Saturday, November 26, 2005

The north coast of Bali near Lovina



The traditional use of the land was salt production. Now, the traditional use is selling the land to developers. Nonetheless, large tracts of prime waterfront land lie completely undeveloped along this coastline. Some of it is sitting there, owned by Chinese in Denpasar, waiting for tourism to grow up again. It has to be imagined though that a garden and a view of the ocean stretching off from right in front of you to the horizon can be had for not too much money.

Air Sanih is not really close to anything much of interest, though it is within reach of the clove gardens of Munduk, the rice paddies of Jatiluwih, and the botanic gardens at Bedugul to the west, the mountainous region of Kintamani, Tirtagganga in the East, and the whole of the north coast really.

Really close landmarks are limited to beautiful temple of Pura Meduwe Karan (temple of the land's master) in next door Kubutambahan featuring the famous carving of W.O.J. Nieuenkamp, who cycled around Bali in 1904 on "Bali's first bicycle", and some cool springs which have been made into swimming pools fringed with frangipani trees, where locals swim, wash clothes, brush their teeth, and splash around. One tends there to get accosted by Nyoman, a man who complains about being "bored, nothing to do", a beach masseur without a beach and without a private room in which to give massages, or an 18 year old Lomboker selling songket (gilded handweaving) the day after finishing final year of high school, in order to finance his hoped-for English studies at university, find a job, and then a wife etc etc. But such requests soon enough give way to pleasant conversation (if morose in Nyoman's case).

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