Tuesday 16th August
I left the hotel in Lovina at 8:30am, heading for Amed in East Bali. First I got a bemo (local minibus) 5kms to Singaraja city, then across town in another bemo from one terminal to, well, another bemo at the roadside. The driver was taking his family as well as passengers to Amed. His wife and daugther were friendly and I chatted to another local lady as we went along. The road was broken in places, but mostly ok. The bemo takes a little longer than the tourist shuttle bus because it stops to take on passengers, but it is much cheaper and you get to hang out with the locals. For a while the bus was jam-packed with ladies and their large baskets of fish, veg and tofu, I couldn't see my bag under all of it, but actually it was being supervised in the front seat.
They dropped me off in Amed which was fine. Unfortunately the driver had decided to tell the tourist that the price was now 70,000 rupiah rather than the 30,000 we had agreed before I got on the bus. I kept my sense of humour and gave him 40,000 since that was kind of what I had originally expected. It was just a bit disappointing after thinking that I had had a nice time with his wife and daughter and then the guy tries to blatantly rip me off. So there were no happy farewells to the wife and family, I just walked off without saying thanks or bye. Very mature of me!
When this happens I find it harder to trust and be patient with the next local person I negotiate with and I was not going to just accept the first room I was offered, and there were plenty of offers. But a German guy pointed me towards a warung (small family restaurant) where a lady had a room available in her house and after having a look, I accepted. It is a small brick room round the back of the family home, past the chickens and the small shrine wearing a checked sarong. She said her son sleeps here when they don't have guests so I feel bad about her son being ousted but I am glad that my cash is going directly to a local family rather than some resort. There are plenty of places for the mozzies to get in so I put up my mozzie net.
Isabelle and I had a plan to try to meet in Amed, since we were travelling here seperately. Text messages were not working and the beach is pretty long so we were both surprised how easily we found eachother on the beach.
I walked a km along the beach to Jemeluk and got in the ocean for some snorkelling. The water was really clear and the coral and fish were good. I liked the fish that had purple and yellow horizontal pin-stripes. The sand here is volcanic black, to the west stands Gunung Agung, the volcano that erupted killing thousands of people in 1963.
There is a bar playing reggae across the road, seems like a tourists cliche.
Wednesday 17th August
We got a bemo to Tulamben which is famous for it's shipwreck, a WWII cargo ship called USS Liberty. It is only about 50 metres offshore so easily accessible for snorkelling. After settling down on the pebbled beach I swam out to where I could see other snorkellors and soon enough the huge bulk of the rusted ship came into view, about 10 metres below, running parallel to the shore. It is covered in brown coral which is at it's best on the far side. Some of the scuba divers had Indonesian flags attached to their equipment, as it is Indonesia's Independence Day.
The second time I went out to the wreck I followed some scuba divers and along the wreck and we came to a huge school of thousands of silver Jackfish, each one about the size of a chopping board. They were swimming around together in a spiral circle from the sea floor to the surface, all in the same direction, round and round like on a roundabout. The sun was shining through the water onto them and they looked translucent. At times, air bubbles would come up from the scuba divers and the fish would swim through the light and the bubbles and it was a fantastic sight. I swam through the fish until I was surrounded and watched them quietly swim around me. I enjoyed swimming round and round with the fish more than the wreck. I could have gone diving with Isabelle but I figured it wouldn't be all that different from the snorkelling and I am saving my diving for later in my trip.
By the time we were ready to head back 20 kms to Amed our transport options were limited so we had to hire a guy with his private vehicle. Apart from the flags under the water, there were no Independence Day celebrations around here, it seems you have to go to the bigger towns.
Thursday 18th August
This morning Isabelle left for Ubud; it was fun travelling together for 10 days, she was a good travel buddy and friend. After 2 pancakes I walked along the road 2kms to Jemeluk and with some helpful directions found the rocky path heading up to Gunung Seraya (1175m). It is a 6 hour round trip to the top but I was never going to walk that far as it was a really hot and sunny day with little shade along the way. At first the path was steep and not well defined. The first time I stopped for a rest my heart was pounding.
The path became much clearer and I saw a few small small villages along the way but not many people, only a few yappy dogs who ran away as soon as I picked up a rock. As I got higher I turned round for great views of the ocean, the coastline and Gunung Agung. After an hour I came to a concrete water tank with pipes attached, so the locals do have running water. I found a great viewpoint looking down between two ridges to the sea so I sat there and ate bananas, drank water and read my book.
On the way back down I met a girl and her brother on their way back from school, her English was really good.
After lunch at the family warung and some chill out time out of the sun, I headed along the beach to snorkel at Jemeluk again. The water was clear and I saw some crazy-looking fish again, I wish I knew their names. I walked back slowly and sat on the beach to watch the sunset over a small peak behind Gunung Agung, I felt very lucky to be in such a lovely place.
