Villa Sanook Review - Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia

A little piece of heaven on earth..

Villa Sanook

Dates of Stay: 

04-06 April 2015

Itinerary: 

02 April - Surabaya to Mt. Bromo

03 April - Climb Mt. Bromo & travel to Kawah Ijen

04 April - Climb Kawah Ijen & travel to Bali

05 April - Bali

06 April - Bali

07 April - Bali to Singapore

Rough estimate for the entire trip:

Not inclusive of food and shopping

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I would also like to give a shout-out to my friend, Kenneth, for taking and providing me with wonderful shots during our trip! All those photos you see that are done professional and waaaaay above average shots were beautifully taken by him. Please do go to his Instagram or website and check out his photos!

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Address: Jalan Drupadi, Bali, Indonesia

Email: info@villasanook.com

Website: http://www.villasanook.com/

Room Type: 4 Bedroom Villa 

Rates: US$475 (Low), US$ 575 (High) , US$675 (Peak)

After two days of hiking at Mount Bromo & Kawah Ijen, we're headed to Bali to relax and recuperate from whatever torture we put ourselves through.

Initially, we found Villa Sanook on Air B&B. Being the Kiasu me, I went to do more research while waiting for the owner to reply me with the questions I had asked. Lo & behold, I actually found their website. It is actually much cheaper if you book the villa directly on their website as there is no booking fees charged by AirB&B.

Pool view

One of the main reasons why we chose this Villa was the close proximity to the beach and the main Seminyak street! Also, I noticed from the description and photos there were no specific Master bedroom. It was four almost identical (yet different) rooms with their own private outdoor shower and bathtub! There were a total of 7 of us and it was perfect as we do not need to draw lots nor fight who sleeps in the Master Bedroom!

Map of Villa Sanook

One piece of advice though, Potato Head may seem like it is within walking distance, but I'd rather you just take a taxi there. There are plenty of taxis going past the entrance of Villa Sanook, along Jalan Drupadi, so you don't have to wait for long. Taxi ride by metered fare to Ku De Ta was about Rp30,000, so perhaps a taxi ride to Potato Head will cost you Rp 60,000 at most? That's inexpensive and saves you time! We took about an hour and a half just to walk there. Of course we stopped for drinks and shopping around the main Seminyak street before heading over, but we were pretty worn out by the walk.

Two of the rooms were standalone pool-view rooms, away from the main villa building like the picture below. The other two rooms are located inside the villa building itself and has views of the small garden behind the glass.

That's my room on the left!

The outdoor area has a verandah and three sun beds. The pool has a shallow end as well as a deep end, which was really really deep! I couldn't even stand at all. There are ledges around the pool so that you're able to sit comfortably in the water too!

Outdoor verandah for us to lounge on!

There were quite a number of mosquitoes (but not too many that we couldn't handle), so we just lit a mosquito coil and placed it under one of the sun beds. We were so excited to be staying in such an exquisite villa, we just couldn't contain our excitement. We got changed into our swimwear and dived right in without even unpacking.

Living Room

Another reason we liked Villa Sanook was that there's sliding doors to separate the living room and outdoor areas. We looked at many villas but they were mainly open concept where it would be a feast for the mosquitoes. With this, we were able to turn on the A/C & cool off the summer heat!

Have I mentioned how comfy & soft the sofas are..? 

Dining area

We had our breakfasts and lunches here at the dining area & it can fit 10 persons comfortably. For the first morning, we had eggs, bacon and toast. On the second morning, we requested for Indonesian style breakfast so Sukra & his colleague prepared a portion of Nasi Goreng & Mie Goreng with a fried egg on top for us! It was so delicious! I would love to have more, but sadly, I was only allowed one helping. 

Breakfast of Mie & Nasi Goreng with fried egg! 

yummy eggs and toast!

State of the art kitchen!

To be honest, I opened up all the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen. I swear they had anything you could think of! It was like my own kitchen back home where I had all sort of condiments & even flour! We could help ourselves to iced water from the fridge anytime. I don't usually drink water dispensed from fridges because the water always tasted funky and plastic-y. I guess Sukra really cleaned it damn well or a lot of people had already drank from it and washed away the weird smell with each refill. This really is my dream kitchen! Just look at the space and the island counter! Even the oven was humongous and beautiful! 

If you can see on the island counter top on the right, there's this light blue speaker thing where you can just unplug it, connect it via Bluetooth to your mobile device and bring it out to the pool side. It was so awesome!

Pool view room

The bedrooms are spacious, clean and felt so homely! All rooms are fitted with King sized beds and wooden furnishing. In the photo above is the layout for the pool-view rooms.

Bathroom - pool view room

My favourite part of the room is undeniably the bathroom! Not only is it spacious, it has a bathtub AND an outdoor shower! The funny part about the bathrooms was that we could all chat while we were in our respective rooms taking showers. P would sneeze two rooms away, J would say "Bless You!", and I would start laughing like a mad woman. No, we couldn't see each other, but we could definitely hear each other.

