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Hello there again,
I have another story to tell 😊 After we came back from Gili Trawangan, one day later (13th May) )we started our trip around Bali. Scooter+Backpack=4 nice days on the road. The total km traveled sums up to 405. Take a look at the map, all the most important spots are mentioned. Thursday morning we started with visiting ceremony beach at Soka beach, 12th and 13th of May are special Hindu ceremony days. Tried some weird food and were a great attraction for locals, since there were no other tourists. Kids are running around us, laughing and saying hello, we feel a bit like animals in a Zoo 😉 But that happens more times during this trip since West of Bali is the least touristic area of Bali. After a longer drive again, we stop at Medewi beach, which is famous as a great surfing beach. Unfortunately it is low tide, so no surfing for such beginners as we are, too dangerous, since the “beach” only consists of big rocks(check the pictures). High tide will be next morning at 11, but we don't have the time to wait so long, have to go on! Some kilometers driving
and we reach the Pura Rambut Siwi temple and another ceremony beach. Its a great view from the temple, and the beach is full of Hindus, celebrating. The challenge of the day follows: Negara, which is the main city of the region, is not touristic at all... There are only 3 or 4 hotels and the quality is discussable... In the end we got a deluxe superior room for a price of standard room, was pretty much good! No place we call a restaurant, just local places. We found one seafood place that looked ok, but the menu was surprisingly new looking, like we were the first ones to open it. And prices were higher than you would expect at such a place. While I was counting the money for the bill, Koen found another menu standing on a far away table. It was much more used, and, imagine, all the prices were exactly 2 times smaller!!!!!!!! Arrrrgh! Of course, we complained and only paid half of our bill... That's how tourists are being treated at some places!
Friday morning we went to the National park, did jungle trekking with a guide, met some monkeys and squirrels. Just like that,
by the way, there are also Cobras here, the guide said. Great, thanks for telling that to us before we entered the jungle with only our slippers on!
Later that day we traveled to Pemuteran, a very nice place, but totally different tourists than down here in south. No surfer dudes and backpackers, but higher income couples and families, as well as diving fanatics. Menjangan island near to Pemuteran, which we are visiting the next day, is the best spot on Bali for snorkeling and diving. Went for nice late lunch on the beach (tasty beef steak with steamed prawns on top) and walked down the beach while it got dark. Explored the are a bit, but it is a pretty quite place at night. Of course, we could not skip another nice meal in a restaurant on the beach, I went for grilled seafood. Something I am always thinking about - you pay for the location to eat on the beach, but at night time it is not possible to see the ocean anyways! Well, you can for sure still hear it!
Saturday we spent snorkeling around Menjangan island, that was a great trip! On the road further, be
bought some Rambutan and Mangousteen at a local place, mmmm, I love these two tropical fruits! And so much cheaper than down south in touristic Bali! Trip was pretty wet though, it was constanly raining more or less, so we had to stop and hide. In the meanwhile, we could enjoy the fruit 😊 Actually it was raining also the previous afternoons for some moments, not the best thing when you have a motorbike! Our destination for the day was Lovina beach, famous for watching dolphins early in the morning. We spent quite a while looking for a hotel, because there were millions of them (such a difference from Negara!), but they were all below our expectations! Even a luxury hotel with amazing public areas had not so nice standard room. In the end we found a cute bungalow for a very good price, and what is more, on the front line of the ocean!!! For dinner we had grilled prawns and tuna, seafood is for sure the best choice at such tropical islands as Bali!
Sunday morning we got up after 5 o'clock, because at 5.40 we were supposed to meet the captain to go dolphin watching. Verrrry early!
I have never seen a more narrow boat! Check the picture. The trip was almost 3 hours, we saw just 5 fins and that was it, not a lucky morning! But the ocean was full with smaller and bigger boats, around 30 in that one area! It was raining really hard the whole night and waves were big, that was the reason for no many dolphins. After the breakfast we took a nap because 5 in the morning was for sure too early to get up!
We drove trough Singraja and it started raining again, so we stopped to buy some serious raincoats. While getting dressed, a local guy stopped and warned us not to cross the mountains to go to south what was our plan. A heavy rainfall was on its way and last year it had taken peoples lives. We texted other friends who had started their trip home earlier that morning, but they decided to continue the trip. This guy was very friendly and shared a lot of info, so we agreed that he can be our guide to the waterfalls even though there is nothing to be guided to, you just walk the path to the
waterfalls... Whatever, at least one more Indonesian guy got rich without stealing... Yeah, many of the students have been robbed here already, including me. We had lunch up in the mountain overlooking tops of the trees. The lady who was cooking and serving was very friendly, she gave us some fruit, cocoa beans and Balinese coffee to take with us. And what is more, she gave us an interesting decor to put on the wall and blessed us. We needed that before the long way over the mountains we had decided to take! We packed ourselves in the raincoats and started the trip home slowly. If it would get too bad, we would turn back. The speed didn't exceed 30 km/h, there were rocks and trees on the road, it was raining really hard, but we made it carefully in 3 hours! There were other scooters and cars on the road, so we thought we are also able to do it! After 4 days and 405 km we made it home almost dry, since it was not raining for the last hour. Great trip!
Hope you enjoyed the story 😊 And there are 67 pictures to check out!!!!
Greets,
Ilze
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