Our stay in the elegant Naya Gawana Resort started with a free upgrade. Lucky us, we booked a room type which is not yet built, so we got to stay in a huge Balinese hut with two floors and a big veranda. The hotel is located in the very Northwest of Bali, next to the West Bali National Park and Java. We also opted for the Gillies, but the price difference for dive courses brought us to the village of Pejarakan.
All the dive spots are located around the island of Menjangan. This meant that every morning we took one of the dodgy looking blue-white boats and drove slowly out. Most of the spots are walls covered with tons of corals, sponges and small fish. For the first time dived at a places with strong current and learnt to love it. If you can dive with the current it is like sitting in a bus or flying, you just thrift and let the reef pass by. We did not only fun dives but also more Specialty Courses to achieve our Advanced Open Water certificate.
Since the hotel restaurant did not convince us price, quality and quantity wise we started to dine out in the village. Turned out that not many tourists walk out of their hotel-cocoon and accordingly the locals do not see many of us. The result was that everybody greeted and waved. From everywhere we heard happy “hellooos” and the braver ones asked for our names, our hotel or our country of origin. After the third night the locals were used to the two strangers walking with their flashlights and eating local food. If not recognized as tourists because of our skin color, Michi’s height or the clothes than it would have been for sure due to the fact that we were walking. In Bali, only small children and tourists walk, the whole rest rides a motorcycle. As soon as a child can reach the handlebar it can also ride a motorcycle.
After staying for nearly two weeks in nice, regulated places we started to get restless and wanted to travel again. We agreed to stop in Munduk and Sanur before leaving Bali. Munduk is a small village in the Balinese mountains, surrounded by coconut palms, rice field, coffee and spice plantations. We detected the place accidentally in a guidebook and were surprised, how many other tourists apparently did do the same. The village has done a good job to accommodate the tourist needs and is now a great place for individual travelers to stay a few days and hike. Also here the ultimate tourist outing is walking instead of riding a motorbike.
Our last night we spent in Sanur. Having seen the possible traffic jams and lack of detours we wanted to be relatively close to the airport to avoid possible delays. Compared to Kuta, Semonyak ,and Canggu, Sanur luckily did not seem louder and more crowded than two years ago. Not sure when we will be close to the ocean again, we said goodbye and headed towards more South East Asia experiences.
Kommentar schreiben
Sandro Zuppiger (Montag, 08 Juni 2015 10:17)
Weiter wäre auch der Komodo-Nationalpark zu empfehlen. Nicht nur wegen den berühmten Waranen. Der Nationalpark erschliesst auch viel Meer und bietet daher eine wunderbare Vielfalt an Korallen und Fischen. :) Gruss