Investigative travel journalism is a thing. I made it so this week.

Escape

Armed with sunglasses, a bikini and an iPhone, I took myself off to Grand Hyatt Bali resort, in Nusa Dua, to see first-hand what kind of hell four nights in quarantine might look like. It was a fairly intense assignment: I spent hours sussing out the situation poolside on a recliner, followed some leads walking along the beach, ran some critical thinking while having my head and shoulders massaged.

Grand Hyatt is one of three bubble quarantine resorts on Nusa Dua, an enclave of 20 or so luxury resorts on an island adjoining the mainland in Bali’s south. Bubble quarantine is where guests can use resort facilities. There are also 14 resorts on Nusa Dua available for in-room quarantine. All the resorts are of the sprawling variety, with hundreds of rooms, big swathes of tropical garden, manicured lawns tendered to by an army of gardeners. The coastline is similarly expansive with long white sand beaches that sparkle turquoise and are cleaned and raked to perfection by resort staff.

The Grand Hyatt sits on a 17ha property and it has the longest stretch of Nusa Dua Beach out of all the resorts. Along it, trees throw dappled shade over neat lines of beach loungers, from where reclined guests can look onto a gentle surf break and a rocky island outcrop with little temples silhouetted against the blue sky. Being able to access this beach is one of the coups of quarantining at Grand Hyatt, which has sectioned off a strip of beach specifically for the purpose.

It is here that I find one of my key sources: a quarantining Russian tourist. He is on one side of the ‘restricted area: warm-up vacation guests only’ sign stuck in the sand and I am sufficiently socially distanced on the other. ‘How is it going in quarantine?’ goes my probing question. “The food is amazing, the rooms are fantastic, we can swim in the pool. I’m in heaven,” he summarily replies before running off in his little itsy bitsy swimsuit towards the waves.

I can see what he is saying. This place makes sense for quarantine and not only for the beach. The resort has four distinct guest areas – north, south, east and west ‘villages’, each with their own facilities. Quarantine guests are housed in North Village, a conferencing wing with 200 rooms that can house up to 400 people. During my stay this week, it was ranking as the most popular quarantine venue in Bali, with 40 guests arriving fresh from the Singapore Airlines flights that are now landing daily.

The resort’s ‘warm-up vacation’ package includes four night’s accommodation with full-board (breakfast, lunch and dinner), plus two PCR tests, wifi and one-way airport transfer. Alongside pool and beach access, daily wellness activities include yoga and aqua aerobics classes and mini soccer games. Guests can also get creative making baskets out of coconut leaf and painting barongs (dragons).

Ever the sleuth, when I stand on tiptoes I can see North Village from a balcony near my room in East Village. The buildings are similar – white with characteristic terracotta tiled rooftops and wood-trimmed porticos and balustrading. The gardens have rolling lawn and ponds with lily pads and little rockeries.

I’m told the rooms are similar too. The resort was built in 1991 so there’s a bit of Port Douglas–Keating era décor going on (faux marble here, dark wood there) but they’re a decent size (49sqm or 98sqm for a suite) with spacious balconies overlooking palm-striped lawns. After 30 years they still feel solid and are well maintained with decent linen, bathroom products and big bowls of tropical fruit.

The pool is nothing like the huge lagoon-shape pool of the East Village which has waterslides that loop around rocks and waterfalls. It’s more grown up – symmetrical with a fountain, little shade pavilion and rows of Balinese goddesses spouting water. There’s also a ‘mini gym’, where my Russian friend no doubt spends some mini time working those maxi glutes.

Guests can eat in-room or in a ‘dining area’. Sitting at Salsa Verde, the Italian restaurant overlooking the pool at East Village, I go gonzo on my research by trialling some of the dishes that are mentioned on the quarantine menu. I can report the quattro stagioni pizza is delicious, but the real hits are the Indo dishes: satay kampung for appetizer, whole snapper with soy, ginger and Asian greens for main.

There are a couple of caveats to be sure. The “complimentary mini bar on arrival”, is limited to soft drink, jamu and a ‘fit bar’. So no Bintang for your buck. And ‘on arrival’ means it’s not replenished every day. The other hiccup is that daily activities, including beach and swim times, are scheduled. On day three, for example, pool time is from 10.30-11.30am and 5.30-6.30pm, beach time is from 2-4pm, with activities in between. So it’s not perfect, but it still feels like heaven. So says my man on the ground. 

Story filed.