Hi there....
been a long week and very busy but at last some more of my Bali report.... Another Saturdaynight at home in front of the computer!
With a bit of a Hang Over and re-united with my sons we set off from Seminyak to Lovina. Boys had to take travel calm which knocked them out for most of the trip but was good as we made it there without any nausea or migrane. Steven from Bali Budaya Bike tours took us up. We stopped briefly in Ubud then at a temple that I'm sorry I just can't think of the name of right at this moment and then lunch at a restaurant in Bedugul. My first time in this area so I was very happy to get there at last. Lunch was buffet and surprisingly good. I say surprisingly as it was one of those ones that has ten busses in the car park so a real rack em and stack em venue.
We had a walk down by the temple and lake at Bedugul and it was lightly raining which I quite enjoyed. The boys were up and about for this and lunch of course. Soon as the engine started though they were out cold.
We then drove through continuously beautiful countryside and into the mountains more. We stopped to have a look at the area Budaya tours does the trekking. I wasn't up for it this trip or maybe ever... Pheeeww.. Not for the faint of heart. Magnificent views and I'm sure if you are fitter than I am just now the downhill trek may be just your thing. I read a guest book that night on trekkers who'd done this and many others and it gets glowing reports.
As we continued it was very exciting to see monkeys on the sides of the road, lots of monkeys. Seen them before of course but this seemed more spontaneous. Not much further and we were at the Hot Springs. Wish I had my notes here but left them at work. We stayed here for about an hour and the kids and Steven and Ketut who we picked up in Ubud all had a swim. I had a kopi....
Steve had told me that these locals were quite a different breed. They are indeed. Had three come up and tell me all about themselves, ask all about me and then wish me well and wander off. I was waiting for the hard sell, what's my program for tomorrow or anything that lead to the exchange of rupiah but nothing. They just wanted to welcome me and have a chat about the area. It was just so very nice to drop my guard. Hadn't realised how much I have it up so was enjoying the let go of it all. Once again having someone else do all the thinking rather than myself. Been group leader too often.
We arrived at Lovina about 3pm and met Richard Hood at Rambutan Cottages. I loved this hotel as it has all the old world charm of Bali that made me fall in love with it in the first place. Again the nature of the people is very different. Richard was great to meet in person at last and we chatted for about an hour and I met Tini his lovely wife.
We all wandered down to the beach and checked out as much of the area as we could by foot. Steve was making the arrangements with the boat man for the dolphin adventure the next morning. Very excited we all were.
We had dinner at one of the the beach front restaurants and while we really enjoyed the meal and the price was unreal I felt sorry for all the other places with no-one in them. Very quiet. Too quiet. Don't know how they get by if it's like that too often. Great for us but I'm sure they need more business.
A few people approached me wanting to sell me bits and peices and they were much more lay back and also their start prices were very low. I bought 4 painitngs off a guy on the beach the next day which I refer to as my treasures. They are all oil painitngs and Legong dancers and precisely what I wanted. Three for one room and one for another. You'd have to see them to realise how perfect they are for where I wanted. Still just so happy. Paid 200.000rp and would have paid 400.000 had he pushed. That was actaully my first offer and he said ok and we were both happy. I hope he made a fortune off me.
Later that night we had drinks with Richard and Tini and talked until late. Very nice and just so relaxing. My boys played pool and chased lizards and just thoroughly enjoyed it. Love that they were in no hurry to go to the room and play a DVD or watch telly. Good family spot.
Waffling aren't I?? sorry. Next morning we got up before sun up and staggered down to the beach. We jumped in the outrigger boat and set off to find dolphins. I thought we were super early but when we caught up to the other boats who had found the dolphins there were in fact 24 boats. It was beautiful on the water. As the sun came out more everything changed colours. The temperature was perfect and the water like glass. We found three pods chasing Tuna and the tuna were almost as big as the dolphins. These are not Pacfic bottle nose like Flipper, but smaller and spotty. Hard to keep up with them while they were on the job rounding up the tuna. Very hard to photograph with my wretched camera. We did get some shots in the end.
As we were heading back I spotted through my trusty polarised glasses some more fins. They were much bigger and very close to shore. We headed in and found a pod of about 20 plus who were not eating but just cruising and they came in around us on either side. Much bigger dolphins, very dark grey, no spots and really long dorsil fins. The boaty said he'd not seen them before and had never seen any so close to shore. We of course have claimed them as our own and I'm sure I'm probably under some obligation to report this to National Geographic. Any way they have been named Nicno's dolphons as opposed to bottle nosed - I guess you had to be there (Ken & Chris). I used to work at Sea World just by the by so I was really enjoying this outing.
We then went back to the hotel and had brekky. Great brekky and the staff at Rambutan were just lovely. We then went back to our little boat and headed out for snorkelling. This was great and we had a ball. Heasp of colouful tropical fish and also some colour in the coral here and there. Did this for about an hour and a half then time to bug out. Almost took out own gear but now glad we didn't bother. There gear was good enough.
We had a bit more of a poke around Lovina, changed ome money and got 7200rp which was good as Kuta was 7300 so happy with that. Wanted to do heaps more but had to meet my friends in Legian at 3pm... Big drive back. Wish we had stayed another day and next time will for certain.
One funny thing happened which maybe we can call a myth buster. I've often read people caution over used straws... I've always thought it nonsense but alas it happened to us. As we were leaving I shot in to a little store for drinks and chips etc and asked for straws. She looked at me with a funny look - still can't explain it?? - and opened a drawer and gave me 5 straws. I knew as soon as I touched them they'd been used and when I was outside I held them to the light and was positive. Sadly I can now confirm it happnes. First time to me though. We just laughed it off.
That's it for now. I'll make the next one shorter for your reading pleasure. The next ten days were great. Met with lots of BTF people.
Cheers
Nicno x