Bali Day 14 - Crawling Toward Lovina with A Thimble Full of Petrol

Today, we said goodbye to the endless stream of different German guys smoking and coughing in their underpants on the balconies around us. No. They weren't coughing into their underpants. You know what I meant. Don't be silly.
We were heading north!
The trip from Nusa Dua, where we have spent the last week, to Lovina, where we will spend our last week in Bali is 60-70 miles. Without stops, it would be safe to plan on 4-5 hours to make that trip because of traffic and the fact that most roads in Bali look, from above, like a piece of cooked spaghetti tossed on a carpet.
The driver who picked us up to bring us to our Airbnb was named Putu. We had asked for an 11:00 pick up and he told us he had left his home at 6:00 to make sure he arrived in time. Putu was the oldest driver we've had (maybe 55?). Like all the other drivers, he was very nice and had limited English, though certainly enough so that we could have a fun, if occasionally baffling, conversation.
He is also, by far, the most aggressive driver we've had in Bali, passing and honking at other drivers with gleeful abandon. Unlike American lunatics, the drivers in Bali pass and honk with no animosity. They are just filling available spaces and, somehow, it works.
Our first stop was a water temple that was only a slight detour from our route. As we wound our way north through the center of the island, I watched with growing alarm as the fuel gauge dropped from the quarter tank he had when he picked us up, to conspicuously below the dreaded E. I mentioned it in a smooth, casual way, as if he maybe just hadn't noticed that we were coasting on fumes.
"Do you need to stop for petrol?"
"Later."
Once we got north of Ubud, the traffic lessened considerably, as did the opportunities to buy petrol. We drove a serpentine path through thick, lush jungles, along the tops of high ridges overlooking deep, green valleys, and, as with everywhere else in Bali, each hairpin turn revealed another thrilling surprise in the road.
Maybe there's a small child splashing in a puddle.
Maybe there is a flock of wild dogs languidly stretched out across the street.
Maybe there's a huge dump truck full of black sand barreling toward you on the wrong side of the road.
Maybe it's a topless old lady with a huge bundle of banana leaves on her head.
Yes. We saw all of those many, many times. The only one I managed to photograph was the huge pile of stones dropped in the road just after a sharp corner. The topless old ladies are surprisingly hard to photograph.
Or so I've been told.
The pile of rocks was certainly for some future repair project involving rickety bamboo scaffolding and workers in flip flops juggling flaming chainsaws or something.

It's like all of Bali is playing peek-a-boo with your car.

We dodged everything Bali threw in our path and, with -4 gallons of gas in the tank, pulled into the parking lot for Gunung Kawi Sebatu Temple, which was amazing.
The temple; not the parking lot. Don't be silly.
The temple (and the parking lot) were set deeply in a lush, verdant jungle valley. It was beautiful and, once again, almost devoid of tourists, which was lovely. We had time to stroll around and really appreciate the gorgeously ornate architecture.

I'm still uncertain of what makes some temples popular tourist destinations. The ones that seem the most crowded are, invariably, ones I enjoy less than the crowded ones. Not because of the crowds (okay, yes, because of the crowds, but mostly I find that the quiet ones are just prettier).
The Balinese people are very devout in their religion, but they are very welcoming to visitors as well. They do make money from tourists, which they share with the village where the temple is located. Putu explained that the villages, as a whole, collect and save the money they earn from tourist destinations and then use it to help villagers.
"Your house burned down? Okay. Here's a bunch of the village's money. Rebuild and pay us back whenever you can; if you can."
They truly live the concept of it taking a village and it's beautiful.
They also welcome visitors because they are proud of the temples and happy to share them with people. All they ask is that you be respectful and you will be very welcomed. Again, it's such a contrast to much of the attitudes about space and privacy that we commonly experience in America, it's really delightful.
As was the rest of the temple. So here are more photos for you to enjoy.

I love how ornately detailed everything is, right down to the stones that form the walking paths. I wanted to photograph the largest of the sacred pools, but there were people using it and it's considered rude to photograph people purifying themselves.

This temple also had a koi pond with some of the biggest koi I have ever seen. They were easily 36 inches long. It was like a pool full of golden whales.

I am all in favor of any food that arrives at the table in a banana leaf dunce cap.

All those koi made me hungry so we found our new Putu and headed up the street to a very swanky resort for lunch. I got tuna with sambal mattah and a drink made from lemongrass, ginger, and lemon. It was easily the best restaurant meal we've had so far. Kerri got very brave and tried a burrito.
Balinese people have a shaky concept of Mexican food, but she enjoyed it because it was 100% fish-free and did not actively hurt her face with insane levels of chili that Balinese people are so very fond of.
After lunch, we hopped back into Putu's van and continued to test the limits of how far it could drive along mountainous roads with no fuel at all.
"Don't you want to stop for some petrol?" I asked again, trying hard to keep the panicky quaver out of my voice.
"Later, later," he murmured.
"Okay," I said, "You're the boss."
He will also be the one walking to buy an Absolut bottle of petrol if we run out of gas.
We passed through a lot of farm land where they were growing coffee, peppers, melons, oranges, and bananas.
This is probably the best video I got of what it is actually like to sit in the passenger seat and drive in Bali. Life is lived very close to the road here and I know the first little bit is a bit dizzying, but the video is like 2 minutes long. If you stick with it and don't barf on your screen, the views are incredible.

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We drove through small villages and eventually found ourselves in a dense tourist area with incredible views of Mt. Batur, another volcano on the island. The tourist areas are easy to identify. in addition to the obvious tourists, the shacks that might be selling babi gueling or gado gado are replaced by upscale restaurants with names like Montana and Cowboy Burger, both of which, I am sad to report, are totally real.
I'm sorry, world.
We made our way up the crowded, Westernized street and passed a gas station. I silently hoped that Putu would pull in.
He didn't.
He drove on before suddenly pulling into a parking lot a few hundred yards up the road.
"Petrol," he announced.
I breathed a sigh of relief. He turned around and headed back toward the gas station, and drove right past it.
"But first, picture!" he said brightly.
He pulled into a parking lot of a restaurant with a huge balcony overlooking Mt. Batur.
"Go in and take photo," he said. "Don't get caught."
I did.
And I didn't.

Mt. Batur obscured by clouds. I realized, after sneaking into a restaurant to take this photo, that the entire line of buildings along that side of the road was perched on a rickety tower of concrete supports. I ran back to the van and quickly changed my newly befouled shorts.

Putu did, finally, splurge on a few liters of gas. Now, with less than a quarter of a tank, we resumed our ride toward the norther coast, still more than two hours away.

It was a mostly beautiful ride. The landscape was amazing. It's sad to see the conditions that so many of the locals live in, though.
When we finally arrived in Lovina, we stopped at a local supermarket called Pepito's that was clearly designed for the tourists. It had a lot of western and Japanese food, including Happitos!
Yay!
They will pair marvelously with the fruit and juice and rum I also bought.
The villa we're staying in is called Villa Lumba Lumba. As with BoSofie, we turned off the main road and the road got smaller and smaller as we wound through rice fields and eventually ended up at the villa, which was spectacular.
We were greeted by another Putu, this one a delightful young lady with a huge smile and a loud laugh. She was one of the two cooks at the villa and was eager to show us around.
It did not disappoint.Putu made us a complimentary welcome dinner of Nasi Goreng and Chicken Satay, which was amazing.When we were done eating, she cleaned up and headed out for the night.We dropped into bed to rest up for a big day of lounging by the pool tomorrow.

Putu!