We stayed in Sunset View Hotel. The communal space, furnished with easy chairs and low tables, was flooded after a torrential downpour. Big toads were jumping about.
We quickly inspected our room, no leaking roof, no creepy crawlies. Sunset View
Hotel is a fairly basic hotel. During the week you are probably the only guest in the hotel. On Thursday evenings, the first few guests from Jakarta arrive. There are more arrivals on Friday and by Saturday the place is crowded. On Sunday afternoons most people return home. Mondays are unusually quiet, and not all beach warungs are open. However, when you ask them, they are always glad to prepare a meal. It may take some time as they will have to go and buy the ingredients first.
Our room was sparsely furnished: two beds, one table, one chair, and just enough space to put our luggage. We also had a separate mandi room--an Indonesian-type bathroom. The mandi is a tiled tub filled with water. With a small plastic saucepan, you scoop up water and pour it over the body parts you want to wash. When the water in the mandi runs down, you fill it up, but there is only a cold water tap. The mandi and the squat toilet are both raised up several centimetres off of the floor. There is drainage in the floor, so you can dump a scoop full of water anywhere and it eventually drains out.
It takes some practice to wash your hands; take a scoop, pour water over your hands, one at a time. Put down the scoop and pick up the soap. Don’t rinse your hands in the mandi but take out scoops of water and pour this over your right hand. Take the scoop in your left hand and now you can rinse your right hand. Usually I do this over the toilet, then the water drains out. As your hands get cleaner, take more scoops and clean the handle of the scoop while holding it. Never rinse your soapy hands or the scoop in the mandi. The water in the mandi should remain clean.