Day 02 - Thursday 29th September 2022

Although I had planned to sleep in, I woke at about 6am local time and eventually decided, having failed to get back to sleep,  to get up at about 7am.

Graham contacted me at about 7:30 to say that he was worried about Covid because Allana, who had been staying with them, had contracted Covid. I gave him the RAT kit I'd bought with me and he tested negative.

Nicky, John and Harry were still in bed and so Graham and I went down to have breakfast without them at about 8:15am. It took a while to find the restaurant because it was down a long corridor and there were no signs.

It was a large restaurant and was crowded with diners. The buffet had a wide selection and there were two counters to place special orders.

Graham explained that John had arranged express service at the airport last night to take them quickly through all the stages. This explained why they had arrived at the hotel soon after me despite catching a later flight than mine.

Apparently, Harry hadn't slept on the plane and was hyper excited about arriving in Bali despite it being after midnight Sydney time. Therefore it took him a long time to settle down to sleep. This meant that his poor mother got very little sleep.

John and Harry joined us as were still eating and Nicky arrived later. I was quite full after several courses including an omelette.

Last night, I thought that most of the power points in the hotel room were for British plugs. My research before the trip had told me that Indonesia uses European plugs and so this is the type of adaptor that I'd brought with me. However, Graham and John pointed out that they were in fact universal power  points and so they would take Australian plugs. Problem solved.

After breakfast, we did some exploring of the hotel including going down to level 1 to check out the Rock Royalty area. John had organised for us all to have access to this special area. We decided to have breakfast there tomorrow.

Harry was keen to have a swim and so the others took him down to the pool area. When I joined them later, Harry was having a great time on the various slides into the kids' pools.

We had a light lunch at a table near the pool. I'd been feeling fragile but felt much better after having something go eat.

After lunch I explored the hotel taking photos of the various areas. It is certainly well decorated with rock memorabilia everywhere. Lots and lots of guitars that apparently belonged to different artists. The theme is carried through to every part and every aspect of the hotel.

The humid weather outside and the air conditioning inside the hotel adds an extra complication for photography because my lens kept fogging up.

The forecast for today was 29C and drizzle. So it was warm and humid. There was some light rain at times but not enough to worry anyone. People were enjoying the pool area in particular. Apart from lounges, they also have timber cabins along the edges of the pool.

Towards the end of the afternoon, I went down to level 1 to take photos of the Rock Royalty area. Once again I bumped into Graham - he was on his way down there too to have a cup of coffee.

This pool area is much quieter than the large main pool area that is open to all guests.

Graham and John were having problems with the hotel Wi-Fi. The signal was unreliable and the speed was very slow - sometimes less than 1Mb/s. It seemed that their side of the hallway was even worse than in my room. John had reported the problem to the hotel but they hadn't yet come up with a solution.

For dinner, we went to Jamie Oliver's Restaurant which is located outside the hotel in the same block as the hotel. It is obviously very popular. Lots of atmosphere in a busy Bali street scene.

Graham and I both ordered the chicken parmigiana - it was delicious. I tried the local Bali shiraz and enjoyed it - but then again I'm easy to please when it comes to red wine. Graham and John tried various Bintang beers.

Afterwards, Nicky and John went to the Hard Rock Hotel bar while Graham took Harry back to the room to read him a story ready for bed. Knowing Harry, I'm sure he also would have wanted to play games on Graham's phone.

A good relaxing first full day for our holiday in Bali.