Imbibing

Along with amazing restaurants, Bali is also developing some excellent coffee houses, and while I prioritised visiting some of them, my first encounter was more or less an accident. The only reason I found Revolver, a natty little hipster espresso bar hidden away in an alley off Seminyak's main street, was because I stopped to get some flyers from a booth next door.


The vibe is one of a bohemian art student share house, only with far better coffee. Like all cool eateries in Bali it exists entirely for the benefit of tourists and ex-pats, although Revolver is more about the laidback surfer types than the beer swilling bogans. The man sitting opposite me was typical of the customers: a skinny, sunburnt, scruffy American, lounging about in nothing but board shorts and those braided leather and wood bracelets and anklets that inexplicably multiply on hippies in the same way that condiments multiply in a bachelor's fridge.


But the coffee really was wonderful.





Afterwards I took a long walk up the beach in search of more luxury Balinese hospitality, eventually stopping for a martini at the W Retreat, which is expensive even by Perth standards. Fortunately while it costs $500 a night to stay there, the drinks are more affordable.








There's nothing like a cold, ninja-festooned martini sipped under the palm trees on a late tropical afternoon.


For dinner, we went to an unmemorably named Italian restaurant near the hotel, which appeared to be run by an actual Italian. As such, the courses were laid out in the Italian manner, the pizza wasn't overwrought, and everything we ate was simply delicious. The gelati selection was a little basic, but I'll cut them some slack since we're in Bali, not Bolongna.