I meant to put in that I'm taking a break before starting on Ubud, where we did a bit more and won't be as boring!

Didn't know about that Singapore Airlines seating policy - bizarre

Looking forward to the "interesting" part...

I forgot to mention a great place to pick up snacks, wine or just about anything else -- the Bali Deli. It’s down a side street off JL Seminyak, not far from Made’s. They had the Jacob’s Creek sparkling wine we like and it was only about $15.00. We pay $10 for it here in NY and paid $25 for it in Bangkok. It’s a decent alternative to champagne when you don’t feel like paying a fortune for the real stuff. Since we drink bubbly on a regular basis, we would go broke in a hurry if we always had French champagne, so we usually have the Jacob’s Creek and have real champagne every few weeks.

All in all, Seminyak was very relaxing with mornings at the pool, walks into town for lunch, a bit of window shopping, back at the pool for an hour or two, happy hour at the hotel from 3-5 with half price drinks, then sunset drinks either at Gado Gado or on our balcony, and dinner out. The kind of vacation I never thought I would take!

After 6 nights at the Sofitel, we went to Ubud. Our transfers were courtesy of the Royal Pita Maha, who supplied minivans to take us all to Ubud. It took about 2 hours to get there.

The Royal Pita Maha is gorgeous. It’s set up like a Balinese village and overlooks lush foliage and the Ayung River. The villas are very private, huge and have large pools, not plunge pools. I took lots of pictures that I hope to have up sometime this century. The villas have a private courtyard entrance behind a high wall. When you walk inside, the main room has what has to be the biggest bed I’ve ever seen, it looked bigger than a standard king. There are several tables and chairs, and daybed, a desk and wall to wall windows looking out to the river and private pool. On one side is the bathroom, which has a long bench for luggage, closet with safe, huge sunken bathtub in the middle, shower stall and double sink (and of course a toilet). On the other end is the living room with a corner sofa, table and chairs, TV and DVD player, and mini bar. From both the living room and the bathroom are doors to the outside with steps leading down to the pool area. The pool was oval shaped and there were two lounges and a table. A perfect place to have champagne The view was spectacular as the pool was set on a cliff overlooking the valley and river. The rest of the hotel is just as nice, lovely public areas and very serene. The staff is very accommodating without being annoying. Many of you know that I stayed at the Amanjiwo in Java, which is double the price of the rack rate of the Royal Pita Maha. The Royal Pita Maha is just as nice and I preferred the service there as well. The RPM is a bargain, especially if you get it for about half price as we did. It’s a little out of town so you need to take a car for the 10 minute ride. The hotel has a free shuttle that goes every hour starting at about 8am. I didn’t want to leave this place and I’m sure I’ll be back there in the future. We spent four nights there and it was heaven.

In Ubud, I had planned on buying lots of jewelry. Last time I was there, they had beautiful sterling silver jewelry with opals, pearls, turquoise etc. On that trip, I bought some but gave the nicest piece to my mother. I planned on getting something special for myself this time and Eric owes me a birthday present so I thought I would find something in Ubud. While I did buy some jewelry this time, it wasn’t as nice and the prices seemed to have gone up quite a bit in three years. I did buy a few pendants for myself and my sister and a bracelet for my mom to match the pendant I gave her from the last time. Once again, my mother is getting the best piece.

We did a lot of walking around town and looking in shops. As usual we ate very well for the most part. The first night, we wanted to eat at Mozaic but couldn’t get a reservation. The hotel was able to get is in for the following night (Mozaic told them they could “squeeze us in” at 8:45pm). The first night, on the hotel’s recommendation, we ate at Indus, which had good reviews on this forum. The restaurant was very nice but I wasn’t crazy about my meal. I had the Balinese paella which didn’t do it for me. It didn’t help that at the next table was a VERY LOUD woman who never shut her giant trap! When she and her two friends finally left, I wanted to stand up and applaud but Eric wouldn’t let me. I’m really glad she wasn’t American. We always get such a bad rap as being loud and obnoxious but lately, I find Americans are no longer like that and, at least in Asia, are among the better behaved tourists. The RPM drove us to the restaurant and picked us up gratis. Just have the restaurant call the hotel when you are ready to leave.

For lunch the next day we ate at Café Wayan, on Monkey Forest Road, in a beautiful outdoor setting. We tended to have very leisurely meals, having several beers and just watching everyone and everything.

