Day 06 - Monday 3rd October 2022

Today we would be leaving the Hard Rock Hotel and going to our next accommodation at Villa Litera in Canggu.

We were in a routine now at the hotel. Graham would go for an early morning walk along the beach and then he and I would go down to the Rock Royalty Suite for breakfast at about 8:30am followed by Nicky and Harry a little later and then John. I had the Rockstar Big Breakfast again.

It was another warm humid day with a mixture of clouds, blue sky and sunshine. The forecast was for 32C and drizzle. Occasional black clouds looked threatening.

There was a timing problem for our move from the hotel to the villa because check-out time at the hotel was 12 noon and check-in time at the villa was 2pm. Graham solved the problem by organising a 2pm check-out for Nicky and John's suite.

The Hard Rock Hotel was a great place to stay. It had many things going for it including:

• Very large pool with lounges, cabanas, etc
• Small pools for kids with slides
• Pool-side cafe
• Large restaurant
• Rock Royalty area on level 1 with its own courtyard, pool, bar, suite, tables, chairs, etc.
• Close to Kuta Beach - just across the (busy) road
• Comfortable rooms with good beds, good showers, adjustable air conditioning
• The large suite that Nick, John  and Harry had was amazing
• Close to Jamie Oliver Kitchen
• Walking distance to other shops and restaurants such as the Beachwalk Shopping Centre
• Friendly, helpful staff who spoke English (quite well most of the time)

However, there were a few things they could improve including:

• The Wi-Fi internet was very slow and unreliable
• There was no comfortable chair in the bedroom to sit and read
• There weren't too many other comfortable places to go and read
• There was some noise from the hallway and nearby rooms

John organised a couple of taxis (spelt taksi in Bali) and we set off from the hotel at about 1:15pm. Traffic was heavy and slow. It got worse as we got close to Changgu. Often it was stopped or hardly moving at all.

The taxi took us along busy narrow streets before travelling along a six-lane highway for a while and then plunging back into narrow streets. Many of the roads seemed two narrow for even one-way traffic let alone two-way.

There was one intersection near Changgu that was particularly slow. I remembered it from the last time we were here. It took about 20 minutes.

Eventually we reached the Litera Villa where two staff were waiting to welcome us: Uchi and Dessy. This is a great villa. Downstairs there is a large open lounge and dining area with a kitchen and a large bedroom. Upstairs (steep stairs), there are two more large bedrooms.

In the backyard, there is a long pool which is fenced off from the main building. Apparently John organised for them to build this temporary fencing and paid for it protect Harry.

Next to the pool there is another bedroom in a separate building. There is a covered terrace on two sides of the house with lounges and a small barbecue. There are banana lounges near the pool.

The lounge area has air conditioning and there is separate air conditioning in each bed room. In the back yard, there is a laundry with a washer-dryer.

Nicky, John and Harry were allocated the upstairs bedrooms, mine is downstairs and Graham has the one near the pool - ideal for him to spend time with Harry in the pool.

The downstairs bedroom was the obvious safe choice for me to minimise the chances of falls. It has a large double bed, a couch, desk, chest of drawers, cupboards and a large ensuite bathroom. Luxury.

There is internet here and I've also got my Optus mini Wi-Fi device with the local sim that I bought art the airport when I arrived. Both give a download speed of about 10Mb/s.

John has now bought an esim for hi phone that is getting very fast speeds. Graham bought himself a local sim for his iPad this morning.

The villa has a long list of channels available. John has brought his Apple TV box with him and he has set it up in the lounge room to pick up a wide range of programs.

At about 4:45pm, Nicky and John went out to buy some groceries at a small shop about 150m away. The plan was to walk there and catch a taxi back. When they got back, John said it was very dangerous walking there because there was no footpath and the cars and motorbikes came close to hitting them.

He said he used to be able to walk around Canggu safely but he wouldn't do so again now because it was too dangerous.

Graham noticed a guard going around the property lighted incense and leaving traditional religious flowers near each of the statues. This man lives on site in the garage area at the front of the property near the road.

For dinner, John organised a Grab taxi to take us to a nearby restaurant they like called Milk & Madu Cafe. It is an open-air restaurant with a kids play area. It had good food and good service. It is obviously very popular. The area looked familiar because it was close to the villa we stayed at last time.

We were back in our villa at about 9pm ready for bed after another memorable day.