Bali 2014: Day 6 – Amed – is 4:15am even a time
Wednesday 12 November 2014
These little guys were so interested in the GoPro and the Yellow Float Handle, they schooled up and kept nipping at the GoPro Housing.
4:15am – wow what a glorious time to be awake, I mean the sun isn’t even up at this time – nor any hint of it arriving anytime soon. Up early this morning for my fishing trip with one of the locals – I was actually looking forward to it.
Thankfully one of the many benefits of staying right on the water here at Blue Star is that it is literally a 10second walk from the front porch of the bungalow to the beach. Thankfully the moon was still up at this time to light my path to the beach to find the boat.
I had teed up last night with Wayan from Blue Star to go out on a morning fishing trip with one of the local fishermen. Kadek was my companion for this expedition and I suspect that 4:45am is the “tourist-friendly” time to depart because the beach was empty every other boat looked long gone.
Sunrise fishing trek, it is definitely worth getting up early for
We pushed off and motored our way out into the ocean – headed almost due East, the weather wasn’t bad once we got a little way out the wind picked up a bit – I find a nice face-full of sea spray the perfect way to wake you up of a morning.
The first light of the day, hard to describe how it felt being out on the water to see the sunrise.
Kadek let out a long handline of hooks – unbaited except for a small bit of coloured string. Apparently we were fishing for Mackeral today. Kadek wasn’t a big talker but I didn’t mind – us old seadogs share a common bond…. and the universal “you want cigarette?” will get you out of the most difficult of language translation situations.
Wow – even if you are not into fishing at all, it is seriously worth a trip out to see this. Take a waterproof camera (it gets a bit wet out there). Enjoy the show!
The sun was slowly starting to rise above the horizon, it also illuminated the tiny little specs on the horizon that showed me the other boats out fishing. Goodness knows when they left this morning because they were a fair way out.
Kadek hard at work in his “office” – pulling in the long line of hooks checking for our catch.
We trolled for a while with the fishing line out – moving in a sort of “Z” pattern upwind then downwind, after a while Kadek stopped to check the lines. Our first troll resulted in no fish, but he just let the line out and away we went again. Slowly moving our way across the ocean. Next time we stopped to check the lines we picked up about 6 Mackeral – Kadek was pretty happy with that. He set the lines again and we headed back towards shore.
The clear waters of Jemeluk Bay. Stunning at this time of the morning, very calm.
We got back to shore at about 7am, so had been out about 2 hours all up. Our catch today was about 6 mackerel – Kadek was saying that is a fairly average catch; I suspect probably not helped by the fact he had to leave at such a late time (4:45am). He asked if I wanted to take the fish and I decided to let him have them – I know I was paying him and all but I figure the fish would be more appreciated by him than me.
If you are heading to Amed I really would recommend arranging to head out for a nice sunrise fishing trip – yes it is early but the sunrise while out on the ocean is something pretty special.
Each morning you will wake up to a nice hot thermos of water and tea/coffee.
I got back to the room just after 7am and saw that the lovely staff from Blue Star had left a basket with Tea/Coffee and hot water on our porch. It is lovely to be able to just sit back of a morning with a cup of coffee and ponder your day. I also suspect this is a clever plan to keep the guests out of the restaurant until they have had a chance to sweep away the leaves and get it ready for the day.
The view from breakfast – yep the same view as lunch but doesn’t it just look amazing? Worth a second look.
The breakfast menu isn’t huge but there is plenty there to fill you up for the day, I opted for the Fried Eggs on Toast and Dan had the Coconut Pancake. The bread here is all hand made on site and is an amazing flavour. We also had a couple of freshly squeezed juices.
Eggs on Toast – I know it doesn’t look much but it is very tasty.
Coconut Pancake – Very tasty.
SNORKELLING
So I will let you try and guess what we did next – yep in the water, we grabbed our snorkel gear and headed out. If you haven’t brought any gear with you don’t worry Blue Star have a wide range of Snorkelling equipment, or virtually every dive shop in town will have equipment for purchase or hire. Sorry if you are not into Snorkel pictures I will try to save your sanity a little bit – but here are a few of the 6,000 odd captures.
Fantastic visibility this morning. Depending on the wind and weather conditions mornings will usually bring calmer conditions and clearer water.
These little guys were so interested in the GoPro and the Yellow Float Handle, they schooled up and kept nipping at the GoPro Housing.
Sorry – More Fish. Pretty fun hanging around with these guys.
There are a number of great underwater structures that have been put in as artificial reef structures to encourage the marine life. Just look for the floating buoys and follow the lines down.
LUNCH
After a couple of hours we hopped out to top up the suncream and to grab a couple of drinks at a couple of the sun loungers. Lunch was a Nasi Goreng for myself and a Cheese Jaffle (yep really) for the wifey. I suddenly however felt real self-conscious about ordering any fish from the menu. Sorry no pictures from lunch – I think I was just keen to get back in the water again.
More fishies. The wind had picked up after lunch so the visibility dropped a little bit. It also scarred away a lot of the fish.
Starfish – not sure if these are the “good” or “bad” starfish but they were huge and looked great.
Do keep an eye on the tides, when it gets low you may not be able to get to the beach the way you got in – just head down the beach a bit there is a sandy section.
Once the wind had picked up a bit we decided to retreat back to the balcony to relax and catch up on some reading. The lovely Ilu who owns the Blue Star also manages the Om Shanti Spa around the corner in Bunutan. So after the stressful snorkelling of the last two days without a massage I decided to take myself off for a massage. I gave Ilu a call and she sent someone round to collect me (on the back of a scooter) and take me to Om Shanti Spa.
I chose the Special Lotus Lulur Treatment – It consisted of a 1 hour massage and body scrub – and it turns out also included a soak in a flower bath while enjoying herbal tea and a fruit platter. Certainly the most decadent massage treatment I have ever had – total came to Rp. 220k ($22) for the 2 hour treatment. Massage was very professional and the scrub certainly very thorough.
DINNER
After I got back from my massage we sat and relaxed on the balcony till around dinnertime. The day bed on the porch is a double bed and has a full mosquito net around it to keep you safe from the biters.
Dinner tonight was back at Blue Star Restaurant. Please don’t let me make you think there is nowhere else to eat in Jemeluk – there totally is, we just couldn’t be bothered walking down the beach. If you do want to try some different options just walk your way along the beach and you will find about 10 warungs and restaurants, a few also have live music.
Tonight’s Dinner:
- Entrée: Sate Ayam (32k)
- Mains: Babi Kecap (35k) & Cumi-Cumi Panggang (Calamari) (45k)
- Drinks – 68k
It really isn’t necessary for me to describe the meals – they are all tasty and well seasoned. Meals are cheap and well presented – 2 meals and drinks for about Rp. 150k is pretty good value in my book.
After dinner we headed back to the room to watch a movie on the Tablet and just relax. If you have been to Bali many times before and yet to try Amed, it is a fabulous change of pace. You will feel your body start to adjust to the slower pace – I found we woke around sunrise and started to feel tired shortly after sunset, you literally notice your body clock adjust and slow down. There are no shops or distractions – you can just relax and feel the relaxed pace of the place.
I can give you a little sneak preview of tomorrow’s adventures – Eat | Snorkel | Eat | Snorkel | Massage – sounds like a pretty nice way to enjoy our last full day in Amed.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out the blog again today. Please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts on today’s blog.
WOW! Just wow! Those are some beautiful sites! One day I plan on traveling. 🙂
Thank you for the comment – I love being able to share these with the world. I am thankful everyday that I have had the opportunity to travel.