So four days on and we are still loving our time in Lovina. The beaches are beautiful, the people are friendly, the food AND beer are cheap - why would we want to leave? Our accommodation is cheap and pretty basic and comes free with geckko poo on your sheets (we think they're living in the thatched roof!) There is also a huge pool which is a bonus as the beach is a no go area in the day because the black sand gets much too hot. We have spent most of our time relaxing by the pool and trying to outdo each other swimming lengths - Tom is winning at the minute, he is far more of a water baby than I am!
Yesterday, we went out on a traditional boat dolphin watching. It was such a fantastic experience! We met the captain of the boat at 6am down on the beach and helped him push the boat out into the sea before jumping in. Safety doesn't seem high on their agenda here so we had no life jackets, just a small wooden boat and our hands to cling onto the side! We sailed out for about 20 minutes and as we did so, we were able to see the sun rise from behind the mountains. It was worth the money we paid just to see that. Now the reliable Lonely Planet guide warns that dolphins are not always spotted so we tried not to get our hopes up - but we were in luck. Never in my life did I expect to see as many dolphins as we saw in our two hours on the boat and they were so close, swimming and jumping out of the water. It was truly amazing! They were much too quick for my camera and I ended up with beautiful photos of the sea but nothing else. Tom managed to take some video footage of them which hopefully shows you just how many and how close they were.
Having made it back on dry land, we went in search of breakfast, as the breakfast at our hotel consists of 2 pieces of toast and some very watery coffee - yum! We then made our way back to the pool to enjoy the early morning sun and met a couple from New Zealand who had just arrived. They were really friendly, which makes a change from the other guests here! We sat around the pool chatting and they gave us lots of tips and advice for when we travel to New Zealand. They've even given us their number and email so we can look them up when we get there - lovely people.
After having a mid afternoon nap (I could get used to these!) we headed down to the beach to see the sunset and dodge the evening traders with 'special sunrise prices'. We got talking to one local man who lived up in the mountains. He was selling necklaces that his family make from sea shells and coconut shells. They were beautiful and he told us the hiistory behind each and what each of the colours meant. Such a lovely man and we felt bad haggling the price of the necklace but we really wanted to buy from him. The necklace will give us protection according to this man, can't be a bad thing when travelling the world and being so far away from home.
We then went in search of food and found a restaurant which had live traditional dancing. The children dancing were so cute and looked so colourful in their traditional dress. There is more dancing on the beach tonight as a welcome for some round the world sailors, so hopefully we can see the adults and children dancing together. Tom decided in the restaurant that he wanted some 'hot' food to eat so ordered a beef rendang whilst I stayed in my comfort zone and ordered a chicken satay (the hot here is really hot). Needless to say, Tom found his curry pretty hot and but as soon as he had finished began sweating and having double vision - quite worrying!! So we had to pay pretty quickly and head back to our room. Tom has not had a great night and has spent most of it on the toilet with his head over the bin - a classic 'Bali belly' travellers diarrhoea/food poisoning if ever you've seen it! So Tom is still in bed whilst I'm sitting in the sun writing up our exploits for you all to keep you all up to date! He is feeling slightly better now by the way in case you're worrying, all thanks to some antibiotics and rehydration sachets all should be fine!!
Tomorrow we are heading down the coast to a place called Padang bai. It's another seaside town and is the main ferry port between Bali and Lombok. We would like to head over to some islands before Lombok called The Gili Islands. There are 3 tiny tropical islands and are described in Lonely Planet as 'a vision of paradise'. Sounds like a perfect place to spend my birthday to me!! Shell xxxx
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