Lovina and central mountains in Bali

Dolphin monument on the beach in Lovina

The big thing in Lovina is the dolphin tours.  The boats go out at 6 in the morning to see the dolphins swimming in the large bay.  We were hesitant, but decided to give it a go. The boats are small, holding six people max, and the captains use small outboard motors.

Boats chasing the dolphins

Boat we took to watch dolphins

We had some very nice moments - watching the sunrise and when the captain turned off the motor and six or eight dolphins popped up right by the boat.  We were out in the same area with about 20 other boats.  The disturbing moments were when dolphins were spotted and many boats would zoom over to them.  It just felt like too much for the poor dolphins.  I think they need some rules like we have for Orca watching, that motorized boats can't approach within a certain distance.

Dolphins and the sunrise- picture taken from the internet, this one isn't mine

After chatting with the local woman, Sori, who gave us massages by our hotel pool, she invited us to a ceremony at her Hindu temple.  We had an uncomfortable conversation about how much to pay for her son to take us there, but decided to do it even though the price seemed high.  We dressed appropriately for a temple - shirts with sleeves below the elbow, sarongs, and sashes.  We spent about 2 1/2 hours there and didn't understand most of what was going on - after all it wasn't in English and we're not Hindu.  However it was a very special experience because we were able to participate in a real ceremony, not something put on for tourists.  I'm sure we looked a little awkward, we were the only non-Balinese there, but everyone was very gracious and friendly.  We even received a blessing by the priests as they went around to everyone.  This involved holy water sprinkled on our heads and hands, and taking rice to press on our foreheads.

Dancers at the temple

Sitting at the temple

Liz and I appropriately dressed for the temple - it's not easy riding side saddle on a motor scooter in a sarong!

We counted 38 vendor stalls on the way to the waterfall.

Our next stop was with a couchsurfing host up in the central mountains of Bali, in the village of Wanagiri.  This was an interesting situation because Jero has a small guesthouse and actually rents out rooms, but he also takes in couchsurfers for donations only.  A woman from Holland, Maria, stayed there our 2nd and 3rd nights, so we ended up making a donation similar to the price she paid.  Maria was bicycling around Bali and Lombok which we found interesting because we had seen few people riding bicycles.

Jero and his family were great hosts.  He took us to see sights in the area and we got to know some members of his family.  Highlights were Gitgit Waterfall, the Water Palace, Bali Botanical Gardens, Jatiluwih, visiting his daughter Koming's elementary school and listening to his local gamelan orchestra during their weekly Saturday night practice.

Gitgit Waterfall

1st grade class at elementary school in Wanagiri

We were very excited to visit Koming's elementary school and the kids seemed very excited to see us.  Maria from Holland is doing a project for a friend where she takes a polaroid picture of local people and then takes a digital picture of the locals with the polaroid.  She took a picture of the first grade class and then took a picture of some students with the polaroid.  Not shown are all the kids looking in the windows and crowding in the doors.  Kids didn't seem to be in classrooms when we stopped by, but it was 9:30 on a Saturday morning.  We're not sure if school on Saturdays is the norm or a special thing.  We had been seeing many groups of students marching in the streets, all in preparation for a big contest on August 17th, Indonesia's independence day.  Some of the students were out marching that morning, so we wondered if that might be why they had school that day.

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan - "Water Temple", a very important Hindu temple

Statue at Bali Botanical Gardens

Liz, Maria and Jero having a snack at Jatiluwih, known for its rice terraces

Trying out the gamelan instruments

 We were fortunate to be staying at Jero's on a Saturday night when he has weekly practice with his gamelan orchestra.  He has the instruments at his house so we were able to try them out before everyone showed up.  The orchestra is composed of only men, there were also teenage girls who danced.  The men are wearing jackets and hats because it was cold!  At an elevation of around 4000 feet Liz and I wore several layers in the evenings to stay warm.  The teenage girls also invited us to dance with them, which we did, no pictures of that :)

Wanabiri village gamelan orchestra

Liz, Jero and his wife, his son Yudi, me

There are many small farms in the mountains, many vegetables are grown, as well as strawberries.  There are also many fields of the flowers which people use for offerings.  Jero has a small coffee farm which we visited.  I was also surprised to see lots of bushes and small trees which look like poinsettias.





We left Wanabiri on August 4th and headed east for Amed.  Along the way we had a great view of Gunung Agung, Bali's tallest mountain and a volcano which spewed a lot of lava in 1963.

Amed is a series of villages along the eastern end of Bali's north coast, known for great snorkeling and diving.  We snorkeled right off the beach and it was great - coral and many types of fish. The main road going through is quite small, explaining why it takes so long to get places.

The next morning we took a fast boat for the Gili Islands - that's the next blog post.