Bathrooms in Bali and Restaurant Review

One word. Scary. Regretfully I have to disappoint, but after checking out just a couple out of necessity stops sans camera and then realizing that the necessity wasn't there after all due to the general condition of the facility, I did not bother to do the bathroom scene in Bali as I have done in other countries. With, of course, a couple of exceptions.

There was one restaurant that we decided was our favorite in Kuta. Well, it was my favorite. DH liked it very much as well. His favorite restaurant was near our villa in Seminyak, and we ate there several times. It would be a toss-up, really, as to which was "better" than the other. This post isn't really about the restaurants as much as it is the restrooms. Combining both just seems wrong. Oh, well. What the heck?!

Rumours is the restaurant that we ate at most often. We tried many, but kept going back to Rumours. Great calamari. The nice thing about Rumours is that it is only one or two restaurants down from Rumours was Ultimo, an Italian restaurant I really liked. Ultimo had the best lobster and avocado salad I have ever tasted. I could not stop eating it!

The second night we were there, in Bali, and headed out to find a place for dinner, I told DH that I wanted Italian. He saw the menu posted outside of Rumours and said, "Let's see what is on this menu." He looked, and before we could even think of walking away the young hostess said, "Two for dinner?" I responded and said, "No, not tonight. I really think I would like Italian tonight. Perhaps tomorrow." Not missing a beat the hostess said, "We have Italian menu, also." A second later I had Ultimo's menu in my hand. So the nice thing about these two restaurants is that they will let you order off of either menu. From there on we were at either Rumours or Ultimo twice a week for our duration. Excellent service at both. Good food. Good prices. I am fairly certain that one of the reasons DH enjoyed Rumors so much is that they treated his Bintang [Indonesia's Favorite Beer. Indonesia's ONLY beer!] with the respect he felt it deserved.

They put the bottle in a champagne bucket full of ice and covered it with a towel...

Because I had already managed to sneak a peek at facilities in other places, I just did not even bother chancing upon whatever conditions I might find and did not use facilities anywhere outside of our villa for the entire three weeks we were in Bali, except for ONE instance. If I even felt like it might be remotely possible that I might need facilities I would send DH in first to scope out the area. Didn't happen. I could tell by the look on his face as he would get back into sight whether or not it would be possible. [Scroll down.]

DH came out of the restroom one night and said, "You have to see the signs on the doors in there. It is a unisex bathroom and on the ladies stall they have that girl on the mud flaps on 18-wheelers." Okay. Off to the unisex bathroom I went, camera in hand.

I was a little surprised to not see the mud flap on the ladies stall and had completely misheard DH on that. He meant the sign on the door was the same. I was expecting the mud flap. Little misunderstanding. Nonetheless a nice, clean, usable facility! With real towels instead of paper towels or kleenex.

My favorite restaurant was in Kuta, not far from Seminyak, perhaps fifteen minutes or so. Poppies. We only went there twice, much to my dismay. There is not one appetizer, or salad, or daily special or other entree that I did not enjoy - the grilled mahi-mahi was absolutely delicious. Along with it being just a charming little restaurant, with good food and great service, it had the best Mojito's that I have ever had!

Apparently, Poppies is known for its world famous Pina Colada. Pretty majestic is all I can say!

It was at Poppies where I discovered the sign that said to not put articles of clothing in the toilet. Honestly. Never in my life. In the many countries and ladies rooms that I have ventured into have I seen a sign that had to instruct someone NOT to put articles of clothing into a toilet. I can only just barely comprehend that it had to have been a problem at some point or the sign wouldn't have been needed. Right?

Seriously?! A sign that says do not put articles of clothing in the toilet ... use the bin. You just have to wonder...

I'm still not able to quite comprehend how much of a problem this had to have been!