Day 80: Lovena - the infamous dolphin tour

“Expect to be asked by the locals about a dolphin tour every minute” was a warning from wikitravel's Lovena page. And it was no exaggeration. Everyone from our guesthouse staff to locals on the street to waiters in the restaurants asked us about a dolphin tour. Coincidentally it was always his or her uncle who owned a tour company and would give us discounts. The first and last dolphin tour I ever did was with Hide and my brother in Yilan, Taiwan. Half an hour out to the sea, most people on the boat vomited and were pale white. Of course, there were no dolphins in sight.

We met our guesthouse neighbor, Bill, who was a documentary film editor from California. His most well-known work was Hoop Dreams, which won an Oscar for best documentary. He had a driver with him, so we got ourselves a free one-day tour of Lovena the next day. We visited a Buddhist monastery and the Banjar hot spring. At the hot spring, Bill forgot to bring his swim trunk, so he went looking to buy one. After some bargaining, he got one Batik style trunk for 65,000 rupiah. Ten seconds after he left the shop another vendor offered him the same trunk for 20,000 rupiah. Ouch. The hot spring was nice, but a bit dirty in my opinion. Bill enjoyed it very much, and he moved to the only hotel next to the hot spring the next day. I guess natural hot spring is hard to find in California.





Initially we wanted to spend a few days in Munduk because we read a few blogs raving about that village. After some research and talking to the locals, we learned that the accommodation in Munduk was on the expensive side (US$20+). So we rented a scooter to go around northern Bali. The scenery from Bedugul to Munduk was breathtaking – riding on top of a ridge overlooking three lakes. After riding for most of the day, we were tired and decided to treat ourselves to a nice seafood dinner at Maluka. It was a very good meal. The sunset view from the 3rd floor was equally great.

temple by the lake in Bedugul

view from the ridge to Munduk