1st Rule: Never count on the word of a Balinese

The return journey from Gili Air to Bali felt like an eternity. But I don't want to go into that in detail now. What's much more important is that we arrived in Bali completely exhausted and were only looking forward to our new 'home' and three big beds.

Well... I would say we rejoiced too early. When we arrived at the villa, we had to realize that apart from the fur balls that were no longer lying around everywhere, absolutely nothing had happened. When we asked our landlady Fitri what exactly she and her staff had been doing here in the last four days, we looked into a bewildered face. 'Everything cleaning and smell dog is away.' was the answer. The stupid thing was that the 'smell dog' was not away at all. The place still smelled just as nauseating as before the Gili weekend. But since we neither had the strength nor the motivation to leave and look for a new accommodation for the next few nights, we stayed there and slept the night in the bed that didn't smell like dog.

The next two days we spent on a hardcore cleaning spree. We personally cleaned every wall and every corner. In the end, everything was spotless and the smell of dog was temporarily displaced.

The conclusion of the first days in our own villa in Bali: If you have a cleaning service included in your rent for 3 days a week, it doesn't mean that you also have a clean villa. I think we need to lower our European standards a bit.