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The bus took about an hour and a half to Lovina and I decided to stay at the first place I looked at being that it was quite good value at $5.50 a night with a basic breakfast. I decided that I would spend a bit of time here and recuperate after having quite a busy time the last week and a half in Java. Of course the first thing I did was to have a walk around town and I came to the conclusion that it hasn't changed a great deal since I was here for New Years Eve 2001. It has a nice and relaxed feel to it and it is not full of tourists. Which is probably not a great thing for all the vendors who are trying to make a living.
Saturday I really didn't do much at all, but on sunday I decided to get up early and go on a boat ride to see the dolphins. So me, two local girls, and the skipper headed out in our traditional outrigger style boat at 6am and were soon joined by about 25 other boats all looking for the dolphins. Over the next hour and a
half we ended up spotting them at least 20 times, some close to the boat and other times at a fair distance. I believe there were only 2 or 3 groups of these dolphins and I felt a little sorry for them once they were spotted and 15 boats rushed over. Obviously I contribute to this and if I remember it was a similar experience when I did it almost 10 years ago, so I guess the dolphins don't mind that much.
On monday I hired a motorbike and headed up into the hills towards Munduk. I decided to take the backroads which turned out to be a very good idea because the only traffic were other motorbikes and no tourists. Obviously there must still be plenty of areas in Bali where you can find very few or no tourists. Due to talking to locals for too long at a small shop along the way I did not have time to have a good look around Munduk. I enjoyed a nice lunch there at one of the guesthouses, and then rode a few kilometers out of town to have a look at the waterfall. I then headed up towards
the top of the mountain before returning to Lovina via a very steep and neglected road which was quite nice because it was shady and had almost no traffic. Motorbikes are quite cheap to rent in Bali. For a days hire including fuel for about 80 kms it cost me under $5.
Tuesday I went on a snorkel tour to Menjangan Island which is a highly rated site. Fortunately there was only another couple in my minivan and a total of five of us on the boat excluding a couple of guides and the skipper. We snorkelled in 2 locations and both were great with a lot of fish and also great variety. The coral was also pretty good and the only thing missing were other types of sea creatures such as turtles, stingrays, sharks, etc. As far as coral and types of fish go this location was better than Perhentian Islands and Tioman Island which I had snorkelled recently. That night I went to a small performance of traditional music and dance by kids from a local village. Although the show only lasted about 45 minutes it was highly entertaining and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Wednesday I didn't do much but on thursday I hired the motorbike again and rode out to Gitgit falls, about 30 kms away. The falls were quite impressive and there were a lot of local tourists having a good time. I had some lunch there and then decided to ride back past Lovina and go to Sing Sing falls. There really wasn't much to see because it is the dry season so the falls were not very impressive. I played a few games of pool with the locals and then took the bike back.
I have enjoyed the laid back atmosphere of Lovina as well as the friendly locals and may come back this way in August. Tomorrow I am off to Amed in the northeast corner of Bali.
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