Bali
15 October 2014 | Lovina Beach, North Coast
Wet and wild! Diomedea dropped her mooring at 0400hr, leaving the stillness of Medana Bay for the fierce Selat Lombok. We soon found ourselves beam reaching into 25-30 knots from the south with three reefs in the main and only half the jib and still zipping along. The moon laid down a path for us to follow through the spray, swells and waves. By 0550 the sun was beginning to rise over the flanks of volcano Rinjani astern and its red glow brought into view the stunning symmetrical cone of the volcano Agung on the eastern side of Bali. At 3100m high this peak is very sensual in its curves, but of course occludes the wind flow. As we entered its lee it was time for the diesel and in fact we motored the entire north coast of Bali in calms, heading for Lovina Beach (08 09.556âS 115 01.302âE). The anchorage is quite open to the north but holding was excellent in 17m sandy bottom. Mild sea breezes came and went during the day, and the night had some offshore land breeze. Lovina is a tourist destination but is quite understated compared to reports one receives about Kuta beach in the south. There are a number of restaurants including the very excellent Spice Beach Club with its tourquoise and white themed livery and staff uniforms. Su at Shop 7 on the beach successfully relieved us of the burden of cash by selling us some nice batik shirts. Boat boys came out in their spider boats, here made of fibreglass. We were initially greeted by Peter Pan, then his brotherâs boat Full Power. Many other fanciful boat names were seen and indeed the fleet was vast, transporting westerners to snorkelling, dolphin watching etc. Our boat boy Daman brought us diesel (solar), petrol (benzin), bananas (pisang), laundry (laundry), and provided a below the waterline scrub for the hull ($50 for 3 guys for 2 hours or so). The town of Lovina beach has commemorated the dolphins in a kitschy monument and there is even a dolphin gate through which traffic enters the town. About 15km east is the large town of Singaraja with a Carrefour supermarket and many other facilities. One always thinks of Bali as being a cheap destination for yobbo Australians but in the north this did not appear to be the case, although admittedly the season was well advanced. We decided to take a vehicle south for a day tour of the island to sample the Australian tourist factor elsewhere. A conscious decision was made to avoid Denpasar and the south coast. Our driver and his nice air conditioned car were hired for $60 for the entire day and it worked out very well. Up and up we went over a pass to a cluster of three lakes probably at about 1000m altitude before we descended toward the large southern plains of Bali. Along the way we stopped at the fascinating Coffee Break establishment to sample a wide range of coffees and teas. This included the remarkable Luwac coffee. The processing of this particular blend initially involves feeding coffee beans to a mongoose. The mongoose eats them and excretes them whole in its faeces. The scats are collected and the beans harvested and cleaned. They are then roasted, ground, and served in the usual manner. Reputedly the pre-processing of the bean renders the flavour exquisite and makes the product the most expensive coffee in the world. Did we try it? Of course. Was it worth $20 for a 200gm bag? No. In fact the flavour was very mild and the caffeine content low so for us hardened Mosmanites it was really anticlimactic. Nonethless, their other coffees were excellent and again our wallets were strip-mined by this effieient organisation. Our journey took us further south to the bustling arty town of Ubud. This place was definitely a tourist trap and was absolutely chockas with western women. Perhaps driven by the eat-pray-love thing or the quest for the ultimate spa or alternative health treatment we cannot say, but they were pounding the pavements in search of enlightenment. We did not linger in the town but did go to the interesting Neka museum of Balinese art (HYPERLINK "http://www.museumneka.com"www.museumneka.com) established by Suteja Neka in the late 70âs. Works from local and European artists are on display and it is definitely worth a visit. A Dutch painter, Hofker, was quite taken with the naked Balinese female form and he had produced a real homage to same. One work though, painted by another European chap, featured a naked pubescent girl in a sensual pose. Such works I imagine would not be hung in Australian galleries today, and the artist presumably would be hunted down by the AFP. We left Ubud and its countless wood carving shops behind and headed north toward volcano Agung. The road wound up through beautiful rice paddy terraces to crest the pass at 1600m at the village of Kintamani. We lunched with a clear view of Agung and other volcanos, one of which had had a moderate eruption 9 years ago. A large crater lake some km long was also seen. Kintamani also was home to a fascinating Hindu temple in which devotees were actively engaged in their rituals. A loud 30 strong musical ensemble consisting entirely of tympani provided a noisy backdrop. Finally it was the endless descent down the ridge to Singaraja before heading back to Lovina. All in all a great day. Bali is quite different in its religious makeup compared to other islands that we have visited. Whilst there are some mosques, Hindu temples predominate and in fact every house has some sort of Hindu ornaments, be they simple puja offerings to the gods, or more elaborate private shrines. Some private temples occupied acreages! Little umbrellas and other comforts were provided for the god statues in the temples. The ethos being that if you give something spontaneously to your gods they will in turn give you something back. Our Hindu driver dreamt that one day his sect would dominate Indonesia and presumably supplant the Muslims for whom he definitely expressed some intolerance. Dream on.