I'll post more later. Just wanted to start on Ubud because I know Cruisinred wanted to know about the Royal Pita Maha.

Laurie-

Thanks for the report. RPM sounds lovely. I'm with you about the champagne..... too bad there is not a special champs smiley...there are ones for and but not for champagne!

Looking forward to hearing if your dinner at Mozaic lived up to all the hype.

Cruisinred

Laurie - I'm sorry to hear about your Sing. Airlines experience - we absolutely loved them flying Newark-SIN last March.. oddly enough, we had no problems reserving seats when making our reservations. In fact, we reserved all of our flights (Thai Air included) through Sing. Airlines and we were able to choose seats in advance on all flights... I wonder if they changed their rules???

Anyway, I'm enjoying your report - looking forward to more!

khtodd, this has always been Singapore Airline's policy for as long as I can remember. We've flown them several ties in past years but never had trouble getting seats we wanted, even though we couldn't reserve in advance. We always got to the airport very early and only at JFK were we ever told the seats we wanted weren't available. I would then go into my routine about how I get motion sick when flying and then we're always given the seats we want.(I'll take comfort over dignity). We never had the problem in Asia though, until this time. I don't know who they are saving them for.

I know that S'pore has some different planes flying from Newark where all seats have much more leg room but are also about $800 more. Perhaps you took one of those flights? Or, were you in business class? It's only coach that you can't reserve in advance. also, no frequent flyer miles are given. The more I think about it, the more they annoy me.

I'm enjoying your report, Laurie. The RPM sounds lovely... maybe it's time to think about another trip to Bali.

Laurie, I wonder if your tickets were bought from a consolidator or were a certain fare class that does not allow seat choice in advance. I do know that some tickets in certain fare classes do not allow seat assignment until check in at the airport.

http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/content/exp/cabin/economyclass_seat.jsp

It seems you can choose a seat on Singapore Airlines just like any other airline. In all cases, on all airlines, a seat selection is a request and only a request. They can change your seat at any time for any reason. You probably couldn't select specific seats before check in for the reasons I states above. That might be one question you might want to ask your travel agent from now on, as most airlines have the same policy for deeply discounted or consolidated tickets. You also don't get miles or you get reduced miles for many discount fares on many airlines, so check that too, as I remember you were disappointed about that issue recently too.

Kim, my agent did book the flight, as she has on all Singapore flights that I've taken. I've called SQ to get seats in the past and I've always been told they are a request only. I've never been told that by any other airline, ever. And I've flown on very discounted tickets and I've always been able to reserve in advance (and they called it a reservation, not a request) and I've always been given the seats I've reserved, except in rare cases where a different plane was used at the last minute. SQ is the only airline I've ever encountered with this problem and for that reason, they will always be my last choice.

Seats are request only on every airline. In most cases you get the seats you request, but if you request the bulkhead in economy, you can be moved out of those seats easily by a family who uses a basinet. Your seat requests can also be changed if there is a change in equipment, as the configuration will not be the saem. Exit row seats are usually only assigned at the airport or if you are a frequent flyer plan elite member, but you can ask for them.

I'm not going to argue the fine points of this. Call it a reservation or a request, I don't care. Suffice it to say that on every other major airline I've ever flown, I've never encountered this problem. I've encountered it every time I've flown SQ however.

Back to the trip report:

That night we arrived at Mozaic (ride again courtesy of the hotel) at 8:40 and were told our table wasn’t ready yet. I was really anticipating this meal as it was very difficult to get a reservation here and the restaurant had really been hyped. We were seated in the bar and given drink menus and each ordered a beer, the only reasonable thing they had, reasonable being a relative term. We were then given the regular menu so we could decide what we wanted for dinner. Well, there really wasn’t much of a choice, it was a tasting menu only with a few choices in each category. I think it was five courses of what were “tastes” of food but I may be off on the number of courses. Then there was the price. I can’t remember how many rupiahs but I figured it out and it was going to be well over $100 for the two of us, BEFORE drinks. Close to $150 if we wanted a couple of beers, not even wine mind you. I looked at Eric and said that I thought the prices were obscene for Bali, where you can get a great meal with drinks for $30 for two, even less in many cases. I don’t even spend that much money in restaurants in NY. We decided that we didn’t feel like sticking around and told them that we wouldn’t be staying for dinner after all. They said no problem, as if this happens on a regular basis and said they would call us a taxi. While waiting for the taxi, I went to use the ladies room, and here’s the good part, I passed through one of the dining pavilions, which had about 14 tables and guess what? All except one were empty!! There were a total of two people at this place and our table wasn’t ready!!!!! And, they could squeeze us in at 8:45. Who are they kidding????? At that point I realized this place was all hype. I spoke to someone a few days later that ate there and they said the portions were tiny and it was not worth that kind of money. I was disappointed since I was looking forward to eating there but at that point, I felt like a sucker. I had read that Mozaic was more expensive than other places but heard it would cost about $50-60 for two. We ended up going to Lemak, on Monkey Forest Road. We had eaten lunch there a couple of times three years ago and enjoyed it very much.

