In Reply to: circumnavigate posted by balibeli on Sunday, 1. April 2007 at 16:15 Bali Time:
I've been self driving the Ubud - Amed trip 4 times and done the half way around the island once in february/march 2005 (Ubud - Amed - Lovina - Bedugul - Ubud) with my girlfriend.
A real nice bonus (not on every map) is that you can drive the coastline from Amlapura to Amed. This is a really nice and picturesque stretch of road. From Amed we drove up along the east cost to Lovina. After that we returned to Ubud via Bedugul and such...
Highlights for us along the way:
Padangbai - snorkeling in Blue Lagoon and the diving is good as well. I am not to enthusiastic about the town, but the seafood is good.
Amed area - again great snorkeling and diving, relaxed atmosphere and exellent seafood.
I remember the coastal road from Amed to Lovina as easy to tackle with not much traffic and not much to look at except for the crazy gallery/exhibition area that american artist Symon (still?) has there somewhere. He also has a gallery in Ubud. It is about 3 km east of Yeh Sanih on the way to Singaraja. We didn't now about it beforehand but ended up spending 3 hours there. Symon was there in person for some reason so we felt it as a really exclusive moment.
[url]http://www.symonbali.com/[/url]
I only have one night and half a day in Lovina, so my I know my view of the town as a place with more hassling and more drunk tourists than Kuta is really unfair. I didn't enjoy the place. I hope you will.
Returning south we took left at Mayong to see the inland back to Ubud. Extremely green, not much traffic, steep but good roads.
On a general note on driving in Bali I wrote this earlier:
After the first nightmarish couple of hours behind the wheel I actually enjoy driving a car in Bali to the point that I sometimes have to concentrate driving on the right hand side back home in Norway.
Be careful. Let traffic pass when apropriate. There are rules, but you will have to get a feel for it. Larger vehickles have (take) right over smaller ones. Meeting traffic stay in the middle of the road until the last second but *will* eventually give you space. Horns are a way of helpful communication, *not* a sign of agression.
Insist on getting to see the actual car before renting (*the* car, not *a* car just like the one you will get). Rear view mirrors and blind zone checking are essential as motorbikes pass on both sides.
I have never had any encounters with the balinese police, but this year I *will* remember to get a international driving licence. You should probably get that too. (2007 update: I got one for our 2006 trip since it is relevant for the insurence payments if something happens).
I am used to horrible mountain roads in Norway so I find the roads in Bali quite exellent. A lot of people disagree with this I guess.
Feel free to e-mail me if something is unclear.