Surfing Spot

Surfing everyday, live music every night! We also mixed in a little culture and went to a Balinese Kecak dance show and even to the cinema to watch Aladdin in 3D. Maybe this wasn't such a cultural experience! 

Each day on the beach there are baby turtles released. Sometimes we see them swimming out into the ocean whilst surfing. They are super cute. 

Darryl took a few interesting wipe outs surfing and didn't even notice that he lost Christine's bandana off his head. He had just had his haircut and didn't want to burn his head. Sun protection short lived! 

There have been a few weddings on the beach and a few funerals too. The Balinese Hindus cremate the bodies on the sand in a purpose built 'metal box', a little like the holy city of Varanasi. They also fill the sea with offerings. We think most things they use are natural and biodegradable. 

We have left the surf behind and once again headed to Amed for snorkeling. We were unsure where to go and transport in Bali is priced quite high compared to everything else. We didn't want to go somewhere with mediocre snorkeling and spend all our money getting there. We liked Amed, so we are back here again. It is a little like what parts of Bali might have been like 20 years ago. We watched the locals in the fields next to our hotel harvesting rice. They beat the grains off on a wooden bench and next transported the main grass off somewhere on their bikes. We are not sure where it went from here but maybe to feed the pigs, before they are roasted on a spit at the beach! 

We have seen another wedding on the beach in Amed and a funeral too. 

We have seen some new underwater creatures in Amed and the star so far being a beautiful eagle ray. 

Start Early ...

The hostel provided toast for breakfast which we enjoyed with the soya milk we had purchased for our porridge. We caught the 7am express back to KLIA 2. The airport is the polar opposite to Bali, don't meditate here. It is huge, noisey and packed with people! It does have a lot of shopping though. KLIA 2 is the budget terminal for AirAsia. It is not even the main terminal. That's KLIA, just down the road also huge!

A pleasant flight took us back to Bali. On arrival we discovered that Mount Agung had errupted again on Friday night, not long after we left Bali. A few flights had to be cancelled due to the ash cloud but by Saturday morning when we flew back, all was back to normal. 

We walked to our homestay via our favourite eating spot. We then collected our main bags which they had kindly looked after, dropped them in our room and hit the surf!

After eating at Mr Smooth Hips (made up name for the rhythmic hip gyration of the owner whilst stir frying), we watched Discovery Shopping Centre's Got Talent - Kids. It sounds terrible, a local talent contest, but this was a big show. It had some great singers and dancers and we were impressed! The prizes they gave to the top 3 acts were very generous. The overall winner was a little girl who told a story in a magical way. If she wrote it, it was great. She certainly performed it well and drew us in with her expressive story telling!

Zzzzzz

Early Morning Surf

The low tide was early in the morning and this is the best time for surfing in Bali. The waves were great and not so crowded at 7am. 

Today was airport day. We had decided to renew our Indonesian visas by the fly in / fly out option. We had heard so many people having problems that we thought this was the quickest and easiest option. Our friends waited 3 weeks for their extension to come through and it was quite painful to get. It cost us about the same to fly to KL and re-enter and wasn't nearly as stressful.

Flying from the airport in Bali has to be one of the most relaxing airport experiences ever. We are staying close enough to walk, so no issues with parking or negotiation with taxi drivers. The airport has to be the calmest, most relaxed spot in the whole of Bali! Travel tip... If meditation is your thing choose Bali airport!

The flight to KL was 3 hours and on time. The scenery spectacular, islands, volcanoes and we got a good view of the huge new statue in Nusa Dua, Garuda Wisna. On arrival we purchased tickets for the KLIA express. A fast train to the centre. However, after 2 stops we got off and would stay near the airport at Salat Tinggi. It was dark by now but a 5 minute walk took us to The Bunk. This would be our home for the night.

The door was locked so we rang the bell. No one around just a coded door on the first floor and a note. The instructions explained  that if no one was around you should call the number below. If you didn't have a local SIM, there was a WiFi code to send a message. WiFi of course working now as we are in Malaysia. The message continued ... If you don't have a phone, tablet or laptop ... what's wrong with you! 