Other restaurants we ate at for dinner were Casa Luna (so so, nothing special), and Ary’s Warung, which I would highly recommend. The best dinner we had in Ubud. Unlike it’s name, it’s actually quite upscale but very reasonably priced. It’s on JL Ubud, close to the palace.

For lunch, besides Café Wayan, we ate at Bebek Bengil on JL Hanoman (by the way, the one on Monkey Forest Rd is no longer open) and of course I had the duck. We ate there three years ago and loved it. We ate lunch twice at Ibu Rai, on Monkey Forest Rd, which is an open air place that is very causal but nice, and starting at noon until midnight, they have happy hour, with 24 ounce bottles of Bintang for 150,000 (about $1.60). As you can guess, we had VERY leisurely lunches there! Oh, and the food was good too.

We hired a driver to take us to Pura Besakih, Bali’s most sacred temple. It’s actually a complex of about 30 or so temples and is called the “Mother Temple.” On the way there, we had the driver take us to several terraced rice fields. When we got to the temple, we were pressured (and I mean really hard sell) to hire a guide but we didn’t want to. It wasn’t the cost, it was very inexpensive, we just like to walk around on our own sometimes and not be bothered with anyone explaining things. I have enough guidebooks to tell me about it and we’re not always interested in learning every detail in depth. I just like to soak up the atmosphere of a place without feeling like I’m back in school. It took about an hour and a half to two hours to get there with the stops and is worth the trip. There was some sort of a ceremony going on there while we were there but none of the big flower arrangements were present. It seemed to be more of a solemn ceremony. We’ve seen some of the festive ceremonies in the past so it was okay that this one was different.

On the way back, we asked to stop in Mas to see how the woodcutting is done. It was interesting for about 10 minutes. I originally wanted to go to Celuk for silver and gold but changed my mind. I just didn’t have my shopping mojo, which seems to have disappeared over the past couple of trips. Maybe it will come back when we go back to Japan (I LOVED shopping there).

That's it for now. Will continue another day.

Laurie, Ary's was also our favorite restaurant in Ubud. Not many from this forum have been there. We sat upstairs and enjoyed our meal while observing the goings on below on the main street. We skipped Besakih because the hawkers were known to be so intense (Our driver, Putu also discouraged us from going there). Mas was worth the short stop but you would have enjoyed Celuk. Jeane bought several pieces there.

Looking forward to seeing you at the GTG on Saturday.

I love your story about Mozaic - it truly was all hype!

Laurie:

Sounds like a laid back trip....everyone needs one now and then so we can call it a vacation, lol.

If we get to meet you in Japan Linda and I will get your shopping mojo turned on. Ours always seems to be on overdrive.

Thanks for the report!

Aloha!

laurie, Your Mosaic story is right on the mark. With so many positive things to offer in Bali, I hate it when restaurants (or shops or resorts) pretend to be something else.

I always enjoyed my meals at Mosaic, especially long lunch in the garden. My spouse on the other hand finds it intolerably pretentious to the point of offence. He says if I want to be treated coldly for the sake of food I'll go to Paris. In Bali we expect hospitality.

Another restaurant that I like a lot in Ubud now is Terazzo.

I fly SQ all the time and even in business I find their willingness to accommodate your seat preference inconsistent and at time highly frustrating. They always seem to be trying to assert their authority, i.e., we're in charge here not you. The non-stop Singapore-NY is soooo convenient, though, I just keep lining up for more abuse.

We actually ate at Mozaic last year. It was not the worst meal we had but the most dissapointing. Food quality was good, but very classic french at incredible prices for Bali or Europe for that matter. With one of the least expensive bottles of wine on the menu it was over $200 for two.
My biggest dissapointment is they made no effort to use the incredible spice and flavors available in Bali. No creativity or innovation at all. Save your money and go to Ary's..

great report laurie....look forward to seeing you both on saturday....

