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Saturday 27 February 2010 Amed, Bali, Indonesia
Without a doubt, the corals of Amed, on the east coast of Bali, were the best we experienced in Indonesia. All we had to do was don our snorkel gear and push off from the beach in front of our hotel. Spread below us were schools of tropical fish swimming between the corals. It suited us to a tee. We stayed for six days doing no more than identifying new species (for us) every day and snorkeling our hearts out.
Neither of us had ever heard of Amed until several fellow travellers recommended the small beach village. That section of the east coast has been increasing in popularity over the past few years. We arranged for a comfortable SUV ride from Kuta the morning after returning from our Visa Run. Our driver, another Wayan, brought along his nephew, also Wayan, for the ride. We spent a pleasant three hours talking to the two men and enjoying the scenery. Once out of the built up south of Bali we were into terraced rice fields with volcanic mountains as backdrop.
The young Wayan was on vacation from his job as a waiter on a cruise ship. He works six or seven months at sea and then gets time off to return to his home. He told us he relies on tips for his livelihood. His basic wage is only $70 per month and averages $1 per person per day in tips. If any of you are planning a cruise in the near future, please be kind to the staff, they deserve it.
Amed is the name given to a long stretch of the eastern coast but it is really a series of small fishing villages. We stayed in Jemeluk, a protected bay lined with small clusters of tourist bungalows and interspersed with fishermen's huts. Our hotel, Galang Kangin had a new building on the beach with three AC rooms downstairs and three fan rooms upstairs. We were upstairs with a nice balcony overlooking the sea. The only road along the coast ran right behind the hotel so most of the hotels had expanded into bungalows on the opposite side of the road. The beach was not soft sand. It was black volcanic pebbles. I took to wearing my sandals down to the water's edge and leaving them beside one of the fishing boats pulled up on the shore. The boats in front of our hotel seldom left their moorings. Instead, a line of freshly laundered sheets and towels decorated the outriggers of the boats every day.
Our hotel also had a Mama Dive Shop, run by a local woman. There are lots of areas close by to explore the deep. Several of the other guests went out diving with her and came back raving. I was tempted but we both stuck to snorkeling.
The weather was hot, too hot for contemplating a hike to the top of the hills directly behind the beach strip. We were reduced to small walks to try out the various restaurants and sitting on the lounge chairs on the beach reading our novels in between swims. Life was tough.
