Day 18, 19 & 20: Bromo Sunrise & Lovina Beach

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The Bromo Volcano can been visited by a day tour or a multiple day tour. Our, you can visit the Bromo Sunrise tour. These tour findest mostly place on top of the Mountain Pananjakan. A long day of travelling to reach Bali. At Bali, we drove through the north to the small town of Lovina, close by the beach known as Lovina Beach. The beach is famous for the dolphins.



If you would like to do the Sunrise tour, you need to turn your alarm quite early on. At 03:30 the tour leaves from our hotel. With jeeps, you will drive to the the Mountain Pananjakan and the jeep will park somewhere besides the road where he can park. Therefore, most people have to climb by feet on the mountain to reach the top of it. If you are lucky and on time, your jeep might park higher on the mountain, which means you do not have to walk that far. It can be a 30 to 40 minutes walk and it is continues climbing. For people which are not good on their feet and are not able to walk that long, you might hire a scooter. You can hire a scooter at some points. This walk is also not good double for very young kids, you might need a child buggy. As you probably would read in your travel guide, it is very crowded and you better can find another place than Mountain Pananjakan and I have to totally agree with this. To be honest, I think this excursion was horrible. Why? It was so crowded that a lot of people, including me, do not had any good sight. Some people have a spot and get angry when other people are standing behind them. I saw many discussions and angry people. It took long and it was not nice. If you do not have a primary spot, and especially with children, this excursion is not nice. If you would like to see a Bromo Sunset, you need to find other locations than at Mountain Pananjakan. At 06:30 we were back in the hotel. A long day of driving was a head of us, so I found this excursion spilled time.



The rest of the day was filled with sitting in the bus. It took quite long. The reason here for is the crowded roads. A lot of heavy loaded trucks are driving on these roads and they drive quite slow. With that much busy road, the bus could not overhaul these trucks. Therefore we had a major delay. It seems like the traffic get’s more busy each year, therefore, I would not suggest to drive in one day from The Bromo Volcano area to Bali, even to North-west Bali. As we did. Therefore it was a long drive. We reached our destination in Bali at 20:30 (local time in Bali, 19:30 time in Java). So, it was a very long day and in my eyes a long day. Also, due the disappointment in the morning. I also was tired, so I slept mostly of the time in the bus.



At 15:30 local time on Java, the ferry to Bali would leave. You need to go to the harbour known as Ketapang in Java. We stood in the row, and all salesman came to the bus “buy a sunglass?”. Euh, no because it is clouded? Day and night, ferry’s are sailing from Java to Bali. But, they do not have a totally scheduled schedule, they leave when the ferry has many guests. If you are coming with the bus, the bus is driving in the ferry and is parked in the lowest decks. From here, you have to leave the buss and find a place on the passenger decks. The sailing itself takes an hour. There is a toilet on the ferry, but it is not very hygienic. The best way is to sit on deck and say goodbye to Java. An hour later, you will reach Bali. Keep in mind there is a time difference between these two islands. In Bali, it is one hour earlier. Which means, we set feet at 17:30 local time on Bali’s ground (16:30 Javan Time). Java is a great island, which great country live. You find this country live when you take the train and the boat. It is an island with great temples, but if you like temples Bali probably would be a great destination as well. Java, especially in the east contains many Active Volcano’s which you can climb and visit.



We drove to Lovina, to a great and beautiful Resort at the Lovina Beach, known as the Sunari Beach Resort. I had a room which was close to the swimming pool, room 528. We took a late evening meal, and I choiced for Chicken soup. The soup was good. The hotel was a good hotel with good services. Everywhere there was art, the swimming pool was nice. The rooms had a good quality. Lovina is a small beach town at the North of Bali. In Bali, you have much beaches and a lot of mass tourism at these beaches. Lovina is not a mass tourism place and therefore you can enjoy the silent en quiet beaches. Lovina is a new place, build in 1950 by King Anak Agung Panji Tisna, the King of Buleleng of the Buleleng regency. The king found tourism important and therefore would like to develop an basement for future tourism. It all started with a small lodge, build on his own land and called it Lovina. It took a long struggling, but this community accepted in the end the Lovina. Lovina kept growing, and is used to stretch the area in between seven traditional villages. Something is special to Lovina. The beach. You might find there Black sand beaches, and why black? It is volcanic ash. In my eyes, the beach is not very black, but I would describe it as dark brown with some black influences in it. If you compare the water and the beach to the south of Bali, the water and the sea is very calm. It is not possible here to surf, and you will not have a surfing community, als in Pangandaran in Java, or as in the south in Bali. Kuta in Bali is the surf community in Bali. The water does not look clean, due the colour of the sand, but honestly, it is almost clear. The locals are also active in cleaning up the water by catching plastic which is floating in it. Therefore, the locals are taking great care of the nature. Here, you really can find the rest if you need it. Lovina was a great place, I agree. Too bad that I could not surf here. I would like to learn to surf, but due my sickness I was not able to learn to surf in Pangandaran. But, Lovina does have other great activities. And that is with the boats. The boats are laying on the beach close to all resorts. If you would like to do an activity, you ask someone with a boat and they will give you an excursion. Snorkelling and the dolphin safari’s in the morning are the most used and booked. In the centre of the town it is possible to book a diving excursion to the coral reefs. If you are searching for a great place to come to rest, with a nice beach where you safe can swim with the kids, and you like snorkelling, this is the place. Due the dolphin safari where you always see some dolphins, the place must be very good for kids.



