We were picked up from Kuta Townhouses by a driver from Rambutan Cottages, our Lovina hotel. The trip up was definitely a highlight, and we'd packed lots of stops in to make the most of it. First stop, Candi Kuning markets and a visit to Cracker's beautiful toilets, then onto Lake Bratan's temple where a cremation ceremony happened to be taking place. After admiring the wildlife and scenery (love those yellow trumpet flowers) we lunched at a restaurant overlooking the lake and then onto the Treetops experience at the Bedugal Botanical Gardens where you traverse the rope/obstacle/flying fox courses attached to callipers up in the trees. Check out their website if you're not familiar with it, but it's a fabulous experience with the family. You get lots of practice time, there are 5 courses in total. We skipped the super easy one, did the easy with no problems, but on the medium our 8 year old decided to bail out and do the 2 easy ones. My hubby, 14 and 12yo and I continued, but didn't take too long for me to wish I'd gone back with our youngest. The flying fox sections were wonderful, but some of the others need a bit of upper body strength (my weakest link), but I did eventually manage it, and certainly had a sense of achievement at the end. Hubby and I both bowed out after the medium, but 14 finished the next one (12yo bailed out halfway through). #1 son would have loved to do the hard course, but it's just not as much fun doing it on your own, so he decided to bow out too so we could continue on our journey. The other souvenir hubby and I took away was a few outstanding bruises. My theory is the flying foxes are designed for a smaller build, which is great for kids but we'd often come hurtling in and collect ropes/nets which really left their mark. On the plus side we then had great family entertainment for the next several days monitoring the size and full colour spectrum of our treetops bruises and showing them off to anyone who cared to see!
Next stop was Git Git waterfalls, well worth the visit and not too bad a walk (despite 8yo's frequent moans) before we made it to the gorgeous Rambutan cottages by 5pm. It was fairly pricey, but so beautiful, our 2 bedroom villa was just divine and the pools and grounds magnificent.
Next morning we arose pre-dawn to go out with a local guy on his glorified canoe with the other hordes of tourists for the sunrise dolphin watching frenzy. We'd been approached by this guy the night before heading for dinner, and he was great. Met us at Rambutan in the morning, walked down to the beach and we headed out. Sunrise was gorgeous and we saw heaps of dolphins - unfortunately they're not trained quite as well as the Seaworld variety, and I got heaps of shots of rippled water where a few dolphins had just been, but did manage to capture a bit of decent photographic evidence, including a stunning sunrise and certainly lots of wonderful memories.
We all loved Lovina, was a real respite from the hustle of Kuta. Restaurant prices also very reasonable with great food. 14yo, 12yo and I did a cooking class at Rambutan, one of those things I've always wanted to do but hadn't managed to fit in thus far. We started with an early morning visit to Singaraja markets, which was an eye opener for the kids. 12yo daughter was intently watching the pork man chopping his meat, then glanced to the side and jumped out of her skin when she realised the pig's head was sitting right next to her on the bench! We bought all the ingredients for our dishes there - coconuts, spices, chicken, tuna, pork, fruit and vegies. Then it was back to the hotel to start cooking. We made 4 dishes in all, our favourite Pork Tum (minced pork with coconut wrapped in banana leaves), Chicken & Potato curry, Fish satays and Urab (mixed vegies with coconut spice). There was so much food, it was then served for us all (incl. hubby and 8yo) to eat for lunch at a restaurant across the road......delicious. We all got such a great appreciation for the many spices in each dish, and just how much preparation is involved.
Another highlight of our Lovina stay was swimming with the dolphins at the Melka resort. Now I've read all the flames thrown here at people who relate their experience, but decided to risk it for those who'd like to know! You should book in early, we'd tried to go the day before, but they were booked out. Even then, our 2pm appointment meant we ended up in the water by 3pm. The 3 kids and I did the swim, with hubby on video duty. Cost was the family rate which converted back to AUD$125 for 30mins in the water. We really enjoyed ourselves, swam with a couple of different dolphins in 2 separate pools (first dolphin was not too interested, so they took us to a 2nd pool). I felt the handlers were great with the kids, and conscious of not stressing the dolphin. The dolphin came up to us for a pat, then could slide out to another pool when she wanted a break.
We also made the most of our trip back down south. First stop was the Lovina hot springs - and WOW, what a place! I like my pools at bath temperature, and this was definitely warm and in such a stunning setting. The higher pool was even warmer, and all pools had lovely water fountains you could relax under. Next stop was the Gesing Giant tree, as recommended by Richard from Rambutan Cottages. It really is massive, towering over the rest of the greenery, you can climb up through it a fair way, kids enjoyed getting to a point where they could stick their heads out for a photo. We'll definitely be back to Lovina, was a real highlight of our trip. After an average lunch at Pacung Indah we headed for our next stop - The Bali Safari & Marine Park, but that will be for Part 3.