Amed - Backpacker hardship... or not?
Trip Start
Sep 24, 2009
1
14
35
Trip End
Apr 30, 2010
Amed,
Bali,
Indonesia
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
After that incident, we were keen to get moving and just get to Amed, on the far east coast of Bali. I had heard good things about this relatively recent developed area from a couple that I met on Nusa Penida a few weeks ago.
The geography in this area was quite interesting. It was extremely arid (no rain since July), fairly hilly and the land was covered in volcanic rocks, the result of the major Mt Agung volcanic eruption back in the 60's.
We had picked a place to stay out of the Lonely Planet but as we were driving along, Alan spotted a beachfront place with free internet access. As we pulled in, I took one look at this place and said there was no way that this would fit in the budget. But we went to speak to reception anyhow
Off to the market with a few bananas
.The first bungalow they showed us was way out of our backpacker league even though it was a lovely room. The hotel is only 6 months old so all the furniture is new, nice modern taps in the bathroom, etc. I explained to the receptionist that the hotel was lovely but it was far too expensive for us. He asked how much we wanted to pay, so I told him an amount more appropriate for backpackers who are supposed to be travelling on a budget.
He had a 'standard’ room – but it was ‘far from the beach and restaurant’. No problem for us – and besides, it was close to where the car was parked so we didn’t have to carry bags so far.
Well – this room was gorgeous – and large! We had a separate ‘living room’, and lovely modern bathroom including a massive bathtub, plush towels, etc – and it was shiny, new and clean! And there was a large swimming pool overlooking the beach. So for NZD$37 (including breakfast) a night (which was still within our accommodation budget), we ended up in the most amazing room. We decided to stay for 3 nights to allow us to ‘prepare’ for the upcoming hardships in Flores
A rusted out, shipwrecked barge
! (I looked on their website, and the rack rate for the standard room that we were in was USD$70). Because it was the quiet season, we were the only ones there for the first days. The irony of it was that the internet connection was hopeless and we couldn’t do too much with it anyhow.Having found this fantastic room at such a good price was great, but we also found the people in the area some of the most genuinely friendly that we have come across in Bali. There was no one around trying to sell us stuff, other than the odd snorkel trip. Alan went for a walk quite early one morning and met a family along the way. They invited him in, offered him fruit and were quite happy to chat. They didn’t speak any English, and his Indonesian is fairly limited – but they managed.
We did various walks around the place (always up very step hills – ugh!). There was one special temple (Pura Lempuyang) that you can walk to. It’s about 3km up hill (we heard there were 20,000 steps!), and you pass about 4-6 temples before you get to it. I managed to get the second temple, and Alan carried on to the 3rd. I have yet to figure out why the Balinese build their most special temples so high!
Living it up in style!
Alan also checked out a cockfight at the local meeting hall. It wasn’t something that interested me, but he enjoyed the opportunity to see it, and to interact with the local people.
There are a couple of reasonable snorkeling places here that you can access from the beach, including a boat wreck. It was an US ‘troop carrier’ that was torpedoed by the Japanese in WWII. It landed on the beach where it remained until the 1960’s when the volcano erupted and pushed it 30m out to sea. It’s shallow enough so that you can snorkel over it and see all the marine life growing over it. Very cool!
Heading back to Kuta
It was time to leave the luxury behind and head back to Kuta. Everyone said this trip would take 2-3 hours but we have learned that you double the estimate (just like software development).
Today is Hari Guningan, the end of an 8-day celebration – and the day when every Balinese dresses up in their finest temple garb, and make their way to their temples for prayers and offerings. This also meant that every Balinese person was on the road – making for a very slow (and dangerous!) trip home. But we managed to make it in one piece – aside from the nail hole in the tire 20m from home.
Back in Kuta, we are repacking bags (pulling out stuff to leave at the hotel) for the next part of the journey. The plan is to fly to Maumere in Flores (several islands east along from Bali) and make our way back overland through Flores, to Komodo and Lombok before returning to Kuta for a final couple of days before leaving Indonesia.