I left the hotel in Lovina at 8:30am, heading for Amed in East Bali. First I got a bemo (local minibus) 5kms to Singaraja city, then across town in another bemo from one terminal to, well, another bemo at the roadside. The driver was taking his family as well as passengers to Amed. His wife and daugther were friendly and I chatted to another local lady as we went along. The road was broken in places, but mostly ok. The bemo takes a little longer than the tourist shuttle bus because it stops to take on passengers, but it is much cheaper and you get to hang out with the locals. For a while the bus was jam-packed with ladies and their large baskets of fish, veg and tofu, I couldn't see my bag under all of it, but actually it was being supervised in the front seat.
They dropped me off in Amed which was fine. Unfortunately the driver had decided to tell the tourist that the price was now 70,000 rupiah rather than the 30,000 we had agreed before I got on the bus. I kept my sense of humour and gave him 40,000 since that was kind of what I had originally expected. It was just a bit disappointing after thinking that I had had a nice time with his wife and daughter and then the guy tries to blatantly rip me off. So there were no happy farewells to the wife and family, I just walked off without saying thanks or bye. Very mature of me!
When this happens I find it harder to trust and be patient with the next local person I negotiate with and I was not going to just accept the first room I was offered, and there were plenty of offers. But a German guy pointed me towards a warung (small family restaurant) where a lady had a room available in her house and after having a look, I accepted. It is a small brick room round the back of the family home, past the chickens and the small shrine wearing a checked sarong. She said her son sleeps here when they don't have guests so I feel bad about her son being ousted but I am glad that my cash is going directly to a local family rather than some resort. There are plenty of places for the mozzies to get in so I put up my mozzie net.
Isabelle and I had a plan to try to meet in Amed, since we were travelling here seperately. Text messages were not working and the beach is pretty long so we were both surprised how easily we found eachother on the beach.
I walked a km along the beach to Jemeluk and got in the ocean for some snorkelling. The water was really clear and the coral and fish were good. I liked the fish that had purple and yellow horizontal pin-stripes. The sand here is volcanic black, to the west stands Gunung Agung, the volcano that erupted killing thousands of people in 1963.
There is a bar playing reggae across the road, seems like a tourists cliche.
Wednesday 17th August
We got a bemo to Tulamben which is famous for it's shipwreck, a WWII cargo ship called USS Liberty. It is only about 50 metres offshore so easily accessible for snorkelling. After settling down on the pebbled beach I swam out to where I could see other snorkellors and soon enough the huge bulk of the rusted ship came into view, about 10 metres below, running parallel to the shore. It is covered in brown coral which is at it's best on the far side. Some of the scuba divers had Indonesian flags attached to their equipment, as it is Indonesia's Independence Day.
The second time I went out to the wreck I followed some scuba divers and along the wreck and we came to a huge school of thousands of silver Jackfish, each one about the size of a chopping board. They were swimming around together in a spiral circle from the sea floor to the surface, all in the same direction, round and round like on a roundabout. The sun was shining through the water onto them and they looked translucent. At times, air bubbles would come up from the scuba divers and the fish would swim through the light and the bubbles and it was a fantastic sight. I swam through the fish until I was surrounded and watched them quietly swim around me. I enjoyed swimming round and round with the fish more than the wreck. I could have gone diving with Isabelle but I figured it wouldn't be all that different from the snorkelling and I am saving my diving for later in my trip.
By the time we were ready to head back 20 kms to Amed our transport options were limited so we had to hire a guy with his private vehicle. Apart from the flags under the water, there were no Independence Day celebrations around here, it seems you have to go to the bigger towns.
Thursday 18th August
This morning Isabelle left for Ubud; it was fun travelling together for 10 days, she was a good travel buddy and friend. After 2 pancakes I walked along the road 2kms to Jemeluk and with some helpful directions found the rocky path heading up to Gunung Seraya (1175m). It is a 6 hour round trip to the top but I was never going to walk that far as it was a really hot and sunny day with little shade along the way. At first the path was steep and not well defined. The first time I stopped for a rest my heart was pounding.
The path became much clearer and I saw a few small small villages along the way but not many people, only a few yappy dogs who ran away as soon as I picked up a rock. As I got higher I turned round for great views of the ocean, the coastline and Gunung Agung. After an hour I came to a concrete water tank with pipes attached, so the locals do have running water. I found a great viewpoint looking down between two ridges to the sea so I sat there and ate bananas, drank water and read my book.
On the way back down I met a girl and her brother on their way back from school, her English was really good.
After lunch at the family warung and some chill out time out of the sun, I headed along the beach to snorkel at Jemeluk again. The water was clear and I saw some crazy-looking fish again, I wish I knew their names. I walked back slowly and sat on the beach to watch the sunset over a small peak behind Gunung Agung, I felt very lucky to be in such a lovely place.
No comments:
Post a Comment