On the way to Lovina

This morning I leave for Lovina. The hotel is being very kind to me, they have accepted to keep my luggage while I go away for three days. I will be back just in time for Nyepi. I am a bit sad to leave Bamboo behind and feel like a traitor. One night, I had said good night to him, and was in bed when he made this strange meowing like he was being attack by something, I opened the door,he was proud to show me a big mouse he had killed, he was tossing it around like a football ball! I knew a mouse was hanging around as I discovered what the weird noise, I had originally thought was some kind of night bird was in fact a mouse! One night she had the nerve to walk on the patio while I was writing and squeaked at me! I am glad Bamboo made a meal of it, I never heard squeaking out my window since! I left him, a full bowl of food, but I know the staff will take it away and I worry, he was throwing up blood this morning, either the mouse was real bad, or he had starved too much before I met him! I just hope he makes it till I return, as much as he is ugly, he’s been faithful company here, and strangely the cat communicates with me, he really talk to me, and no, it’s not the humidity getting to my head! He knows exactly when I am awake even before I get up, he meows at the door as soon as I open my eyes. He never does before I wake up! When a storm is coming, is behaves a different way. And when I come back to the room, he talks away like a good thing.
Sang Made is on time, as usual, he brings his brother along with him, I suspect two reasons, he wants company for the return and he wants to be able to point and explain things to me as we drive, and that is exactly what he did. Announcing the particularity of a few towns, and answering all the questions a curious woman like me, as! He also plays a serious role of chivalrous gesture, opening my door every time I want to take a photo. I have not seen this kind of thoughtfulness in a long time! And there is plenty of stop on this very scenic road. First, we have to contour the Agung river, the same one I went rafting, since there is no bridge it is about an hour detour just to get on the other side of the river. Then we start climbing up the mountains to only go down again and then up again. The last mountain we climb was very different, no more rice paddies, just gardens of vegetables and flowers. Where are right in the heart of Bali’s garden. All the vegetables and fruits hotels purchase are from this region. A region rich in diversity, and I can see they have some technology, but it still remains a natural way, and an efficient way of preserving the plants. At least from what I see, I would have to investigate more to find out if they use fertilizer and pesticides. I already know, the rice they grow for their own supply, as each family as a plot or more to grow their own rice, contains no chemicals or any sort. But the rice grown for the international market is grown with the help of chemicals as the government commands. With chemicals they get three crops a year instead of the usual two. Going back to this giant garden, amidst this tall and steep mountain,no fancy irrigation system is need it, as this region see’s rain almost every day, when the clouds get above the mountains, the rain comes down. This is all throughout the year not just during the rainy season. Tomatoes, cabbage, beans, lettuce, broccoli, cucumber, hot peppers, peppers are just a few of what I saw. And the view is stunning; everything is grown in terrace just like the rice, giving the mountains a more dramatic look. This is the first fresh air I’ve seen, since I arrived in Bali,we roll down the windows and it is cooler than the air conditioning in the car. I welcome this change of air with great appreciation. I could live here, no problem! The view is a million dollar view all the way to Lovina. You need a good car to come here, without brakes you’re done! Than we enter a beautiful town by a fairly good size lake, with a Temple on it’s shore. Also, across the street another kind of Temple, some monotonous voice is lamenting in a outdoor speaker, Sang Made explains we are now in a region that has Muslims, Muslims pray five times a day, and each and every time, this lamentation is shouted throughout the speakers and loud enough to cover an entire town, I am not sure if its the same prayer, repeated over and over, or a different each time, it always sounds the same. We make a short stop at the Temple by the lake, the scenery is beautiful and for the first time I see beautiful green grass, an d evergreens. The gardens are magnificent, with their giant Datura’s the big white flower that looks like a trumpet. While we quickly visit the ground, a cloud of rain comes down, no worries, Sang Made even though of bringing an umbrella! I ask if where I was going, was also a Muslims area as well, since I was not aware of this, I thought they were more in Java and Jakarta. Yes, there is some here, and as we drive we see more and more mosque.
Before I left, I read a very serious report on what is happening in the world, something most of us are not aware, but the fertility rate is now 1.3 per family in Canada. It used to be 3.5 per family in the 70’s. We are now, among the lowest in all nations side by side with many European countries. On the other side of the spectrum, Muslims are immigrating in all Industrialized countries in the world, Canada, England, United States, Belgium, Australia,etc.. and they have a fertility rate of 5.5 per family, in twenty years they will be more Muslim on the planet than any other kind of nationality, and that is for the entire globe. For the first time ever, the number of Mosque has surpassed the number of churches in the world, the Vatican admits. What is the worrisome, Muslim religion believes that they should only be one religion on the planet and it’s theirs, any other religion should be destroy or eliminated. They have clearly stated that one day, the world will be ruled by Islam. And when it will happen it will be too late for anyone to react.
Since, that report, I am kind of reticent towards Muslims, I have never been prejudice, and I am still not, just reluctant to encounter them. Once you are aware of something, it is different than when you’re not. I shouldn’t ever worry, I might be dead by then, but I worry for my children’s future. Maybe it is a good idea to buy a place in Ubud, so they can go there if ever it happens! Bali has a fertility rate of at least 2.5 per family as everyone I met or talk to here, as minimum two kids, and often three.