Garden View Room

Washroom

The bathrooms for the garden view rooms seem larger though as compared to the pool view ones. I'm not complaining though. I'm happy enough! For the pool view rooms, there's a glass door and panel separating the outdoor shower to the rest of the bathroom, but for the garden view rooms, there's no such panel so mosquitoes may fly in anytime and you may feel the heat during the day. There's even rubber duckies soap dish for you to play with!

Despite the villa being so vast and beautiful, it's still the little things that blew me away! The first detail was that because the showers were "outdoors", people from the outside may climb into our villa at night, thus there's a lock from the bedroom so you may lock it before you go to bed. Of course, there's also a lock from inside the bathroom, but it's the simple slide lock that you can find in all public restrooms.

Sukra also burns mosquito coils in all the garden view bathrooms because there's no glass panel to block out mosquitoes. For the pool view rooms, he burns the mosquito coil near our bedroom doors to drive away the mosquitoes. He does this diligently, everyday!

Also, when he saw us bringing the rubber duckies out to the pool to play, he even took out a floating rugby ball so we could all play like little children.

Fresh flowers.. Fresh flowers everywhere! There were flowers decorating all the statues and ornaments in the villa too! It was on the towels, on the bed, on the dining table. Everywhere.

The only thing that I would consider a con in this villa of pros would be that I couldn't get second helping for breakfast. I wanted more bacon and coffee, but I saw that they had washed all the pottery and cutleries and I didn't think it was possible without feeling guilty. Also, we could only choose one type for breakfast. Either American (eggs, bacon and toast), pancakes or Indonesian style. I wish I would eat my omelette with pancakes though.

It was just a small little hitch, but I absolutely loved this place & I wished we stayed longer! I will definitely be back!

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Find out more about my hike up Mount Bromo & Kawah Ijen!

Or what we did in Bali!

A little old, a little new.

Eastern & Oriental Hotel, Penang Review!

E&O Hotel Lobby

Address: 10, Lebuh Farquhar 10200 Penang, Malaysia
Tel: +(6) 04 222 2000
Website: http://www.eohotels.com/
Email: luxury@eohotels.com

Dates of stay: 20th - 22nd June
Category: Deluxe Suite - Heritage Wing
Description: Sea view; choice of king size bed or twin beds; separate living area & luxurious bathroom
Size: 58 Sq./m
Price: I enjoyed hotelier's rates
Includes: 2 Adult breakfast, Wifi, Butler service, Complimentary two pieces of pressing

E&O Exterior

E&O hotel has been around since 1885, presumably when the British Colony was still around. I did a bit of research and also asked the staff about the history of the building, but it was just built as a hotel to the Starkies Brothers and it remained standing even after two World Wars.

Very cool bellman contrasting with our modern day beach wear

The entire hotel (including guest rooms and restaurants) are located within the colonial building, and it has this charm that all colonial buildings have. The hotel really retained the theme of the 1880s era, from the decoration, furnishing to the uniforms of the service staff.

Old school elevator

If you're lucky and be nice to the receptionist, you get to ride in the old school elevator too! Yes! It is a functioning elevator, very much like the ones you'd see in period movies.

Reception desk of Heritage Wing

We booked a total of four rooms, with two rooms in the Victory Wing (new wing). There are different check in counters for both Wings, which is nice because they separate the guests and you do not really feel overcrowded during peak periods.

Large, spacious lobby of the Heritage Wing

Also, if you stay at the 100 room Heritage Wing, all guests will get to enjoy the 24-hours butler service. However, I felt that the butlers were only present during check in and check out (they're all really nice mind you), they don't really attempt to get to know you better, find out your plans, and try to personalize your stay. Yes, they're 24-hours, but normal front desk agents are available 24-hours too? What's so special than? Butlers or Front Desk Agent? Or is that some fancy name the hotel gives to the FD agents?

Or am I asking for too much, because they have to take care of 100 guests? I'm generally fuss free, but after staying for 3 days, a little pop in and a hello would be nice from a butler. If not, don't confuse us and call them butlers!

Mango mocktail and cold towels

My friends drove up from Singapore to Penang, but G & I decided to just fly straight to Penang to save on time (and leaves). We checked in at about 8pm, and were welcomed with this lovely Mango Mocktail & cold towels. The lady butler who checked us in, also waited patiently by the side until I finished my drink (actually G was rushing me because he saw her waiting for us by the side), not too intrusive and with a beautiful smile always. I'm sorry, I didn't get your name.

BEDROOM

She brought us to our room, and guess what. SURPRISE!

Romantic Set Up!

During the email correspondence with reservation, I casually mentioned that I would really appreciate a great seaview because we were celebrating our anniversary. Though the reservations team did not give me a definite answer regarding the seaview, nor ask anything else about our anniversary, they pulled through, and with this surprise, I was really shocked and happy! I really wasn't expecting this.

