The Kalibukbuk (Lovina) Experience

The New Year (Nyepi) celebrations lasted longer than we thought. Thursday's street celebrations were followed by a day of rest Friday, unbeknownst to us as newcomers. Imagine waking up in your bungalow and heading out to the beach at 9am, only to be told that you cannot go to the beach today...what?! We snuck out anyway, and even though police sweep the beaches and patrol the streets (everyone stays inside all day and guests are confined to their hotels), we spoke with the officers by the ocean and they let us take a quick dip. The black sand is nice, but the water and beachfront is actually strewn with litter here - not the best swimming beach. We then wandered down the beach and into the local neighborhood behind, where we found groups of children playing soccer and basketball in the streets, their parents watching from doorways. Obviously we participated, and Chino got some very cute pictures of the children. Everyone smiles here incessantly, and they are sincere and kind, unlike locals I've met in other countries who only want your money. So most of the rest of the day was a wash, but reading and lounging with staff and writing was fine with me for a day, especially with heavy rain in the late morning and afternoon. The highlight of the day came unexpected, and late, when we struck up a conversation at dinner at the hotel with a Dutch couple. Nicholi and Judyth had recently finished graduate school for psych, and had travelled much of SE Asia already. Their advice on Malaysia and the Thailand-Cambodia-Vietnam-Laos circuit was enlightening. For instance, we're told that Cambodia is wildly expensive relative to its neighbors, and Bali has been the most welcoming and nicest people yet...I guess it was good to start here. After a few beers we turned in early.
Today was the grand tour of Lovina, which one local told me was the former capital of Bali before Denpasar. It is quite lovely, but relatively small for a capital. We rose at 5:45am for 6 o'clock dolphin watching. Basically a guide puts four people in a canoe with catamaran-like balancing arms and straps a motor to the back. You motor out for about 30 minutes, straight out to sea, as the sun rises above the mountains behind you. The idea is to catch a glimpse of the dolphins before they head out to sea for the day, but sometimes you only get a sunrise. About 6 boats went out together,and we were grouped with two Germans, Andrew and Moolie, who were nice but that's all. The Dutch kids were also out there. It was a beautiful morning, and we saw about 100 dolphins in an hour or two. Quite a good experience for 3 bucks. Motoring back to shore in a light sun shower was also very cool.
The best part about Lovina has been the relative lack of tourists - we're 2 of about 10 total I've seen.
After breakfast we set out with a hired driver to tour the Gilit Waterfall, the Temple on the Lake (Hindu), the Monkey Forest, the Hot Springs (too hot for hot weather, but we still jumped in), the botanical gardens (a large park/picnic area), rice fields - mostly terrace farming surrounded by lush vegetation and tropical-looking trees leading up to the mountains, and my favorite, the Buddhist Monastary. There I spoke with a monk through a nice woman who interpreted, about the age of the buildings there. We had to wear saris to cover our legs.
The day was exhausting but great, and we've now seen a sizable chunk of the northern part of the island. The best experience is simply driving through the rice and coffee fields in the valleys, listening to SE Asian island and house music, enduring the frequent rain in the mountains and the relentless sun by the coast. I feel very energetic and healthy here, and I'm able to both rise early and stay up late. Don't worry, Scott hasn't lost his ability to pass out anywhere he wants.
The idea for tomorrow was to finally move along to Gili Air, a small island known for diving and snorkling northwest of Lombok, the next island over from Bali to the east. But we've decided to scratch that plan and simply hang out in Kuta beach (the most popular area) to make the most of our time until Wednesday's flight to Singapore. Seriously, how much worse could snorkling be near Kuta? So tonight we'll have dinner with the Dutch, and then we're off to Kuta in the morning, a 3 hour ride back over the mountains to the south.
I had a great discussion just now with a local about Malaysian-Indonesian tensions. It seems that Malaysia has been claiming a number of small islands back from Indonesia, who already let 2 go. In his mind, they will never stop trying to take land, and are only a threat because they are backed by Britain(?). He said he'd go fight if it ever escalates. We also met some Californian tourists at the hot springs who said good things about Singapore and China - apparently the Yellow Mountains are magnificent a day away from Shanghai. Finally, Scott and I have been a bit embarrassed by 13-17 year old Balinese girls, who love to say hello, clandestinely take our picture, and tell us that we are very handsome. Maybe this is how it feels to be a model or something. One girl, Srit, asked me if I was married! It's all in good fun I guess. If we take their pictures they should be able to take ours!
One last thought- do you know how frustrating it is that I cannot purchase anything because I need to travel for six months!?