Round the World Journal
by Matt Donath
July 23. Good fortune leads us to the Awangga Cottages (0362 41561) 17.5k-20k a night, including breakfast. The staff is charming and extremely helpful - say hello to Mini, Gede, Humphrey, Adi, and Ketut for us. While walking on the beach we meet Rudy, a Belgian who is spending several weeks here. He is romantically interested in a local woman and is going through the slow, arduous process of a proper Balinese courtship. Back home he keeps lynx, kangaroo, skunks, emus, and other wild animals as pets!
July 24. A walk along the black sands of Lovina Beach bring the immediate attentions of many hawkers:
"Want to see dolphin?"
"No, we don't like dolphins -- nasty creatures." (Actually, we just don't like the fact that they chase the poor creatures around on motor boats.)
"Hello -- you buy?"
"Siang -- tidak mau."
"Later, later you buy?"
"Nanti."
"What is your name?"
"Judy," says Sybil.
"What is your name?"
"Sam," says Matt.
"OK, Judy and Sam, tomorrow you buy from me -- promise!"
Actually, we're not always so obnoxious with the tenacious beach hawkers. We stop and chat with many of them during our week-long stay here. Hawker groups each have a geographic territory. Within each group, one hawker is assigned to each tourist. Every time you return to that particular section of beach the same person will try to get you to buy. Kids selling shells and dolphin boat drivers are exceptions - they try to sell to anyone. The rest of them are more organized and are fairly polite despite their relentless sales pitch. Most of them will leave you alone (for a time) once you make it clear you aren't buying.
Sybil is almost as tenacious in trying to explain to the hawkers that most tourists don't like being hounded on the beach and that they would be much better off laying their wares down on the beach with a sign listing the prices (most tourists don't like to bargain either). She may not have convinced them, but clearly tourists are avoiding Lovina as the place is nearly deserted. Our guess is bad word of mouth about beach touts and (invisible) dolphin trips. It's a shame because it's still a nice place.
July 25. The snorkeling is quite good at Lovina, better than I'd expected. The coral is a bit far from shore, maybe 500-700 meters. Many of the dolphin touts also offer to take you out on a boat to snorkel. This isn't a bad idea, particularly for your first time, but it's quite easy to swim out to the coral yourself. The water is extremely calm and the currents are very weak. The coral itself isn't so hot, but the variety of fish is great. Sometimes there are tiny stinging creatures (small jellyfish?) that can drive you nuts for a bit, but the sting goes away quickly.
July 26. Rudy's girlfriend cancels a planned excursion to see the dolphins. In fact, the locals rarely go out to see the dolphins or the fish. Most of the people we talked to on the beach couldn't swim and were afraid of the water. Her reason was more likely to avoid a high-profile, "unusual" outing with Rudy.
In any case, he's a bit dejected so we persuade him to go with us to some hot springs at Banjar. We've hired a car to take us there along with two very nice people who are also staying at Awangga: Elin from Denmark, and her friend Marit from Norway.
The hot springs consist of several levels of pools filled by water spouting from the mouths of Naga statues. The surrounding area is wooded and quite scenic.
On the way back we stop at a Buddist temple. The decor is an interesting hybrid of Buddist Wat and Balinese style Hinduism.
Everyone staying at Awangga pitches in for a tasty dinner buffet, prepared by the staff.
July 27. Humphrey, the Awangga owner, tells us about a cremation ceremony (ngaben) in the town of Sawan. So, we head out there with Elin and Marit. After several bemo rides (I'll write about bemo rides later) we find the town and a few western tourists, but the information is false as the cremation won't take place for several days.
We take the news in stride. We watch the preparations for the cremation and for an upcoming wedding. Sybil practices her language with some guys lounging around a shelter out of the rain. Then we all start back, walking up the road.
Sawan is known for producing gamelon musical instruments, so we visit a few workshops. They make gongs, drums, xylophones, and flutes.
Strolling along pleasant, tree-shades country roads, we visit several interesting temples. Ironically, the most famous temple in the area (according to Maurite's LP tour book) Jagarage temple, and the only one to charge admission, is probably the least interesting of the bunch.
