To explore even further, we moved once more and headed towards the Kuta area to our final hotel destination. By now we were running out of money, running out of energy and the weather was not showing any signs of improvement. After a one hour taxi ride, we arrived at our final hotel – Kuta Angel Luxurious Living Hotel. I remember our selection was made on the premise that it was close to the beach, close a widely known restaurant, appeared clean and the reviews promised of English staff on site. In the end, only one of those things turned out to be worth it.
Our room was located on the second level. There wasn’t much of a view, though I don’t suspect anyone else had much of one as well. The room was clean, bringing in lots of lights from the windows. It featured bedside controls for light and some English TV which came in handy for impromptu naps and lazy afternoons in. The only slightly weird feature was the bathroom. To maximize the light, there was an opaque ‘window’ between the main bedroom and the bathroom. When the bathroom light is also on, it created a silhouette that wasn’t as opaque which was a little awkward at times. Fair warning to friendly travelers who aren’t ready to be so close and personal with their fellow roommate. We never did make use of the pool as it was rather small and awkwardly located downstairs, inaccessible to your room without parading through the main lobby. But I imagine most visitors end up heading down to the beach instead. We made our own attempts to visit the beach but the weather just wasn’t holding up and it wasn’t the picturesque scene found all over instagram. That’s what we get for booking Bali for this time of the year.
Bali seems to have been our room service paradise. All the rain, the growing lack of physical money and our general exhaustion led to ordering some room service food and charging it to the room. To be cost efficient and energy efficient, we ordered quite a spread and ate it over the duration of lunch and dinner. Most of it tasted pretty good and my least favourite was the duck just due to the general chewiness of it. The skin wasn’t the crisp heaven I was hoping for.
My biggest disappointment with this hotel was the lack of staff who spoke English. And while I can appreciate trying to adapt and immerse in the local culture, its was simply too challenging to make any arrangements with the hotel because of this language barrier. Despite trying translating apps and learning a few basic words, they simply refused to meet us half way and on more than one occasion, I could sincerely feel my frustration rising. But hey, that’s just my experience.
As we searched for one last local food stop, we noticed on the map that this popular restaurant was just down the street. Made’s Warung has a huge selection of items. Their menu online showcases both Balinese, Indonesian, and Western food items. We arrived for the lunch hour and were brought upstairs despite most tables remaining empty on the main level – but it gave us a bird’s eye view of the surroundings and my sister and I did not have to awkwardly look at each other yet again. I don’t recall now the names of our exact food selections (I’m sure someone could figure it out from the pictures below). Again, palatable food but not quite my preference so I left a little underwhelmed. That said, they have plenty of reviews online to argue in the other direction and I openly agree that it would be worth giving another shot in the future. We were mainly just happy that something like that was such a close by option for us.
Kuta Angel Hotel
Address: Jl. Pantai Kuta No.33, Pande Mas Kuta, Kuta, Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80361, Indonesia
Stay: Jan 23 – Jan 26, approx Rp 1.3M
Booked through: Booking.com
Made’s Warung
Address: Jl. Raya Seminyak, Seminyak, Kuta, Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80361, Indonesia