Day 132, Year 3: Back Home in Lovina Beach with Justin and Jo
Date: Hari Kamis (Thursday), Bulan September 18, Pada Tahan 2008
Weather: Beautiful Day
Location: Lovina Beach, BALI, Indonesia

Justin and Jo arrived safely and on time last night at 11:10 pm. It is just so wonderful to have them here with us. I know they are exhausted after a 36-hour flight that included a 3-hour layover in LA and an 11-hour layover in Seoul, Korea, but they are hanging in there. Our wonderful driver for our trip south, Komang, picked us up at 10:30 pm in Kuta and had us at the airport well before 11:00. The flight came in early and the time it took Justin and Jo to go through Customs and get their Indonesian Visa was amazingly fast. So we were back in Kuta, had a walk on the beach, and were in bed just after midnight.

But unfortunately, we had to get a semi-early start this morning in order to see some of the sights as we headed back north and get back to Lovina in time for the Sail Indonesia Rally Welcoming Ceremony. We left “krazy” Kuta around 10:30 am, stopped in Denpasar to pick up batteries, had a nice lunch at a very nice roadside hotel nestled among the terraced rice paddies, and made our first tourist stop at the holy springs at Tirta Empul. This temple was built in 962 but restored in the 1960’s.
Istana Negara, Soekarno’s (past president of Indonesia) palace overlooks the temple and it is quite an impressive site. Time was running out as it is quite a long drive from the south of Bali to the north, so from Tirta Empul we headed directed to the overlook for Lake Batur and the volcanic mountains of Gunung Agung, Gunung Abang, and Gungung Batur. Gunung Batur is closest and it is obvious that this volcano has been active not so long ago.

It was great to get back to Lovina Beach and “home.” We had only a short time before we had to turn around and go back to shore to get on a bus and head north again to Singaraja for the welcome ceremony. It was a nice dinner in a great little restaurant on the beach, but unfortunately there was no Bali cultural performance. There is more to come tomorrow, so maybe we will start to get a taste of Bali’s wonderful dances and music right here on Lovina Beach.

080918 Day 132 Bali, Indonesia–Day Trip from South to North Bali