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Published: January 17th 2014
I sang as I scrubbed the dishes today, the fact that I can cook or do laundry whenever I want has made me happier than it should any sane person. I have great admiration for backpackers that can live out of one small bag, moving from hostel to hostel and eating only street food, but I am not that person and neither is Matt. We may have been when we were younger but the benefit of traveling when you are -ahem- a little older is that you know yourself better and you stop wanting to be something you're not. After six weeks rinsing out underwear in hostel sinks, we knew it was time to call it.
The little house we've rented in Amed - around 50 - 60 sq meters - is more than we'd hoped for with three inside rooms (kitchen, living/dining room, bedroom) an outdoor bathroom, and a roomy verandah overlooking the small garden ringed by a stone wall, and beyond that, the beach. It is built in a traditional Balinese style with handmade furniture in every room. There is no internet, no phone, no radio and no TV, just lots of books. The sound of
the surf is so loud it has become the rhythm by which we structure our days. The sea here moves from a glass like stillness to pounding, dumping waves. When it changes at night we are aware of it, even in sleep. It is the monsoon season but we've only had one bout of rain so far, and it didn't last long. We have seen our share of clouds though, they roll in and gather around the volcano that is a looming presence in the landscape, but they do nothing to dispel the heat.
There is a great freediving bay about a 15 minute walk away, but so far we have been more than happy to just dive off the beach in front of us. Someone has installed several man-made reefs in depths ranging from 7 - 10 meters and while we try to get ourselves back into diving shape they are enough. They have attracted an amazing amount of sea life - lion fish, urchins, coral, puffer fish, very large scorpion fish, lobsters, shrimp, little angel and butterfly fish. There are flats of hundreds of garden eels at the drop off and we've seen sting rays on every
dive.
Dive operations line the little street that runs through the village, and there is even a freediving school, but we've kept to our little beach. We needed some decompression time. What we learned in our first introduction to Asia is that people here like to do things together. They like to know where you're from, how long you're staying, what you do, how long you've been married, if you have kids and in our case, why not? I've had quite a few people look at me sadly and ask me why I don't like children (which I do, for the record).
If you're walking down the street, people fall in beside you and chat. And though we loved living with Kantha and his family, every time we went shopping they would want to look in our bags to see what we had bought and then comment on where we could have gotten it cheaper or ask why the heck we'd want to buy
that. It was lovely and inclusive and made us feel cared for but after almost two months of it, we needed some alone time.
So this past week has revolved around the two
wood loungers on the verandah. We read, we eat fruit, we freedive, and we nap. When the heat gets to be too much we get up and walk into the water for a quick dip. When we want to be around people we go somewhere to eat: soto ayam, satay, grilled mahi mahi, wahoo or barracuda, nasi goreng, gado gado etc. Whatever they do to rice and chicken or duck or fish or tofu everyone should do. Seriously. The food here is incredible.
Matt switched from his nightly Lion to a nightly Bintang without blinking an eye. He says they're both crap beer but refreshing in the heat. When the sun goes down the bats come out to play. They skim the surf line and fly drunkenly around the pillars of the verandah chasing insects that are dazed by the candles we've lit.
We know this won't last long. We'll get bored and want to get going. But for now, it's just right.
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Dawn
non-member comment
Ahhhhh.......
I just took a very deep cleansing breath. Enough said.