We made contact and were sent the entry code and directions to our room. A funky hostel and tonight we seem to be the only customers! We dropped our bags, removed the cute cat that had found his way in when we opened the door and went in search of dinner. We didn't have to look far as there were many restaurants. Our choice was to opt for Indian. A few roti and dosas later and our taste buds were thoroughly satisfied.

A short walk back to the hostel stopping in the small supermarket to get porridge for breakfast. The owner was back at the hostel. We chatted, played PlayDo with his young daughter and slept in comfort, rather than at the airport!

Indonesian Election Results

We couldn't get our WhatsApp messages to send. WiFi is always up and down so we thought nothing of it. We went out for dinner at our cute little cafe that also has WiFi. We connected but the WhatsApp messages we wrote earlier still wouldn"t send. 

A few restarts of the App and the phones but nothing resolved the issue. We checked the Internet was working and it was. Confused, we searched the Internet to see if the service was down ...

What came next was a bit of surprise. We found articles in Indonesian first. We didn't really understand much of them but we translated them to English.

”6 killed in deadly riots in Jakarta, 200 injured. Social Media blocked."

Due to the scale of the incident, the Government had turned all social media off to try and restrict / prevent further issues. No problem for us and we totally understand!

A few days later things have quietened down. We can't imagine the frustration this must have created with the Indonesian people. They are social media addicts and use it to communicate everything!

That evening we watched a Balinese stage show with dancers, demons and a very packed audience! It was a good show with incredible costumes.

We left Ubud the next morning on the Perama bus, deciding 2 nights there was probably enough for us. The bus did its usual stop off and pickups at a few places before stopping in Kuta. There was a funeral procession in the centre so we were dropped at the closest stop available, just a minute down the road.

The walk to our little homestay, Pondok Denayu, was hot. We took little alleyways to stay out of the heat the best we could until we reached 'food'! Nasi Campur for lunch filled us up. We then checked in in double quick time as the beach was calling.

In the evening, a live band was playing outside one of the shopping malls so we listened in. They were good and we thoroughly enjoyed the music.

Ubud, The Home of Relaxation ... Maybe

Our breakfast choice is easy, banana pancakes! They are the best so we order them everyday at the Amed Stop Inn.

When it was time to leave we had a 2km walk to the Perama bus stop. We thought Perama might collect us from the hotel, as they would drive straight past it, but apparently we had to meet at the bus stop. This was not an issue as it meant we could buy a packed lunch from our favourite nasi campur cafe. Plus an ice cream too for the journey to the bus stop.

We walked there a lot faster than we expected dragging our little trolley backpacks, though it was hot. We sat in the shade at the Amed Cafe and waited for the bus to arrive. Exactly on time our 'private taxi' arrived. There was no one else so we had the air conditioned mini bus to ourselves. We made a couple of stops en route to Ubud, ate our lunch, fell asleep and had a very relaxing journey.

As we arrived in Ubud, the quiet country lanes disappeared and the traffic mounted. Ubud was now a busy place! We jumped off the bus and walked to our hotel. It is called Kabera Bungalows 3. We think the 3 means, we are the 3rd set of rooms they own. It was quite a battle to get through the busy streets. There are a lot of tourists here. Probably more than at the beach in resorts in Kuta.

A friendly welcome at our accommodation before we headed in search of food. The centre of Ubud is a little expensive for our budget with lots of fancy restaurants, including Starbucks at UK prices. So, we walked out of town and found a very quaint little cafe that served excellent food at a fraction of the price.

Here we met a friendly girl from Italy who lived in Brighton. She asked for help as her phone battery was dead. She was searching for a hotel with a pool. She needed to use our phone to help. Her hotel already had a pool but it also had a constant stream of the traffic that kept her awake! We are lucky as our room is tucked away where their is not a motorbike in site!

