north coast of bali

It took me less than an hour to drive from munduk to an area called lovina…I don’t know why it’s called lovina, it’s actually a series of four villages on the north coast of bali…I stayed in kaliasem…I’d looked in the guidebook to see what type of accommodation I could expect to find, and I went for the cheapest listed…for the first time I can ever recall, the price listed in the book was the same price I paid…amazing…I was expecting it to have gone up a dollar or two, but I’m definitely not complaining…the room is as nice as what I had in munduk, and I’m paying a whole lot less…less than half, actually…and it still includes breakfast…what it does not include though, is hot water, a towel, or toilet paper…fortunately, I have something I can use as a towel, and I have toilet paper…(never ever travel in asia w/out toilet paper)…I wasn’t expecting to get here so fast, but as I continually learn, distances in bali just aren’t that big…

Lovina is a beach area…the beach is black sand, and fairly narrow…it’s not stunningly beautiful, but I still like it…(you’ll be hardpressed to find a beach I don’t like)…kalibukbuk is the main village of the bunch, that’s where most of the accommodation and food is found…how you know which village you’re in is beyond me, I never did find blank space in between the villages…anywho…before heading to the beach I went for a walk around the area, to get my bearings and see what I could see…not much…the area is just like kuta, only far less crazy, and far less crowded…there are touts on the beach, though far fewer of them…(far fewer people in general, which I love)…spas, shops, restaurants, accommodation…not much else…and just like kuta, I was able to ignore everything except the beach…

The first day I relaxed in my room, then went to the beach…then checked internet, then went home, then went to dinner…nothing terribly exciting…the next day I got up and had breakfast on the porch in front of my room…tea and a sandwich with fried eggs and tomatoes…when breakfast is included in the price it’s always interesting to see what breakfast is…then I hopped on my bike, and drove through the nearby town of singaraja…it’s the biggest town on the north coast, but there isn’t any real reason for tourists to go there…out the eastern side of town are a couple temples, and another one even farther east…even though I was expecting more of the same temples I’ve already seen, they still fascinate me…I’m weird, I know…

The first temple was the best of the three…soooo much carving…most temples in bali have a lot of carving, especially on the main entrance…but this one had a lot more…including human faces, not just the scary faces I’m used to…the shape of the temple was different as well, though I’d be hard pressed to explain how…it just was…to get to the second temple, I walked along a narrow path next to the first, and over a bridge, onto the next road over…about 200m up the road I could see the second temple…what I couldn’t do was go in this temple…all the gates were closed…argh…but I could still see some carvings on the outside, as well as tell that this temple was quite small…an informative local searching for snails in the rice paddies (to feed his lobsters, if I understood correctly) told me that this temple had all the carvings depicting where you go when you’re dead…hmmm…the way he said it was pretty humourous, I guess you had to be there…

The third temple involved more driving…as I was on my way there, I realized I was running really low on petrol…really really low…and then I saw a petrol station…phew…I pulled in, only to realize that it wasn’t open…eeek…so I kept driving, hoping I’d see another one soon…but I got to the next temple before I saw another petrol station…I parked, put on my sarong, and gave a donation…the guy was rather put out that I didn’t give a certain amount…he said all the tourists give more than I did…I didn’t say anything, but in my head I was thinking “if you want a certain amount from everyone who visits, you should just charge an entrance fee and call it what it is”…anywho…this temple wasn’t all that interesting, but there was a particular carving worth nothing…it’s a guy on a bicycle, and the wheels of the bicycle are made of flowers…I laughed…that’s definitely not something I would’ve expected to see anywhere in a Balinese temple…awesome…

After that temple, I started driving back…past the petrol station that wasn’t open…I pulled into the next one, only to be told that they didn’t have petrol for motorbikes…AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!...by this point, the needle on my bike was below E, and I was seriously concerned…but I kept driving…eventually, I saw another petrol station, with plenty of motorbikes pulled in to fill up…phew…it wouldn’t have been that hard to get help if I needed it, but it would’ve been embarrassing…lol…

The afternoon was spent at the beach, of course…at dinner the meal I ordered came with chili peppers on the side, in case I wanted it spicy…and I did…I put them all on the food…they’re spicy all right, and I was sweating while I was eating, but I loved it anywho…spicy food is awesome…

My last day in lovina was spent mostly on the beach…at some point while I was baking, there was a local ceremony of some kind on the beach…putting offerings in the water, chanting, etc…everyone in traditional attire…neat to see…