For a long time now, I’ve had "see Lovina" on my Bali to-do list. I’d heard it was different in many ways from the Southern Bali beach resorts I’ve known. Today I finally got the chance to see for myself.

The drive to Lovina from the Kuta area is about three hours, depending on how many stops you make, and there are a lot of places worth a stop. To get to the north coast of Bali, you have to drive up and over the volcanic peaks at the center of the island. The southern slope is quite gentle, so before you know it you’re looking back down on the entire southern coast. Well, if there’s no clouds or fog, which is something of a rarity.

With the cooler climate that altitude brings, there’s a lot of cool weather produce grown around the mountains, like lettuce and strawberries. There are markets in Bedegul and Candi Kuching where you can stop and see for yourself.

My first stop is the lake temple of Ulun Danu Bratan, set on the shores of Lake Bratan, one of three lakes in the crater of an old volcano. The temple has a couple of shrines set on small islands out in the lake, so it’s a much photographed sight.

From the lakes, we head up over the north rim of the crater and down into North Bali. There are a lot of monkeys along the road as we climb to the rim of the crater. The north slope of the mountains is a lot steeper than the south, so the road is quite winding on the way down into Singaraja, the old capital of Bali. On the way is another interesting sight, the Git Git Waterfall. Actually, there are a lot of falls in Git Git. There are three or four places where you can stop and see them.

From Singaraja we head west a few miles to get to Lovina. If you want the Bali experience without the crowds, then it looks like Lovina is the place you should consider. The beach here is black sand and the water is extremely calm most of the time. There are several hotels to choose from, most of them reasonably priced, and there are a few restaurants as well. What’s missing is big crowds, nightclubs, and touts chasing you down the street trying to sell you a t-shirt or transport.

While I may have crossed "see Lovina" off my list, it hasn’t gotten any shorter. I’ve had to add "spend more time in Lovina" to the list.

Yesterday I made the drive from Semarang to Yogyakarta. It’s a comfortable two and a half hour drive, but not all that scenic. My base for this stay is the Dusun Jogja Village Inn.

I’d have to describe the Dusun Jogja Village Inn as “pleasantly funky”. I’m sure there are some to whom the charms of this place won’t appeal, but I found it to be a quite pleasant change from the bland corporate hotels I usually end up at on my travels. Fortunately, the owners of the Dusun have generally avoided using the word “boutique” to describe their property. There’s no pretensions here.

The hotel consists of just around 20 rooms and is located just south of the old royal palace, the Kraton. The lobby and standard rooms are housed in a small building right on the narrow side street of the hotel. The deluxe rooms are in two story blocks on the other side of a large courtyard behind the lobby. The courtyard holds a swimming pool that’s rather large for such a small hotel. Beside the pool is the hotel’s restaurant, housed in a traditional open air “joglo” Javanese style pavilion.

My second floor deluxe room is good-sized, not huge but very comfortable to move around in. The design and decoration are early twentieth century, with tile floors and rough plaster walls. Most of the furniture is made of wood, except for the bed frame, which is wrought iron. The bed sports a canopy and mosquito net, which may come in handy. A pair of sliding doors lets onto a large balcony with a built in sofa, table and chair. Although there is a ceiling fan, which may be quite adequate in the cool season, the room also has air conditioning. Other modern conveniences include a mini-bar, but, there is no television in the room. There is a ‘movie room’ in the lobby, with a selection of discs on offer. The bathroom is quite large, although the fixtures are rather basic. There’s just a bathtub with shower, toilet and vanity.

The menu at the restaurant is somewhat limited, but both meals I ate there were very good. The breakfast buffet didn’t offer too many things, but the juices were fresh squeezed, the croissants fresh baked, and everything else was equally good quality.

Yesterday was one of "those" days that makes you understand why some people hate to travel. My flight from Bangkok to Jakarta was delayed by half an hour, which is bad enough, but when I got to Jakarta I found that my connecting flight to Semarang was delayed by more than an hour. This gave me more than enough time to fully "appreciate" Soekarno-Hatta airport.

Jakarta’s main international airport is something of a contradiction. On the one hand, it is an architecturally distinctive airport. In an age when new airports are almost always glass and steel could-be-anywhere designs, Soekarno-Hatta, although made mostly of glass and steel, is inspired by local cultural styles, with the departure lounges taking the form of traditional pendopo meeting places set in landscaped tropical gardens.

