The lovely thing we have found still in Candi Dasa and Lombok is the way the locals all smile and say hello if they meet you on the road. The tiniest child who can wave will do so and say hello if they can.
The kids are so cute. This lot were on their break at school.
Candi Dasa town is very quiet at the moment with a lot of the small hotels with many vacancies and only a few of the tables occupied at the many restaurants. Everyone on Lombok in the Sengiggi area and here in Candi Dasa has said how quiet it is.
The restaurants said that this year their only busy time was when a few cruise ships came in for the day.
We have a good massage guy come to the hotel at the bargain rate of $5 each and he is very experienced and does a good job. I am starting to have a massage now that my bruises are starting to heal.
Tomorrow we will walk down to the Candi Beach Cottages a few kms out of town to see our friend Gustu who is now working there. Komang our friend is going to come and take us to Tirta Gangga – a royal water palace in Karangasem where we can also swim.
A lot of people on the street wanting to transport you somewhere by car or motorbike. Most of the reasonably priced accommodation in Candi Dasa is located along the main road which is extemely noisy at various times of the day.
I should have known when I booked our hotel on the net that no bathroom was shown – a good indication of what the hotel is like!
The walkway down to the infinity pool is impressive and the view lovely but our room with no window is like a cave as the lighting isn’t the best at night like in most of the smaller hotels here on the island. Maurice uses his torch to read at night!
The bathroom has an open area good for letting the mosquitos in and is facing the walkway so a person could easily come over the wall. The door which we have trouble opening sounds like one you’d find in a haunted house as you open and close it! We have decided to move on to a small hotel two doors down which has a lovely garden setting, windows and a more secure feel to it.
We have had some delicious Indonesian food so far -delicous fresh fish and fish in banana leaf with Balinese spices. There is the usual amusing English -pancakes with “crashed coconut” and I had an iced tea which was hot tea in a glass with ice blocks.
Today we took a lovely boat trip about 1/2 hour away to what they advertise as the “white sand beach” – well the sand was a little less black than around the hotels in Candi Dasa but a long way away from being white!
The small bay however was just beautiful and the water was crystal clear.
On the way to the “white sand beach” with Mt Agung in the background.
Leaving the beach with our boat man.
Even coming into Padang Bai harbour on the ferry from Lombok the water was very clear and we saw a lot of small fish
Maurice and friend Ganesh
On Lombok one of our lovely staff at the hotel said that he wouldn’t wear a hat like Maurice’s one as only the peanut sellers wear one like that. Never thought of Maurice as a peanut seller – maybe we could do some business here!