This journey required five different legs. For each leg, we had to negotiate a "fair" price with the driver. The tourist office in Ubud as well as an Indonesian friend we'd made helped us to get an idea of what price might be fair. The first few legs were sucessful: we found a driver quickly, agreed on a seemingly good price, and didn't have to wait too long for the bemo to fill up or at least get a few other people. We tried talking with the other people we rode with, but the language barrier was great and the language section of the Lonely Planet didn't get us much of anywhere. We did share the bemo with a few school girls for about ten minutes, and they were happy to talk to us.
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| Happy to practice English |
For one part of the leg, the bemo was full to the max with at least 12 people plus the driver squished in. We didn't have an extra inch of space, but this just made me happier and feeling like I was having a local experience.
After finishing the third leg of the journey, we were dropped off in a place with "no bemos" as someone told us, telling us that they would help us get a bus. The price was not good, compared to the other prices we had been paying. I argued relentlessly, but the man insisted it was a "local price" and that it would take "three hours." Since he was beginning to get worked up--and we didn't really have any other option--we gave in and agreed. That being said, the bus was very comfortable and gave us great views of the volcano we were passing. It did not take three hours (surprise surprise), instead it was more like two, which was still longer than we'd expected.
Our last leg of the journey was easily arranged. All in all the journey took us about 4 or 5 hours and Rp. 110,000 (US $11). Upon arriving, we felt a great sense of accomplishment, having made it such a long way (in reality only 82 miles) in a somewhat local fashion. Unfortunately, we then saw that the shuttle bus would have taken less than three hours and only cost Rp. 100,000. But still, we had more of an experience, right?
Our first night in Lovina we were lucky to hear about a children's dance and music performance, by donation only. We'd been wanting to see children performance so lept at the opportunity. There were only about ten people in the audience, and the children were adorable and talented. They even made everyone in the audience get up and dance.
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| Dancer with gamelan orchestra in the back |
One of the most common tourist activities in Lovina is to go dolphin watching early in the morning. We were hesitant, as chasing dolphins by boat sounded somewhat uncomfortable. We'd imagined large boats holding lots of people. When we saw the boats we decided we'd give it a try.
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| Holds 4-6 people |
It was a bit uncomfortable how close the boats would get to the dolphins, but it was cool to see them nonetheless. I'm not sure if I would necessarily recommend it to others, though.
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| Dolphin chasing in action |
We established a relationship with the masseuse at our hotel, Sori, and she invited us to come with her to the temple one day in Singaraja. We negotiated on a price that we would pay for her son and granddaughter to pick us up and drop us off (the negotiating took a few days). We weren't really clear on what exactly was going on or what was special about the day, but it was very cool to be at a legitamate ceremony without other tourists. We had to dress in proper Balinese attire (or as close as we could get) which for women means a long sleeved shirt, sarong and sash around the waist, with hair pulled back. We mimicked Sori and her family as we went through prayer, and we even got blessed with sacred water and sacred rice. There was also a dance performance.
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| Me with Sori, granddaughter and son |
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| Dancers about to begin |
After a few enjoyable days in Lovina, we headed into the mountains...
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