We grab what we think is a bemo heading for Singaraja. Actually, it's a private van service run by Made Arimbawa, who works for Pt Bali Taxi. After chatting with him about our travel plans, he surprises us by not even asking for money when he drops us off. We give him the going rate anyway, 6k for the four of us. He operates out of Nusa Dua, so if you need an honest taxi driver there call 0361 701111 and mention us.
In Singaraja, Ilene and Maurite need to mail letters, so we stop by the post office. They offer email here! Sybil and I try to check our email, but the connection is so slow we can only read 3 messages in 10 minutes. There are two Internet connection services in Lovina, but they are also very slow and cost more money. Ubud has many places offering Internet services, including the post office there and the connections are faster.
We have lunch at a friendly Muslim warung called Rumah Makan Surya at Jln. Ahmad Yani No. 25.
At the post office, Elin and Marit meet a western woman who married a Balinese man and runs some restaurants in Lovina. We all chat with her while she nurses her baby in the post office. However, Sybil and I don't learn the name of her restaurants. By coincidence, the very next day, we stop by an excellent restaurant in Kalibukbuk called Warung Karma. When we describe this restaurant to Elin and Marit later, they tell us it one of this woman's places.
July 28. Just wandered around and chatted with people. At night Mini tells that their former dog "Vodka" disappeared one day. "He became satay," adds Gede, meaning that someone ate him. Some of the guests murmer suprise at this. Humphrey answers with his signature expression, "Oh my God, this is life my friend."
July 29. We head for the hills. Across from the Polisi station, there is a dirt path that winds up into the hills, past sawa fields and small villages.
Mini invites us to join her family at a temple ceremony. This was a great experience for us as it was the first time we had a chance to participate in the rituals. Despite a slight rain, we all sit down on the ground and face a shrine. A priest leads us through the offerings. First we hold a bunch of flowers over our heads, palms together, as an offering. Next, palms without flowers. Then just with a white flower. Then with one color of flower, followed by a different color. Then no flowers again. Finally, a priest comes around and throws holy water on us. He splashes the head three times, then three times in cupped hands for drinking (flavored with flowers and coconut). We finish by wetting the forehead and throat with the water and the priest gives us rice grains to stick there.
One of the wonderful things about Balinese people is their acceptance of others. Everyone at the temple was very gracious in letting us join their ceremony. Balinese religion (a form of Hinduism) is extremely demanding. Even the Balinese language is complicated as people use a different language depending on the caste of the person they are speaking to. They have many, many ceremonies that are often incredibly time-consuming. Everywhere we went we saw people involved in some sort of preparation for a ceremony. Despite the complexity of their religion and the difficulty in explaining it to a non-Balinese, people were very happy to answer the many questions Sybil and I pestered them with.
July 30. Tried to do one last snorkeling trip in the morning, but couldn't find decent equipment. There are only a few pairs of masks and fins in the village and most of these don't work. No matter, there has been rain the past few days and the sea is all churned up.
We say goodbye to the beach hawkers. The woman assigned to us (poor girl) on the beach nearest Awangga is named Ketut. I guess I should explain about Balinese names here. First born children are named Gede (boy), Wayan, Putu (girl), or Iluh (girl). Second born children are called Kadek or Made. The third child is Komang or Nyoman. Fourth child is Ketut. After that they just start over. I'm sure this is a bit simplistic, but that's what people told me and it does seem as if everyone has the same name.
Another woman at the beach told us that her husband had three wives. This is fairly common on Bali but this woman seemed to resent it a bit because she switched from Bahasa Indonesian and used one of the only words of English she knew to describe her husband: "playboy!"
We grab a bus to Bedugal. Transportation in Bali is either feast or famine. Normally you are in a bemo packed so tightly that you can hardly breathe. This time however, we take a huge tourist bus with only one other couple (nice French people - Laura and Stephan) and they were going ahead to Kuta. The road up to Bedugal winds sickeningly up and around the hills. Everyone at Lovina told us it was always cold and rainy up in the mountains and for awhile this looked to be true. However, we arrived to perfect weather and saw little rain during the next week.
Next: Part Four or see Table of Contents