Advertisement
Published: April 12th 2010
Edit Blog Post
As we had heard good reviews from fellow travellers about Lovina - a small beach town on the north coast of Bali - we decided that our three-some would head there next. After negotiating with the travel agent (a very loose term for a bunch of disorganised, money grabbing touts) we managed to get a ticket that would take us from Bromo straight through to Lovina. Later at their 'main' office we discovered that the AC bus that was supposedly direct was in fact a bus to the Bali ferry port then us being placed on a public bus to our final destination - something we could have organised ourselves for a cheaper price! However, we were tired and hot so despite heated words we went 'with the flow'.
Our journey to the ferry was uneventful, with the only distraction being the lovely sea and volcano views from the bus windows and later, from the ferry looking back at Java and its cloud covered peaks. Once on dry land again we fully expected to be dumped at the local bus terminal, but this did not happen: something we were very glad of as it seemed deserted and we would have
had a very long wait! Instead it seemed as though we were heading to another station - so we waited. After 15mins on the road I thought I should ask again where we were headed and to our surprise the driver was going all the way to Lovina! Instead of driving the minibus to Denpasar in the south, he had changed destination as the majority of the bus now wanted to head north (and the other travellers had apparently 'bribed' him, unknown to us) - our luck was in!
One hour into the journey he stopped the bus and the 6 passengers who had offered him money got out. This though was not the final destination they had agreed (Lovina) but a previous one, yet they seemed to go along with it - until the driver demanded 30,000 Rp each from them (£2.30ish). To our surprise they paid it, despite having already paid for a ticket to the city further south - the same distance. That meant that the driver not only pocketed 180,000 from the bribe, but the bus fare he would have had to pay to get them to the other destination! A nice little earner for
him - 500,000 odd Rp: £35!
Thankfully he was in a good mood after fleecing the other tourists and as we had no part in their little deal, we were taken to Lovina with no trouble and dropped here we wanted. We looked at a few different hotels (Cat is very good at getting a low price!) and finally ended up at a really nicely constructed place with a huge room, en-suite, balcony and breakfast for £5 a night. The owner seemed almost desperate to get us in the place, stalking us from the main road - and I am glad he persisted: a great bargain at the end of a long day.
Lovina is a small yet attractive place that stretches between the main north running road and the sea and consisted of 2 main roads filled with cafe/bars, boutique shops, mini-marts and dive shops. The place was extremely quiet with only a handful of tourists visible on our first day soaking up the sun on the pretty dark sanded beach. Although we relished the emptiness, the touts were obviously starved of custom so only had us to divert them - sadly. We had everything from shell
necklaces, paintings, shawls and fruit being offered to us, but at least they were polite, apologising for disturbing our peace and often asking us first if they could show us their wares.
It was nice just doing nothing for a while, snorkeling off the beach and wandering around the shops - very different from volcano climbing! We decided that we would like some entertainment while we were there though and spent the rest of the day debating and organising a combined snorkeling and sunrise dolphin spotting boat trip. This we achieved with the help of Cat's 'landlady' who 'knew a guy' who gave us a reasonable price - £6 each! We concluded the evening with a cold beer and a nice meal from a local cheap restaurant before having an early night in preparation for our 5:30am start.
The next morning we met our boat captain by the crowned dolphin statue that guards the beach then climbed aboard the reinforced longtail boat for our sunrise ride. It really was a pretty sight watching the sun rise from behind the island, and made the early time seem worthwhile - something added to 30mins later by the dolphin watching. There
were several groups of beautiful dolphins breaking the surface around us, a sight that was both fantastic and a little sad as the trip turned into dolphin chasing. There were several boats on the water, despite it being low season, and as soon as any dolphin showed its head, all the boats would turn and stalk it until it dove for cover. However, it was brilliant to see so many dolphins and it was a very memorable experience.
Our next stop was closer to shore where we moored to a buoy and took to the water, snorkeled and finned up. The reef, despite being a little broken and dead in places, was home to a huge variety of fish and we were all amazed at their antics. We must have spent at least 1 and a half hours on the water, pointing out banner fish, angel fish and moray eels to each other - great fun. It was irritating to see other snorkelers though having very little respect for the reef, choosing to stand on it and knock it with their fins when watching the fish around them. Boat owners leading these trips should really brief their clients on
proper behaviour if they want to keep their means of income intact for future years.
Returning at still a rather early time, we had nap before relaxing on the balcony and spending a little more time on the beach with our friendly hawkers. A nice fruit seller we had met on the previous day came by for a chat and we bought some juicy produce from her (felt rater obliged after she told us her life story...). After much discussion we decided that the three of us would move on the next day for Tulamben where the most popular dive site - the Liberty wreck - is situated, and then had dinner at our little cafe from the night before - a charming evening.
Our departure the following morning was not as straight forward as we would have liked. After leaving our place and while we stood waiting for Cat, our hotel came and found us and did not like the fact we would not return to their establishment to 'talk about' (e.g. pay) a mirror that had fallen on us and broken in half during out stay. Some shouting and threat of tourist police later, we walked
quickly away despite their protests and found transport to take us along the coast. A mad end to a nice stay!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0435s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
prashant
non-member comment
hy i m prashant from gujrat in godhra i m president of my ganesh mandal i want some different pic of ganesha if u have so pls send me mail my id is prashantdesai2000@yahoo.com i want pic of ganesh because of next ganesh festivel to make a murti ganesh so pls send me any budy read this msg pls mail me on my id