School in a Suitcase

Three hours drive from Ubud, up a meandering mountain pass road, and down “Snake Road”, is the town of Lovina.  We arrived somewhat nauseated, but were much refreshed by the lovely “welcome drink”, offered on guest’s arrival by nearly every hotel.

The ocean was a nice change, after 2 1/2 weeks in Ubud.  Vivianne was especially thrilled, as she is our little beach girl – she could spend entire days hunting for shells and digging in the sand.  Our small hotel was certainly set in paradise, with the most beautiful gardens surrounding the pool area.   A short walk through the rice paddie was a local fishing beach.

Although only here for two days, we managed to do two of the area’s main tourist activities:  snorkeling and sunrise dolphin watching.  We also spent a fair amount of time being engaged by and trying to avoid hawkers;  it is slow season in Bali and the smaller areas seem especially desperate for tourist dollars.  One man in particular seemed to show up on his moto at several points throughout our days, with various items for sale.  Finally, Dan, giving credit for persistence, gave in and bought a few trinkets (and provided fodder for a “life-lesson” for Théo).

Both the snorkeling and dolphin watching were done from local outrigger fishing boats.  Luckily we had brought a life-jacket from home for Vivi, and masks for us all, as the equipment was questionable.  We were also concerned by the chugging sound coming from our motor;  it reminded me of one of the old farm tractors.  Who knows why the dolphins keep coming back each morning to be chased down by a fleet of noisy outboard motors.

Disconnected from internet, we didn’t hear about the Japan earthquake until 2 days after it happened.  Apparently our area had been put on tsunami alert, but we had no idea!  The night before the big earthquake, I had felt tremors in Ubud.  We started feeling a bit vulnerable, and booked our next beach accommodation on a hillside location!