Lovina

Ubud, Lovina. Rainy, hot and humid and too much motor scooter traffic. Ubud is a mess and has lost it's charm. We picked up our extended visa, packed up the stuff we bought and some things we didn't need any more and sent them back home by the cheapest method, cost $156!!! I hope I do not find any of these trinkets in Cost Plus.

After two days we got a driver to take us to Lovina (it is cheaper than a bus for two or more people and you can stop when you want). The road is decent, but the last ten miles is the windiest switchback road I've ever been on. We couldn't wait for it to end. Finally arrived in Lovina at a wonderful hotel with a nice restaurant and cute cabins on the beach. Unfortunately, there was no wif-fi except at an internet cafe down the atreet for $5/hour. The ocean at Lovina is interesting in that it is almost as calm as a lake. On a clear day you can see Java on the horizon.

Lovina is located near the second largest city in Bali of Singaraja which has the biggest university and has a college town vibe. That isn't to say it is a party town or a liberal bastion like Berkeley, but for Bali it is different by not really being a tourist town.  There is a large and famous Buddhist site in the hills nearby and Lovina  is also the wine grape growing area of Bali and we saw several vineyards as we drove around, but did not see any wineries to visit although we have had the fairly decent wines from this area.

This time of year is considered the low season and especially in Lovina. It was amazing to see the unused capacity available in the restaurants and drinking spots and how empty they looked. We would have dinner in wonderful places with two other couples in the whole place. It helped us get some reductions in the hotel rate and motor scooter rental.

There is supposed to be the best diving in Bali at a place about 30 miles to the west around an island off the coast.  The few hotels in that area are very expensive so that is why we didn't stay there, but in cheaper Lovina and signed up with a local dive shop.     

Back to Bali and the town of Sanur

Sanur is supposed to have nice beaches and hopefully someplace where we can get our hair cut, our laundry done properly and some decent wi-fi. We zoomed back on the fast boat from Nusa Lembagen and were met by a hotel driver and taken to our room which as usual was awful so they showed us another room which was less awful and we settled in.

  BTW: this is typical, we have learned that they usually show you the worst room first and if you take it, fine, problem solved.  We know better and always ask to see another room which is alway better. If we don't like the hotel, the next day we find another and move to that one. That is why we have been to 19 hotels so far.

The beaches were nice except when the tide is out which is all this week from 9am until 4pm. and then they are rocky sand pits with seaweed and no way to swim. Oh well. However Sanur has a wonderful boardwalk that goes for a few miles from one end of town to the other all along the beach with only pedestrians and bicyclists allowed. Great idea, maybe other Balinese towns on the beach will consider it.

The first night we located a really nice air-conditioned salon, made an appointment for the next day. We went back and both of us got what we needed, but interestingly it cost about the same as in the states. Probably because Sanur has a bunch of $300+ per night hotels.

  Other than hair care and laundry and some decent restaurants (I secretly went off to the McDonald's and had a cheeseburger for $2.30, yummy.) there is not much for hippy travelers like ourselves so we arranged to get to Ubud to pick up our extended visas and head off to Lovina on the north coast.   

Candi Dasa, Nusa Lembagan

 Dasa, Nusa Lembagan:

The last ten days have been a whirlwind of pack and move, pack and move (if we don't like a hotel we move; happens with most places we go). After Amed we got a driver to take us from Amed to the town of Candi Dasa on the north east coast where the road from Amed goes south and then gets back to the coast. We had been to Candi Dasa on our last trip 17 years ago and remember it as a pretty, quiet town with decent snorkeling. Candi Dasa has grown, but is still pretty nice with more hotel and restaurant choices than before. We stayed at a fabulous place called Aquaria on the water (there really isn't any beach) owned by a couple from New Zealand. There were only about eight rooms, they were modern and airy and they all opened to the pool. The best part was the restaurant, it was known as the best in town and that is saying alot.

We stayed for two days, relaxed, met an wonderful Australian couple and took some motor-scooter trips to nearby alleged beautiful beaches (Sadly, they were not. Instead they were actually covered with garbage, plastic bags and whatever both on the beach and for fifty feet out in to the bay.). We also visited a beautiful water temple (had lunch a restaurant nearby and got the best tomato soup yet!)

Our next destination was to a small island off of the south east coast called Nusa Lembagan famous for seaweed farming (seriously!) and alleged to have good snorkeling. We boarded a "fast boat" for the 45 minute ride from Sanur and landed at the port of the only town on the island and were met by someone from the hotel who drove us and our luggage in a very old three-wheeled cargo scooter to the hotel. As usual, as soon as we arrive somewhere we put our bags in to the room, found our bathing suits and headed down to the pool for some drinks and chatting it up with the other travelers (almost always from Australia). Back to life as normal.

The hotel had a big projection screen over the bar where on the first night they played rock concert music videos (if you've never heard of the Irish group The Corrs, you need to see and hear them and their song "Runaway"). This went on until past 2am (sign said music and bar closes at 10pm) with the manager and a bunch of drunken Aussies and Lily having a good time. I went to bed at 11:30 and got up around 1:30 when I realized that Lily was not back I went down to the bar to rescue her and ended up staying till they closed. I think the neighbors must have complained because the next night the bar closed at 10pm.

  One good thing about the island is that are no cars, but there are plenty of motor-scooters. We rented one and rode around the island for about four hours stopping here and there driving on roads of various quality with little traffic except for dogs and pigs and goats and dodging huge pot holes and sandy areas.

  All along the waterfront and up along the hill on one side of the bay there are many restaurants and hotels and dive shops so we had plenty of choices for eating or diving. We signed up for a three hour snorkel trip the next day. The boat ride around the island was interesting with beautiful blue water, island scenery. We stopped at a couple of places and snorkeled for awhile, but the fish and other creatures must have gone on vacation somewhere else. We decided not to bother with signing up for a dive trip.

Everyone told us we should go to this restaurant for the beautiful sunset view called Scallywags, which was also the name of a great restaurant on Gili Trawangan (re: earlier blog about the islands off Lombok). Hop on motor scooter and off we go. The fun part is getting there, the two or three mile trip is on a road that is a motocross challenge of potholes and drop-offs and dirt. It is worth the drive, though, the restaurant sits on a small cove with cliffs on either side and huge crashing waves and faces the sunset and has an infinite horizon pool and large comfy chairs and excellent food and drinks! Which was a good thing because after the drive we definitely needed a drink to relax and a soak in the pool. Later we met the owner, a real character from Britian who owns two others Scallywags; the one on Gili Trawangan and one in Bali. In spite of the challenging drive to get there (owner plans to somehow get it paved) the food, drink and sunset were so nice we went back two more times.

  Lembagan fun fact: The seaweed farming in Nusa Lembagan is the main economy after tourism. It takes a huge amount of work and time to produce the stuff to the point where they can sell it (by the ton) to companies that use it as an additive for making all kinds of food and other products that we eat or use every day, who knew?

I would describe the culture on Nusa Lembagen to be Bali with an island attitude; more laid back and slow than Bali proper. We liked it, but after four days we had had enough fun on the island and needed some civilization after the last weeks of rural small towns and this island so it was back to Bali and the coastal town of Sanur.

There will tons of pix in the gallery in a day or so.