Notes from Stephen, Wan, Kweilin, and Li

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Amed, Lovina: Sunrise; mackerel; cremation; urban Lovina

We watched the sunrise at 6:30 again this morning. The sun shone through the clouds on the horizon as a red orb again.

We watched the fishermen return from their sunrise expedition. Each boat revs its motor as it approaches and tries to ride a wave high onto the shore. Fishermen team up to pull the boats higher.

We bought a couple mackerel and had a hotel employee fry them. Each foot-long fish cost 2000 rupiah (20 cents) plus a tip to fry it. We had a healthy, tasty, cheap breakfast.

We left Amed for Lovina after a swim in the hotel pool. We drove for three hours along the coast. The most scenic portion had rice paddies on the right with the sea behind them and 10,000-foot Mount Agung on the left.

We ate bakso (rice noodle soup with meatballs) near a cattle market. A few locals emerged leading 4-5 cattle each along the road.

We passed a cremation statue. When a Balinese dies, the family buries the body and then digs it up and lays it in a wooden cremation statue. Usually an entire community pools resources to conduct a mass cremation. I think the ceremony we came upon was for the grandparents of a rich family because the pictures on the statue suggested that it was for one man and one woman, not a whole community.

We found Lovina much more urban than Amed. We've seen more tourists and peddlers and cars in our first hours in Lovina than we saw during our entire multi-day stay in Amed. Lovina has a mini version of Bangkok's Khao San Road: a few blocks lined with restaurants, hotels, and bars whose clientele is almost exclusively foreign.

Lovina attracts many tourists because it has a beach, it's easy to get to from Ubud, and it offers outings where clients can pet dolphins. We saw dolphins play with our boat in Flores, so we'll give the Lovina dolphins a miss.

We took a beach-front room by a swimming pool at the Bali Lovina Hotel for 250,000 rupiah (US$25) a night. Like in Amed, the pool cooled us after our hot scooter ride.

We ate lunch and dinner at a Chinese restaurant named Warung Aria next to the hotel. Avocado juice with chocolate was a sweet, tasty mix that Maurice and Jerome introduced to us back in Flores. We enjoyed cap cay (stir-fried vegetables) with chicken and fried fish ball slices.

I would have enjoyed walking along the beach more if peddlers had let me walk in peace. I learned to ignore their offers of cheap dolphin trips and beautiful pendants.

We read in our room this evening. I finished Sinclair Lewis's "Arrowsmith."

posted by Unknown at 5:59 PM