Travel Day 659 – Driving on Bali by Scooter, INDONESIA
04/09 – Munduk via Danau Tamblingan to Lovina Beach
The day started perfectly while getting up early and enjoying the sunrise over the lush green slopes of Munduk from my little guesthouse balcony…
Grey Sand Beach in Lovina on Bali, Indonesia
But the big question of what-to-do and where-to-go was lingering in the air. One option was to spend the day in Munduk to do some hiking in the hills and the other was to drive back to the crater rim to enjoy the amazing views of the lakes by day. Since the ride on the rim had been so much fun yesterday and since there seemed to be nothing much to write home about in Munduk itself, it just made more sense to go back to the crater. After seeing the volcanic lakes I could simply keep driving north towards the coast and Lovina Beach…
This turned out to be the perfect decision as driving the scooter along the rim was not only extremely fun, but also the daytime views of the lakes were simply breathtaking. There were even small places to sit and have a tea while taking-in the surrounding scenery. Obviously it was impossible to resist the temptation of getting closer to at least one of the volcanic lakes and so I followed a small road all the way down to an extremely rural area at the edge of Danau Tamblingan…
Crater Rim View of Danau Tamblingan by Munduk on Bali, Indonesia
Along the western shore of the lake stood all of a sudden only small wooden houses with tin roofs and chickens running around on the small dirt roads. The only stone structures to be seen were some abandoned looking, sunken-in temples inside the dark waters of the calm looking Danau Tamblingan. But there was also a trail leading around the lake and connecting first to Danau Buyan and then finally back to Candikuning with the third volcanic lake, Danau Bratan…
Since I personally wasn’t up for too much hiking, I rather enjoyed the tranquility of the village and the views of the lake with the drowning temples, until it was time to carry on. The scooter ride was then back to Munduk while continuing to follow the main road to Seririt at the northern shore of Bali and then along the coast towards Lovina. Actually Lovina consisted of a bunch of different villages, grown into each other. So it took quite a while to get oriented and finally find the central place called Kalibukbuk…
Fishing Boats and Sunken Temple by Munduk on Bali, Indonesia
It was also here in Kalibukbuk where most of the cheaper accommodation was situated and since I was on wheels, I decided not to settle easily and rather try to scoop out the best deal in town. As it turned out, Lovina was quite the opposite of Kuta and instead of having to pay three times the listed price for a room as I did when first Arriving at the Beach on Bali, here it was possible to bargain. Because so little people were coming to Lovina, it was actually possible to bargain down rooms to half the originally asked price…
Happy about the good deal but slightly annoyed because every single street vendor was following each of the few foreigners in town to make a sell. Luckily they didn’t bother me for too long and it was finally possible to enjoy a relaxed afternoon at the empty grey sand beach of Lovina. Overall Lovina was an interesting place and after talking to some locals I even realized that there were three different prices on the island, first for people from Bali, second for other Indonesians and third for foreigners. This not only meant that I had overpaid everything so far, but it also meant that from now on I was bargaining for everything, even for my dinner which I finally got to the regular local Bali price… : )
Find all Munduk – Lovina and Munduk to Lovina photos here.
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