Bali 2014: Day 7 – Amed Refreshment
Thursday 13 November 2014
The sun rose on another glorious morning in Bali. I can tell we are slowly becoming accustomed to waking early and sleeping early, this morning though we managed to make it through to about 6:45am before deciding to pop out onto the porch for a cup of coffee.
The stunning night view from the beach at Jemeluk. Such a lovely place to sit and contemplate life for a while.
Today is our last full day in Amed. Unfortunately this trip we didn’t have a lot of time to spend in Bali and wanted to economise our time as best we could between Legian, Amed, Ubud and Sanur. So only planned on 3 nights in Amed.
But first things first…..
BREAKFAST
After a couple of nice refreshing cups of Bali Kopi on the balcony we got dressed and headed to breakfast, this morning we went with much the same as yesterday:
- Toast with Jam and Butter
- Toast with Eggs
- Orange Juice & Lemon Juice
- Bali Kopi
Breakfast is included in the room rate at Blue Star however if you want something extra (like Juice and Eggs) you pay a small amount, so all up our breakfast cost Rp. 50k.
Did I mention yesterday how awesome there bread is? I can’t pinpoint the flavour there is something in that mixture that is different but can’t pick it….
SNORKELLING TIME
Enough of that it was time to get down to business! 9:00am we were at the waters edge – we had perched ourselves on a couple of beach chairs for the day and headed off to explore the great unknown of the ocean depths (well at least to look at them from the surface through the snorkel mask…).
Every morning these little guys were so much fun. They loved the Yellow handle on the GoPro and if you stayed still would come right up and start nipping at the GoPro.
The water was nice and still this morning. Where we are staying here in Jemeluk is somewhat protected in the morning, the headland is slightly to the east so seems to buffer the morning sea breezes. It is not usually until later in the afternoon that the wind picks up which stirs up the water dropping visibility.
The coral might not be spectacular colours but I do love the variety and detail in the different parts. Plenty of marine life hiding around the coral.
If you are heading to Amed I would definitely recommend a waterproof camera. I bought a GoPro 3 White which was just the base model GoPro but produced some pretty nice images.
If you are not the snorkel type don’t despair there are plenty of other options you can get involved with – first up there are plenty of spots on the beach you can sit under an umbrella and have a few drinks whilst reading a book. Along the main street of Jemeluk are plenty of Warungs and Restaurants so you can work your way through them all and sample the food. If you are keen to learn Scuba Diving there are quite a few schools in Amed – if you are in town for a while you can actually do your full Open Water Certificate or Dive Master Course. I actually think next time I will try and do a Scuba course.
The view back to the spectacular Mt. Agung from the water. As nice as the view underwater is make sure you pop your head up every now and then to check the view back up the mountains.
Some more shots of the spectacular coral formations. Don’t be afraid to dive down a little bit to get a bit closer.
After an hour or two it was time to top up the Sun Cream so we retreated to the beach chairs and the lovely Wayan brought us a few cold Cokes (12k for 2). If you are staying at Blue Star there is a huge water cooler in your room – my advice is to keep hold of your empty water bottles and use this to refill rather than adding to the huge Landfill problem Bali has. It is really important to keep your hydration up – in the water you don’t actually realise you are getting thirsty (and sunburnt!).
As you explore the Jemeluk Bay area you will find a wide range of artificial reef objects, they have sunk a wide range of objects to promote coral growth and fish life.
I spent a while stalking a bunch of Scuba Students – just checking out what they were looking at.
EXPLORING
So being midday we thought what better time to go for a walk and explore the area a little more. We headed up the road to seek out somewhere to have Lunch. I had heard online about a place up the road called Warung Enak so thought I would find it to give it a go.
Downtown Jemeluk. We decided to head to Warung Enak which is about a 2km walk North.
In hindsight perhaps midday wasn’t the best time to attempt wandering the streets – maybe do it in the morning or afternoon, maybe also take some water, and you know maybe put some more suncream on. That said it is a really lovely walk through these undeveloped streets seeing an interesting mix of new ultra-modern looking accommodation with traditional local farms and houses. I imagine Amed streets are somewhat reminiscent of what Kuta streets looked like 25-30 years ago.
LUNCH
We eventually made it to Warung Enak for lunch and by this point the prospect of a cold drink was welcome. The menu at Enak is not large, it is up on the blackboards when you walk in, and depending on what they have available on the day some items may not be available.
The lovely Warung Enak, the kitchen is behind the wall and somewhat open with all the windows. Everything was cooked fresh to order.
Fantastic fresh squeezed juice to start. We had an orange juice and a pineapple juice.
Danielle went with the Chicken Satay and I actually went for the Beef Burger. I know a beef burger (seriously?) but I just for some reason was craving something a little “different” – and thankfully I can say these guys actually know how to pull together a good beef burger. The beef pattie had plenty of flavour to it and was not dry, nor overcooked. The chicken satay was quite tasty, nice satay sauce and the chicken was perfectly cooked.
Beef Burger – I know not a “traditional” Indonesian dish but I can actually commend them for the quality
Chicken Satay with Rice and a salad. Nice tasty Satay Sauce.
After lunch we really still couldn’t face the prospect of the long hot walk back, so noticed a couple of ice-cream dishes on the menu, I opted for the Mango Ice-Cream and Dan had the Green-Lime Ice Cream. Sorry no pictures – I was a little worried about how long it would last before it melted and I think we both inhaled ours so quick before we even thought about a photo! Trust me though it was so tasty, the Mango ice-cream was more like a sorbet and seriously refreshing on this hot day. If I was the type of person to like Lime I am sure it was tasty (wifey seemed to like it). Lunch came to about Rp. 180k.
