Refresher course

IT'S a languid August afternoon in Bali and I am squandering precious free time mind-doodling about air.

IT'S a languid August afternoon in Bali and I am squandering precious free time mind-doodling about air.

I think I know now exactly what it means when they say "a warm breeze caressed her cheek". And, truly, those palms over there are whispering in the wind. But how wonderful it is to be engulfed in a tropical cliche.

I have been at the Holiday Inn Resort Baruna Bali for only two days but already that weird telescoping effect called holiday time is working. It has taken me just a couple of hours to finish a book that has sat beside my bed for almost six months. And in more than 40 years I have never once managed to make a swim-up bar a priority. Yet how easy it is to achieve the perfect combination of liquids within and without when the pool and sunken service area is just a short stroll from the shady private veranda outside my garden room.

The beachfront Baruna resort, which opened in March, just down the path from the main Kuta strip, represents an entirely new style for Holiday Inn and it seems to have the right combination of accessibility in price and facilities, along with the luxury elements that justify that word resort.

There is the Tea Tree Spa offering a signature Balinese massage (just firm enough to remind you of those kneaded muscles when you wriggle into your cossies the next day), two restaurants (Palms offers Indonesian and Western fare, while Envy is the chill-out bar serving food with an Italian bent) and at the centre of it is the inviting pool that looks like a giant blue cocktail glass surrounded by decorative umbrellas.

But if all that sounds fairly standard, don't be fooled. This is a resort with its own twist on traditional Balinese characteristics. I can explain by starting with the Balinese themselves: the staff. A jaunty little trilby hat worn at a rakish angle paired with a tight-fitting shirt in matching khaki tones and checks does not say Bali. But the uniforms worn by the Baruna staff are designed to create an atmosphere of openness, friendliness and fun, to encourage staff to shed their usual reserve and engage with guests.

General manager Stephane Varoquier, a Frenchman who started his career as a waiter and went on to become the regional director of hotel finance for the InterContinental Hotels Group, tells an instructive tale about how he recruited staff for this, the first hotel he has managed and therefore his testing ground.

"Our staff have an outgoing attitude," he says. "Most hotel staff in Bali are not as open and engaging. Usually you recruit staff based on their CV, but we wanted to break that. We organised a marketing campaign using billboards and radio, so that anyone could apply if they had a great personality."

The hotel set up two days of interviews at Planet Hollywood in October last year and about 2000 applicants, many with little or no experience, turned up to audition for the 130 or so jobs. It sounds like a version of Bali Idol but the results are readily apparent. Everyone from the pool cleaner to the gardener and the receptionist offers a warm greeting and is happy to chat or leave you in peace, just as you desire. It helps to build an atmosphere of easygoing accessibility and efficiency that's just right for a holiday.

But let's not forget those traditional Balinese characteristics. One afternoon early in my stay, guests are invited to watch the Piodalan ceremony at the resort temple. The ceremony, held about every six months, is to pray for the safety and prosperity of everything on earth. Everyone, including guests, must wear a sarong and sash and appropriate shirt.

The public part of the ceremony, including a terrifically loud and rhythmic group of musicians, very tall umbrellas with ridiculously small gold or white shades, offerings at the temple, special holy water and blessings from Teluk Waru temple and a priest to conduct the rituals, begins at 4pm. But it is after 7.30pm before the staff have finished the process. On this day it is the Balinese gods who take precedence over the gods of tourism.

There are differences, too, for this Holiday Inn in the style of the rooms and the layout of the resort. As Varoquier says, Baruna Inn will set the standard for a new generation of Holiday Inn resorts. This is no high-rise block of identical cubes with a pool parked out front. Here there is a range of rooms to match just about every guest's need.

There are two kinds of family room, depending on the age or stage of children. The Kids' Suite includes a separate children's bedroom with twin single beds in the shape of boats complete with captain's wheel and furniture with an oceanic theme such as a whale-shaped chair. Baruna, after all, is the Balinese god of the sea.

For children the best thing about the suite may be the separate bathroom with bath, flat-screen television and Wii or PlayStation, but for the parents the most adored feature by far is sure to be the door between the kids' area and the adults' domain.

