Our original home listing

I'm not going to lie: this post has me pretty nervous. I'm the kind of person that only likes to share the shiny, positive side of my life online (power of intention etc, etc) so showing off less than perfect pictures of my home makes my insides want to curl up and hide somewhere. But it's also important to share these photos to give a real understanding of how far we have come with our renovations since getting the keys five weeks ago.

I have spoken before about how awful the pictures were of our home in the original listing, and here's the proof. This is the reason we almost didn't bother with the home open. All I could see in the listing was turn-offs, rather than selling points. There were no pictures that showed off the sweeping high ceilings, for example. And none that even covered the second wing of the house with the bedrooms, not to mention the giant (by villa standards) backyard. Even though my own opinion changed drastically as soon as I walked into the property and saw its potential, I was hesitant to show friends these images even after we had signed the contract for fear they would be left scratching their heads as to why we purchased somewhere so dated and dark-looking.

But now that we have completed the key structural renovations and base-level enhancements, I feel confident enough to reveal all now. Our vision has come together exactly as planned and that potential we saw right at the beginning has been buffed, polished and is now ready to sparkle. So enjoy these snaps in all their dated, 70s goodness and await the transformation! We've still got a long way to go but I'll admit it - I'm liking it round these parts already.

Best of Bali: El Kabron

*Yep, I am a little behind on getting these Bali posts up, but in my defence I have been neck-deep in renovations, painting and Ikea furniture building. Hope to get up to date by the end of the weekend so I can start sharing about the new house!*

In all honesty, I am a little hesitant to say our visit to El Kabron should be considered a highlight but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and just say they were having a bad day.

We had made a booking (make sure you do this) and hopped in a taxi, but the driver had never heard of the place. I thought it was somewhere near Seminyak. Boy, was I wrong. To cut a long story short, we were in the taxi for about 1.5 hours and got lost several times in remote southern areas of the island. Turns out, El Kabron was literally in the middle of no where in the region of Uluwatu, but to get there you need to risk your life driving down steep, unsealed roads and potentially perilous hairpin corners.

When we finally got there we felt pretty drained but I felt our spirits would be pepped up with a swim in their amazing-looking pool while watching the sunset. Except when we got there, the pool had been drained for maintenance. When you book a coveted pool-side spot with a minimum spend, should they not tell you that said pool will be out of action?

So I think that was the main thing that tainted our experience here after the long drive. The food was decent but pretty pricey, but I appreciate the fact that they had vegetarian paella on the menu as this is a real rarity. In terms of the pros, it's a very magical place to watch the sunset, while checking on the progress of surfers and tiny fishing boats far down the cliffs below. If the pool was in action, then this would be a fantastic "cliff club" with a real edge of difference to other Bali hotspots. If you are prepared for a drive (and be sure to choose a sturdier vehicle than a normal taxi) then I would recommend checking it out to see what you make of it. 

Akmani Legian

The real reason we decided to go on a little Bali getaway was because we scored $130 return flights with Air Asia. I am not even kidding, they were that cheap. So we didn't have a huge budget to splash out on a fancy hotel. Instead we were looking for something around the middle: clean, new-ish, nice pool area, decent location but simple.

We looked at a few places online but ended up settling on the Akmani Legian, which came out at about $70 for the room per night between the two of us. It was only a year old and had a really interesting design, with lots of greenery, sculptures and geometric brickwork. It felt very boutique and different, which I really liked. And the location on Jalan Legian was extremely central - we were a $5 taxi ride from Seminyak but could also walk into central Kuta.

The rooms themselves were no simple, clean and no frills - but that's all we really needed as we barely spent any time there. It was strange how the bathroom had a clear window to the rest of the room, so we had to pull a flimsy blind down whenever we wanted to take a shower. But that was pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.

The two real highlights of the hotel were the staff and the pool area. True to Balinese style, everyone that worked at the hotel was just so friendly and accommodating and nothing was ever too much trouble. The fact that the premises had both a ground-level and a rooftop pool also sold me. The rooftop pool was pretty shallow (maybe for health and safety reasons?) but it made a beautiful place to go and have a cocktail and little swim at night. It was just a shame that the rooftop area was so quiet - we were the only guests up there at one point and I did feel a bit sorry for the three staff at the rooftop bar who had no customers. But when any guilt like that started to come over me, I had to remind myself that WE were there and it was better for us to give them our business than not.

Overall, I would stay at Akmani Legian again but I think next time we will find somewhere in Seminyak as we seemed to go there three times a day. I thought staying in Seminyak would feel far from the centre but it has changed since I last went to Bali and is now definitely the place to be more than ever.