Indonesia: Bali Day 3 (Part 1) - Lovina Dolphin Cruise

The night before, we stayed in the hotel and watched American Ninja Warrior. We were in bed by 10pm and this was why. We had to be up by 2am to catch the pickup van that took us up North to Lovina beach where a boatman greeted us in his odd looking boat.

 We gave up our sleep (actually we slept on the way to Lovina which resulted in the worst sleep of the trip) for a chance to see dolphins at sunrise. Marketed as a dolphin-watching sunrise cruise, we bought the deal over Groupon months in advance at about RM90 per person and it included transportation to and fro Lovina from any hotel in Kuta.

The van ride was horrible due to the poor road conditions heading across the island. We arrived at a random beach shore just before the sun came up and climbed on to the odd-looking boat. My immediate thought was, "Hm, not so much of a cruise...Maybe it would take us to the cruise ship."

Fat chance. We ended up cruising the coastline looking for dolphins and chasing imaginary dorsels for an hour. "It is a cloudy day. Dolphins are drawn to the heat from the sun. No sun, no dolphins." the boat man explained.

 Along with our boat, 20 more similar boats and yachts joined the 'hunt' and by luck, a pod of dolphins were spotted. With an alerting yell, all the boats started pursuing them only for the pod to swim away. It turned out the pod had a few calves with them hence why they were not comfortable with our presence.

I didn't like the chasing and the numerous boats surrounding the pod. It wasn't like Maldives or Perth where the wild dolphin were comfortable with humans and approached us willingly. Lovina was a disappointing experience and a waste of time and money.

The only upside of it was that we were back at our hotel by 11am and had ample time to explore the town once we were freshened up. After paying a pricy IDR60,000/ RM17 for a ten minutes taxi ride into Kuta, we headed to Flapjaks on a friend's recommendation (insistence).

Flapjaks review coming soon!

Also read about:
Bali Day 0 - Strings of Bad Luck
Bali Day 1 - Temple Tour, Ubud
Bali Day 2 (part 1) - Ubud by Foot 
Bali Day 2 (part 2) - Bali Mall Galleria, Kuta.
Bali Day 3 (part 1) - Lovina Dolphin Cruise