Puri Mas Beach resort is where we spent the second half of our Christmas getaway.  Coming from the slightly more rustic Gili Meno island, the fact that there was aircon in the rooms automatically made this place heaven on earth for Kingsley and my Mom. I think they both spent the first 8 hours of our time in Puri Mas lounging in our air-conditioned rooms. 

Puri Mas has an interesting history, it started out as a dream house to retire for the dutch owner Marcel de Rijk who was a world champion ballroom dancer and the Vice President of the World of Dance Council. In his travels he fell in love with Lombok and began to build his dream home in 1987 during that time he also began offering free classes to teach the locals how to ballroom dance. This dance instruction has been a huge success in Lombok with many of his students going on to compete internationally.  Here is a short you tube clip showing last years Dance Festival in Lombok.  

Marcel begins teaching the male and female students without partners due to many students being of muslim faith, only later on when they progress are they matched up with a partner. That is why you will see the room with men and woman dancing on either ends of the room.  

We were fortunate that Marcel was at Puri Mas while we were visiting so we had a chance to get to know him and his passion for dancing and the Indonesian people.  He is truly a incredibly kind and generous gentle soul.  

Back to the 80's.... when Marcel was midway through building his home in Lombok, the Indonesian government changed the rules and in order to continue building his dream home he had to make it into a hotel, so he did, and that was the start of Puri Mas. As more suites and rooms were added it has grown into a beautiful world class beach resort.  Marcel has an amazing eye for art and beauty and the resort was absolutely filled with some stunning artwork from all over the world.  Below is a short summary video of the beautiful resort he designed. 

We really couldn't find a single fault with this hotel.  The staff were incredible, especially the manager Sara.  The rooms and restaurants were amazing.  This place may rank as one of my top ten favorite hotels in Asia. My only advice is book ahead as this place is often fully booked throughout the year.