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Published: June 25th 2017
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Amed is located on the more remote east coast of Bali and is relatively new to tourism. It is renowned for its diving sites - particularly the Liberty wreck dive site to the U.S. cargo transport ship that was torpedoed by the Japanese during the Second World War - as well as for its prolific colourful fishing boats; and its black sand beaches.
As were only able to spend a couple of days in Amed, we decided to dedicate one day to touring the coastline, and the other to diving. The roads, although narrow, were newly paved and not very busy, so we enjoyed a few hours of beautiful biking through rice fields and alongside those coal black sand beaches, which provided stunning backdrops for the vast collections of colourful fishing boats. These boats are tiny, only large enough to fit one or two fishermen, but each is equipped with wide sidearms (this is definitely not the correct term) that look like the boat has sprouted two giant spider legs. Other than tourism and salt making, fishing is the primary income of the coastal communities, so the boats that lined the shores were many indeed.
On our second day,
we completed two dives. At the Liberty wreck dive it was extremely interesting to witness up close the immensity of a ship skeleton that has now become a part of the marine landscape, so overtaken by coral growth that it was at times easy to forget you were swimming beside or through parts of a ship, and not just natural caves. It was right about then that our diving guide pointed out the wheel to the ships stern!
Our second dive was to Coral Garden, and although it was not as gigantic and mesmerizing, it was probably our favorite dive of the two, because it contained a number of Buddhist statues that were pretty cool, and we saw some spectacular marine life that we had not seen before, as well as a rather large pregnant shark. It was a little underwater temple garden, which I think would have been a more appropriate name for the site, except that people would then be expecting an authentic ancient buried temple, which it was not. Apparently the structures had been donated and placed there by one of the hotels, some time ago. Nonetheless, it made for a beautiful dive and we really
The Life of a Fisherman
Our hotel room overlooked a beach where we were able to watch the fishermen bringing their boats in, or leaving. We heard them going out before dawn, and watched them out at sea. Those boats are tiny. One person. One boat. Big ocean. A lifestyle I cannot even imagine, especially after listening to the pounding waves all night and seeing some massive waves. regretted not having an underwater camera to take photos of the sleeping Buddha teeming with marine life. But that makes for a great reason to return next year with a new Go Pro and repeat this dive. It also provided some insight into how cool it would be to dive an authentic underwater temple site, so that will be on the horizon for future dives as well.
With every dive we get a little more comfortable in the water, becoming progressively more independant and able to manage buoyancy by breathing, so although every dive has been good, each one feels just a little better than the last. And so we look forward to continuing the growth curve soon on Nusa Lembongen, off the southeast tip of Bali, but first we have a little weekend detour to take to Darwin, Australia.
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Hannah
non-member comment
Hello! Its clear to see you put alot of time into this post and the amount of effort really paid off! Its amazing everything that an underwater camera housing can make possible<\a>. I really liked your introduction. Thanks so
much