Part One - Lovina
Even though we have been back for 2 weeks, I am only just accepting the fact that our 4th trip is over and it's back to reality.
We, myself, my partner Baloo, and our mate McEvil flew out of Melbourne to Darwin on JQ. Nice and easy, no dramas, comfortable flight which left right on time and landed about 20 minutes early into Darwin. A few hours to kill, grabbed a coffee, stretched our legs, took advantage of the free wi-fi, did some duty free shopping and before we knew it, we were boarding our Air Asia flight to paradise. Not nearly as painful as had been reported and we would definitely do it again for the $300 each way saving we made by not flying direct.
Day One on the ground and we were a little weary after the overnight flight, but who cares! We're in BALI!!! Booked 2 rooms for one night at the All Seasons Legian and fortunately on arrival at the hotel at 7am one of the rooms was available to check in so we could dump our stuff, shower and refresh and then get into it! Baloo crashed but McEvil and I were ready to go and meet a girlfriend for breakfast who was staying at The Haven in Seminyak. Back to the hotel late morning to wake Baloo and do some shopping. 10 pairs of sunglasses (30Krp each) and the usual DVD's later, lunch at Sheppy's - great nasi & Bali Cider, customary 1st day pedi for all, so we could show our feet in public. Afternoon drinks at the hotel bar as I struggled to stay awake then dinner at Seaside on 66 and then crashed and burned, slept like a log. Up and at em bright and early the next morning as we were still on Melbourne time, so breakfast at the hotel and then taxi to Carrefour for supplies. Cases of Bintang, Smirnoff Ice, all the toiletries, insect repellent, sunscreen etc. We flew across with just hand luggage so we bought everything there. Back to the hotel in time to check out and wait for Gede, our driver, to collect us to take us to Lovina.
About 2- 3 hour drive to Lovina with a few stops along the way. Stopped at the Luwak coffee place and then also at a local market way up in the hills where we bought some vanilla pods and cinnamon sticks for a ridiculously cheap price I cant quite remember. A beautiful drive to our beautiful destination. Arrived at Lovina Beach Houses and were thrilled with our accommodation. 2 storey, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom villa with private pool, literally right on the beach - 950K per night including breakfast. The next 4 nights are all a blur of relaxing, sleeping, reading, eating and drinking as we totally chilled out. Lovina is very sleepy and at this time of year, there is NO ONE around! Dinner at Spunky's 2 of the nights was great, especially when their cover band 'Lovina's Pride' was performing. These guys were so bad, they were awesome and the 3 of us were singing along to Hotel California and La Bamba with great gusto! We were the only ones in the restaurant so they played all our requests. Food was fine, reasonably priced and very fresh. Whilst in Lovina we visited the Buddhist Temple and Natural Hot Springs, went snorkelling, Baloo went fishing and caught a good sized Blue Fin Tuna which our villa staff cooked up for us. None of us really eat fish so we sent them home with a big fish and the left over accompaniments they prepared for us. Our housekeeper Ketut also gave amazing massages on our veranda for 80k for an hour. After 4 days in Lovina we were so relaxed. It was the perfect way to start our trip.