Waking up for a sunrise cruise around Bali to see the dolphins sounds like a fabulous idea unless in fact at the end of the two hours you end up with no dolphin sightings (but you have seen someone catch a really big fish and then found a dead dog on the beach).
Okay, in reality -- the “dolphin” trip was not that bad -- the sky was positively gorgeous as the sun came up over the hills and spread across the ocean. I always send out a quick whisper to the angels and thank them for inspiring me to get a camera that can try and capture the beauty at moments like that. The purples and pinks in the sky were unlike anything I had ever seen before. And, even though two hours were spent speeding back and forth in a semi-safe boat, the final hour culminated in a snorkeling trip where I saw some incredible fishies and blue starfish. I never even knew starfish could be blue!
Luckily, there are (supposedly) no sharks in Bali so I relaxed, ignored the fact I might resemble a baby seal (and entice a shark to eat me), and enjoyed the wonders of the sea.
So now that I have explained why dolphins are stupid, perhaps you are wondering about the road trip aspect of my title? Maybe you are thinking… but Stephanie -- you are a backpacker! That’s not the same as a road trip… Well, my friend, for the time being -- Jordan and I have consolidated our precious belongings into one pack, rented a motorbike, and bought a map. Note: the rest of our stuff is safely tucked away at our hotel in Kuta, where we must return to fly out to Cambodia next week.
We decided to cross the interior of the Bali island on the first leg of the trip and then make our way across the eastern side of the island. We had met some Germans who completed a similar trip, warning us of rainy season in the hills in the center so we figured we would get the “unpleasant” part out of the way. I use quotes because clearly biking through Bali could not be unpleasant but nasty weather is not my friend.
Anyway, it ended up being a glorious ride through the hills, passing rice paddies, volcanoes, and crater lakes. We also passed a colony of incredibly fat monkeys that we wanted to stop and take pictures of but then thought they might jump on us. There were a few times we passed other bikers wearing ponchos and we got semi-worried, but fortunately, the rain managed to hold off until we were almost at the end of the downhill portion. Then we started going super slow, causing Asian bikers to ask us if we were okay. “Of course we were okay!” we answered, “we just like to go slow!” The Asians normally shrugged and sped off, leaving us alone on our slow descent while we sang songs about being in the rain.
Finally, we made it out of the hill/mountains, and onto the beach! Our first stop was be Lovina, home of the dolphins and black sand. It is a pretty nifty beach except for the lack of dolphins and the dead dog lying on the beach in front of my hotel.
Disclaimer: Each morning you have a good chance of seeing the dolphins, we happened to go on a morning with 0. That is okay. I do actually like dolphins.
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