Showing posts with label Bali. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bali. Show all posts

01 Jan - 19 Jan 2010 Lovina


Republic of Indonesia
Never mind Indonesia, welcome to Bali, the Island of Gods
Kalibukbuk
Clean and spacious twin room in a garden bungalow with private verandah, air-con and breakfast for two for IDR 3,500,000.- or US$ 370.- per month.


Click below for an interactive road map of the Angsoka Hotel in Lovina, which we would highly recommend, and for directions:









Welcoming the New Year 2010 CE with fireworks under a tropical full moon on Bali’s palm-tree lined Lovina Beach, indulging in charcoal-grilled fish aka ikan bakar with spicy sambal (our favourite open-air restaurant aka warung makan: Mina Segara +6281338664630, IDR 40,000.- or US$ 4.10 per kg fish) and sweet, creamy durians (from IDR 10,000.- or US$ 1.05 per piece), washing both down with fruity Aga Red (“The original light red wine from the vineyards of Bali”) from Hatten Wine +62361767422, and having a whale of a time in the friendly Angsoka boutique hotel, situated on the volcanic black-sand Bina Ria beach: (i) relaxing in the well-maintained, sparkling hotel pool, (ii) delighting in the hotel's manicured tropical gardens (packed with angsoka flowers after which the hotel is named), (iii) being pampered by the ever-helpful hotel staff (...learning that their smile and their nod to a request often has to be translated as: “I have no idea what you are talking about, but you seem to be happy enough to think that I do...”), (iv) reading historical fiction about the East (James Clavell's Asian Saga), and, last but not least, (v) planning our travels for the upcoming year 2010 CE.



Spending many happy hours (620-ml bottles of ice-colBintang Pilsener with c. 4.7 % alc./vol. for IDR 15.000.- or US$ 1.60 per large bottle) and dinner evenings at the excellent beach-front bars, pubs, kedais, warungs and restaurants (our favourites: Bali Bintang, Kakatua, Arya, Mina Segara and the Angsoka hotel restaurant) in Kalibukbuk, nicknamed Kampung Belanda for the roaming hordes of cheese-fed Dutch giants (with the female exemplars often being much bigger/taller than their male counterparts).



Visiting the coastal town of Singaraja (bemo from Lovina for IDR 5,000.- or US$ 0.50 per person, one way), Bali’s second largest city and the administrative centre for the Lesser Sunda Islands (from Timor through to Bali) until 1953 CE, and exploring its ratty markets, tree-lined streets, surviving Dutch colonial buildings, charming old harbour and the moribund waterfront. 

Meeting and listening to a group of asiaphile agents of virtue from several international NGOs who spend the holidays on Bali, and gaining insight on the business model of a modern NGO: (i) one chooses a fancy name, preferably with politically correct catchphrases like “humanitarian”, “development”, “non-profit”, “save the animals/children/planet”, “without borders”, spices the mission statement with fluffy buzzwords like "impact", "sustainability", "optimisation", registers and goes on-line, (ii) one chums up with some local stooges and pays them a nominal salary for their names and their IDs which are necessary for the NGO’s accounting data and for the official pay-roll, (iii) one attracts (young) Westerners who want/need “international experience” on their CVs as temps, pays them nothing and let them (or their parents) pay for their flights and for their stays, (iv) one forwards the NGO’s banking details to the relevant agencies/ministries for international development in the rich donor states where priggish office sitters happily justify their jobs in these agencies/ministries by distributing the allocated annual budgets to the NGOs, and (v) one enjoy tremendously the local food, the great climate and the free flights back home (...and generally uses the clergy during the high colonial era as a role model for all the rest of it).

I smile when I’m angry.
I cheat and I lie.
I do what I have to do
To get by.
But I know what is wrong,
And I know what is right.
And I’d die for the truth
In My Secret Life.”


Experiencing the sudden arrival of the northeast monsoon on the 14th of January and noticing a dramatic overnight shift in the general weather pattern, as if someone up there had turned the main switch: the Bali Sea roughs up from a polished mirror into a windswept lee-shore with huge breaking waves and the sky changes from sunny and blue to overcast and grey; time for us to move on to greener and less wind-swept pastures.



David Attenborough has said that Bali is the most beautiful place in the world, but he must have been there longer than we were, and seen different bits, because most of what we saw in the couple of days we were there sorting out our travel arrangements was awful. It was just the tourist area, i.e., that part of Bali which has been made almost exactly the same as everywhere else in the world for the sake of people who have come all this way to see Bali.” 

Taking a chauffeured car for IDR 300,000.- or US$ 32.60 from Lovina on Bali’s north coast over the central mountain range to Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport (passenger service charge for international departures: IDR 150,000.- or US$ 16.30 per person) in the south, flying uneventfully with Air Asia (“Now Everyone Can Fly”) in an Airbus A 320-200 for MYR 146.- or US$ 40.- per person, one way and all inclusive, back to Kuala Lumpur’s KLIA-LCCT and being issued with a 90-day-visit pass for a “social visit” to Malaysia on arrival, free of charge; "Selamat Tinggal", Bali, a once paradisiac island whose scenery and people have been marked by many years of mass tourism, and once more "Selamat Pagi", naturally friendly and well-managed Malaysia, one of our second homes, so far.


Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2010 Map Konni & Matt

Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos 
Konni & Matt Travel Photos


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21 Dec - 31 Dec 2009 Lovina


Republic of Indonesia
Never mind Indonesia, welcome to Bali, the Island of Gods
Kalibukbuk
Clean and spacious twin room in a garden bungalow with private verandah, air-con and breakfast for two for IDR 3,500,000.- or US$ 370.- per month.


