There's also a special romantic dinner the hotel puts on down at the beach. It's only for one lucky couple, but since we were the only couple, we won the prize! They set up a table at the beach, and have a lavish seafood barbecue meal prepared by your own chef and served by your own waiter. Of course it's dark so you don't really get much benefit from the ocean, but it's still very nice. Then at the end of dinner they make a big thing of saying they're leaving, and we should go skinnydipping in the pool, plus they laid out a special love nest, pictured here, strewn with love petals. I guess the general idea is you're supposed to have sex after dinner, which was awkward on many levels, so we skipped this part of the evening.

Somchai also got a special massage while at Amankila. He opted for some rigorous sports massage, but the hotel doesn't have masseurs on staff. Instead they called in the witch doctor from the local village, who's about one hundred years old and came dressed like Hollywood's version of a witch doctor. He did some massage, but mostly it was chanting and waving things around, which supposedly cured all his ills. Since he didn't have any ills to begin with, it was difficult to gauge the doctor's success.

We also drove around the scenic hills and volcanoes of East Bali, and had a couple of short treks. The hotel has a picnic area atop one of the mountains with awesome views of the surrounding mountains. The platform appears to be one snapped stick away from tumbling down the mountain, but it was a great place for a laidback meal.

Seems like a good spot to use that filler story about Balinese names I promised earlier. Basically, the Balinese don't use last names (nor do most Indonesians generally). And they only have four first names, one each for the first, second, third, and fourth child. For example, all first children are named Wayan, whether they're male or female. Then the names recycle, so the fifth and ninth children are also named Wayan. So the millions of Balinese are all called one of four names, with no last names, which I would imagine is a huge pain in the ass for the Yellow Pages.

The rooms were probably our favorite of the trip as well, more typically Aman in decor, although also probably the smallest (and still with the marble floors). But the rooms at the other two properties just seemed to have lots of empty space, which I find slightly depressing. The views were also fantastic as well, and hanging out on the terrace in front of our room was a favorite way to waste time. The big negative about the rooms is the walkway needed to connect them all. Since it's on a very steep slope, it would be impossible to get around the hotel without these walkways, but they're really ugly, white cement bridges and staircases that crisscross the whole property. While they're a practical necessity, they can definitely be less intrusive and they should rebuild them, because they give the whole place a Jetsons sort of feel that's not really what Bali is all about. Amankila: overall: 7 (room: 7, facilities: 6, service: 9, wow: 1, the view from the pool)

The public spaces of the hotel are quite pretty as well, airy and taking full advantage of the great views. We also thought the food was the best of the three hotels as well. As an added bonus, they had lots of impromptu entertainment, like a chorus of local schoolkids, which was very nice and not as kitschy as the traditional dance stuff that's very popular in tourist shows across Asia. The pool was the best feature, taking full advantage of the hotel's location along a cliff. It's really three levels of infinity pools layered like a rice terrace, and is a great place to lounge around all day. Between the three pools and the beach below you could easily spend the day sunbathing around the property, which is highly recommended because there's not that much to do otherwise.

85. Candidasa

The following morning we checked out and moved on to Amankila, our next hotel. Amankila is a long, 3 hour drive east of Ubud, on the very empty eastern coast of Bali. It was probably our favorite hotel of the three, although again not without drawbacks. Service was fantastic, again partly because it's an Aman, and partly because we were almost the only guests. In fact, a couple of Amans located in the main Indonesian island of Java had temporarily closed up and the managers were helping to manage Amankila, so I think there were more managers than guests during our stay. This is also the only Aman on a beach in Bali, which is quite strange considering Bali is synonymous with beaches for most people. Being on the water meant great views all around, from our room, the restaurant, and the pools, although getting to the beach itself was a bit of a chore. The resort is built high above the water, so the walk down to the beach takes about twenty minutes, and walking back up takes considerably longer. The other drawback of the beach is there's some sort of cement plant or refinery to the right of the hotel. It's quite far away,but definitely noticeable as you soak in the views.