On the other hand, the experience delivered to the travellers who have to use the airport is far from culturally enriching. On exiting customs, you’re assaulted with an absolute free-for-all of competing unlicensed taxi drivers, touts and assorted other unsavoury characters. If, like me, you’re arriving on an international flight and transferring to a domestic flight, you won’t find a single sign inside to direct you to the domestic terminal. Finally, if faced with a delayed flight, you won’t find much to do to occupy your time. The domestic terminal has little in the way of internet services or other things to do.

It’s no wonder that the budget travel site Sleeping in Airports named Soekarno-Hatta a "Poopy Airport" in 2006.

So, after a long day, I arrived in Semarang, on the north coast of Central Java. It’s my first time here, but as I walk out of the airport building I got a distinct feeling of deja vu. I suspect that most provincial airports in Indonesia were originally built on the same plan. The arrivals hall in Semarang is more or less identical to the ones in Makassar, Yogyakarta and Surabaya’s old terminal.

This just in - for those that will be in Bali in August:

The second Sanur Village Festival (SVF) has been set for 15 – 19 August 2007 at the Inna Grand Bali Beach and Segara Beach. Carrying a new theme “The new spirit of heritage”, a variety of cultural performance and arts, sporting and culinary events will be held during this five day fun-packed event. Local and international tourist as well as visitors from all ages can participate and enjoy this festival with its mixture of activities. Just to name a few are the musical and dance performances during the opening ceremony, painting and bonsai exhibition, performances, jazz festival and the official closing ceremony will be a colorful cultural parade.

Opening the festival on August 15 will be the sacred dance Rejang Dewa will be performed, as a manifest of the theme new spirit. This dance, Puja Buana, is specifically created for the opening of Sanur Village Festival 2007. Puja buana is inspired by this sacred dance usually performed in temples. Visitors can also watch the Balinese martial arts dance, Kembang Pencak.

Concluding the opening ceremony will be renowned Balinese Artist, Bona Alit. The special contemporary musical performance from his world music album is selected because it describes the relationship between the modern Bali nuance based on strong traditional elements. Gung Alit’s unique idea has taken Bali into another world through his musical work. His continuous effort captures the whole musical phenomenon, and with his imagination and creativity, his compositions are performed using a range of different instruments. In his soft musical melody, Gung Alit presents something new and contemporary not withholding Balinese traditional elements as basis.

Daily art related events consist of cartoon, painting, and bonsai exhibition. Cartoon with beach theme will exhibit caricatures of activities during the Sanur Village Festival event. This exhibition is aimed to restore the relationship between Indonesia and Australia.

Approximately 120 international and local artists will be invited to participate and exhibit their paintings after first selected by the SVF committee in consultation with DR. Jean Couteau. The Sanur Painter Association (Himpunan Pelukis Sanur) has registered 5 galleries as exhibition venues which include Santrian Gallery, Guet Gallery, Rare Angon Gallery, 10 Art Gallery dan Darga Gallery. On the fternoon of 17th a joint painting exhibition will be held by various Balinese artists.

Another public favorite is the classic jazz festival. From August 15 to 19, the festival starts from 2pm until 11 pm daily at the SVF main stage. This years festival will feature top Balinese jazz artists including Gde Kurniawan and friends (Funk), Tropical Transit (Jazz World), Tude and friends Trio akustik (all kind), Saharadja (world Jazz), Joni Agung and Double T (reggae), with Balawan & batuan etnik (Fusion). August 19 presents jazz festival highlights with performances by Jazz Junior, Yuri and Friends, Koko Harsoe and friends, Eric and friends, and Nyanyian Dharma featuring Budjana & Trie Utami (spiritual world music). While for those who want to enjoy the beach view, a special concert will be set up featuring Joni Agung and Doublet and Sanur Potential band (youngster).

Closing this five day event is the grand cultural parade consisting of a procession of carts, consisting of elements from the hotels, community, tourism industry, and government of Denpasar. Participants of this traditional parade will involve carts from hotels in Sanur complete with tourist passengers, pepayatan, payas agung, gayotan for children, baris cina, and wayang wong (puppets). The procession will take place along Sanur area.

For more information, please contact :

Rosari Soendjoto
Travel Works Communications International
Tel : +6281.330.200.141