With a bit of chaos happening at work with auditors and other things I decided to make a last minute, unplanned trip to Laos. It was quite relaxing having 1 week there before Andrew flew up by himself for 1 week.
After the work was concluded, we travelled down to Bali and spent the 1st night in the ‘quiet’ part of Kuta, near the airport. We had a quick explore but knew the location wasn’t us, too busy, too many people. Our actual destination for the next 6 days was Amed, in the north-east of Bali, a 3 hour drive from Bali airport. Amed isn’t a precise town, rather a collection of villages extending 12 kilometers along the coast.
At Amed the pace of life was very relaxed, as the area doesn’t receive the large number of tourists that frequent other areas. The Mt Agung volcano was a big marker in the sunset.
We stayed at 2 different hotels, probably less than 10km apart, as it was a late-ish booking and we couldn’t get enough days at one place. 1st was Seamount Hotel where every day we went to Warung Amsha for excellent lunches, Cafe Bobo for a beer and sunset views and Warung Osin for delicious curries … 2nd location was Coral View Villas Both places were excellent and right on the beach.
There was a steep drop-off once you entered the sea which was fantastic – no wandering out for long distances to get into deeper water – it was 2 steps and you were up to your neck. It also meant the boats just drove straight into the beach – no lifting motors and no hesitation.
At the other end of the boat scale were the fishing boats that went out at various times of the day with their large colorful sails
Life was breakfast, beach walk , snorkel, return to the hotel, lunch at a beach cafe, return to the villa for the heat of the day and then about 16:30 walk a couple of kilometers down to Bobo bar, with it’s prime location for watching the sun-set view. Then it was off to dinner and home and then repeat the process the next day.
One of the big selling points of Amed area was the snorkeling. In our 1st location there were some very nice spots, with lots of fish but they were a reasonable walk from the hotel. In the 2nd location the spots were right in front of the hotel but overall less variety
We swam every day except the last when it was very windy and the water was full of jellyfish. Until then had not seen a single jellyfish! Really liked the turtle that had a fish riding on his shell and then moved under the turtle as he ascended. When the turtle came back down again the fish moved from the underside to the the shell and continued his free-ride.
The 2 locations had different vibes and we enjoyed both, and would happily return. One had stony beaches and the other black sand – which was super hot when the sun got on it. One had lots of French tourists and the other lots of Aussie families
On the way back to Bali airport we stopped at a “water temple”, Tirta Gangga. It was a former royal palace which was fed by natural springs. A very nice setting to walk about and checking out the sculptures, fountains and massive sized fish