Getting My Sarong On: Dolphin Watching in Lovina

In light of my last post, I would like to say that I went to the doctor today and he gave me some xanax. Which has been nothing short of wonderful. Actually, I was worried to go to the doctor here because everyone's always going on about the "level of healthcare", yadda yadda yadda. The doctor was almost exactly the same as my doctor back home. He did a physical test and then confessed to me that even he suffers from hypochondria. Apparently, when he is alone with his thoughts, he is obsessed that something is wrong with his heart and compulsively checks his pulse. It's kinda funny that I had to come all the way across the world, to a third world country, to find a doctor who understands me. Interesting!

Anyway, this morning (after spending a *free* night at a guesthouse because we used their transport since arriving in Bali) at 6 AM, we stumbled out of our little room to go to the beach and meet a man who said he would take us dolphin watching for a few hours. When we arrived we met our sole boatmate, a Swiss girl named Sandra, which also happened to be the name of our boat. Again, interesting, no?

The guy took us out in Lovina Bay and immediately we could see that we were not the only tourists up early to catch a glimpse of the little rascals. There must have been twenty dolphin watching boats in the harbour, so our guy told us to wait patiently and we would soon have the place to ourselves. We watched with interest as he led a long string with a bell attached to the end of it into the water. I thought maybe it was a way to call the dolphins... yes, I'm lame. Actually, it was a fishing line, and it had about 30 or 40 hooks attached to it. We cruised around in the boat for maybe five minutes, and he stopped and excitedly pulled his line in, one hook at a time. He got a pretty good catch- all herring!

When more of the boats cleared out and headed for home, he took us out a little further into the harbour. Not five minutes later we saw the first of the dolphins! They were all jumping and doing crazy flips and having a great time! I would have been pleased with this alone, but by the end of the hour our boat was literally surrounded by an enormous amount of dolphins. It was a beautiful morning!

After dolphin watching, things got a little strange. He took us to a beautiful place in the water where it was clear all the way down to the bottom with hundreds of beautiful, colourful fish and said we could snorkel if we wanted. Pat and I didn't know that snorkeling was included in the deal, but Sandra seemed to be in the know, and she was a little confused that we didn't know anything about it. Oh well, if he is offering snorkeling, no problem. It was a beautiful spot so we jumped in the water (it was sooo warm) and even fed the fish little pieces of bread. They were totally unafraid of us and the entire time they would brush past my arm or leg and freak me out a bit.

After the snorkeling, he took us home and told us we owed him 10 bucks for snorkeling. Um... I don't think so! We got angry at him and told him he tricked us. Which he did. By the end of the day, he was still trying to get us back in his boat. We ignored him. Way to ruin a perfect morning, buddy.