Click below for an interactive road map of the Angsoka Hotel in Lovina, which we would highly recommend, and for directions:









Mourning over the death of 633 million turkeys, 2.6 billion ducks and 52 billion chickens which all were killed for food worldwide in 2009 CE, cooling off in the sparkling hotel pool and reflecting on the challenges, achievements and learning opportunities of our just finished first backpacking year as perpetual travellers (44 domestic and international take-offs with more than 60,000 air kilometres, a huge carbon footprint) and searching on the horizon of the Bali Sea for more sustainable travel goals in the upcoming New Year 2010 CE: Northern Thailand and Bangkok, Cambodia with the famous Angkor Wat, Vietnam, Laos, Sulawesi and Sri Lanka.
“A traveler enters the world into which he travels, but a tourist brings his own world with him and never sees the one he's in.”


Click below for a summary of this year's travels

Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos



Facing Bali
© Konni & Matt



Recommended products - click below for your Amazon order from the United States:

For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
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19 Nov - 18 Dec 2009 Lovina


Republic of Indonesia
Never mind Indonesia, welcome to Bali, the Island of Gods
Kalibukbuk
Clean and spacious twin room in a garden bungalow with air-con, breakfast for two and early-morning wake-up calls from crowing roosters and screaming pigs, which were regularly killed at dawn in order to become the disgusting pig roast aka babi guling for the carnivorous Balinese Hindus, for IDR 3,500,000.- or US$ 370.- per month (all inclusive).


Click below for an interactive road map of the Hotel Angsoka in Lovina, which we would highly recommend, and for directions:









Matt: Driving our reliable 2x4 Suzuki Jimny SJ40 jeep over the mountains and through the daily traffic jam back to Bali Manis Tourist Service +623618580879 in Kuta, the crowded holiday paradise for female and male bogans of all ages, and taking thereafter the comfortable a/c Perama Tour +62361750808 shuttle bus from Kuta back to Lovina (c. 100 km, 2 hours, IDR 120,000.- or US$ 12.50 per person.



Setting up camp for the next couple of weeks at Lovina's friendly Hotel Angsoka +6236241841, enjoying the village's laid-back vibe and the volcanic black-sand Bina Ria beach, and getting plenty of R&R in our comfortable boutique hotel.



Laundering our dirty linen for IDR 10,000 or US$ 1.05 per kg, washed, dried and ironed, at the efficient local laundry on Jalan Bina Ria. 

Matt: Relaxing with the regular help of Wati’s traditional, open-air Balinese massage for IDR 60,000.- or US$ 6.30 per 60-min full-body session and enjoying her long soothing strokes from head to toe, her home-made coconut massage oil and her pleasant personality.



DM Konni: Scubadiving together with experienced PADI DM Wayan from Sunrise Dive +6236241182 (IDR 250,000.- or US$ 26.- per dive, all inclusive) the coral-packed southwest walls off Menjangan Island, crowded with plenty of pelagic fish and green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), and learning that Bali is the place of the most intensive slaughter of sea turtles in the world: more than 30,000 annually are brutally killed and eaten! 

Hiring a traditional Balinese perahu fishing boat with dug-out hull and bamboo outriggers (Bambi Eva No. 47) for IDR 120,000.- or US$ 12.50 for a morning cruise (many thanks, Adek, for your excellent service and great skills) and snorkelling over the reefs off Bina Ria beach thus spotting a pointy-nosed titan triggerfish (Balistoides viridescens) and a plethora of smaller fry.



Watching many exotic Balinese Hindu ceremonies with their hypnotising prayers, colourful offerings and graceful dance performances aka legong, accompanied by metallic rhythms of a traditional orchestra aka gamelan, during the biennial festivities at the local Shiva Temple right on the beach at Kalibukbuk.



Touring the mountainous hinterland of Bali’s north coast by means of a hired Yamaha Mio 100cc motorbike (IDR 40,000.- or US$ 4.20 for the 12-hour rental from L.A. Tours & Rental +6281337031942) and exploring (i) Danau Buyan and Danau Tamblingan, two volcanic crater lakes with tiny villages and abandoned temples on their shores, (ii) Bali’s single Buddhist monastery, Brahma Vihara Arama, and (iii) the hot springs at Air Panas Banjar which percolate amid lush tropical plants.



Taking a chauffeured car for IDR 300,000.- or US$ 31.50 (thank you, Alex, for your professional and safe driving) from Lovina on Bali’s north coast over the central mountain range to Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport in the south, contributing to Indonesia’s ongoing democratisation of corruption and paying the newly introduced passenger service charge of IDR 150,000.- or US$ 16.- per person (despite our all-inclusive ticket from Air Asia), flying uneventfully with Air Asia (“Now Everyone Can Fly”) in an Airbus A 320-200 from Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport to Kuala Lumpur’s KLIA-LCCT for the steal of MYR 45.- or US$ 12.- per person, one way and almost all inclusive (see above), thus crossing the Bali Sea and the Java Sea in order to do an visa run and to renew our tourist visas for Indonesia, and being issued with a 90-day-visit pass for a “social visit” to Malaysia on arrival, free of charge.



Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2009 Map Konni & Matt

Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos
Konni & Matt Travel Photos


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from Germany:

For Amazon bargains from the United States, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United Kingdom, please click here