I only spent the morning hours of the next morning in Kuta. As many people told me, I didn't really like it or care to stay there. It's dirty, over run with whities, and just not that nice. So I set off to Ubud, which pretty much everyone told me I'd love.
No sooner than my driver pulled over to let me out, the skies opened up and it poured. I, thankfully, was able to find a guesthouse immediately. I dropped my bags, took a seat on my front porch with a beautiful view of a rice paddy and watched, with delight, the wonderful rain.
They brought me tea, and I felt the mugginess ease with the fall of the rain. I then took a walk around the neighborhood and nestled into a cafe and had a local Bali beer called Storm. Nice and refreshing. The following day I met a new friend who currently lives in Bangkok, Leslie. We hit it off immediately and had a good time seeing Ubud. It'll be fun to meet up with her again when I get to Thailand! She unfortunately, had the opportunity of riding on the back of my motorbike in the pouring rain, which I'm sure scared the shit out of her. She was a very good sport about it though. I swear that by the very next day, I really was a pro at driving that motorbike. He heI took lots of pics but it just doesn't seem like the camera does the landscape justice. I drove to some beautiful rice paddies which just didn't feel like I did it justice in camera. Bali is full of amazing woodwork as well, which I tried to get some nice shots. I absolutely love all of the ornate doors and entrances. Oh, and I can't forget the monkey forest! That was really great. One even crawled up my back as I was bending down to take a photo. I will admit that I was a little freaked out about that.
After Ubud I headed up to Lovina, which I'd heard had nice beaches. It was an incredibly bumpy ride over the mountain and at times I thought we'd have to actually help push the van up the slopes. Eventually we arrived and I found a wonderful bungalow about a stones throw from the beach. Best part was the fabulous swimming pool. It's much warmer in the north and I could just see myself soaking in that pool. Lovina is also known for diving, as are most towns along the coasts. I signed up for a 3 day Open Water Padi Course. I've never dived before and was most excited to learn. The first day is spent learning and practicing in a pool and the 2nd day we drove to Menjangan Island for 2 dives and the last day to Tulamben for 2 more dives. Wow. Menjangan Island is a tiny island off the NW corner of Bali with crystal clear waters and amazing reefs, coral and fish. I even got to hitch a ride off a gigantic sea turtle. Tulamben is home of a shipwreck from the 1940's I believe and the abundance of fish was amazing; Many barracudas, which is a bit frightening. I also sat in the middle of a huge tornado of large silver fish as they circled around.
If only diving weren't so pricey, I'd do it everywhere!! After my days of diving, I had a couple more days in Lovina. Early one morning I took a boat out to see the dolphins. There were a couple of pods but as the boats just chase them around, you actually feel quite bad for the poor things and just want everyone to leave them alone. After leaving the dolphins we did a bit of snorkling. The are tons of little tiny jellies in the water and you end up with loads of little stings all over your exposed skin. Ouch, but it goes away after a few hours. On my last day, my friend Erik took me to this amazing waterfall in the mountain that again, pictures just didn't do it justice. We hiked down 365 ridiculously steep steps and then waded thru water and over clumsy rock to get to the base of the waterfall. The wind and spray from the water was so strong that it was almost painful to stand there. After I'd had enough of that, we headed back up (that was my excercise for the day) and then headed off on the motorbike to the Buddist Temple and Holy Hot Springs. Overall a great day! Minus the super sore ass.
Moving on from Lovina, I headed to Amed on the shuttle. Not being a fan of this town and the experience I had there, I took the next boat out to the Gili Islands. They are 3 tiny little Islands off the coast of Lombok. Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. Gili T is the most crowded with loads of tourist and pretty much all of them just wanting to party and have a good time. This not being my scene, I headed to Gili Meno which is the smallest of the three and has less than 1000 people on it. You can walk the circumfrence in one hour and watch the sunrise in the morning and head to the opposite side and watch the sunset in the evening. It's called the honeymoon island and I seemed to be the only single person there. Nevertheless, it was serene. The beaches were amazing and the water crystal clear. I rented snorkle gear a couple of days and you just swim from the beach and immediately see fish and coral. Pretty nice. I had a great bungalow which was home to the biggest gecko I've ever seen. I think he was just there to keep me company. Everyone on the island was super nice and spending my days lounging around doing nothing but sunning, swimming and reading was something I could get used to. Who am I kidding, at the end of 6 days, I was ready to get moving and see people again. :) I will miss my coconuts and pineapples on the beach though.
Having only a week left in Indonesia, I took the fast boat back to Bali and spent a night in Kuta. I made a few more friends and a good time chatting and having dinner. Today I'll move on towards Uluwatu and see what's it's like down there. I hear they have some of the most amazing sunsets. There is also a huge temple to explore. Should be pretty great. Maybe I'll rent a motorbike and see some of the neighboring towns. As I'm nearing my time here, I'm anxious to move on to Thailand because most of the travelers I've been meeting here say it's amazing. I'm excited to see for myself.I've loads more pics on picasa if you'd like to check them out!
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/BaliUbud
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/BaliLovina
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/BaliGiliIslands
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