Chasing dolphins, fishing and more nature wonders

---

After a couple of nice days in the South ( despite of the mass tourism ) we moved to the North, a small village called Anturan, part of Lovina beach.

We hired a car with driver for IDR 350.000 and he stopped at a few nice places inland. First of all batik and silver craft shops.... then we tasted some nice coffees in the mountains. There lives a special cat-like beast here that eats the coffe beans and digest only the skin, men collect the beans again after secretion and burns it into apparently the best coffee around. The coffee is named after the animal: Luwak coffee. Unfortunately we didn't taste this coffee and we didn't buy any, price was a bit too exuberant ( for 50g +-€15 ). Of course this is also a tourist trap because we got already other prices later on and this was half the price... it's all about bargaining here in Bali. You never know if you were ripped off, they all say the good price is the price you want to pay... But we tasted other very nice coffees; coconut coffee, vanilla coffee etc... If now somebody would be interested to get this Luwak coffee just send us a email!

Further on we stopped at Kintamani for the Batur volcanoes and lakes for some nice views. The way down the mountain to Lovina was very long and zig zag, so of course one of the kids had to puke again. We learned by now that we need a few plastic bags and spare clothes in the car!

Here in Lovina we stayed at a nice homestay ( Gede ) on the beach... Beaches here are black because of the volcanoes. The water was a minor because of all the dirt you had to swim around in. 100 meters further there is a little river running into the sea and it brings dirt down from inland, what a shame. Luckily we could go for a swim in the neighbours pool and when the kids are happy, the parents get some rest...!

Here in Lovina it got clear that you need to ask around a lot for prices and bargain before deciding to start an activity. First day we relaxed and checked things out, next dat we got the best deals and that's when we started our activities.

We could witness a ceremony held at the homestay, during which a holy man and a lot more Balinese people blessed the house , this took 3 hours, it started with 2 hours a delay, and it looked like a nice coffe table without coffee but with a lot of local music and chatting. they even offered a puppy; we were all in shock when we saw it, especially the kids of course.

Fishing at sunset was not a great succes but fun and nice to be there on the water and see the sun go down! We caught a few small fish that we ate anyway...! We've seen fishermen coming in with their small boats who caught some huge Marlin (compared to the boats), don't know how they pull them up?

Day tour inland .... beautifull but tiring. We saw the twin waterfalls, Bratan lakes, Bedulu temple and Munduk region with rice fields and hotsprings at Banjar. Really warm and not refreshing! Unfortanetely the batterie of our camera ran low, so only a few photo's taken that day.

Spotting dolphins at dawn ( 6am ) ... yeah, we had been hesitating if we should do it or not, because on blogs you read a lot of contra's. Between 6 and 8 am you can find a few dozens of boats all at the same spot looking out for dolphins and when some get spotted the captains fire up the engins to get there as fast and close as possible to probably please the tourists... Luckily our captain was one of the kind and easy type, he held back a bit and didn't chase the beasts away, because that's what happens really when those boys think they show off by getting very close! For us this was a shame and we were not charmed by the way the boats behaved, although we saw the dolphins swim and jumping up next to our boat. Of course this is how these men make their living so that's why we decided to join in. We forgot to load the camera, so again, no photo's...

Last day we layzed around in Lovina just to get out of the hotel area, and it's a real big contrast! The idyllic scene of the beach, palmtrees and sunset and around the corner you'll find a world of poverty and people surviving.

Anyway, we headed to the night market although our driver had disadviced us because our stomachs were not used to this kind of food...😊 He's right but this couldn't hold us back. We ordered some nice food for half the price as in the hotels and ate black rice for the first time. Lekker! Stef is touching wood because in Penang I got sick during 5 days (that's also why you will not find a blog about Penang, I was just passing my days hoping I was going to get better for our trip to Sumatra).

5 days was more then enough here... I now realize how much I liked the ocean and beach in the south. But nothing is perfect.

---

Comments

[mieke]

so happy to see you all
Ongelooflijk hoe jullie veranderd zijn, especially the kids, en dan vooral Skye : grote mooie slanke jongen. Livjen je ziet er prachtig uit met je mooie jurk en je lieve glimlach. Ik kan alleen maar kijken naar al die plaatsen die jullie bezoeken, het lekkere eten en de mooie natuur en het is dus vooral naar jullie vijfjes dat ik het liefst zit te kijken. Love you all and miss you terribly. Moeke