Bayu Mantra and the hot springs

At Bayu Mantra, breakfast is a snack compare to my palace,back in Ubud!You are allow one cup of coffee, only, here the size of a cup is one of a small cappuccino.Still amazing that for $12 a night breakfast is included. While I waited for the young man taking me to the hot springs, I spoke with a few tourist, and off course the German next to my room, does not even say hello, they are all like that, they only speak to German people. I know he speaks English I heard him talking. But all the other tourist are nice, but they can’t believe I am here only to see the dolphins, well, while I am here, I will see the hot spring, but yes, that is mainly why I made it all this way! They are all worried for me, saying it’s a joke, there is no dolphins here, the only one you are sure to see are the sculptures all over the town. Everyone agreed,and said you only get a glance at dolphins, they are so far away. I am not worry, I had the feeling not to go see the dolphins this morning, as much as I am eager to see them, I have a feeling that I should go see the dolphins tomorrow, not today, that is why I have booked the hot spring and the waterfall. I was a bit shock when the person who is taking me to the excursion showed up in a bike(motorcycle). We are going with a motorcycle? Yes, don’t worry I drive slow, and he hands me a helmet. At least here the helmet is mandatory; in Ubud no one wears one! It’s a good thing I am wearing long shorts otherwise my skin would stick to the leather seat. We get to see the center of Lovina, it didn’t take me long to figure out, my place is quite far from everything, the only thing that is walking distance are the few shops and the rasta place, the rest is at least 3 kilometers away. It is too much, of a long walk, in this kind of weather. What I saw on the beach is even worst on the streets, my nostrils are constantly irritated by putrefaction smells and the river is littered with rubbish, the streets and every empty land. I was so proud to say Bali was a clean country, so I must now adjust my statement to Ubud and its surroundings. I am not surprise the tourist are not rushing here, and at one point there was a lot of potential, 5 stars resorts are along the main road with properties right on the ocean, each one of them, does not have too much activity. Nothing is kept nice, there isn’t one shop inviting enough to go in. Nobody wears the sarung and the cute scarf they roll around their heads. There is no more compounds here, more little house that looks like the ones in India, that is for the nicer one, and the poor ones are like the Haiti shed or mud hut you see everywhere in all third world country. No wondering they are starving, they have pushed away the tourist with the way they do things. I don’t even want to walk here, as everyone will stop to ask me something, do you need a taxi, do you want to by this, do you want to see the hot springs. Anyone here pretends to be a taxi driver, even on a scooter, I don’t think the industry of taxi here, is regulated. You really need to rely on your instinct. I might be sitting on the back of a motorcycle today, but I trust who I am with. There are vineyards all along the shore and on the other side, all the way to the foot of the mountains, so I ask if there is vineyard I can visit, no there is no such a thing. One the side of the roads I see the grapes for sale, they look so good. This is where the Balinese wine comes from! It is a light wine, dry with some blackcurrantscurrants under tone. The perfect wine for a humid climate.
On the way to the hot springs, I ask if we can stop at a market to buy bananas, I am already hungry. I am lucky there is one on the way.I changed my mind once we arrived. The smell was so bad, I had to ask him to go in and buy me some bananas, all I got was two tiny and hard bananas, because no one had change, all I had was .20 cents and that what you get for twenty cents. The road that leads to the hot springs, is either an ally lined up with makeshift warungs (shops) or it is a tiny village with a very narrow road, not sure which one, my guide does not speak good English like Sang Made, so I can’t overwhelm him with too many questions! But the shops are pitiful and the smell of musty clothes is really bad, I would buy a sarung for a dollar as it would stink up my luggage. And one dollar is the advertise price! The hot spring is nice and well done, first nice thing I’ve seen so far. It is old, you can tell. There is three pool, the water is coming out from the mouth of a series of lions sculpture align on the back wall of each pool. The first pool is narrow, more like a lap pool, and shallow, it is the hottest of all three. I was expecting a stronger sulfurous smell, it is actually not bad, and it is a real hot springs there is so much minerals in the water you can see them and the white trim of my bikini is now copper brown! The second pool is the biggest and with up to 2 meters deep, you can really swim in this one. Which I like better, since all three pools have a slimy floor, due to its high minerals contents in a constant hot environment. I stayed for over an hour, did some aerobics in the water and floated around. We are only a few people and most of the time I have the entire place to me! Than the tourist started to come in, time to go and perfect timing, you can only stay so long in hot water! Fresh water shower, as fresh the water can be here, I hope this one is straight from the mountain not a run of from any town around here! I did not brush my teeth with the tap water, this morning; I might be pushing my luck if I did.