Laurie, Thanks for the report and looking forward to meeting you on Saturday.

Craig, we ate upstairs at Ary's too and it was great. I really enjoyed that meal. Next time we'll go for lunch so it will be light outside and we can see more of what is going on down below.

Pura Besakih is worth going to. The hawkers didn't really bother us, I've encountered much worse, in Bali and other places. It was where we bought the tickets to get in that they tried to get us to hire a guide. One man followed us for a bit but we just ignored him and acted as though he wasn't there so he eventually went away. I know that sounds mean but I learned long ago that if you engage these people, you will never get rid of them. I wish I remembered that lesson with the lady on the beach in Seminyak selling the schematas!

I'm glad my feelings about Mosaic have been confirmed. At first I thought, am I being cheap? But the whole thing just seemed so ridiculous to me. I'd rather (maybe) spend the money on Kobe steak in Japan.

Marmot, I've never gotten a non-stop from JFK. I think they only fly from Newark non-stop to Singapore. From JFK, SQ code shares with Lufthansa so there is always a stop in Frankfurt. It's better than Cathay Pacific's stop in Vancouver though. (But at least Cathay honors seat assignments, as does every other airline. SQ seems to stand alone on that one).

HT, I hope we do meet up in Japan. That would be fantastic. I need someone to jump start my shopping mojo I'm waiting for air prices to come down. American usually has a sale from JFK to NRT in the winter for spring flights. We have two $150 vouchers from American (compensation from one of their many screw ups)that we need to use before they expire in August. I'm not into paying $1400 R/T per person when I paid a bit over $500 2 years ago.

Laurie,
Great report - thanks for sharing. I'm going to Bali for the first time in approx. 4 weeks - can you tell me what the weather was like while you were there and also the types of clothing you wore? I've been getting all kinds of advice, from wearing long sleeves and skirts to wearing shorts and tanks. I just want to be comfortable without being offensive to anyone. Any suggestions?

You can check the weather at www.weatherbase.com

As with the other traditional cultures in Asia, don't wear things that are too revealing, particularly when you are visiting temples. You don't have to wear long sleeves, but no tank tops, please. And remember that the dance performances are part of the religious tradition in Bali - no tank tops or bare midriffs there either. On the beach and at your beach hotel, you are welcome to wear shorts and tank tops. Typically, hotels request that you do not wear swimsuits in the restaurants.

Thanks, Kathie - I appreciate it!

mscleo, the Balinese have seen it all (literally) and are not easily offended. The only real restriction is for temple festivals at which a waist sash is required and a sarong is preferred. I've never heard of any Balinese restriction on arms and leg covering, but they themselves dress modestly so it just makes good sense.

It is generally hot all the time, especially midday. In the Ubud area it can get a little cooler at night. I like loose natural fibers and prefer to stay covered up for sun protection but you will see plenty of people in shorts and tanktops.

I almost always wear long pants in Asia. In Bali however, I wore shorts and a t-shirt almost exclusively except to attend festivals. My wife wore a long skirt and crew shirt most of the time.

I see some people have answered the clothing question and all have given good advice. The only thing I can add is that I did wear tank tops while walking around Seminyak and Ubud but they weren't terribly revealing. I was not at all out of place nor did I feel like I wasn't dressed properly. It's too hot to worry about keeping arms covered unless it's required. I also wore shorts a few times but basically stuck to long cotton pants.

Thanks everyone for the advice regarding clothing - I had planned on taking long cotton pants and a couple of skirts, but hadn't decided on the tops. I'll just pack a variety and play it by ear when I get there. At worst, if I need to, I can always purchase something while I'm there. Thanks again - I'll post my report when I get back.

Last installment of my trip report:

After 4 nights in Ubud and 10 days in Bali with perfect weather, we flew to Singapore. We had never been to Singapore except for the airport several times, and I was looking forward to something new. We were only spending 2 nights here, just to see if we would like it. We still don’t know! I have no feelings about Singapore one way or another. It’s very clean and pretty and orderly but I didn’t like it or dislike it.

We stayed at the Marina Mandarin Hotel which recently was refurbished. It was a nice enough hotel but I wouldn’t stay there again. All the rooms face an atrium and at night, until after midnight, they had a live quartet and you could hear it in the room. Not good when you want to sleep. The hotel is attached to a shopping mall which is convenient.

