Background: Mum, Dad and 5 children aged between 10 and 15 years. Mum's 2nd time to Bali, Dad's 3rd time, kids 1st time. Main reason for trip was to attend my sister's wedding and for a family reunion.
27th April: Today we said good bye to the wonderful Villa Natalie and its beautiful staff. After searching under beds and couches for random lost objects and clothing the ever patient and obliging Putu loaded us and our luggage into 2 cars (we had 9 people all together now... my family and my parents) and we headed north. Stopped in Candi Dasa for some lunch. Ate at Toke Restaurant which, although had pretty slow service, was reasonably priced and the food was good. Except for the nachos! The children learnt pretty quickly in Bali to stick to mainly Indonesian food... it was always the freshest and tastiest. Our children are pretty good eaters both in terms of quantity, quality and range. They will try almost anything and have eaten a wide range of foods since babyhood. They had a great time in Bali trying all sorts of new foods. I was a little concerned about the kids getting Bali belly whilst we were away. Read on the forums about all sorts of preventative measures and considered all of them. However, we chose to go with just good basic hygiene practices. We ate at restaurants which looked clean, had a good turnover of customers, we used antiseptic gel after touching anything suspect (eg. Animals and money), after toileting and before eating. And on the odd occaision when someone felt a little off we sculled a Yakult. Some of us felt a little off a couple of days, nothing serious, just a slightly sensitive tummy, but on the whole we were all well and healthy.
Anyway, we reached Amed at about 3pm, checked into Life in Amed. Nice little hotel, right on the beach at Lean. For those who don't know, Amed is actually a town on the north east coast, however a lot of tourists call the whole coastal area up there 'Amed' when in actual fact they are referring to a number of different villages. Lean is one of the furthest east villages in this area. It also seems to be one of the poorer villages of the area. It was very interesting to see daily Balinese life away from the main tourist areas of Bali. Lots of chickens, goats, dogs and pigs. Plus gorgeous Balinese children bathing in the ocean, fishing boats and fishermen, women going about their daily lives, ceremonies. A few tourists around, very few shops. If you wish to wander far from your hotel you will need transport.
Life in Amed... small hotel, right on the beach at Lean. Has 2 beach front villas, plus about 5 cottages. All situated around a small pool. The cottages are 2 storey, double bed downstairs and twin beds upstairs. Clean, comfortable. Seemed a little squashy compared to Villa Nat though! Life has its own restaurant... good food at reasonable prices. Breakfast was included. The beach at Lean is sand but is covered in fishing boats most of the day! It was wonderful to see the boats coming in to the beach in the mornings and the families meeting them to haul the day's catch up to the road where it is transported on to Denpasar.
Joined by my little brother, big sister and new brother-in-law later in the afternoon.
We had dinner at Sails restaurant which is just a short stroll from Life. Situated on the cliff above the beach, gorgeous view out to sea and the food and service was superb. There were 12 of us for dinner (not normal for Amed area I am sure) and the staff didn't even blink an eye. We all ordered different dishes and every single one was served on time, hot and delicious. Highly recommended. They even drove my Mum and Dad home again afterwards (Dad has a balance problem and tends to stumble about a bit in the dark!), the rest of us just walked.
28th April: Had planned on doing a sailing trip today but apparently the boat's engine was in the shop being fixed. So instead we lay around the pool and read books, chatted, ate, drank and swam. Very lazy and therefore wonderful day. Had lunch at Life's restaurant. Good, tasty food. We hired some goggles, snorkels and fins off some fella on the beach later in the afternoon and went for a paddle in the ocean right in front of the hotel. Ocean was warm, like hopping in a bath! Swam out about 10 metres and there was coral and lots of brightly coloured fish. Snorkeled for about an hour then headed back for a shower before dinner.
Went to Dancing Dragon Cottages and Restaurant for dinner. They very kindly picked us up in their big bus. Once again superb view, service and food. We all had numerous drinks, appetizers, mains (both Indonesian and Western) and dessert and could not fault anything. And then they very kindly dropped us back at our hotel again. Terrific night! The cottages looked very nice from the outside, lovely smallish pool. Beach here is stone, bit tricky to walk on.
Lots of village noise during the night. Chanting, bells, music etc.
29th April: Found out this morning at breakfast that there was to be 3 cremetations (from separate villages) conducted today... hence the noise last night. Was very interesting to see all the preparations being made. And then to watch the processions. Kids learnt a lot about Balinese spiritual life.
We got a ride to Bunyuning Village to snorkel a boat wreck there. Not sure of its origins but it is only a few metres off the shore. Beach is rock so quite difficult and painful to walk on! But once in the water it was wonderful! Lots of hard corals, some soft, excellent visibility and tons of different and varied fish life. Saw large Angel fish with black, white and yellow colourings. Flourescent blue little fish. Rainbow trout. All the fish you see in the marine tanks at your local aquarium store were there!!! But much bigger and better! Huge schools of many different fish. The actual wreck is only small but interesting and close enough to the surface for snorkellers to enjoy it. There were some divers here too.
Later in the afternoon we met Wayan, Komang and their little girl. I had been cyberly introduced to this couple by Ursie, a form member from Trip Adviser who privately sponsors a number of children in the Amed area. I was interested in sponsoring a child as well. Lovely couple who are very commited to improving the outlook for the children in the area. Wayan had a child in mind who needed sponsoring to go to school. Her father is a fisherman and as such does not earn a lot of money. They live in a very poor compound. My daughter and I took a fun scooter ride to her village to meet her. She was very shy but we had a quick chat. We took a photo and left her with some clothes we had bought from home. For just A$10 a month this little girl will now be able to continue her education... so little for us but means so much to her.
I had bought 2 large suitcases full of outgrown children's clothes to Bali. Having 5 children of my own we tend to gather a lot of outgrown clothing! I gave all of the warmer, winter clothing to Wayan to distribute to the children in one of the colder mountain villages. She was very appreciative. I have no idea how she was able to manage to carry the huge bag of clothes on the scooter home!
The rest of the clothing (another huge bag!) we gave to Anak Indonesia , a charity organisation which I think originated in France. Has a local office in Lean, working with the poorest of the local children to provide education. They were very surprised and appreciative I think. I was going to just hand the clothes out on the beach or give to the local school to be handed out. But I saw their office and school room and thought they would know best who was in need of clothing.
Had dinner at Blue Moon Cottages. Once again superb food and service. Had possibly the best curry I have ever eaten here!
30th April: After a leisurely breakfast at Life we checked out and headed to Ubud. Our transport was actually the big bus from Dancing Dragon Cottages... available for hire for transport and easier for us than two cars! Stopped along the way at Tirtagannga. Beautiful royal water garden. Was interesting to see the spring where the water came from and to see that each pool is gravity fed, no pumps, and just flows from one pool to the next and then down the hill to the rice paddies. And I guess eventually out to sea. Pools were very clean and clear. Lovely statuary and gardens.
NEXT EDITION- UBUD...