Jackie Teaches in China: Lovina Part 2 (2-13)

I decided to have no plan on Wednesday and relax at the guesthouse and catch up on writing, as I hadn’t had time to do that much and still needed to write up the orangutan trip. While I was eating breakfast, the owner invited me to join him and his friend to go to the hot springs, a place I wanted to visit. These hot springs have pools for standing in and for swimming. Water goes into the pools from dragon spigots that people can stand under. The top pool has hot water. Not hot like that in Baturaden, but hot like a shower. After it’s in the pool, the water cools; so the water going into the next level is warm but not hot. The pool itself was the temperature of the swimming pool at the guesthouse. Another small pool has water dropping down from spigots several feet above. Standing under them is like getting a massage as the water hits the body. I misunderstood when the owner told me not to wear anything white because it would be difficult to get it clean again. I thought that meant that we would wear our clothes in the pools, as people had done in the holy hot springs on the tour from Ubud. However, they and the other foreigners wore swimming suits. But Indonesians wore clothes; so I felt OK going into the pools wearing my clothes. All in all, it was a wonderful way to start the day.

As soon as we arrived back, it started to rain and rained heavily for three hours and then continued for several more. I was glad I didn’t have any special plans.

Thursday I went on a snorkeling trip to Menjangan Island, which is known for having a great coral reef for snorkeling and diving. When we were at the company’s office, I saw a man being given an underwater camera and asked about it. They were for rent: Rp 300/$25, which seemed a bit expensive and was almost the cost of the trip. But I decided to do rent one because I’ve always wanted to take photos underwater. So this was the day. They put my memory card in the camera, which was handy. I really enjoyed being able to photograph the coral and some of the fish; so it was worth the expense.

When we were divided into vans, the other passenger with me was a young women from Russia who was interesting to chat with. On the way, we picked up three men at a fancy resort. While we were waiting for them, the manager gave us a tour. He had recently started working there after working in Lovina for several years. He is especially proud that all the hotels he has worked in are owned by Indonesians, as many are owned by foreigners and staffed by local people.

Once we arrived at the port, we were regrouped and were in a boat with a Spanish couple and four young women from England. I was by far the oldest of the group. We ferried to the island where we stopped to snorkel for an hour.

The location was better than the one in Lovina for the coral and the expanse of coral. However, there were more fish in reef in Lovina, perhaps because it was small and the fish couldn’t spread out as much. I enjoyed floating along, viewing the magical underwater world, and taking photos.

After snorkeling, we were given a box lunch: cold fried egg and fried rice. It wasn’t very good. When I asked how long we were staying there and learned that we had another half hour, I headed up the path on the beach that I’d noticed people walking on, thinking there might be good views from up the hill. There were.

And there was a temple at the end of the path. It has a huge Ganesh statue overlooking the bay, guarding the island. In the trees at the entrance to the temple there were three deer.

When I was heading back, a man entering the temple pointed them out to me. He was quite enthusiastic about seeing them and wanting me to see them. I’ve since learned that the name of the island means “deer.”

Next we went to a site farther down the coast of the island to snorkel for another hour. This site had more high walls, and I enjoyed looking down as far as I could.

When we arrived back in Lovina at 4:00, it started to rain. This rain lasted only an hour. I was tired and rested in my room for a couple hours before venturing out to my last dinner here. I stopped at the travel agency to book a driver to take me to Tanah Lot on Friday. I had chosen this option because the standard tour includes stops that we made on the way from Ubud. This way I was able to choose where I wanted to stop. My travel agent had suggested the hot springs and Buddhist temple. Since I’d already been to the hot springs, we altered the trip to include the Buddhist temple and a waterfall. When I returned to pay, they gave me a bag of rambutans from his wife’s sister’s garden.

So Friday I finished sightseeing in Lovina when we stopped at the Buddhist temple, which is the largest Buddhist temple in Bali.

Its special feature is the stupa that is like a mini Borobudur.

The chedi is Tibetan Buddhist in style. Since there were only a few other people at the temple, it was a quiet visit that left me feeling calm, as I often feel when wandering around temples on my own.

The basic questions here are: Where are you from? First time in Bali? How long? When come to Lovina? How long stay? Where do you live (stay)? After a few conversations, this gets old.