H-moon Recap: A Rainforest stay vs. a hotel at the beach

So in Australia I told you yesterday about La Pacifique apartments and showed a video tour of how amazing the place we spent 5 nights in Burleigh Beach in Queensland was.  Well, on one night (Wednesday), we took an almost 2 hour drive to Lamington National Forest.  It's a park inland from the beaches that is a rainforest up in the mountains.  It was the only night that we actually booked before we left for the honeymoon. 

We stayed at a place called O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat (I think it was $385 for one night!).  We were expecting a super cool resort type feel and though it was definitely nice, when we arrived, we felt more like we were in a youth camp in the woods.  :)

Again I will say that it is hard to truly get a sense of what a place looks like from pictures on a web site.  We were definitely not getting what we expected, but it was still very pretty and a very cool place to stay.  And our room was great.  Here is another (much shorter) video tour:

Me in the jacuzzi :)  We kinda overdid it with the bubbles...they were spilling out into the room :)

Fireplace in our bedroom - we did of course use that the one night we were there!  You just gotta!

So I will share more about this beautiful place in an upcoming recap.  For now, I'll share about the other hotel we stayed at in Kuta, Bali (Indonesia).  It's called the Wina Holiday Villas and Mr Fix It has stayed there several times before on his trips to Bali.  He loves it as it is right across the street from Kuta beach.  You may remember that our pup who just passed away was named Kuta after this location.  :)

Anyway, the Wina Villas ($75 per night) were pretty nice considering that you're staying in Bali - it is afterall a 3rd world country and very different from where we live.  I will post some great pics and video of the 'city' and culture there in upcoming posts.  For now, here's a few pics of the hotel.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics off of my camera so these are all from their web site, but they are pretty true to reality :)

The main entrance

The pool side restaurant where we had breakfast every morning (Included in the reservation)

A view from the restaurant looking out at the pool

(we did not spend any time at the pool other than to jump in and rinse off after we came in from the beach)

What the rooms looked like.  The first night we stayed there, we had to have a room with two beds that they pushed together.  Then they switched us to a room with a large bed for the next two nights.  A little bit of the hassle with not having pre-booked reservations but not a big deal.

The cool thing about this place was that we could walk to the beach, the main strip of shops and restaurants and of course the little internet access they provided in the hotel itself.  :)  It was way cheaper to use the internet in Bali than in Australia.

The hotel was great.  Nice and decent food.  Unfortunately, we didn't have very hot water.  And one day we had to let it run for 15 minutes to get it 'warm.'  So we were quick with our showers.   And you needed them, because it was totally humid in Bali.  The temperature was in the upper 80's but the humidity made it feel a lot hotter.  Still not horrible though.  It was nice enough to walk around in shorts and tanks at night time and during the day we were out traveling to beaches anyway looking for surf for Mr Fix It.

Being the super friendly talkative guy that he is, Mr Fix It made friends with everyone wherever we went.  One day we got back to the hotel and one of the guard gate workers smiled at Mr Fix It.  He asked him if he needed a water or anything to drink.  I don't think the guy understood what he was saying because he just kept smiling and nodding.  Mr Fix It went in to the hotel bar and ordered a soda and when it was delivered he told the waiter to take it out and give it to the guy at the gate - I forget his name but Mr Fix It knew it. 

When we left later that night, the worker smiled and thanked Mr Fix It several times.  He's just kind of a good, generous guy that way...and that's why I married him!  :)