The (In) Famous Lovina Dolphin Trip Trap

A motorbike met me at the gate at quarter to six and shuttled me down the hundred meters to the beach. I guess they wanted to make sure I didn't get lost in my coffee-less stupor. Two Dutchmen met us there and we motored out to find dolphins, backed by the rising sun.

We were not alone. Ten, twenty boats were along for the ride. For an hour we cruised, criss-crossing back and forth in a sweeping pattern, on the lookout.

The sea was choppy and I gave up on staying dry at the bow of the boat. Which was fine with me. I just didn't shoot much video. See, I'd planned to shoot the whole thing, make sort of a mockumentary of the spectacle. But after an hour or so it really wasn't all that funny.

When finally we spotted a pod of dolphins all the boats rushed off in the same direction. I swore that one of us was going to run a dolphin over. We raced at them full-bore, changing direction with them when the pod shifted, until they wisened up and stayed beneath the surface.

This pattern was repeated several times until our driver stopped the boat and announced that the dolphins were leaving the bay for the day. He handed out some cups of grounds-ridden coffee and motored us back to shore.

It was an interesting adventure, if it could be called that, more of an exercise in anti-eco-tourism. Still, it was nice to get out on the water in the early morning and cruise around for a bit.

Now, imagine if you will, that you're a dolphin, subjected on a daily basis to a post-breakfast chase by twenty boats with madmen at the helm, ferrying gawking and half-naked (mostly) European tourists, gunning right for you. I imagine that after a while you might just throw in the towel (despite any advice offered by the Guide to the stupidity of such an action) and just find a new spot to hang out. I would.

Notes on Bali

I've learned some things in my short time in Bali:

1. Smile. Even if the heckling nature of the hawking is wearing on your nerves, if the insincere salesmanship is becoming less and less of a novelty. Make it new, somehow. Laugh. Joke. Get some names. Have some fun with it.
2. Smile.
3. No hands on hips. No hands on heads.
4. Bring a cellphone. You're more likely to get through, and if you don't, it's easier to try again.
5. Get an International Driver's License. Drive a car. It;s a big island, with much more to see off the beaten track. If you crash, you crash, just like anywhere else.
6. Expect your red wine to come chilled and be pleasantly surprised when it arrives warm as a baby's burp.
7. All of that said, the hawkers here, man, oh I could go on and on ... but I won't.

Fleeting Glimpses

I didn't get to capture the funniest things I saw today:

A woman in the pharmacy with her motorbike helmet on.
A baby being breast-fed on the back of a motorbike...

Lovina

Gusti deposited me at a nice guest house in Lovina, owned and run by a Dutch/Balinese couple and their daughter. The Dutch man said that Bali has something of a magical air to it, something he finds lacking in his return trips to Holland.


The dolphin statue, where the hawkers descended upon me like hawks, being that I was one of few tourists in town. A woman relentlessly tried to sell me T-shirts. I told her I'd buy one that said "I don't want to buy anything". They actually have one, that lists all of the things the wearer is not interested in buying. How odd.


Graffiti on the beach.


An interesting combination of services.


Always, in Bali, there's the sense of something spectacular happening just over the horizon. Mountains in the mist, the ocean. For instance, right now the evidence of the sunset that must be sensational, that I'm not witnessing. That's okay, though - I've seen many sunsets...


...I changed my mind. I guess I had one more in me.


I caught it at the tail end, but it was one of those with the clouds licking the mountains, the sun saying sayonara with shades of pink, blue, gold, hazel, the sea slurping on the shore, the smell of sand cooling and settling.

Lovina, Black Sand Sunset Stroll

Munduk, Waterfall

Got a ride from the mountain/lake town of Bedugul to the beaches of Lovina. Passes above Lake Tamblingan, and came to a coffee plantation at the top of the hill, offering an amazing view looking off toward Bali Barat, the enormous national park that takes up most of the western part of the island.


Stopped next at a waterfall near Munduk.



Gusti, my driver/guide. He hopes to get a job on a cruise ship sailing out of Miami. I told him what I know of the industry, which isn't much. We stopped on the way into the waterfall to say hi to a friend of his. He wasn't there, but his mother was. She offered me some fruit, and we spoke for a while as she swept the yard. She's fallen out of a tree three times, and injured her back, and is now limited to doing work around the house. I asked her what she would wish for if she could have any wish granted, and her answer was simple: to be able to do what she does, to tidy up around the place and cook. We left and headed for a hot spring. On the way Gusti and I got into an in-depth examination of the word "would" and all of its various uses... Really nice guy...



Tugu/shrine to the spirits of the waterfall...