Lovina is on the Island of Bali. The last island of the three islands. Sumatra, Java and Bali. They all feel totally different, and Bali does also feel like a total different country. Bali is mostly a Hindu island with a traditional Hindu culture which is pretty alive. On the other two Islands, the Islam was the biggest religion, but in Bali, Hinduism is. Bali does in fact belongs to “The Small Soenda Islands”. The island contains 3,2 million citizens, living at 5561 km². Around 90% of the citizens are from origin coming from Bali. They also do have their own language, known as Bahasa Bali or Balinese. Another language, known as Balinese Malaysian is also much spoken. You also can found another language, the Balinese sign language, but it’s only used in a small town. You also can encounter Indonesian and Chinese Mandarin on Bali. Of course, due the tourism a lot of people speak English and sometimes Dutch. Around 93% of the population is Hindu. This is the Balinese Hinduism. In much other Indonesian islands, the Islam is the biggest religion, but not on Bali. However, the Balinese Hinduism is very important for the residents on Bali. There for, you always encounter offers and ceremonies. For example by houses, by temples, or just on the streets. This is due the “Agama Hindu” is very important in the lives of many Balinese. Because Bali is a Hindu island, you might find a lot of dishes out of pig meat. In Sumatra and Java, both Islamite islands, you do not see this because a pigmeat is not halal. But, on Bali you find a lot of pig meat. Pig is known as Babi, and you find here Sate Babi, Babi Pangang (in sweet Pangang sauce) and other dishes with “Babi”. Since 1958, Denpasar is the capital of Indonesia, and in this city the airport of Bali is here. Kingdoms out of Bali had their reing until the mid of the 19^th century. The first Dutchman which set feet on Bali were under commant from Cornelis Houtman in 1596. They did not had any intrest in the island, because the major activity was rice. In 1841, a Dutch sail boat collapsed at the rocks and the people of Bali demand that they kept the ship. Until 1908, the Dutch and the Bali were in difficulties and in 1908 a part of Bali felt in Dutch hands. In 1913, the complete island were in Dutch hand. Not later, the Dutch found that Bali was a great island to have holidays, especially in the East. Many Art Artist moved to the east of the island, mostly to get inspired by the Arts of the local people. After the Second World War, when Bali was in hands of the Japanese, President Soekarno made Bali at 17 August 1945 part of the Republic Indonesia. Also Bali does have volcano’s and active volaco’s. Probably the best known eruption was in 1963 through the Volcano Gunung Agung. During this time, a preparation of feast, was to celebrate that the local people felt themselves free from the Colonial times. With this eruption, 1600 people lost their lives and more than 80,000 people lost their homes. And Bali does contain jungle. If you like wild nature live, you can best go to the west, where there is more forest and the most wild life. Visit than the Bali Barat National park. You will encounter insects and reptiles, and you if you are luckily you find wild pigs and maybe a leopard. The North of the Island is the best for finding coral reefs and in Lovina you can spot the dolphins. In you are not able to travel through the North of the West, but you might can travel to the central park known as “Batukaru”, and the Batukaru is also the name of the mountain. Here, you find one of the last places with untouched tropical jungle. When you are doing your hike through the mountain, you will encounter one of the most important temples of Bali known as the Luhur Batukar. Bali is mostly running on tourism and this is the major economic income. Mass tourism, especially in the south of Bali by Denpasar and Kuta is major. Therefore, this city’s and especially in the south lost their Authentically Atmosphere. If you really would like to visit Authentically places, go inside Bali. However, many tourist and backpackers are also searching for these places and also some of these major backpackers places are losing their Authentically.



At the 19^th day, I spend my complete day in Lovina. At 9 I too k my breakfast. I went swimming in the swimming pool, laying in the sun, reading books and having lunch. In the afternoon I took a massage, a full body massage. It is a traditional Lovina Balinese massage. I had a very relaxing day. The diner we took in a Restarurant See Breeze. This restaurant is close by the dolphin statue in Lovina. I took a Chicken Corden Blue and it was quite good. The cheese which was used was very good and delicious. I had a good meal. I also ordered ice. An Strawberry cup, containing 3 balls of ice, and fresh strawberries. Also fresh strawberry juice and some cream. The cream was not that sweet. It tasted very good. I can be very short: a very relaxing day and I did not do much. Lovina is a great place to enjoy.



