bali: day one… dialing it back a notch

Nyoman dropped me off at my hotel, the Puri Naga Seaside Cottages, at about 1:30, and rather than kicking off my whirlwind sightseeing bonanza right away, I decided to spend my first afternoon in Bali just chilling at the hotel, getting acquainted with the adjacent beach and maybe going for a massage.

My room at the Puri Naga was pretty barebones but not without character. It had a nice little porch, and the hotel gardens and pool were really nice. At US $25 per night, I got more than my money’s worth. Here are some pix of the hotel gardens and beach…

The Lonely Planet Bali Book said some enticing things about the spa at the nearby Bali Mandira hotel, so I walked down the beach and made a walk-in appointment. The hotel was gorgeous but teeming with overweight, sunburnt aussies. Acres of rippling, sweaty, sunburnt flesh. The spa was a haven from this. For US $40, I got a delicious two-hour scrub and massage in an amazing stone-walled indoor-outdoor room…