After dinner we explored the streets of Ubud until dark. We were in search of Dolce Latte (a quite addictive sweet coffee drink) and we found it! We also stocked up on water for our day out tomorrow. The shops seemed to close early, before 9pm, so we headed in for the rest of the night.


Time is up in Amed

We have really enjoyed our time in Amed. It is a very easy place to spend a lot of time. The Amed Stop Inn was a great place to stay. It had some local restaurants nearby which were amazing and we ate great food there everday. Christine has become addicted to Gado Gado, a peanut based dish. She even had a short lesson on how to make it from the really friendly shop owner. Just across the road from here a restaurant served delicious Nasi Campur (a total mix of whatever they have availiable). It was very busy with the resident freediving crowd.

There are a lot of freedivers here in Amed. Many people are taking courses and it seems like the sport has a huge following here. There are also loads of dive shops running courses, trips to 'The Jemeluk Wall' and the artificial reef named Pyramids.

We have snorkeled a lot and have tried most places along the 10km Amed coastline. Top spots include, Lipah beach, Jemeluk and the Japanese shipwreck.

We walked to the opposite end of town to visit the Japanese shipwreck. It was quite far but a great day out. We walked about 20km that day, snorkeled lots of diverse beaches and attended a local Christening celebration on the way. Once again the locals invited us in and shared everything they had with us; delicious BBQ skewers, coconut wine and ice cream!

Evenings were pretty quiet here in Amed and there was also no 'cock a doodle doo...s' to wake us up at 4am.

We did attend a couple of live reggae bands on the beach, playing a mix of Bob Marley and UB40. One was on the full moon .... a full moon party! Not quite the same as the one in Koh Pha Ngan, Thailand!

There was a relaxed atmosphere in Amed and a very chilled out vibe. We liked it, a lot and it is a shame to leave tomorrow but, maybe we'll be back ...

We walked

Today we decided to walk to Jumalek but first we needed to fuel up. The hotel provides breakfast before 10am as part of the room price. Banana pancakes with honey or an omelette. In the description when we booked there is also a mention of unlimited coffee! We did ask for a second cup but it appears the unlimited part doesn't really exist! Only one cup of coffee allowed ...

We walked the 2km to yesterday's snorkelling spot which is also a dive site known as Pyramids. This is due to the pyramid shaped artificial structures to attract the coral. We took a quick look but they were quite deep and didn't seem like they were worrh exploring further. We snorkelled on the nearby reef and followed it as it approached the bend into Jumalek. The visibility deteriorated so we climbed out, also there was quite a lot of local boat traffic.

We walked to the edge of Jumalek beach and climbed back in to continue our snorkelling adventure. The left hand side of the bay had good coral and the whole bay shelved deeply into the centre. There were a lot of boats moored in the bay and a lot of divers. We spotted a couple of cute turtles and enjoyed snorkeling here, especially on the right side of the bay which was even better than the left! There was a small temple in the water too and we will be back to explore this area further another day.

As we dried off on the beach we watched a sailing boat appear in the distance. It looked like it had a huge colourful spinnaker flying out in front. It was far off in the distance at this time so hard to see exactly what it was. However, as it eventually got closer it was a local boat with a colourful sail made from plastic sheets. The sail had plenty of holes but certainly pulled the boat along very fast. It parked up on the beach and out jumped the local captain and 2 tourists. They had been taken out for a sail in the bay and had beaming smiles stretching from ear to ear. We asked them if they had enjoyed their sailing and they explained that they had followed by ...

...we live on our our own boat in the Bahamas. They showed us a picture of a beautiful catamaran anchored up amongst 'tropical paradise'! We immediately showed an interest in the sailing and their boat whereby they handed over a business card with all their details. They kindly shared some of their experiences of their sailing home before they left for their booked Balinese massage!

We ate at our local haunts once again. The food is good, cheap and they seemed to be the busiest places and also where the locals go, always a good sig. We are becoming addicted to finishing our meals with either a delicious chocolate coated ice cream or a small coffee drink called , Dolce Latte!

