Lovina Part 1 (2-10)

Monday I traveled from Ubud to Lovina, on the north coast. A man had suggested that, instead of taking the shuttle, I take the tour to Lovina and stay there instead of returning to Ubud. That way I would get to see some places on the way. I thought that was a good idea and was happy when I met Charlotte on Sunday and she agreed to share the car. Charlotte is German and had just started her gap year after graduating from high school. I enjoyed sharing the trip with her.

The first stop was the 17^th century Mengwi Royal Family Temple. We learned that every area had its own royal family. This temple is surrounded by a moat, which was interesting. The temple itself is closed; so visitors can only walk around it and view it from outside. The compound has lovely gardens. 

One of the buildings has an old barong made from seeds and rice.

Next we stopped at Ulun Danu Beretan, known as the Water Temple because of its location in a lake. It’s also from the 17^th century. When we were there, the tide was out; so the temple was not completely surrounded by water. Since the temple itself is closed to visitors, it can only be viewed from the shore. An interesting feature is Buddha statues in stupas outside the temple area. Another interesting feature is a number of statues of animals, most of which are not native to Indonesia.

The next stop was a viewpoint along the road where we wanted to take photos of the rice fields and mountains. 

Monkeys, the Balinese macaques, live in the forest, and since many people stop at this viewpoint, they are there waiting for food. A woman sells bananas to feed them.

Our final stop was Gitgit Waterfall. There are three waterfalls in the area, the main one being 40 meters high. 

The walk down is refreshing and lovely.

We arrived in Lovina at 1:30. My guesthouse was rather unique, as it is covered with shells and many of the rooms are also covered with shells. 

I had booked the small shell room. All surfaces are covered with shells. It has a really warm feeling. The owner is an eccentric, retired Dutch architect who likes to keep busy and follows his ideas as he plans the rooms. One in progress is a jungle room, complete dead with trees. The pool is beautiful and refreshing. The guesthouse was a perfect place to relax for a few days.

Most of the beaches that Bali is famous for are on the southern part of the island. Since I had heard that they are very touristic and often crowded, I had chosen to go to the north. At this season, there weren’t many tourists, which was nice. I was told that many Dutch and other European people go there. Lovina is known for two things: its black sand beach 

and the dolphins that come near the shore in the morning.

Late Monday afternoon I headed for the beach. On the way, I stopped at the travel agency near the guesthouse to book a dolphin tour Tuesday morning. The travel agent and his wife became good friends for the few days I was there. He was friendly and helpful and had good prices.

As I was walking along the beach, men would talk to me. They always wanted something. Most were selling jewelry made from shells. After being friendly to the first one, I started telling them I wasn’t interested in buying anything as soon as they started talking to me. One man said he wasn’t selling anything and proceeded to tell me about his brother’s business. Next thing I knew out came pearl earrings. When I wasn’t interested, he brought out his shell and coconut necklaces. Then he displayed pearl necklaces. I always feel bad when vendors are so desperate to sell that they keep reducing the price, but I really didn’t want anything. Since it wasn’t the tourist season and there are few visitors, they needed business and sometimes got a little pushy. One young man told me he wasn’t selling anything, and he just wanted to talk. So I chatted with him a bit and then learned that he wanted to record a short conversation, as that was his homework. He’s an English major; so I was happy to assist.

The clouds and sun were beautiful; so I decided to hang around until sunset. The sky was stunning, and then it suddenly started to rain heavily. So no sunset. I call the sky that evening the “almost sunset.” 

So I headed to a restaurant the guesthouse owner had recommended. Shortly after I ordered, the small room was full. I was lucky to get there before the crowd. That restaurant offered a choice of rice or chips/fries with the meal. So for three days I had fries, which was an enjoyable change.

Tuesday morning I set out at 5:45 for the dolphin tour. I was the only person in my boat, but there were about 30 other boats. I was told that this was a small number of boats, as there are many more during the main tourist season in the summer. Fortunately, all the boats didn’t hang out in the same place. When dolphins were sighted, many boats headed to that area quickly. 

The dolphins did their leaping out of the water. Sometimes the whole body was visible, and a few times they twisted. A highlight was seeing a baby leap out of the water with one group. I think I saw about as many dolphins as boats.

Since the trip started so early, I got to enjoy a nice sunrise as we waited for the dolphins.

At the suggestion of the travel agent, I had combined dolphin watching with snorkeling instead of doing two different tours. So after we finished watching the dolphins, we went to the snorkeling area. A few other boats came to the area to view the coral and fish, as the water is really clear. But I was the only person snorkeling. It was great. I don’t think I’ve seen so many varieties of fish in one place before. There were small blue fish and small yellow fish, several colors of striped fish, angel fish, pencil-shaped fish, a couple kinds of rainbow-colored fish. I also saw several blue starfish. I was lost in the underwater wonder world for over an hour.

Back at the guesthouse at 9:00, I decided to relax and have the “catch up” day I’d been planning to have in Ubud but that hadn’t happened because I would get caught up wandering around. In the afternoon, I used the lovely swimming pool.

In the evening I went to a ceremony at the local temple that several people had mentioned and suggested that I attend. The ceremony is held annually at all Balinese Hindu temples on the same day to celebrate the anniversary of the temple. When I arrived, a small group of people were in the main temple room. They had brought offering baskets, mostly with fruit. 

After a while, the priest blessed each person by putting grains of rice on their foreheads. 

Then they prayed with hands together, held high at their foreheads, while the priest said the prayer.

These people left and a new, larger group entered. At that time, the security man told me to leave because foreigners weren’t allowed in the room while people prayed because we don’t know their traditions and customs. I thought it was interesting that no one had told me to leave earlier, as I’d been standing at the back for about fifteen minutes. So I joined the small group of foreigners in the entrance room.

Women were playing gamelan music. Occasionally the priest would chant/pray and they would stop and then start again. 

After a while, the women left and a group of boys played. 

The second group in the prayer room left and more people entered. Everyone was dressed in their good sarongs and blouses or shirts. Some wore white clothes. It reminded me of going to special ceremonies at the wat in Thailand.

At one point a group of young girls in dancing costumes arrived. 

After going into the main room briefly, they returned to the outer courtyard and danced. Later they joined the groups going into the main room again.

After two and a half hours, many people were there and they filled the outer courtyard as well as the main room. We foreigners were told to go out of the temple then. While praying was going on in the main room, those in the courtyard were chatting. Then the prayer came over the speaker, and all prayed. At that time a man started to talk to me. As everyone wants something, he wanted to let me know that his brother is a driver if I need one. When he stepped away, I decided it was time to leave. As I was leaving, the priest started talking like he was giving a sermon. I didn’t need to stay for that.

I felt lucky to be able to witness this special ceremony.