The sun is now very hot, I can feel its scorching rays on my skin, but this bike ride turns out to be a good thing, the fresh air is very refreshing to me. I don’t think you can grasp how humid it is here, just from reading my blog, it really feels like an infrared sauna all day. I don’t know what happen to the wind in this part of the world, but there is not even a slight breeze. It is like a dead zone. After the hot springs I asked him to take me to a good restaurant. We went back to the center of Lovina, which is a nice place, you can tell this place was once booming, but is now, in an advance stage of regression. We saw a nice precession of people doing their last offering before Nyepi day, there is some tradition here after all, but far less. We are in a nice restaurant and had a wonderful lunch. Then we are heading for the mountains again, and what a change the fresh air is not so far from the city of Singaraja, which is at the foot of the mountains and the biggest city here. I am so happy to drive thru this fresh air, I feel better already! The fall is a bit of a deception, I did ask to see brochures about the falls but they didn’t have that at the hotel. A tourist town without brochure, is nothing to help business! If I had known I would off skip that and kept working, the fall in the Ayung river is actually about the same size and better, because you can stand underneath! Here it is dangerous, the rocks and pathway are very slippery from the constant mist. The place is full of colorful butterflies,But the path you walk to get to the fall is another tourist trap, and they all beg you to buy from them. They don’t understand you can only own so many sarungs! The walk to the fall is a sad one, you can’t smile at any of them, because they grab your arm and pull you into their small tiny shops. They are probably 20-30 shops, all selling the same thing, over and over! I saw 6 beautiful fighting coqs, and as I am taking photograph of them, I am thinking, here is something interesting to do. I keep hearing about the sacred coq fight, about I go see one?! I asked around and no one seems to know where I could see a coq fight. Here's something Lovina could use to make extra money, allow the tourist to see the coq fights, who has been part of their culture for years.After the fall we go hunting for a snorkel tube, there is no way I will put my mouth on some snorkeling equipment here, all I smell is kerosene not bleach! And back to my hotel to work some more, till 7pm Made picks me up for diner. He is all dress up in his Balinese clothes, wearing the hat and no helmet, I told him he looks much better like that! He laughs. I asked where is my helmet, he said helmet not mandatory when they go to the Temple. Fine with me, I know you are not going far. He drops me off to a nice restaurant on the beach, with a few customers. He will be back after the Temple to pick me up. I ordered the fish Pepe, the dish I learned to cook in Ubud. I had my first bad meal. The banana leaves were not fresh because when they are fresh they stay green even on the grill, the fish was tough (tuna) and not nearly as tasty as the one I made. I made one cat happy, throwing him my fish! I ordered a avocado, pineapple and shrimp salad that also end up in the cats stomach, I did ask if the shrimp salad was cold she said yes. They don’t seem to get it here, that a salad should be cold, instead the shrimp is always hot. Instead of pineapple I have cucumbers, not the combination I expected. The bill was cheap so I did not complained, a glass of wine and two meals $9. I asked my driver what was his name, I have spend the day with him not knowing him name, I should off guest, his name is Made! Sang Made explained to me the way name works here, I kind of get the concept, but I need to get the full picture, One name represents the first, second, or third child, the fourth one as the name of the first one and another short name. Just by someone name here, they can tell if you are the oldest or the youngest, and then the family name that refers to the warrior, the priest or the servant, but I am visual and I need to see a visual example to get this 100%! Just before going for diner we had torrential rain, it was so hard than even under my porch I had to retreat in my room, the water splashing on my computer. By the time I went for diner the roads were already dry. I only brought a pair of short and three dress, if I had know I was going to ride a bike! I will be wearing the same clothes for three days!
I went to bed early, you can only write so long, even the bottom of your feet burns, from sitting to long on a hot floor, it is so humid my right index is starting to peel, from using the directional mouse screen on my computer. It either the humidity or computer contains very toxic substance we don’t know their effects yet, but I have been noticing my index for a few days and can only attribute this to the keypad as my other fingers are fine. I go to bed early tomorrow we must leave at 6;00am to see the dolphins. Made reassures me that I will see dolphins. I couldn’t sleep, that lamentation is going on again, I thought prayers were supposed to be en lighting and soothing to the soul, this sure doesn’t sound like soothing to me! Made had explained to me over lunch, the Muslims and Balinese tolerate each other but don’t like each other, he also said the Muslims here were the soft one. I guess he means there is no terrorist here!
There is something I must say about Bayu Mantra, I have been to 5 stars resorts many time, and the rooms smells like musty and molty, burning your nostrils everytime you walk in the room.Here it is pretty basic, but the room does not have any bad smell, if it as a smell it's one of a dormitory, it is pretty clean, it actually smells better than the Tjampuhan. As the Tjampuhan is the oldest hotel in Ubud.