CHASING DOLPHINS AT SUNRISE

That morning of 12th April, Che Tar and I woke up early, had our breakfast at Greenfields (the breakfast at Tegal Sari is better) and soon after off we dashed to the Ubud market for more souvenirs. We had to come back by 11 am as our bus was to leave at 11.30. The ride to the market and back was "gratis" meaning, on the house. Lots of things are sold there, from prepared food to produce to souvenirs. The shopping started off very calm but ended very frantic when we realized that it's time to leave. We didn't wait for our ride to come fearing that we would be late for the bus, so we took a cab instead.

Luckily the distance from Greenfields to the Perama bus station is about 20 steps, so we managed to reach it, with bags in tow in no time. But the bus was late. Oh well, it's better than if we were late. We were going to Lovina (acronym for Love Indonesia)which is located in the nothern part of the island. The journey took 3 hours with a stop midway in the town of Candikuning.

We reached Lovina at about 3pm, checked into Bali Taman Hotel and was pleasantly surprised that we were upgraded to a better room because the hotel had to accommodate a big group of German tourists. We unpacked our packed rice which we bought from a Muslim vendor in Candikuning and ate in grateful silence, after missing rice for 2 days.

We made our way to the beach in the evening hoping to catch a sunset. The beach is dull; its sand is black, residue of a volcanic eruption 4 decades ago. We were soon greeted by vendors selling stuff; we bought some because they were so relentless. The sunset was not that spectacular. Nearby, there was a ceremony going on; a group of villagers in their smart attire giving some kind of offering to the sea. The wailing of the priest and priestess went on until night time.

We woke up very, very early the next morning to catch a boat to sea to see dolphins! That's the main reason of our trip to this place. After several miles offshore, we (and like 20 other boats) met a few schools of dolphins. We didn't linger long, we had to return ashore to catch a bus that would take us to Kuta. Two other memorable things happened in Lovina; one, we saw one guest who could be George Bush's twin, and the other, which is so unjust - one of the vendors on the beach thought I am Tar's mother! Brengsek.