Lovina

So I follow alot of travel influencers. One of my favorites is based in Bali and as I've watched her travels over the last year or so, I've gained quite a lot of ideas for Bali. The one I was probably most excited about was waterfalls and hot springs in Northern Bali.

Today was that day. Jon, our savior picked us up at 10, after a delicious breakfast cooked by the head lady(I never figured out how to spell her name but it was kinda like Uma). 

Our first drop was Aling-Aling waterfall. This was not one of the waterfalls reccommend by my dave travel influencer. You pay at the beginning, on this seemingly random road for a guide to take you to the waterfalls. 125k rupiah each(about $9 USD).  We waited a bit for one to be ready to go, as all were out already. It's actually 4 waterfalls, the namesake is the most impressive and the only one you can't interact with. The other three, are connected. We descended many steps and decided to hit up aling aling first.  It was beautiful and we wound up with the spot all to ourselves for much longer than we would have thought we could get away with!  Then we went back in the other direction to find the other three. At the first one, I see right away that this is not my cup of tea. There is a stone platform 15 ft high, that you jump in, to position yourself to be ready to slide down the waterfall on the opposite stone edge. And this was just the beginning.  Joe was super excited and did it twice, plus also jumped off the 15 meter(45 ft) stone platform as well. I was so chicken shit I didnt even go to see the other waterfalls because it was necessary to walk through one and I didnt think I had the right footgear.

Joe loved it, which was awesome. But I really didn't(except the first one).  I began to feel inadequate and frankly, boring. It caused a bit of a conflict between us, and even Jon didn't know how to respond(he said later he was so sad to hear how sad I was).  It was mostly a misunderstanding but stemmed mostly from my own insecurity.

So what is our next stop?  Water sports. Nothing like water sports to remind you of how fun you are. I went way out of my comfort zone and hopped on a jetski with Joe. For 15 minutes we traversed the ocean. He went near 40mph a few times, which got scary but otherwise was not bad! 

Next, we had lunch . We(I) made it very clear we weren't trying to eat tourist food, so he brought us to Babi Guling, suckling pig.  Joe loved it, it was a bit too spicy for me. They essentially take each part of the pig, cook it in different ways and serve a little of each. The skin was definitely my favorite!

We then hit up the hot springs. Stone heads filled up the pools with lovely sulfur hot water.  It was great but did not feel all that clean.

We finally, made it to a temple.  He kept stressing we go and I had thought we were tempted out, but we are glad that we went!!  It was built only 50 years ago, but it is the second largest Hindu temple in all of Indonesia, the first being Borobudor!  It was beautiful and fun!

We were able to end at the beach for sunset!  Our goal but not something I was getting my hopes up for.  When we arrived, he introduced us to his cousin, who was trying to sell us these coconut necklaces. I shook his hand and then tried to walk towards the beach. Jon was trying to assert that this was his cousin. I was trying to assert that I was there to see the sunset. The cousin even went so far to say that there will be another sunset tomorrow. Another man, once we are on the beach, sat dien with us, presenting himself as a fellow traveler(but then stating he lived 4 km away) also tried to sell us the same necklaces. I knew I wasnt interested in the wares and I also was frustrated that they were trying to strong arm me into a purchase, while having me miss a timed activity(sunset) we spent all day to be sure we were there. On the other hand, I have access to many more resources than this man. I am often torn between these competing ideas.

We stated at the beach for dinner, and the hotel, which offered a free shuttle picked us back up way earlier than they were supposed to.