We had our worst meals of the trip in Singapore. I know Singapore is known for its food so I guess we just chose wrong. Actually the first night’s dinner was the only good meal. We ate at Indochine, the one on the river, and it was very nice. I have to say, the prices in Singapore were rather shocking coming from Bali. The price of food at Indochine wasn’t terribly high but beer was pricey. We were used to paying an average of $2.00 for a beer in Bali; in Singapore, the average price was $8.00 (even more than in NY!) That’s U.S. $ by the way, not Singapore $. Indochine was the only restaurant I could recommend. The others were terrible. We made the mistake of eating at an Italian restaurant on the other side of the river across from Indochine the next night and it was awful and expensive. We should have realized it would be a tourist trap. One lunch we had was in Chinatown and it was mediocre. One thing about the Chinese restaurants in Singapore that annoyed me is that they nickel and dime you, something I abhor. First, they don’t give you a regular napkin, they give you one of those wet wipes and charge for it. The charge is nominal and you need a napkin so you pay it. The thing that really annoyed me was the “picky” which is a tiny bowl of peanuts that they put on the table and charge each person $1.00 whether you eat it or not. It reminds me of the days in Europe where they put bread and butter out and charged by the piece. At least in Europe you only got charged for what you ate. In S’pore, you pay either way. And if 6 people were at one table, they would charge $6.00 for the same stinking bowl of nuts! When we went to Jumbo Crab the next day, we told them to take the picky away at the beginning so we didn’t get charged. Sorry but I don’t feel like putting something in my mouth that has probably been handled by who knows who because it’s been passed around from table to table. Our meal at Jumbo Crab was okay, nothing special but we didn’t have the chili crab. Maybe we should have.

Two things I enjoyed were the Orchid Garden at the Botanic Gardens, the bumboat ride we took. Our first day, we had a half day tour included. It was just the two of us with the guide and driver. The guide was good and gave us an overview of the city and took us to the main sights. We went to the oldest Chinese temple in S’pore, the waterfront, Botanic Garden, and Little India and Chinatown. We passed by Orchard Rd but we didn’t stop there.

I think the best time we had was when it rained a bit that afternoon after lunch so Eric and I decided to go to Raffles to the Long Bar for some drinks. Of course I had a Singapore Sling. We had several drinks and hung out there for a couple of hours and had a good time.

We’ll probably go back to Singapore another time to give it a fair chance. We really never got our bearings there. I really have no opinion of Singapore and neither does Eric. It was nice to be able to walk around without getting gum stuck on the bottom of your shoe though

Just curious as to the names of the other restaurants you ate at. I have been eating at Indochine,for years, but at the Club Street one...there are 3 or 4 of them in different areas...and I also like the food there. I personally haven't gotten any bad food in Singapore. You'll probably have better luck next time. Happy Travels!

Laurie, I'm sorry you didn't find good food. I have so many restaurants in Singapore that I love. It is true that the prices have increased a lot as the US dollar as fallen so much. It's not like the old days when it was US$1=S$2, then Singapore was a real bargain!

Glad you enjoyed the orchid garden; I visit it every time I'm in Singapore.

Guen, I can't remember the names of the other restaurants. They were hardly worth remembering.

That's too bad...I wanted to make sure to stay clear of them. Smiles. Happy Travels!

Laurie
Don't know if you're still checking in but wanted to top this and ask a few questions.
You were in a group so you may not know but what were the taxi fixed rates like from the airport? What I'm finding on line seems to translate to about .50 so I just know I'm off on my zeros. If you remember yours at least I'll have a guide.
Being in Seminyak, did you notice Ku de Ta? They seem to have an interesting ceviche grazing/after app menu.
I'm going to trust the "hire driver in Bali" suggestions -- as Putu seems to be awol -- I've written him 3 times (boy I am not lucking out with drivers this winter !!) Maybe I have to take the "don't work with this crazy american" note off the back of my emails ??
anyway ... am curious what it's like around Jimbaran -- all the guides say good sea food restaurants, but I want to believe I can escape the 4 Seasons and find someone to drive us out on the main road?
re: Sing Air and seats -- last time I flew them I noticed they said you could choose seats if you booked on line with a Kris Flyer membership. I took the time to set that up this year and after paying for my tickets was taken through seat diagrams of all my flights. Maybe this will just be a 'request' -- but I seem to remember last year dealing with them over the phone and that's when they mentioned the request part.