The next day, we will travel to Ubud in the afternoon. But, first I took two excursions. The first excursions I took was the dolphin excursions. I was the only one of the group which attended this excursion. It goes quite easy. At 6 in the morning, these excursions starts. You have to be on the beach or your resort (even if you are not in the Sunari Beach Resort). If you are not in a resort, you can visit the beach. Here, local people are waiting with the boats. They will ask you if you go to the dolphins. More people of our Resort were there. Mostly families. The guides are calling to their friends. So, they can pick up multiple people in the boat, so they can fill the boats. I was the only one from my group, and therefore I could have a seat in the boat. A little before six, we sailed to another resort where 3 other tourist were waiting. Then, we sailed on the sea. Lovina has a huge dolphin population. In Less than 1 km of the shore, the dolphins are hunting on their fish. The dolphins are wild and they will not been feed. The dolphins are hunting on tuna. Because the Balinese and Indonesian government decided it is not allowed to fish on these tuna at Lovina, a lot of Tuna is swimming in front of the shore by Lovina. And this attracts the dolphins. Therefore, a huge population of dolphins are swimming in the sea. In the morning they are hunting and you can visit these dolphins safari. During this safari, around 2 hours, the people on the boats are trying to find the dolphins. The dolphins are jumping out of the water. And this are beautiful sights. It is difficult, because they suddenly jump out of the water, and then they are gone. Sometimes they might jump for the second time. It is continues searching when they are jumping. The boats are sailing around and when they see the dolphins jumping, they are sailing quite hard close to this place. A lot of boats are sailing through them. So it is quite touristic. It is nice to see the dolphins and jumping. But you do not see very much. It is hard to catch them on your photo. For kids, this is a very nice excursion.





Close before lunch, I was on the water again. To be specific, I was in the water. A woman of our group wanted to go snorkelling and some of them, including me, decided to go with. In Lovina, you also have beautiful coral. Again, you go to the boat and the boat will bring you on the sea. The sea is calm and here you have a good spot for snorkelling. The coral is beautiful and you see fish. The fish are swimming under you when you are snorkelling. I saw many fishes, from big to medium size. I did not saw very big fishes. And you see sea stars. And a lot of coral, in different colours. Like, yellow, blue and red. The sea is not wild therefore you can snorkel quite good, without that water is coming in your snorkelling tube. The fishes are swimming quite close underneath you, sometimes even less than a meter. Some are afraid when you are swimming, but if you just are laying and very calming on your belly, they are coming quite close. They might do not see you or recognise you. After one hour of snorkelling, it was time to back to the hotel. After a short shower, I took a small lunch, and then we went on the way to Ubud. Which you can read in the next blogpost.

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Photos

Bromo Sunrise
This is the best photo I could make on top of the Mountain Pananjakan. Due the fact it was so crowded, this is my best shot on Mountain Pananjakan.

Bromo Sunrise
With jeeps, you will drive through Mountain Pananjakan. Depending where your jeep is parking, you need to walk and climb on top to the mountain. These shots are made on the way back after the excursion was held.

Bromo Sunrise
This was the view where our Jeep was parked.

Ferry Java to Bali
Goodbye Java!

Ferry Java - Bali
Hello Bali!

Lovina Beach
The beach of Lovina.

Lovina Beach
Hire a boat, and enjoy sailing at sea. You can do snorkeling, and in the morning you can go on Dolphin Safari.

Lovina Dolphin Statue
In Lovina, there is a huge population of dolphins. Lovina is the "city of the Dolphins", and therefore they created a Dolphin Statue, which is lighted in the evening.

Lovina Dolphin Statue
This is the under site of the statue, is it not nice?

Sunari Beach Resort
This is the swimming pool of the Resort. The water is clear, and it is very nice to swim.

Sunari Beach Resort
Use the path's to walk to the hotel rooms. By these paths you see mostly Art Statues.

Sunari Beach Resort
A close-up from one of these Art statues. Bali is also known as "The Island of Arts".

Dolphin Safari
It is forbidden for humans to fish here on tuna. High concentrations of Tuna is swimming before the coast of Lovina. And this attracts the dolphins. In the morning, a lot of dolphins are gathering in the water and with a Dolphin Tour you are sailing over the water and try to find them.

Dolphin Safari
It is hard to capture the dolphins on picture during the Dolphin Safari Tours. The dolphins are jumping out the water and you don't know exactly where. When you see one jumping out, all boats are sailing fast to this point, in hope other dolphins are jumping out of the sea as well.