Amed, Bali

Oh dear...whatever plans we'd made on Gili Trawangan for our next stop were soon quashed by a mean Balinese lady at the hotel we'd previously raved about in an earlier blog. We thought we'd quickly call into the nice hotel on Bali to change a few things over in our bags that we'd left in their storage and then rent a motorbike from them again to go up and visit Amed. This was not to be the case.

We had our bike helmets on and the motorbike keys in our hand ready to go and travel north to Amed on Bali, when a message was sent from an old lady that worked at the hotel to say that we couldn't... "Why?!". She wouldn't engage in conversion with us and let the poor receptionist do her dirty work. I think it was because we wanted to drive outside of Kuta, which lots of people do, and she wanted the bike to stay near the hotel. Of course its her decision who rents her bike, but it left us stranded near the airport with no mode of transport to get to a rental place in Kuta centre. To cut a long story short we walked for hours searching for a rental place nearby, went to the airport to ask around car rental places there, argued some more with the hotel, argued with each other about what to do next...until finally we were in very bad moods and resorted to staying in the hotel for the evening and getting an early start the next day to find a place to rent a scooter from. Not being in the best mood, the only thing to cheer me up was a nice hot bath (the hotel did have some redeeming features).

Luckily we found a scooter the next day and headed straight to Amed. Unfortunately we'd lost a day the day before so only had two nights there. We were debating whether it was worth all the effort, when blow me... we got pulled over by a policeman and fined £25 for not having an international drivers licence. £25 might not seem much to you, but in Bali that's a significant amount of money when your bike rental is only £4 a day...we weren't having much luck with this flippin' bike! We had no idea that you needed an international drivers licence, everywhere else in Asia is so lax. Oh well, surely things can only get better...

Amed was really sleepy when we were there. Plenty of options for accommodation and our pick of restaurants. We had a nice little room near the beach that provided us with our breakfast on our private balcony every morning.

We spent our first afternoon on the beach and snorkeled around the bay. It's rocky so the water is really clear and there are plenty of tropical fish to look at, there was even an underwater shrine. There was a bit of a downpour so we retreated to a restaurant and got a massage on the beach from two local women. Although I felt really relaxed, it wasn't the best massage we'd had; I think the ladies were too busy having a good natter to each other rather than focusing on us. What I didn't like was the unexpected combing and plaiting of my hair at the end of the massage... if there's one thing I hate more than rodents it's the prospect of having nits (I'd seen many a local combing their whole families' hair on their doorsteps)... No nits found so far!

We really chose to go to Amed as it had a famous dive spot, the US cargo ship Liberty wreck. It was a boat in WW2 that was damaged by the Japanese. Luckily there were no fatalities but the ship had to be beached on the shore in Amed. It remained there until the Gunung Augung erupted and caused a big earthquake that moved the ship into the sea. Lucky for us divers, the ash that covered the boat became an ideal habitat for coral to establish and is now covered in beautiful sea life. The dive was fabulous; cruising along the length of the ship, steering through open passages, drifting past amazing tropical sea life and even fighting against the current in other places.

Probably one of the best dives we've ever done. There was quite an amusing point at the end of the dive when Jason thought he'd lost me (amusing for me, but panic for J); I'd floated above Jason and our dive master in the shallow water when they were looking at a barracuda fish and they looked left to right to try and find me, but didn't look above them...well, they went dashing off into the blue and I was frantically tapping my tank to get their attention. Yes, they did turn around eventually and see where I was... Oops, I'd better stay nearer next time!

For the two nights we were there we ate at the same restaurant. The Balinese food was delicious. My favourite dish was chicken and pineapple chili curry and J loved the homemade banana ice cream. The lady that owned it was so lovely, she even gave a young couple a load of fresh herbs and spices to make some traditional recipes with. It was the busiest restaurant in Amed by far and you could taste why.

It was time to leave Amed and time to leave Bali, in fact it was time to leave South East Asia...it had been a blast! There was just time for one last amazing food stop on the way back to the airport.

We've fallen in love with Indonesia and will hopefully be back to fill in those missing gaps that we didn't have time for on this visit. But for now, it's off to New Zealand to see my parents!