I am getting excited. Feels great to have finally made a decision. We're doing a two day stop over in Sing on the way back. Maybe I'll finally buy a good watch

Hi jenskar,

We actually had private transfers included to and from the airport. It wasn't with a group but it was included in the price we paid for the entire package so I can't help you with the price.

We didn't go to Ku De Ta. There are just so many eating oprions in Bali and it's impossible to get to all the recommended ones. I've heard good things about it, though it's supposed to be quite expensive by Bali standards.

Hiring a driver is a good idea. I thought about hiring Putu in advance but decided I didn't want to be tied down in case I woke up and decided I didn't feel like touring that day. That happened in Bangkok but since we made advance reservations, we couldn't just cancel even though we were not feeling well. It's really east to hire a driver once in Bali so I wouldn't worry about not getting Putu.

I went to Jimbaran for seafood three years ago. We weren't staying at the Four Seasons though but I'm sure you'll be able to get someone to take you around.

I hope you have better luck with Singapore Airlines than I did. Generally, they are a decent airline but right now they're on my s--- list for the various reasons posted above.

Have a great time and don't forget to post a trip report!

that's eating options and it's easy (not east) to hire a driver. I wish this thing had a spell check!

Thanks for the answers laurieco -- I've been reading through your report and taking notes And I didn't even notice the type-os.

This time reading through the thread I was half expecting Craig to say he always wore a long skirt ... creative, typing, reading, it's half the fun of forums, no?

Singapore Air is a great airline but I must admit Laurico is right abou the seat reservation thing. You do get ASSIGNED seats on other airline- so you are assured that you won't wind up in the middle. Now of course airlines can make changes- they sometimes change aircraft, and yes the bulkhead seats may need to go to a family but by and large you get your assigned seats. We could not get assigned seats when we flew Singapore - and for long over the ocean flights no one wants to play seat roulette- you want assigned seating!

Laurie-YOur report is wonderful-We have a time share trade in Kuta next October. I looked on the map of Bali and I see Seminyak is not far. We have another couple going with us so will probably rent a car.Thanks again Chris

Laurieco,
We are thinking about a return to Bali in October (were there last July at a villa outside Ubud, combined with Amanjiwo). I am thinking about Royal Pita Maha because I want GORGEOUS valley views and spacious accomodations (we'll be staying a week). Do all of the pool villas at RPM have great views? Are there any you would specifically recommend? We are also thinking about the suite at Alila Ubud, Kuyamani or FS. RPM quoted a very good rate.

Hi FromDC,

What a surprise seeing my old trip report come up! And I haven't really been checking in on Fodors too much as I'm in the process of backing up all my crap as I just bought a new computer.

To answer your question, I didn't see any other villas but from everyone I spoke to who was staying there at the time, no one was complaining! I really loved that hotel and I think it's a very good choice. It's much less expensive than Aman resorts and just as nice imo. You won't be lacking for space there either. And the pool was quite large and lovely.

Laurie,
I was really happy to see SQ's price the best for the dates we needed to fly for our US trip. We're booked directly on SQ's website from NRT-LAX for our flight next week & like you mentioned in your thread, you are not allowed to reserve a seat. We have been informed though that you could check in & work on your seat assignment 48 hrs before our flight. Now I'm holding my breath on what we'll get. I'll report back later.

I dont know if its the same in the US as here (Uk) but i have always been able to reserve my seat on SQ. I just joined their frequent Flyer programme. (i guess though if you want the miles to go to another airline you wouldn't want to do that)

Thanks Laurie. Any pix of the view from your villa and do you remember the room #?

Laurie,
Based in part on your review, and what you said at that very nice NYC GTG, we too have booked the royal pita maha for August. The views look great. And, when taking all things into consideration, we hope its a good choice. Its not cheap, but its certainly cheaper than some other options. We had looked at the Alam Shanti, as Bob and Andy recommended, but they were sold out for our dates. The other Alam hotel had a large room room for us but, the bedroom area didn't have AC and we (Ok, kids especially) still wanted the views.

From DC: maybe we will see each other there?
Tengo

Tengo,
Our trip is mid-October, so I will be interested in hearing about your experience. Did you try to book a specific pool villa or are you going to look at different options when you arrive?

DC:
I think they have only two types of rooms, the Healing Villas (I believe), down by the river, and all the other rooms. We booked the standard room and I think I asked for something not too far from the lobby. I guess I can email them closer to my departure.
Tengo