You know that feeling you get when you arrive somewhere and it just feels ‘right’? Despite a stressful day of travel, maybe you’re a little hungry, been in the car too long, yet you can feel all that slough off when you get into your accommodation, soak in the view, feed off the great vibe of the staff, and, even before you crack that first beer, the first thought you have is ‘we should have stayed here longer’. That’s the feeling I had arriving at my new favorite place in Bali (for the second time).

Heather and I were finally undertaking the Bali road trip we had been considering since back in January. Yes, we took a mini-trip with our friend Rene back then. But we only traveled from Ubud, in the island’s center, to Sidemen (‘Ubud twenty years ago!’ someone had said), Candidasa and Sanur over four days. It was nice. But we didn’t have time for some other spots we had hoped to see. So, this time we allotted seven days and planned on a big counter-clockwise loop around the northern part of Bali. We picked up our car in Sanur and headed north along the coast. The beach town of Amed was our first destination. Located on Bali’s northeast corner, Amed is known for diving, black sand beaches and jaw-dropping views of Mt. Agung, the island’s highest peak and an active volcano. An American friend had recently visited and exclaimed Amed to be “Hawaii twenty years ago!” (Can we stop doing that?). Despite the absence of surfers, girls in hula skirts, huli-huli chicken and a plethora of time-share condos I could kind of see his point. It had a chill vibe. The colorful fishing boats lining the black sand beaches were pretty. The views of Mt. Agung, at least in the morning, were spectacular. Heather had booked two nights in an amazing room – beachfront, huge and spacious, a massive terrace with a daybed and a breakfast buffet (included in the $25 rate) that ranks as one of the best I’ve ever seen. I had just picked up a new crime novel, we had stocked up on snacks and beverages to fill the in-room fridge and we had just enough trip planning left to do to keep us busy for a couple days. After fifteen minutes of lounging on the day bed, listening to the surf crash on the beach and feeling the perfect tropical breeze we walked back to the reception desk and booked two more nights. But Amed was not to be my new happy place. Don’t get me wrong. We loved our time there. We read. We snacked. We planned. We napped. But the best was yet to come.

Tearing ourselves away from Amed we took the car along the north coast for the two hour drive to sleepy little Lovina. We had come up here on our original visit back in 1998. Sleepy was being kind. Had Rip Van Winkle been here he probably would have slept for forty years! Obviously nothing stays the same over two decades. We didn’t expect the Lovina we remembered. It was, like many towns in SE Asia, hanging by a thread. High season (July to September – the dry season) brings hordes of visitors. Guesthouses sprout like mushrooms after a rain storm. Shops open, peddling the same tank-tops, sarongs and knick-knacks that everyone else is selling. Warungs (family-run restaurants) crowd into every spare space, banking on the success of their neighbors. But the rest of the year they’re empty. Struggling to stay afloat. Empty shops attest to the danger of overbuilding and fierce competition. The waters become fouled with trash and other plastic pollution. Snorkeling sites degrade. The fish disappear. The tourists find the next big thing and start to move on. Lovina wasn’t our happy place.

            NOTE: Lovina was so uninspiring, Heather didn’t take a single photo!

The next day we put ourselves at the mercy of Google maps and took the most direct route to Munduk, located high in the mountains of central Bali. The route is only ‘direct’ if you’ve pulled the map back far enough to encompass the whole island. As we found, leaving the northern highway and turning inland, the road twisted, turned and was either climbing or dropping (sometimes precipitously) for the hour trip. But it afforded a great view of rural Bali – rainforest, rice terraces, small farming villages and the misty peaks that cradled a series of three lakes surrounding Munduk. Our first impressions when we checked in to our room reminded us of being on the edge of the Kathmandu Valley – lush green valleys holding small villages, rice and rainforest. The peaks were still green instead of being snow-covered, but were majestic even so. We dined at an ‘eco-cafe’ and had a wonderful meal. The cafe supports local farmers and only serves cage-free Luwak coffee. What the heck is that? Turns out one of the fads coffee-crazed people are clamoring for is a cup of java made from coffee beans that have first been eaten by a civet cat (a relative of the mongoose), then pooped out, collected and roasted. Who the hell was the first person to try Luwak coffee? Anyway, we felt good about ourselves by eating locally-sourced food and opting for tea rather than coffee with our meal. The next day dawned bright and sunny and we were excited to see Munduk’s other attraction – waterfalls. The valley has several gorgeous waterfalls but a nice easy hiking trail links three of the most popular. We dropped down from the main road into the rainforest and after a ten minute hike came upon Red Coral Waterfall. Given that Bali had been receiving ample amounts of rain over the past couple weeks the falls were full and glorious. The water cascaded over a ledge to drop fifty or so feet into a small pool. Lush foliage lined the cliff walls on either side. It was beautiful (almost reminded us of Hawaii . . .  twenty years ago). We continued another few minutes down the trail to the next set of falls and they also didn’t disappoint. As the day was starting to heat up and we were already bathed in sweat, we opted to turn around and return to the car to start the drive to Sidemen, which lay three hours away.

After crawling through traffic surrounding Ubud we arrived in the Sidemen valley. Having already spent two nights here earlier this year, we chose a guesthouse which was a little more remote then our first place, which suffered from quite a bit of road noise, being located right along the main road. As soon as we arrived at our guesthouse, slurped down the welcome drink of fresh fruit juices and caught sight of the surrounding rice terraces, glimmering pool steps from our door and the beautiful room featuring colorful tiles, local artwork and rustic wooden furniture, we were hooked. The shoulders, hunched from the stress of driving through the horrendous Ubud traffic, relaxed. A dip in the pool washed away the sweat from our earlier hike. There was no road noise. No buzzing motorbikes. Only green. Birds. The sound of a babbling brook running below the property. Views back to Mt. Agung. We immediately thought ‘we should have stayed longer’. We had found our happy place.