Finally Bali

Pool!

Home Sweet Lovina Home

A few notes on Indonesia so far:

• Food is WAY more expensive than expected. I've eaten a few meals here that were more than the prices back home. And soda is the same or more. We are trying to keep to the warungs (small roadside shack restaurants), but it is still $5-7 a meal in those (at least here in touristy Lovina) including drinks.
• Hotels normally include breakfast, which can vary in quality. The place (Nariwana Hotel)we are now SUCKS, they are basically giving us toast and coffee. We stayed at one place that served us a banana pancake that was more like a crepe, perfectly cooked with the fresh caramelized bananas in it. Yum. More commonly is nasi gorem (Indo fried rice) with a fried egg. Usually with coffee or tea.
• It seems like the people here are more aggressively out to take as much money from you as possible. We have definitely meet some really nice Indonesians, but mostly outside the tourist areas.

After our epic adventures in Java we are spending 3-4 days just relaxing, catching up on our sleep and generally getting into the rhythm of being in Bali. I choose Lovina on the north coast as our first stopping point because my guide book described it as laid back and not as rainy.



Dolphin statue in Lovina

So after our first night in a crash hotel we walked around til we found a nicer place to stay for the remainder of our time here. It has a pool, air-con, hot water shower, breakfast included and is a stone's throw from the beach. All for about $17/night. Just what we need to recuperate. Listening to the waves crash is a nice way to fall asleep.

We are spending our time in the pool and just walking around enjoying the small amount of the area we can reach with Jas's limited walking range. We went on the dolphin watching boat ride this am. It was nice and we did see the dolphins, though why the dolphins hang around with 50 boats chasing them I don't know.