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Published: July 10th 2011
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The minibus picked me up at 10am and after picking up a few more passengers we made our way across the north of Bali to the far east and the area collectively known as Amed. Amed is the first of about half a dozen villages and bays which have quite a few hotels and guesthouses scattered along the road. I decided to stay at Jemeluk which has good snorkelling and some of the cheaper hotels. It didn't take long before I got a nice big beachfront room including fridge and breakfast for $9 a night. After having a late lunch I walked down the road a couple of kms before returning along the beach. The beaches are either black sand or dark stones which can get a little uncomfortable to walk on, but it is a beautiful setting of fishing boats with Gunung Agung, Bali's largest mountain looming in the background. I also noticed a lot of chickens freely roaming around the boats and also some pig pens. I chatted with a local while watching the sun go down and then had a rest in my room before having a nice meal of mixed meat sate and a banana pancake for
dinner.
Next morning I hired a motorbike and snorkelling gear and invited a frenchman, Christian to come with me to a couple of snorkelling sites. We drove to the last of the tourist villages, ironically called Aas, to have a snorkel around an old Japanese fishing boat. The wreck was only about 20 metres from shore and was quite interesting but the current and waves were quite strong which made visibility a little poor. We then drove back towards Jemeluk and stopped somewhere around the village of Bunutan for very good snorkelling with great visibility, plenty of colourful fish, and some nice coral. After having lunch I took off on the bike alone to do a loop around the east coast and return via Amlapura and Tirta Gangga. Initially I passed many beautiful bays and fishing villages before the road went slightly inland for a while before returning to the coast. On the way while I was taking photos of a bay, a group of young girls asked me take their photo, and then again, and then more, before I finally had to say no more. After Ujung the road goes through Amlapura and then past some stunning rice
terraces before I turned off to Amed and headed back to Jemeluk. There was still a little bit of light left so I grabbed my snorkel and mask and went to the east end of Jemeluk. The snorkelling was pretty good in the limited light and there were some nice patches of coral.
On sunday I headed off on the motorbike again to take photos of the rice terraces around Tirta Gangga. Unfortunately the day was quite overcast and I even had a little rain, but every now and then the sun shone through. While in the area I visited the Water Palace which was okay but nothing special, otherwise I just rode through small villages all day and thoroughly enjoyed the scenery.
I admit the Amed area is not for everyone with its stone beaches and isolation, but if you are looking to get off the beaten track, relax, and do a bit of snorkelling, it is not a bad place to come to. I found out there is a fast speedboat to the Gili Islands from here, so I bought a ticket and tomorrow morning I make the crossing.
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