Cake!

The lady butler than told us that they wanted to sing us a song (hahaha), but they didn't know what time we would be arriving. I think it would have been really awkward because G and I are not really the type to get strangers to sing us a song. So, we told her it was totally not necessary and we're happy enough.

But I'm curious, what song would they sing? Not like it's the generic Happy Birthday Song.

Happy Anniversary To You, in the Happy Birthday tune?



However, I did give my flight details to the reservation team, but I didn't arrange any transportation with the hotel, so I guess it would be a little difficult because they were unable to anticipate my arrival.

After she left, G was a bit speechless, he definitely wasn't expecting this either, or maybe because when we do get married in the future, how is he going to triumph this. OR maybe he doesn't want to marry me and the cake gave him cold feet. HAHAHA.

(I know this is a really simple setup, but I'd tell you guys stories about how we're such a simple couple. Another story for another time. Or maybe there'd be no stories, cos we're boring and simple.)

Sitting Area

There's also a separate sitting area where you can have guests over and lounge and watch TV. That is where they placed the cake and fruit amenity (mango and banana, my favorite fruits). I really like this area, because you can be out the whole day and after coming back from all the food feast, you'd want to lounge and rest and not dirty the bed. And also, continue eating with food you've brought back too! I don't really like the idea of eating in bed and sleep with all the crumbs.

Our seaview weren't fantastic (but, I'm not complaining) because we got the corner room (332), and to our extreme left was the jetty, and a tree was in the middle. We were not in the room much anyway, and the view from Victory Wing's pool is way nicer.

Seaview, blocked by a tree!

You should have seen our friend's room  (328). They got the corner room as well, down the corridor, and their view was partially blocked by a pillar that was extending out from the building. Of course, a jetty and a tree anytime over a pillar. If you stay in the Heritage Wing, try to request for a room that is in the middle. I think the view would have been fantastic.

BATHROOM

Spacious bathroom

I love hotel bathrooms (nice ones only please), and I feel that the bathrooms says a lot about the hotel and their standard. There're his and hers sink, and at first you wouldn't know which was his or hers. If you look closely, HIS sink will have shaving kit, electrical shaver outlet plug, etc. HER sink will have tissue box, more bath amenities, nail file, shower cap, etc. 

And upon CLOSER inspection, I found a box of the sanitary bag on the HIS sink. First, I was so impressed, and than I just laughed. So much for attention to detail. If you're gonna argue that there's no more space on HER sink, than perhaps you can swap the shower cap with the sanitary bag. 

I'm sorry, it was extremely obvious to me. 

Also, I like those mirrors you can pull out, and it's enhanced so you can see every single pore on your face. The suites in the Heritage Wing is lacking that, and I was just telling G that I couldn't really see the mirror when I put on my contacts. I had to really lean forward and sometimes my shirt would get wet from the puddles I've created around the sink. Yes, I am that blind. 

And yes, the Victory Wing has the pull out mirrors, I asked my friends.

Too beautiful

Now, the tub is really big and beautiful. I guess it's really how they designed the whole bathroom. However,  there is no raised ledge around the tub and when you slosh around the tub, water just spills over. I understand that if you place a shower curtain in, it is totally not aesthetically appealing, but at least get a tub design that will prevent water from sloshing over the edge. G, being the engineer he is, started going on an on about the design flaw and how the water isn't draining well from the bathroom floor as well. As for me, I shut my ears and enjoyed my bubble bath. 

Oh, if you're lucky to get the rose shower gel, it is HEAVENLY. LOVE THE SMELL! I guess they gave it to us, and not our friends, because we were celebrating our anniversary. They were jealous so I saved them a bottle.

POOL

Zen by the pool

 I can't even begin to describe how beautiful the pool at Victory Wing is. It's an infinity pool, over looking the sea, and not a single ship is in sight. We went to the pool after we came back from the beach, and had time to kill.

Beautiful sunset

It is really a nice place to lounge and chill for the whole afternoon. There are indoor and outdoor deck chairs, and the pool attendant will even bring you a glass of ice water and a pool bar menu just in case you get hungry. I really love it when hotels serve water by the pool.

Victory Wing Infinity Pool at Level 6

OVERALL

If you have breakfast included in your room package, please try the Char Kuay Teow in the morning. It is really good! They also have a fruit smoothie/juice bar at the side so you get freshly squeezed juices everyday! 

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at E&O, despite the minor hiccups. I'm only sensitive to such things because I've stayed and work at luxury properties, and sometimes I feel it's not a good thing. Nonetheless, the staff were all friendly and very very welcoming with all the questions my friends and I had. 

It still felt very luxurious and intimate. It is also walking distance to a lot of Penang's street food and sights, so location is good as well. I will defiantly be back!