Party Crashing And Soaking In It

Yesterday, we went up to Lovina in North Bali. I wanted to see what non-tourist Bali is like. Besides, a woman at the hotel told us about the waterfalls, hot spring bath, and dolphin sighting in Lovina.

So Kedak picked us up at 9 am and off we went for an overnight trip. I think we stopped at a temple first. But it was the visit to rice fields that I remember. Sure the view was spectacular, with terraced rice paddies stretching across hills providing sculpted relief to the landscape. But it was what happened during this visit that was fun.

When we got to the top of the hill where the view was best, many jeeps were parked by a restaurant. The restaurant courtyard was full of tourists. The Man made his way past all the parked cars and hawkers to inside the restaurant patio, which overlooked the rice paddies. I made my way there too and was met by The Man in the crowded parking lot, holding a Moretti beer. An Italian beer? I thought he was into Bintang, the Indonesian beer. We made our way to the patio and took photos.

I saw servers standing at a table behind me. They were taking beer orders. On the table were baskets of native fruit. People seemed to just walk up and take the fruit. So I did too. The Man was on his second beer. He turned to a woman with a video camera and asked her to film us. She said, No, you're not part of our tour.

Then someone shouted, I am sure it was, Let's go, in Italian. All the tourists started moving toward their cars. I said to The Man, Did you pay for the beer? He didn't answer me. I understood. And what would the restaurant do with all the leftover fruit anyway? So I took two for our driver. The Man took my arm and jostled us through the crowd. At one point, he threw up his hands and shouted, Let's go, in Italian. Everyone made their way to the parked cars in the parking lot and out on the road. We walked pass all the parked cars and kept going. I noticed all the cars had numbers on them, and a Birra Moretti Zero poster taped on the hood or trunk.

This was some kind of Moretti beer party. And just to prove us right, along the road, there were Birra Moretti Rally signs at certain junctions to direct cars to some place. Ha ha, we had crashed a private beer party!

After, we went to the most spectacular waterfall I have ever seen. An Australian couple was also there. We wanted to get really close to the falls but it was impossible. I got soaking wet just standing ankle deep in the pool where the water collected. But the Australian couple tried to go in further. Kedak said, "This is not a good place to swim. The locals don't swim here and I don't know if the spirit of the water is good or bad. You must respect the water." Sometimes Kedak says things that are right out of a movie. We didn't swim there.

Kedak took us to a hot springs bath next. The water is naturally warmed by the volcano it passes. The hot springs staff drain the water every night and the pool fills again by morning. Spouts come out of walls and warm water pour out to massage your back and shoulders. It was superb.

There were mostly young people soaking in the hot springs bath. I often think I am modestly dressed, especially when swimming. I wear a one-piece bathing suit that covers the chest and bum. What I notice is, most women in Indonesia don't swim in their bathing suits. I know they are wearing bikinis though because I see the outlines of string ones under their wet clothes. It's just that they wear a t-shirt and shorts over their bikinis. Boy, did I feel like a big, flaunting foreigner.

I am sure we went to a couple more places during the day, but I can't remember them right now. We spent the night at a hotel right on the beach. It was a beautiful place, with gardens everywhere. I wanted to observe Earth Hour, but I need not have worried about not turning the lights out. I was asleep by 8 pm.