We stop so I can eat, my guide and his brother never seems to hungry! I am always hungry, as we stop, torrential rain come down for around 20 minutes, tourist are rushing to where I am so they can have a shelter, it really rains hard here when it does. Not a good idea to be on the road, it’s kind of a blessing, that I was so hungry! When I finish my lunch, so is the rain! Getting to Lovina is a bit of a shock, we are in a very different region, I can tell just by the way things are, we have not even made it to the street where the place I am staying, that a guy on a motorcycle is asking us, if we need a place to stay. And he follows us. He does not have the reassuring look Balinese have, or I should say the Ubud people, have. We are still in Bali, but very few people here wear the traditional clothes, they have punk rock Balinese and Rasta Balinese. It looks like traditions were thrown out the window here. Sang Made, left after making sure everything was fine, and that I get the room I reserved, which I didn’t. I must say for $12 a night, there is nothing wrong with my room, but I am use to my palace, with fresh towels, soap, shampoo, toilet paper, glasses, water, etc. There is not even a bar to hand my towel anywhere in the room! The first thing I have to do, is to go buy toilet paper, soap and water. I cannot expect too much for that price. I must say it has its own charm; I have a little veranda looking at a garden, with chairs and table. I have air conditioning for the first time and an outdoor bathroom again. The garden is full of birds, many species enjoy this garden, I counted at least 6 different kind, and a nest in the decorative palm tree in front of my door, of little brown orange birds with a white head, they have the size of our chickadee. Really this place is a good finding for backpackers! And the more I see, the more I am happy I left my languages behind, as I would look like an extraterrestrial if I had them with me. Here, the only thing they own is a backpack! They all live for under $20 a day. The ocean is a throw stone away. I was so happy to see the Ocean, what a big disappointment I got, when I walk over there. The beach is filthy, you can’t walk, because there is fishing boats all over the beach, and ropes that you have to jump over if ever you decided to swerve around the boats, the sand is black, I knew that, but this sand is very coarse, you need shoes to walk on it, not flip flops. There is so much detritus of all kinds, it is very deceiving. I go into the water, there is more garbage at the bottom of the ocean, right from where I am, in a 5 feet radius, I can see all kinds of things sitting at the bottom of the ocean floor. The water is at a perfect temperature to have a nice dip, still I don’t even want to go in, anymore. Well, for consolation, I can always have diner by the ocean tonight, there is a nice restaurant at the corner, right on the beach, who just received a fresh Marlin today. She proudly showed me the white nice fresh flesh of a Marlin steak. I promise to come back for diner.
After a short nap, I guess I not used to fresh air anymore, I worked for a few hours, than when for diner, just in time to catch the sun set. The place is busy and I have a table right in front of the ocean, there is not a breeze and I am quite surprise, usually on a beach there is always some kind of breeze, here nothing, not even enough to flick the flame of the candle on my table! It is a Rasta place, with the colors of Jamaica all over. A rasta Balinese brings a menu but does not speak a word another rasta is sitting to my left with some young Australian guy, that obviously had smoke one too many, he eyes were red and he could barely talk, so badly I talk he was French, again, I have insulted one more Australian, as he is from Australia! I did talk with a nice couple from Australia, I had not plan to drink anything, but as the conversation went on, and I don’t drink beer, I order a glass of red wine to keep them company. Here, it only comes by the bottle, it took so long for them to bring my wine, I was sure they went somewhere to get it, sure enough, that what they did. I ask how much was the bottle, he said it was special wine 175 000 rupias, I asked if I can take the bottle with me if I don’t drink it all and he said yes. I knew I would not drink more than a glass. He said no problem. I recall seeing a wine price list, and if I am correct it was 150 000 rupias. My fish was good, but that was it. Seeing all these nice vegetables today I was not impress, with the pale overcooked cabbage mixture, served with my fish so I order a salad, in order to get more greens. Comes more cabbage, and for dressing a scoop of Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip. And sure enough when the wine arrived, the special wine is no other than that $7 Balinese wine bottle you find everywhere. Before I left I asked to see the menu, and as I thought it says 150 000 rupias in the menu. Not only did he rip me off, when I paid he said he had no change, he did that to every table. I didn’t say anything, but I had plan to take all my meal here, as it is a step away, now, they will not see me for as long as I stay. Tomorrow first thing in my agenda is to find change. Everywhere I went today, they never had change, rather it was for toilet paper, or water, internet, they didn’t have change. The only place I went that had change, was a store with only two little girls, I looked around to see where is the adult, but it looks like they are tending the store. The oldest one, who looks no older than 7 years old, tell me it’s 4000 rupias. I give her a 10 000 rupias bills, to my amazement she get the key to a drawer, and gives me the exact change. I can’t believe it, I can’t even get my employees to give the change back from the total, a they all rely on the till and have no clue how to do it manually! This little tiny girl knows how no problem, than I ask how old are you, she didn’t speak English, he father is actually just across the street talking with some men, he shows me eight fingers! I told him his daughter is very good! And all I have on me is 50 000 rupias bills which is roughly $5.00 bill and no one has change? The owner of the place I am staying demanded that I pay for all three night s in advance, along with the excursion tomorrow to go to the hot springs. Things are definitely different here. Will see what tomorrow brings!