Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

I opted to take a minibus up to the beach area of Lovina, on the north coast of Bali, and I suspect that was a tactical error. On the way up, we passed through Candikuning, which was on my list of places to visit. I should probably have stopped there and done the second half of the trip tomorrow. Oops. It looked good, from the bus, so I'll probably stop there on the way back, even though that constrains my route options.

The minibus driver from Yogya to Malang was unusually courteous. This driver was... not. He was definitely being aggressive about passing, even on the winding mountain roads. I seem to have come through it alive, though, despite sitting in the front seat with no seat belt. He also dropped me off at the hotel of his choice, rather than the one where I had a reservation, and it wasn't nearly as close as his little map made it look. I ended up walking about 1.5km with my luggage (which is steadily getting heavier). Good exercise, at least.

Lovina is billed as the anti-Kuta. Relaxed, rather than jumping. It certainly seemed that way. On my walk down the beach, local kids outnumbered tourists at least two to one. One bunch was taking turns with a diving mask and snorkel, though I'm not sure the strategy of splitting up the pair is optimal. Another was hard at work changing course of one of the rivers that flow into the ocean there by cutting a new channel and building a sand dam. It reminded me of similar engineering schemes from my past.

The cafe where I watched the sunset had something called "Green Sands" on the menu. When I asked the waiter what it was, he told me it was a mix of Sprite and beer. Gross. Terrible idea, right? So I ordered one, and found it much better than I expected. A perusal of the ingredients list on the can revealed that it was actually a sparkling lime apple soda. I'm not sure whether the waiter was trying to sell me on it by saying it was beer or if he was just confused.