Chris' Travels

Lovina - Northern Bali

This trip I'm finding for more time to blog. it makes a good afternoon filing activity.
So from last time.
Went back to the beach. Chilled out and had a couple of beers with the "bar" owner and Mr Tattoo. They were nice. went home. slept through sunset so popped out for a hearty Balinese meal of Pasta and salad at a balitalian restaurant. Waited an incredibly long time to pay the bill, which finally came, was wrong. Waited for it to be sorted forever. Wandered around and got annoyed by the tourist acting like idiots. Went home and fell asleep.

Up nice and early this morning intending to check out. had asked various people how to get to my next destination efficiently however no one really new so after a hotel breakfast of fresh fruit and an interesting banana toastie jumped in a Taxi to another town close by where the buses leave from. Got totally ripped off. He was a nice guy but went an incredibly long way round. hmmmm.
Got to the bus station. asked around for the right bus. whereas in the tourist town English was the norm here it wasn't. various hand and finger signals (not that kind) where exchanged. I was told it cost 10 times how much it should. found a driver who would take me for double public rate. that sounded ok, but would have to wait 2 hours. hmmm. Finally the next driver to go (these mini buses wait till they're full before they depart.) sold me his last seat for the public price. result. well kind of. the mini bus was design for 10 and 20 people plus luggage were squeezed inside. I had a granny touching my bum on one side and a star struck teenager elbowing my belly on the other. the trip was three hours. through mountain type scenary. nice enough. Progress was slow as theres a hindu type celebration going on currently and there where truck after truck (alongside the usual motorbike after motorbike afer motorbike) of traditionally dressed people heading to the temples.
Finally arrived at a town near wnere I was heading, transfered to pick up truck (15 minutes) then bus to get to final destination (30 minutes).
So here I am. It's an awesome place. a nice beach of black (ish) sand, rows of boats, hoards of hawkers, and about 1/1000th of the silly tourist shops Kuta had.
I've got a great hotel with a pool, nice room that doesn't have a ceiling fan that sounds like a 80 yr old generator (erm as the hotel in Kuta did).

So just popped out. had a great balinese meal of sliced tuna and tomato sauce with chillies in a small restaurant next to the beach.

I've met an interesting Balinese Charecter I'm saving the full story till things pan out but lets say he could make the next couple of days enjoyable.
So think of me. From 6am tmrw i'm going dolphin watching, then got some thing lined up and will let you know about them as and when.
And so now time for a refelction. And I'm trying my best to give a balanced opinion. Bali is quite like thailand. Kuta is especially like Phi Phi island in terms of the people there and their night time activities, i.e. getting seriously drunk. The beaches of Thailand I'm sorry to say do currently pip bali's IMO.
The balinese people are mixture of annoying and wonderful. So far in the scale of nice to nasty it's something like this:

Hotel workers
restaurant staff
hawkers
taxi drivers

Getting ripped off by taxi drivers is so hghly infuriating, but they have been so "nice" about it, chatting away like a long lost friend, that it's just been best to pay and get on with it.

Other than that people have been very nice, even the clingy hawkers, once they understand your not buying but may have a chat and help them with their English. The minute I think the Balinese people are all great a taxi driver ruins it. The minute I start to hate them, they show kindness and a brilliant smile and all that fades away again.

All for now.
C.

posted by Chris @ 7:55 am