One thing that I also discovered as a side effect of diving was that when you go to bed, you have the best sleep ever and as I woke up from one of the most refreshing sleeps I've ever had, I set about exploring Lovina a little bit more.
I had heard of a nearby Buddhist temple that warranted a visit and hiring a motorbike taxi, I headed there and explored the area.
By this point, I had visited six temples in Bali, a few in Singapore and even more in Brunei so temples for me were seen in a different light. I wasn't really looking at them as a photo op or what precious artifacts that they held but also the ambience of the place. Why was a particular place chosen as the location of a temple, why did people come here to pray and worship. Coming from a non-religious family with many strictly religious friends including my godmother, I was always open to different types of religion and I have always seen the need of it for others but have never felt a particularly strong need of it for myself. As I was sitting at the temple complex soaking in the atmosphere of the place as it was, surrounded by hills and lush green flora, I felt a certain connection, a level of tranquility that transcends a single religion.
With my mind completely refreshed and cleansed, I headed off for another of the local area’s famous spots, Lovina’s hot spring pools and my first chance to refresh and cleanse my body with hot water in over a week. The area was broken down into three pools, a hot pool, a pressure pool and a swimming pool and I spent a great deal of time here. In particular the pressure pool which worked by having a series of artificial waterfalls dropping down a great distance so that it massages your shoulders and neck was particularly enjoyed and the price for admission was so low as to be negligible as most of the patrons were locals.
That night I met up again some of my new friends from Bali and we went out for a night of drinking. I found this to be a lot more fun than my time drinking at Kuta as the atmosphere was a lot more relaxed and easy-going and we all had fun talking about our lives and how they differed from each other. After a few drinks, we went dancing with some of the local girls, most of whom had not seen a foreigner before, let alone could speak any English which made communication with them limited to body language or one of my friends acting as a translator. Surprisingly fun all things considered.
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