For older children, or a group of friends, the Family Suite has a separate bedroom with larger bunk beds. The resort's facilities cater for all age groups. The kids' club Rascals includes activities such as dress-ups, henna hand-painting and nail-decorating, as well as a pirate ship. The Family Suites face on to the kids' play equipment, so parents can watch from their balconies. Those too old for child's play can escape to the Zone 12-18, an appropriately moody-looking room off-limits to adults that offers video games, squashy furniture and time away from sunlight, physical activity and parents.

For those unencumbered by the joys of parenthood, accommodation ranges from the Superior Room -- most with balcony, floor-to-ceiling windows, flat-screen TV, internet, CD and DVD player -- to the Ocean Room, offering a view of the pool and central garden area. The mini-bars are left unstocked so you can buy what you choose at town prices from the hotel shop.

Up the hierarchy are the six Grand Ocean Rooms, which can cater for four adults, and the 12 Ajana Suites, which are more like a one-bedroom apartment and offer the most privacy as well as a free-standing bathtub and a rain-shower open to the sky. Best of all is the Baruna Suite, which can accommodate four adults and has a bathroom to match.

The decor of the hotel could be described as Bali modern. Instead of the dark teak and heat-escaping dimness of older-style hotels, here there is much more light and airiness, with white limestone feature walls, bubbling fountains and shallow pools in the corridors inviting coolness, and public areas open to the breeze at every corner.

The chocolate brown columns of the lounge adjacent to the lobby echo mahogany tree trunks and the entire area is open to catch the gentle wind blowing in from the ocean; large white blinds can be pulled down to block the glare. In the rooms, white linen is offset by the rich colours of strips of traditional Balinese woven cloth laid across the beds. The materials are warm: tiled floors and a thickly woven rug in shades of dark brown; resin-encased panels of wooden blocks for the cupboard doors; large woven light-shades and artworks of Balinese textiles and paint. (Why can't hotels get art right?)

Gardeners at every turn tend to the bright green shag rug of grass and keep at bay the rampant tropical foliage. Giant ivory-coloured, egg-shaped bowls nurture pink bougainvilleas that cascade down from the curvy edges of the shells. Frangipani flowers show up richly yellow against the red-tiled roofs, their corners decorated with all-seeing grey stone dragons.

Near the Envy bar, which fronts straight on to the beach, a silver-coloured, candle-powered chandelier hangs from a tree over the sand, inviting evening beach strollers in to enjoy a cocktail at sunset. Try an Aussie Mary, vodka shaken with a homemade bloody mary mix of roasted tomatoes, steak and cajun spices with lemon juice, served with pickled ginger and speared cherry tomatoes, or an Envy Foam, vanilla-infused vodka and butterscotch schnapps, finished with homemade butterscotch and cinnamon foam.

The chairs and tables at Envy used to cascade down on to the beach, but tightened security has meant keeping guests within the bounds of the hotel and employing guards at all the entrances. Uniformed guards using mirrors on long sticks check the undersides of vehicles at every large hotel's entry points in Bali these days but that's no barrier to interaction between tourists and locals.

While the security at Baruna keeps those touting for business ("Massage, lady?") out of close range, the entire Bintang T-shirt, batik souvenir, Discovery Mall (with KFC and Top Shop) experience of Kuta Beach is just a few minutes' walk away. And while much of Perth seems to be ensconced in folding chairs perched on the beach near the footpath to Kuta every evening, you can easily escape to the privacy of the Baruna when you have had enough of beer and bartering.

Although there are lots more little snippets of hotel life I could mention (the calzone at Envy is huge; the Flavaz coffee bar serves kopi luwak, the gourmet drink made with coffee beans collected from the dung of civets; try at your peril the Indonesian dessert that looks and tastes like lolly soup; beware: there is a Teppan ice-cream bar), there is only one more secret I feel I must pass on. Near the end of the Balinese massage at Tea Tree Spa, they massage your ears. And it feels great. Now who ever heard of that?

Petra Rees was a guest of Holiday Inn Resort Baruna.

Checklist

Holiday Inn Resort Baruna Bali has ocean rooms starting from $US170 ($196), Kids' Suites from $US200, Family Suites from $US260. Add 11 per cent government tax and 10 per cent service charge. Rates fluctuate by season. More: www.bali.holidayinn.com.