13th May, which fell on a Tuesday this year, was Vesak day (“Buddha’s Birthday). It was also the last public holiday in Singapore for a while, with the next one not coming up until 28th July! More importantly, it was probably our last holiday as “just the two of us” before our lives will completely change. I believe the term for it is ‘babymoon’.. To quote Lisa Lewis who described the meaning of ‘babymoon’ perfectly:
“This is just like taking a honeymoon except you’re pregnant… the purpose is to have one last ‘hurrah’ as a couple… before baby arrives.”
What the heck. With much deliberation (well.. not really), we somehow landed in Bali again, where we stayed at Ayana Resort (Formerly Ritz Carlton) in Jimbaran (Southern part of Bali). The room we booked were so called ‘Ocean View Club Suite’, which meant a few things:
1. It had a pretty big bath
2. It featured a pretty big king bed
3. The ‘Ocean View’ part of it was sort of ‘Ocean View’, if you look past the massive garden in front of it..
4. Club lounge access meant that we can have access to food and alcohol as much as we want all day, and almost all night!
5. Loved the completely separately lounge with a separate TV
Normally, I wouldn’t bother with a nice room, given we normally would spend a lot more time outside the hotel room than in it. Not this time. We only booked to stay here for 3 nights, which was plenty given Wai Kuan is now close to 7 months pregnant. It wasn’t going to be a trip to explore the ‘real’ Bali, as you can imagine, with most of the time spent at the resort itself. That’s why I went with a nicer than usual room.
Outside the room, the best feature of this resort was probably this…
Yes.. it’s Ayana’s rock pool, overlooking the Bali sea. I honestly can’t remember spending more time in any other hotel pool I’ve been to in the past, including the impressive Marina Bay Sands Skypool!! Just as well, because you probably don’t want to mess with the waves in the Bali Sea, unless you like being bashed by the waves! No thanks.. So, yes.. we spent a LOT of time at this pool, not doing much apart from gazing at the waves…
And watching the sun set in front of our eyes..
We probably never enjoyed watching the sun set so much that we did it again the next day… at the Rock Bar..
It doesn’t take much for one to realise that no one really swims in the ocean, unless you really want to end up in national news after being bashed up by the waves. Ayana is pretty clever with the rock bar though, which allows another way for guests to enjoy the sunset, in style, while sipping away your favourite alocohol and snacks!
Yeah.. EXCEPT.. you’re going to need those umbrellas, unless you want those strong sun rays to wreak havoc on your face! I’ve probably never seen such a keen crowd lining up just for a sunset! With umbrellas!
Was it all worth it?
I probably won’t do it again.. Don’t get me wrong.. the sunset was definitely pretty, just not worth doing twice, unless you really really like fighting with the crowd.
Apart from lots of wave gazing and sun set watching.. here’s a few more things we did..
1. Burning calories at Aquatonic pool (just myself)… which could best be described as, water jet theme park, with a different water jet to massage just about every part of your body.. one at a time..
2. Ate plenty of Salak.. let me just say, this is now my new favourite fruit! Why can’t we get this anywhere else in Asia??
3. Ate Shabu Shabu at the onsite Japanese restaurant. You might say.. ‘Why!?’ Well.. it’s just damn good Japanese food! Side fact.. apparently the owner’s wife is Japanese, which might explain the large number of Japanese tourists staying here..
4. Drank a lot of alcohol… (Well.. just me actually). We did pay for a club lounge which provides unlimited alcohol!
5. Visited the nearby Rimba Resort, which featured 6 swimming pools! Here’s one of them..
Yes, almost the entire 4 days were spent within Ayana resort itself. That’s probably what having a ‘Babymoon’ is all about. Perhaps I’m doing it all wrong? Regardless, we told ourselves that little ‘Maxi’ (temporary baby name) is one lucky little boy who gets to travel overseas and stay in a 5-star resort before he is even born!
And there goes the last ‘hurrah’ as a couple for us. Life with ‘Just the two of us’ will soon officially be over. But hey.. looking forward to the life with ‘Just the three of us’ instead!