Amed Sea-salt make sure you stop at the little roadside stalls and get some. It has a distinctive taste. Only about Rp. 20k per kilo so great value.
Lunch over with there was no escaping we had to head back. But first up I wanted to stock up on some Salt. One of the primary productions in Amed is Seasalt, you will see it for sale along the main road into town. We kind of scoped them out on our walk to Warung Enak and knew where we wanted to head back to. Quality wise you will see some salt is a little darker in colour and has a few more impurities. We stopped at a stall just across from Enak and bought about 1.5kgs of Seasalt and also 3 small souvenir packs in little baskets. All up we paid Rp. 60k – the Salt is about Rp. 20k per kilo.
Downtown Jemeluk – plenty of little warungs and homestays. Many of these are not online so you really only see by wandering the street.
If you want to experience a really “undiscovered” part of Bali then Amed is definitely your place.
Despite being remote and not overly developed there are still plenty of places for you to eat and check out. You could stay for a month and likely not get along to every place.
Despite being the middle of the day it was actually still a lovely walk and gave us a real great view of Amed. If you have a motorbike license you could hire a scooter and explore a little further afield. Within about 3-5km are a few other little villages that also make up the area of Amed. So definitely give yourself some time to explore this area.
SNORKEL TIME
After all that walking we were both totally soaked in sweat and desperate for a swim to cool off so quickly headed home – grabbed the snorkel gear and headed to the water.
Never get tired of the amazing marine life that is literally meters from the beach.
This little fella really disliked me being in the water, he proceeded to chase me the whole way to shore.
As you can see the water visibility had dropped this arvo. If you squint under that coral you will see a Lion Fish – that is as close as I was willing to get to him!
After a nice afternoon snorkel session we decided to get a quick massage. You will find once you hit the beach the friendly locals will be along to offer you a beach massage – you can “book” them in for a quick massage after your snorkel session – at only about Rp. 60k for an hour you can’t go wrong. Darling wifey was a tad bit sunburnt from the days activities so to finish the massage her massage lady ran up the beach to someones garden and grabbed a fresh piece of Aloe Vera plant to rub the lotion on her sunburnt back.
The view back to the Jemeluk headland, if you are feeling energetic you can wander up the road and you will be treated to a glorious view of the sun setting behind the magical Mt. Agung.
As afternoon sets in, Jemeluk becomes the sleepy little village again, the day trippers go home and you practically have the beach to yourself.
As the sun set on our last afternoon in Amed we were absolutely contented with our stay. I could easily have stayed here another 5 or 6 nights, the pace of life here is amazing – and I didn’t even get a chance to sit and read my books.
DINNER
Dinner tonight we decided again to eat a nice romantic candle-lit dinner on the beach. While we had dinner I also decided to set my main camera up and try and capture some of the glorious stars in a picture.
Lovely setting for a nice dinner. Lack of light does make it a pain to read the menu – but hey its romantic and stuff…
Our last meal at Blue Star tonight we started with some Lumpia (Spring Rolls) and I had the Lempeng Be Siap (Chicken Steak with Balinese sauce inside), and my lovely wifey had the Udang Panggang Mentega (Grilled Prawn served with Garlic Sauce and Rice). For dessert we had the Coconut Cake with Ice Cream.
Chicken Steak with Rice – actually tastes really great – I know it doesn’t look much.
Grilled Prawns – The sauce was lovely, prawns had plenty of meat on them.
“Coconut Cake” not what I was picturing but still really tasty end to our meal.
So like I mentioned while I was having dinner I set the camera up to take a Star Trail photograph. The setting wasn’t perfect in that there was a little light pollution from the restaurants and homestays around the bay but still got some nice stars. Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to run a full timelapse so only did about an hour of photos I was reasonably happy with the results.
This is one of my set shots. To compile the trail you stack as many of these on top of each other. (Nikon D300s w/17-55 f2.8mm Lens – 30 sec exposure @ f2.8, ISO 2500).
The final star trail. This is 54 exposures stacked together into one image. All told this represents about 27 minutes of star rotations.
Well that was it for the night, headed back to our room – looked at our bags and figured we would pack tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we move to Ubud to continue our holiday.
This was our second journey to Amed and it was an amazing experience. Jemeluk is the perfect place for us, it offers plenty of convenience and a lovely relaxed atmosphere. I definitely will be returning and would easily stay at least a week.
Thanks for following along today – hope you are enjoying the Travel Journal and have hopefully learnt a few things. Please feel free to let me know what you think of the blog. Thanks again for following Just My Travel Blog and see you tomorrow.
Beautiful! I love Snorkeling! I’ve only done it twice in the Caribbean, but I absolutley love it! Its a whole other world to escape to.
Dinner looked beautiful, too!
Thanks for the comment. It is really a lovely experience, just floating across the water! I do love it and next up will be learning Scuba.
That sounds so fun!
Looks gorgeous!!
Awesome star trail! The visibility for snorkelling looks pretty darn good!!
Hey there! I stumbled across your blog as I am planning my first trip to Bali in a couple of months. I’ve never been and I am only there for two weeks but was trying to figure out if doing 4 places is trying to squeeze in too much (jimbaran, ubud, amed, legian). It’s very helpful and insightful to read about your experiences, since you basically did a similar trip! I look forward to the blogs to come… 🙂
Thanks for the comment, I think you will be ok with two weeks and 4 spots, I would use Legian or jimbaran as your start / finish spots as they are close to the airport. I haven’t stayed at jimbaran just driven through there, wasn’t my cup of tea but then again I can’t speak from experience – all depends on why you want to check it out.