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Published: June 10th 2008
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I left Ubud and headed to the north of Bali, to a town called Lovina, recommended by Lisa whom I had met in Singapore (Hi Lisa if you're reading this!!). Lovina isn't your typical beach-side resort as it's made up from black volcanic sand so it's spectacular in a different way. The bus journey from Ubud had lovely views as we went over a mountainous area and then made our descent with views of the coast and where we were heading down below. The town is a lot smaller and quieter than Ubud which was a nice change after the hectic schedule of sightseeing in Ubud. Also on Lisa's recommendation I checked into a cheap hotel called Angkosa that had a good location and an AMAZING pool area. Ellin (from Sweden) and Carlos (from Brazil) who were on my bus also headed there and we ended up spending quite a bit of time together for those few days that I was there. Both had done a lot of travelling so we were swapping tales and information, and because we were all alone, it was nice to have some company.
Most of my time in Lovina the three of us sunbathed
by the hotel pool during the day and then went out for dinner in the evening. One morning, Carlos and I went to the market and bought a selection of fruit and we had a healthy picnic by the pool. I visited the Air Banjar Hot Springs one day — located west of Lovina, it's a natural hot springs 'swimming pool' with stone carved mouths gushing water and a fragrant aroma of eggs...It was lovely to see but there wasn't much to do and when you came out of the pool area your skin had turned a delightful yellow colour!! One afternoon I had heard there was a performance on the beach so I headed down to take a look and ended up being seated in the audience of a 'mock' stage. There was a lovely band playing traditional Balinese music and the local ladies brought me a boat made out of banana leaf which was stuffed with water and snacks including the cutest little baked cake. The performance was an annual celebration, known as the Gong Kebyar Festival. Gamelan Gong Kebyar is a modern style or genre of Balinese gamelan music. Kebyar means "the process of flowering", and refers
to the explosive changes in tempo and dynamics characteristic of the style. It is the most popular form of gamelan in Bali, and its best known musical export. The instruments include a number of 'Gangsa' of different sizes. They have bronze keys, suspended over bamboo resonators and are struck with wooden mallets. It's a really beautiful shimmering steel band - type sound. Accompanying the music of course was a few different traditional dance performances. The show lasted about 90 minutes which was really enjoyable as the sun was beginning to set. Afterwards, I met up with Carlos and we sat on the beach to watch the remainder of the sunset. It's lovely to stumble across these local events and to find out their origin and see how much they mean to the local people.
Saving the best for last, my highlight of my trip to Bali, and indeed a main highlight of my time away so far, started at 5.30am one morning!! I was going on a boat trip (which began in the pitch black - kind of eery) to see the dolphins feeding just off the coast of Lovina. They feed at sunrise so it's the best time
to see them in groups. I set sail on a tiny (canoe width) boat with another couple and our boat driver, Atu. It was freezing cold and there was only the moonlight shimmering on the surface of the water to guide our way, who knows how the local boatmen know which direction to go in!! The water was flat calm so there was no sound as we made our way into pitch darkness! Eventually the sun began to poke up behind the hills to our right side and we could make out a few more boats in the distance. It wasn't until the sun was rising over the sea that we made our first dolphin sighting...along with many other boats around us! It was really breathtaking seeing the sun rise in the distance and many dolphins jumping in and out of the water! More and more boats began to encircle the dolphins and our driver turned around and said "This isn't good for the dolphins, they're hunting them. They'll come back, we'll just wait here quietly." And then promptly made the three of us a cup of tea and gave us a banana. Most of the other boats went off
in other directions and we just drifted there drinking our tea. Our driver was right, the dolphins came back, and by then there were very few boats around and they came right up close to our boat!! It was extremely difficult to get a good picture of them as they were so quick and you could never really guess where they were going to bob out of the water next!! After a while the dolphins left and our driver took us off in another direction and found us some more dolphins to see, this time there was one particular dolphin showing off some tricks and was literally jumping vertically out of the water, over and over again! It was amazing to watch and nice we were the only boat around to witness this. It was still slightly dark and our driver pointed into the water to show us the phosphorus...as you looked into the sea, there were thousands of blue glowing 'stars' - that's the only way I can describe them, they were like fairy lights in the water, and were spectacular! He said that the dolphins feed on the phosphorus but I have found no information on the web
to support this so I'm not so sure! We then went on and found some more dolphins, there were a few boats around but they were looking in the wrong direction and I managed to get a good video clip of a school (pod) of dolphins as we were drifting along beside them (attached to the blog). I couldn't believe what an amazing experience I had that morning, it was one of those 'moments' you know you will remember for a long time....and it had cost me a mere 50,000 rupiah (about 3 GBP)....Priceless memories!!!
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mum
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Magical Dolphins
Loved the dolphins, do you remember seeing them in the USA all those years ago ? Hugs and xxxxxxx Mum