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Lovina in northern Bali has been described as 'relaxed' - which is in fact a very accurate description. Sleepy, laid - back, quiet and peaceful, would also do. Quite the opposite of Kuta in most ways. In the heart of Lovina- Kalibukbuk - there are a couple of streets with a few bars and restaurants, sprinkled with a handful of small shops and some small hotels by the beach. That's for the visitors - then there is ofcourse local Lovina with markets, road-side food vendors and shops and such. Lovina is still - unlike Kuta - a place where locals by far outnumber visitors.
There is roughly 100km from Seminyak to Lovina. It takes around 2-3 hours to drive since the roads lead through mountains in central Bali. A very scenic route leading through pittoresque small villages, ricefields, fruitvendors and small paths of forrest with wild monkeys playing around.
Arriving in Lovina, settling in our new home, Lovina beach houses, a two-storey villa by a small beach front with a teeny tiny pool in the backyard. A charming, if somewhat dark place, but with an outstanding oceanview from the top floor terrace. The small stretch of beach in front of our villa was a real gem. A very small, intimate beach with black volcanic sand. Not the greatest beach seen to date, but a perfect spot to observe local life on display for us. With only our villa plus the neighbouring one on the beach, surrounded by the small sheds and boats of local fishermen and their families, we were updated every day on the catch of the day when the fishermen hauled their nets in. In the afternoon, schoolkids would come to the beach to swim and play, and later on the beach would fill with local families cooling off in the water and people would come and place their offerings to the gods by the water or one of the small shrines seen everywhere in Bali.Sometimes in the mornings, women would come and wash - strip naked in the sand and get clean in the water. The animal life on the beach was also impressive with a lot of cows, pigs, chicken, cats and dogs running around. One of the cats becoming our housecat - she came the first night and made herself right at home on our sofa. The kids named her Kismet.
One of the locals told us that a few years back, they had an epidemic of rabies amongst the dogs. Most of them therefore had to be shot. Now dogs get vaccined, and have to wear a color as a sign they have an owner and have been given the vaccine. Stray dogs without color, can be shot by the police.
There were almost no other visitors in Lovina, but this has been so everywhere in Bali because it's low season now. For us this is good because prices are down and we pretty much have everything to ourselves, but life in Bali for many people is hard now, since a lot evolves around tourism and many families lives are depending on the incomes here from. High season in Bali is July and August. In those months the number of tourists is higher than the population in Bali - which is 6 million in itself. More than double that in a small island like Bali, and I can imagine it can get crowded. The rest of the year is pretty much quiet though, with a little increase in visitor numbers in March and around Christmas.
Lovina is good place to unwind and recharge your batteries. Strall by the beach, read a book, do some people watching, swim or relax over a drink at one of the bars with live music.
But Lovina is also a good place to get up-close-and-personal with the locals. Beeing some of only few visitors, we attracted a great deal of talkative locals. Admitted the first contact almost always consisted of someone trying to sell us something - or had an uncle who could arrange tours or what have you. But the sellers there aren't pushy like in many other places. So when you've first established that you aren't interested in the wooden dolphin (dolphin watching is the biggest attraction in Lovina) - this is accepted at once and you can go on chit-chatting about other stuff.
This way we met many of the charming locals, including a man who called himself Jimi Hendrix, a teacher at a local orphanage where the kids were taught traditional balinese dancing and singing and martial arts. So for a small donation to the orphanage, we saw the kids give a display of what they'd learned - a great experience.
We also met Ewan, who came to the beach one evening to pray and lay offerings. Ewan perfomes singing and playing the guitar at one of the local bars. He invited us to his home and we made arrangements for a cooking lesson with his wife, Sri, who would teach us some balinese cooking. Next morning Sri came to our villa and we walked with her to the market to grocery-shop, and then to their home, where Sris sister, Ewan and their two kids, Tania 10yrs and Tomy 7yrs were waiting. Turned out to be not so much us doing the cooking, but us watching them preparing the food, conversating, observing and learning about balinese everyday life. The food was enjoyed sitting on the floor and tasted amazing. The experience only tainted a little bit by the fact that Sofie and I had some stomache-issues that day. A very nice day enjoying balinese hospitality. After dining, Tania the daughter gave little show in traditional dancing as she practices this, and tried to teach Sofie some.
We got to talking with the family on business ideas and the local contra visitors views on ways to make money on tourism, and tried to tell in our view the problem many times being that tourists often are offered mainstream entertainment and the same kind from all buisnesses.So to attract visitors - offer them something different from the others - and something they can only get in your country.
The family seemed interested in our little buisnessidea for them - a home restaurant with only one party at a time prebooked,where the guests come, can even help cooking, and can learn about balinese culture. We spent a few hours the next day at the internet cafe making an example of a flyer to the family and gave it to them to think about. So who knows, maybe someday there will be anice homerestaurant in Lovina.
For the rest of the stay in lovina we rented scooters again for easier transportation, just enjoying local life. Weather's fantastic - roughly 35 c in the shade and most of the time bright sun from cloudless skies. It's rain season now, but we haven't been bothered by it. Some nights it's pouring down and a couple of times we've had some short showers during daytime. But this is an excellent time of year to visit. Don't come in high season unless you love crowds and having to fight for a spot on the beach and paying three times the normal price. The pricerange still now follows no apparent logic. Some places its really cheap and others like double prices. Most places though they are very used to tourists and are hardcore bargainners - the first price given anywhere is very far from the actual price. Like the case in most of southeast Asia - but here they really go at it. Anyway - enjoying, relaxing and feeling warm.....loving it.
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Helle Spændende læsning. Det lyder til at I har mange intense, lokale og autentiske oplevelser. Det er berigende. Fortsat god ferie.