Amed

Our first job of our final day in Tulamben was to refill our water bottles. The hotel has a water filter that apparently uses water from a mountain spring. Whilst we filled the first bottle the owner came to check we were ok and asked whether we had heard it ...

We didn't understand what she meant, so asked her to explain. 

Mt Agung erupted last night! Apparently there was a huge bang and fire shooting from the top. The owner showed us photos of the eruption on her phone. The staff at the resort were cleaning up fine ash that lay scattered everywhere. Worryingly, we didn't hear or see a thing!  Mount Agung is about 10km away from Tulamben but it most certainly doesn't look like it, the volcano looks really close!

News article from Coconut Bali,

"Bali’s Mount Agung erupted again yesterday evening, and though officials reiterated the need for maintaining an exclusion zone of 4km in radius from the volcano’s crater, they also said there’s no need for anybody to evacuate just yet." ... Yikes!

After a delicious breakfast of chocolate cereal and Pandan UHT milk eaten in our plastic tubs with our plastic spoons, we said goodbye to our dive resort Seahua haha. These 2 items have come in so handy on our trip for eating, storing things and keeping the ants away from our biscuits! Earlier that morning we had already waved off our English companions. Now it was our turn to leave.

We walked to the bus stop with a friendly backpacker from Malaysia. He had just finished university and was taking a freediving course in Tulamben. He was heading out of town for a few days of rest before he completed the course. The bus driver arrived in good time and had his breakfast as we waited at the Perama bus stop. When we finally left, we were joined by a freediver from Belgium who had been working on various commercial fishing boats in Australia and New Zealand for the last few years. He was now off to complete his PADI scuba instructor course on the Gili Islands. 

The bus dropped us right outside our accommodation, The Amed Stop Inn, which was great as it is a 2km hike to the official Perama bus stop. The room we had booked hadn't been vacated yet but we opted to take another as we thought it might be in the shade most of the day and stay nice and cool. The scenery surrounding the area was magnificent. Rice fields one side, hills the another and Mt Agung peering down on the lot! We are going to be staying in Amed for a while so our first job was to find a huge bottle of of drinking water. A short walk and we arrived at a local shop where we negotiated hiring a refillable bottle. Deal done with a small deposit left, we carried the 20kg water bottle back to our room. Water is not the lightest thing to carry and the refillable bottles an awkward shape too!

Lunch was quick and cheap. Next to where we are staying a lady makes gado gado, a peanut based sauce with rice and vegetables. We watched carefully as she made it from scratch. She crushed the peanuts with her 'volcanic rock' pestle and mortar, added many ingredients: coconut, an unusual block of fish paste, several more and chilli! We opted for a little spicy so in went a small chilli. Vegetables and sticky rice added and all was complete. It was so delicious. We had shared it so stopped again just over the road for another meal. This time rice, vegetables and tempe. It was nice to have so many vegetables because there wasn't a huge amount of places to eat in Tulamben. Well that is not strictly true. There were plenty of expensive, empty places to eat catering for 'package holiday' divers!

We collected our snorkelling equipment and headed to Amed beach, a 5 minute walk away. We didn't know the exact place for the best snorkelling so planned to search for it. We swam about 2km across a black volcanic sand bottom searching the 'muck' for signs of life. We did see a lot of sand, some concrete fish and coral attracting sites plus a few interesting creatures; sea snakes, cuttlefish, a huge moray eel, schooling banner fish and an unusual longhorn cowfish. Right at the end of our snorkelling trip a reef appeared where we spotted a turtle and lots of other fish.  We couldn't stay long as we were now cold after a long swim, so we will be exploring the reef more tomorrow.

A quick change out of our now dry snorkelling attire, following our hot walk back to base and it was back to the beach for sunset. Unfortunately the beach doesn't quite face to the west so we didn't see the perfect sunset from our particular beach. We continued on the road to a busier part of Amed. There was more places to eat than we expected. We treated ourselves to Bakso before watching a fantastic freediving video with dolphins. It was now pitch black so we turned around and headed back to our accommodation.

