April 16th: Pemuteran to Lovina – 50km
Day 185
Waking up fully rested, we were served our breakfast on our porch. We were very glad that we stuck it out after the struggle in Java. Now we were eager to press on and see more of Bali.
We were treated with more stunning views on the road again. We only encountered heavy traffic when we were getting closer to Lovina, apparently a touristy destination.
We stopped at a guesthouse to check out the room. A simple but clean beach front cottage cost only 150,000 IDR, but when we looked at the beach we understood why the place was empty – garbage scattered around on the narrow beach, sewage pipes sticking out the adjacent building; the watered was scattered with garbage and covered with a sickly coating of algae along the shore. How could they build so many “romantic” beachfront getaways but have no time to clean up the garbage?
When I went further to find another cheap guesthouse, Chopper was harassed by a local who tried to sell him tour packages. After his overly nice greetings, the local then went on boasting how fun the snorkeling off the coast could be. Chopper first responded that we couldn’t afford the 400,000 IDR per person snorkeling tour, but then guy wouldn’t have none of that kept on selling trying to convince him he could snorkel in front of the hotel. Eventually Chopper had to drop the sugar coating on the matter: “We saw the water and it’s filthy. All the sewage and garbage go directly into the water.” Knowing this was a fact, he ceased his sales pitch and walked away .
After we settled in a cheap guesthouse, we went out to find some grub. Restaurants were so expensive that one dish would easily cost as much as a meal for two from a local warung. We decided to walk further away from the tourist trap, and found a road side stall selling nasi bungkus (originally wrapped in banana leaf packages but nowadays wax brown paper, it is a mixture of rice and various dishes such as chicken, vegetables and roasted coconut) for 10,000 rupiah each. Later we found out we still got charged with tourist price for the nasi bungkus, as the usual price is only 5,000 rupiah for one package. It was very hard to be mad, since the meal was very tasty, and two over charged packages cost exactly the same as 2 fried eggs from a restaurant.