THE COAST TO PADANGBAI

My last night in Lovina I bought a ticket to Padangbai via the coast around the northeast corner of the island. It was a beautiful drive and I was glad to be able to at least see this area that I didn’t have the time to visit. We passed by this crazy place in Yeh Sanih on a cliff overlooking the beach called the Art Zoo. If I ever get back this will definitely be a place I visit. It was AMAZINNG! Out of Lonely Plant (which doesn’t do it much justice but gives you an idea anyway), “The American artist Symon (who also has a gallery in Ubud) has a gallery bursting with vibrant, exotic and often homoerotic paintings and sculpture. You can chat up his models and even the man himself if he’s in residence.” After about four hours of bumpy roads on a bus with no shocks (the beautiful scenery made up for it and actually it went by very fast), we made it to Padangbai which is the port town where the ferries go to the islands of Lombok or Nusa Penida. Lombok is the gateway to the Gili Islands. When people go to Padangbai they are usually just passing through. Immediately upon arrival, people were sticking their heads inside the windows of our bus trying to sell us ferry tickets. After waving them away and trekking through town to find a place to stay for the night, I sat down to a very nice lunch at this cute little place called the Ozone Café. Here, I met a local guy, we’ll call him Jo because I couldn’t pronounce his full name, who offered to give me a tour around town. How could I resist?

The roof of the Darma Homestay, where I spent the night

Another angle on the view

The ozone cafe. Everyone takes their shoes off and sits on cushions on the floor or on a platform, like in a lot of the restaurants I visited.

He showed me a black sand beach where there happened to be a funeral going on which was pretty interesting to see. Apparently almost everyone gets cremated and then there is a big ceremony to release the ashes into the ocean. I had seen the procession pass by while I was eating lunch but it was pretty cool to be able to see the rest of the events. Then he took me to a really small but really beautiful white sand beach. Sadly though, they are building this huge resort just above it (the first one to the area) and there was loud construction going on all over. I can imagine once they are down building it will change everything for the small town. My tour guide was pretty sad about it all.

The funeral procession

Bringing the ashes to the ocean and making offerings to the gods.

Up until the end of this day, I wasn’t sure if I was going to go on to Lombok and the Gilis because they are Muslim areas and it was Ramadan so I was worried that it might be too quiet and not that great for me, as a single female, to take on. But I had seen enough of Padangbai and everyone reassured me that I would be totally fine so I bought my return ticket from my new friend Jo, who also happened to be a travel agent, and after some celebratory cocktails that evening at the Rasta bar he works at, was on my way the following morning.

Jo showing off his martial arts. He's balancing on two rocks but it's hard to see...

I shared with him my joy of stacking rocks

These girls were total hams and kept coming back for me to take their picture. As soon as I would pull my camera out they would turn super shy and hide behind each other but they loved it when I showed them the pictures.

The daughter of the owner of the homestay