Circular tour of east Bali

Sitting here in Global Xtreme here in Kerobokan I am getting my email back in order after a 4 day tour around north and east Bali.

Sean, Chris and I hired a Toyota Kijang for 125,000rp per day and drove up to Lovina, staying at the Hotel Nugraha on the western outskirts. We got 2 rooms, both AC with local tv and fridge for a total of 500,000rp. The only other guests were a couple from Taiwan. Next morning after my famous sense of direction got us going the wrong way we U-turned and headed eastwards along the coast to Amed. This sleepy fishing village has developed a nice industry around scuba diving and quality hotels and restaurants can be found.

The drive from Lovina to Amed is roughly 60 miles but don’t be fooled, this is no 1 hour trip. With an average speed of 20 mph accounting for the congestion is Lovina and Singaraja, the switchbacks and the slow moving trucks the journey seems much longer.

Our resting place in Amed was Good Karma cottages which consist of lovely 2 storey bamboo structures 10 meters from the shoreline. I talked to the staff and got all 3 of us into a cottage for 200,000rp including breakfast.

One advantage of staying at the Good Karma is the proximity to Blue Moon restaurant (actually called Wayan John’s ) just up the stone staircase. Chris picked up a flyer advertising a ‘joged’ at another place just under 1 kilometer away. We strolled to the ‘Pavillion’ in pitch darkness and were pleasantly surprised to find a gamelan orchestra set up on the floor of a very elegant place complete with awesome a view and circular Spanish style arches.

The joged is a local dance whereby a single female dancer invites individual men to join her. The 3 young dancers all gave Sean, Chris and I a chance to show what we had to offer ( which in my case was doing something that resembled a stick insect ). Sean was the most entertaining as he didn’t try to ‘go local’ but stuck to a nightclub / 70′s routine.

While at the Pavillion we were joined by Ken, a 60 year old Aussie living in Timor. Ken had just got off a small yacht which was heading to India and was over the moon there was a joged. He told us the tide coming through the Lombok Strait was so strong they were doing 1 knot an hour for several hours and decided to call it quits and pull into land. The Lombok Strait is 2.5 kilometers deep and the volume of water going through there creates very strong currents.

Next day we drove around the coast past Seraya to Ujung and stayed at Seraya Shores, a lovely set of 2 storey cottages on the sea front. This place is perfect for those wanting peace and quiet. Sean and I shared a 2 storey place while Chris had his own. The price was 250,000rp per person, all meals ( 3 ) and non alcoholic drinks included. The skies were cloudy and the palm trees were waving, the perfect time to get into your next novel.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner of snappers, greens, rice and egg plant, followed by fruit salad. A couple of beers and an arak mudu helped conversation.

Wednesday I offered to take the guys to White Beach, the place that Jamie and saphir bali, the 2 owners had taken me before. Everything went well until we got in the vicinity of the beach. The track to the beach is heavily rutted and I took a wrong turn which led us to a steep section. Basically we couldn’t get the Toyota Kijang out and had to enlist the help of a dozen or more locals and rope. I hired a guy to ride me bcak to the hotel to get their 4 wheel drive and upon returning saw a small crowd had gathered. The ground was so dry both vehicles were digging ditches as we struggled to get a few feet. Finally with a few locals behind me and several more pulling on the rope in front we were dragged up. The whole thing cost us 200,000rp for the locals and 20,000rp for the rope. This was a real let off as Jamie had told me last year he had manged to get stuck in the mud with 3 trucks. The locals charged him 1.5 millionrp for each vehicle. I like the Balinese but they aren’t shy about turning the screw when you need help. What kept my costs down was the fact that we had the hotels 4 wheel drive.

Next day at the hotel we told Jamie about our adventure and he said “You blokes probably didn’t have the Jeep in 4 wheel drive, otherwise you’d be out in no time”. Looking back we should of paid more attention to what the hotel drive was doing. We’re not that smart.

Our ride home on Thursday included driving through a flooded road next to a paddy field. Torrential rain over the last 48 hours had swelled the gullies and the paddy field wall collapsed sending thousands of gallons of water into the street. Jalan Seminyak was aloso under a foot of water when we went to Ryoshi last night. I hate to think what Jalan Benesari looks like.

I was monitoring my gas level as I didn’t want to run out, but alos didn’t want to give the car back with much in the tank. Along the coastal road there are a number of petrol stations and I put another 20,000rp in a couple of hours from home. The Kijang has a 1.8 liter engine and has okay mileage so I arrived back with around 1/4 tank.

Friday morning I hurriedly washed the car with soapy water in preparation to handing it back. Made from Bali Land & Houses came round to get it at 9am and I’m hoping he doesn’t figure out we drove it up a mountain in a dust storm.