11/7/2025

Lovina

Dolphin spotting. Interesting experience but did not see the dolphins jumping out of the water. Saw a school of them surfacing on a few occasions and then they dived back in the water.
There were like a hundred boats in the water all with tourists.

My experience at the guest house in Lovina was poor with worn down fittings in the room.
I had to go to Indomaret (ubiquitous convenience store) to get a mosquito spray as the mosquitos would come in from the bathroom.
Only the AC looked new ......................

Sometimes you can't trust reviews on Google but most of the time the reviews give an indication. This particular guesthouse had decent review but they are for a more expensive room.

I had already paid for 2 nights and it was on me for not checking the room first before I paid the owner.

12/7/2025

Lovina to Munduk
Altitude: 740m AMSL
ATD 0740
ATA 1200


Original plan was to go to the Bali Botanical Garden but after arriving and checking with the staff the Bloom Garden would be a better choice to go.

The ride was scenic and cool.

At the guesthouse I met a lovely Dutch couple and we had a good chat about travel and life in general.
We exchanged our experiences traveling in China, Japan etc.

Munduk is cold at night.

13/7/2025

Munduk to Pemuteran

ATD 0940
ATA 1130

Short ride with great weather. Staying at Pemuteran as it only an hour away to Gilimanuk ferry where I'll be crossing over to East Java tomorrow.

I've completed the top loop of Bali anti-clockwise and then on my return leg I will finish off the loop clockwise heading back to Seminyak.

An interesting picture about the yellow rice or known as nasi kuning.

The last time I ate it was like about 40 years ago when I was in my teens. It is still not as good as the one I had though!




Dinner

Great photos
Thanks for sharing
The food looks tasty

Wayne

__________________
The Balkans
https://new.horizonsunlimited.com/poi_entity/8417

Thanks mate.

The food can get boring with the exception of the seafood.

Seafood in Seminyak with tons of tourist is super expensive.

I fly back home tomorrow 29/7.
Should have stayed 2 nights only in Seminyak before flying out but I booked for 3 nights. Seminyak doesn't have much appeal to me as it's jam packed with tourists from all over the world.

14/7/2025
Pemuteran to Jember.
ATD 0815
ATA Gilimanuk ferry port 0900. Bought the ferry ticket. There are plenty of places to get the ticket slog the road leading to the port.
ATD Gilimanuk ferry port 1000

ATA Ketapang, East Java ferry port 1100. The ferry takes an hour. Upon arrival the time zone is GMT+7 whereas Bali is on GMT+8 so the time is 1000.

ATA Jember 1315.

Good weather and the roads were ok. Today was considered a long ride with about 150kms.

15/7/2025
Jember to Malang
Altitide 470AMSL

ATD 0815
ATA 1535

Longest ride of this tour today with a distance of 250+kms.

Supposed to go to Malang via Bromo National Park.
I watched a youtube video of a guy who did the route but he never mentioned that the route from Bromo is fine volcanic sand for 10 to 15kms and is very challenging unless you have off road experience.
I am no off roader and I found the first kilometer difficult as the front was floating and I had a tough time steering.

I asked a local and he told me that the road is shorter but much more difficult and he did not recommend doing it alone.
Long story short I did not dare to risk damaging the rented NMax and also that road did not get much traffic.

I turned back and used the main road on the way to Probolinggo and that added around 1.5 hours.
The youtube video was from a guy who resides in Bali but his channel is fairly new and not much subscribers so have to take their info with a grain of salt. Best to verify the source of the information.

Anyway, it was a nice ride to Bromo National Park even though I had to turn back the way I came in. The views are quite stunning.

I am now at a crossroad as Malang is supposed to be my turnaround point to head back to Bali and I still have 4 extra nights so I will have to figure out if I want to continue towards Central Java or not.

Route is the planned route but had to backtrack and head towards Probolinggo to get to Malang

Volcanic sand


Volcanic sand

16/7/2025
Malang to Batu.

Short ride to go to the highlight which is a transportation museum. From what I know it is considered the largest transportation museum in South East Asia.

First I went to the Coban Rondo waterfall and then to the museum.

The museum was very interesting since I like cars and bikes.
Spent more than 2 hours there.

Huge photo dump coming.