great Pam, but I have just had a laugh to myself as I was looking at one photograph and thought that owl is flying low to the ground but Pam hasn't mentioned it then realised it was in your signature. DOH

Jan M said...

loving these pictures Pam and can;t wait to see the rest

Viv said...

Oooh more lovely pics Pam, love that 'tree' driftwood??sculpture thing too :O) Viv xx