Amed, another gorgeous weekend in Bali...

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Imagine, we have been living in Bali since September/October...times fly isn't it!

Rainy season start here around November and is over normally in early April. This is very different for example with Bangkok, where the rainy season is going from early may till end of November. I've lived 20 years in Asia, so can admit that rainy season is more than an habit by now. The rainy season in Bali is actually pretty nice with most rain occurring during the night...while we are deep in bed!

Till, travelling around during the rainy season is not the best...so we waited April patiently. As you may imagine, this doesn't mean there is no travelling. I was in South Africa and Congo in March, plus Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok in early April!

Amed is 75kms from home....by road this translate to 102kms...and guess how long does it take! Yes, a whopping three hours! So we left Friday the South of the island just before 5pm...to reach our little hotel just on time for dinner! Here, you do go on weekend and long weekend just next door....because if even next door, the roads of the island are super crowded. Luck for us....our little home is in a relatively traffic free area!



Our little nest till sunday is Casa de Amed. A 6 bedrooms B&B right on the beach. Amed is a single stretch road some 3-4 kms long. There are dive centers after dive centers, it's actually pretty impressive. This is the only decent place you can dive on the Island of Bali...next diving is a boat ride to Nusa Penida or Lombok.



I did dive with Eurodive the USS Liberty and the corner wall of Tulamben on the Saturday morning. Easy pick-up just before 9am, we drove the 30 minutes north to reach Tulamben. Here, it's tons of divers...I was pretty shocked. The USS Liberty was a US Army cargo boat sunk by a Japanese submarine in 1942. If you want more info, I invite you to google the info....I don't do copy/paste with wikipedia...smile!



Due to the proximity from the beach...no current and a slow slope to around 35-40 meters, it is a perfect dive site to teach new comers to the diving world. So yes, the shallow part of the wreck was busy! Good for me, way less on the deeper side of the wreck. There is a lot of macro life around here...and we also spotted few turtles as well as a little blue spotted eagle ray.



It was a nice, warm and easy 60 minutes dive with the divemaster guide of Eurodive. I do recommend them. As there is no boat transfer involved, the diving is pretty cheap here too. Next dive was just few hundred meters further....Tulamben wall corner...it start with the black volcanic sand to reach an easy wall. No much current here either, so you enter and exit the dive at the same point. Here, nudis and many octopus....fun dive!



I was back to my lovely wife just on time for lunch. Lots of cheap restaurants around...most just a little walk or motorbike ride away. Saturday evening we had dinner with friends I haven't seen since Ko Lipe in Thailand some 12 years ago! Time fly!



Sunday we took it pretty relax. Swimming pool time and lazy morning. This was followed by an amazing lunch at Galanga. By 2pm our driver was ready to bring us home. Little stop to visit Titta Gangga. Yes, you can google it too....the place is a former Royal Palace. Few drops of rain where on their way while we reached the place. It comes at a perfect timing as the place was packed with tourists...so the rain helped us to pushed all those people to the exit to enjoy the place with far few less people! I know...



Last stop was at one of the big supermarket in Sanur to pick up some food for the coming week...and the weekend was already behind us. Monday morning my lovely wife was back to the office, and me on the golf course, playing Bali National with few friends.



We are trying to plan a single weekend/long weekend each month till the end of the year in order to visit Bali a little further...so more is coming soon....but next blog is South-West of here...on a plane in a few days!

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