Before Sunrise

An irritating beeping began at 5.30am. The alarm woke us up rather earlier than we were used to. We had a meeting with the USAT Liberty! But, why so early?

In the darkness we made our way to the beach. We crossed the main road carefully keeping a careful lookout for vehicles without lights. At the beach we waited to enter the water as it was a little too dark. We watched the beautiful sunrise shed it's light on the world about 6am and this is just what we needed.

Off came the flip flops, on went the mask. Snorkels in and we entered the water. The wreck lies only about 50m from the beach so we didn't have far to swim in the early morning light. There was little current and good visibility which was just what we needed. We found the wreck, hovered above it and peered down into the depths. Small lights appeared in the distance as the first divers swam underwater to the wreck. This was just perfect as now we could see exactly what they were looking at in the narrow beams of their torches.

We followed them for a very short time before they spotted something. The divers moved in for a closer look and so did we. As we grew closer the beams of light illuminated the school of bumphead parrot fish being cleaned at a cleaning station. This is exactly why we were here! The large fish visit the shallow part of the Liberty during the night. They stay until first light before disappearing deep into the abyss. One fish was bigger than the rest of the group, so let's refer to him as the daddy. We watched as the daddy received special cleaning treatment from the cleaner fish. The other bumpheads congregated just to the side of the wreck. More divers appeared, cameras clicking to acquire that perfect Instagram photo. After the crowds arrived we left the area and let these amazing fish head off to the deep.

Other spots we went snorkeling were the Coral Garden. There were sunken statues here but not really any coral. It was quite deep too. The Drop Off had a deep wall and some shallow areas where there was a little more coral. There was definitely more fish and a resident school of yellow striped scad. The Liberty was the best by far!

Surfing to Snorkeling

We have been spending our days wisely in Bali enjoying the waves everyday!

We have had a few interesting moments:

1. Two days later, we returned to the restaurant where we enjoyed the birthday party for the French business man. To our surprise the restaurant was gone! So was the shop next door and the hairdresser. In fact the whole road was deserted. All of the shops had been left abandoned. We tried to find an answer as to what had happened but all we have come up with is that the land owner has asked them to vacate. Interestingly, the area backs on to the demolished area which we walked through on our first night. We are only guessing but next time you're in Kuta there will be even more hotels!

2. Another local birthday party invite! We were walking to our favourite local restaurant for dinner when we were invited to join a lady for her 43rd birthday party. We were very kindly given a meal and drinks and didn't even have to sing on the karaoke, phew!

3. We were returning from surfing and took the direct route back to the hotel through the shopping centre. We were studying an unusual fruit when a lady from the Philippines purchased some for her family. She asked if we would like to try them and we shared one of the fruit. A conversation had begun. We talked to the lady and her husband for a long time about the Philippines and about their next stop, Australia. Lovely people that recently experienced a very sad time. They explained that two of their friends were killed in the latest terror attack in Sri Lanka!

We had a 2km walk in the morning to the Perama office where we caught a bus to Tulamben. There is very little public transport in Bali so getting around is relatively expensive compared to the rest of the country. At the office we relaxed and enjoyed free coffee before chatting to an English couple also on a long trip from Cornwall.

The bus dropped off in various places before dropping us in Tulamben. We are here for wreck diving on the USAT Liberty that lies just off the beach. We checked in to the room we had booked and for the first time on our trip the hotel had no record of our booking. We were a little suspicious but they upgraded us for free and gave us a rather luxurious room that was twice the price!

We dropped our bags and headed straight to the water. We went out to the wreck but we weren't the only ones. It was crowded with divers and snorkellers. The coral and fish around the wreck were pretty and we saw a good variety. Later in the afternoon we took a short walk to a quiet spot with a great view of Mount Ajung, the recently erupting volcano! We are outside the exclusion zone that was in force but we don't seem all that far away.

We will now settle back into our eating, snorkelling routine for the next few days! Plus, there is another British couple staying at our dive resort who love traveling too, so we will have plenty to talk about.