Villa Lotus, Bali - Blogabond

My first flight since I landed in Bangkok on the 6th of December! Going to Bali! From my humble residence on Koa San Road I cought the hourly airport express bus... while sitting on the bus and getting comfortable I looked out the door. This was followed by a quick double take as I had spotted Marcelo and Macarena! Small world. Turns out that Maca was on the exact same adventure flight to Bali. (I met them on the Delta trip in Vietnam)

I say adventure as the flight to Bali with air asia requires a brief stop over in Jakarta... basically you arrive at midnight and the connecting flight to Bali is at 8:00 AM. So what every hardy traveller will endure time and time again, we slept at the airport. We slept on the two seater plastic benches making up the diner of Dunkin' Donuts to be exact. It was interesting to say the least!

Maca sleeping at Dunkin' Donuts... Jakarta

We were both happy that we had someone to share this interesting experience with! The connecting flight to Bali was fine and we were welcomed by a tropical rainstorm. Both of us were expecting to be met at the arrival gate, so we were both dissapointed! What had happened was that both our reception parties assumed we came directly from Bangkok, a very justified assumption, so after some wandering around we realised our error and found our pickups. I was picked up by Eric, he was armed with a sign "Robert Villa Lotus" Awesome! I got in the car and after a brief drive through Kuta we started the 3 hour drive to my residence for the next few days. Sadly the clouds had covered Bali so I didnt see a thing besides what appeared 5 meters from the car. But no matter, before long I had arrived in Lovina, at Villa Lotus! Where Robert and Elivira were waiting for me with a coconut cocktail! Treatment I hadnt experienced this entire trip! Good times. The house, or rather villa is beautiful, and when they showed me my own private condo with pool and lounge I was stumped! If I stayed here too long I would never want to leave.

The view from my beach condo - Villa Lotus

The front clear water dip pool

Villa Lotus pool

A mean ass Gogo guy

The next few days were glorious. There was a national hindu day of silence... Mimpi. What this meant was that the whole of Bali was quiet, so that the bad spirits that were chased away the previous night wouldnt come back to Bali. The chasing was done ny burning massive paper mache statues of Gogos. A very interesting time to be here, but it did give me one public holiday and one house arrest day. Now when you have a day of House arrest at Villa lotus, it isnt exactly a bad thing! I loved it. Thank you Rober and Elivira. I have since realised that I dont have a single photo of them. This is possibly due to the relaxing times that we had around the dinner table and just general relaxing. So let me just say that they both look as young as ever and are in good shape. Let alone the discussions we had on the way home after a party night in the hot and happening club of Lovina... Pogo bar (A place not to be missed if you go to Lovina) I do have one of their very young and aglile dog though!

Little Tiger... for some reason the only family member i have on film... mmmmmm

While in Lovina, I didnt only sit at the lovely villa, I also took a day trip out to the nearby waterfalls. Its the tailend of the rainy season, which is very noticable from the afternoon monsoon type rains that fall. With the day of the waterfall being no exception. But the Munduk waterfall was awesome, the rain stopped once we got there, I was the only tourist and walked all the way to the crashing water taking in all the elements!

The Munduk Waterfall in rainy season... awesome

Me at the Munduk waterfall

After a day of diving in the North west island of menjangan and seeing my green turtle I made my way to Kintamani. The town at the foot of Mt Batur, the second biggest volcano of Bali! I got there on a public bus, which in Bali with all its hills is a unique experience. Tehre was the inevitable overcrowded feel to it, with people standing in the isle, a chicken in a bag and 3 on a two seater. This and the classsic, "Im not feeling too well, so ill lean over you and vomit in this small weathered packet" But still clean when I got out, I had an overall good experince. Even had some good conversation with Nioman, a lady sharing the seat with me who kept cracking herself up when she heard I paid the tourist price with is $2, instead of $1(local) for the ride. An excellent local experience!

When I got to Kintamani, the mountain dissapeared into the clouds while I was enjoying lunch, and the rain had started by the time i went back outside. No matter though, I went down to the small footside town, and checked into a hotel. AFter negotiating my trip up the mountain the next morning i went for a walk. As Robert and Elvira had warned me, there is absolutely nothing to do. So after I had walked through the whole village, checked out the local bar and fitness club I made my way back to the hotel. The rain closed in and I spent the rest of the day reading, writing and drinking Arak, or rather indonesian moonshine with the hotel manager.

Arak... Moonshine tasting at the hotel the day before the big climb

Mount batur

3:09 I got the knock on the door, the wake up call! By 4:00 AM we were at the foot of the mamoth mountain and armed with a torch we were ready to go up. I was assigned to the team with the scottish/english couple Christine and Mike. They seemed middle aged, so i thought we would be walking up at a manageable pace. Oh no! They were both avid hikers and what an average person does in 1,5 to 2 hours we did in 55 min! I was out of breath, but we made it to the top. We now sat at the top for at least an hour before the sun showed itself. When it did, the cold went away and everyone was mesmorized! You could see Lombok, the Kuta gulf and Mt Agung in all its glory!

The hiking Trio... They may look Old but... damn are they Tough! Mike and Christine

The view of Mt Agung

Mike and Christine speeding ahead

Mt batur climbing

After some volcano steamed eggs we hiked to the second crater, and then to the top of the main crater! Beautiful, fresh, crisp and clean. A very good morning!

Back down at the hotel at 9:00 I made my way to the cultural hub of Ubud. Got here by local Bemo and spent the day yesterday cysling around the rice paddie country side and checking out all the local art shops. Everyone here is an artist! Its amazing. The plan today is to make my way to the coast of Padangbai...