Exploring the coast near Amed Bali

Waking on Wedesday morning under my mosquito net I was slightly sweaty.

The small bedroom has a fan but no AC and when the sun hits the outside it warms up. I strolled outside and laid for a hour on the bale on my porch.

Chris and Erica were still sleeping by 8am and when I got moving by 9am I took a dip in our pool around the back of the rooms. A very nice way to start the day.

Breakfast is included at the Amed Café and is basically a crepe, or pancake, along with tea or coffee and fruit. I want to start eating more fruit as its grown locally and is good for me.

The restaurant is right next to the beach and our waitress Wayan hovered over us offering info on the tourist scene and her personal economic situation. She told us that business is down and the fact that large tour buses no longer come to Amed really hurts them. She has lived in Amed all her life and had never visited Lombok which is across the strait.

Amed is a small fishing on the south eastern tip of Bali. It is a chill little spot and there are a string of other villages that stretch around the coast to Ujung. We drove around at a speed of 10-20mph allowing Chris and Erica to enjoy the scenery and get a look of local life. Erica commented the dryer terrain and houses on the slopes of the hills are like Tuscany. The coastal road is now completely paved so driving is feasible. I recommend this very scenic route to visitors with time.

As we were driving around the sun was blazing. Hot temperatures indeed. I was planning to take us to the water palace in Tirtaganga for a cooling dip. By the time we had turned inland and were heading to the water palace the skies had clouded over and torrential rain was now lashing our vehicle. It was around this time I noticed my wipers didn’t work.

The Tirtaganga water palace has an entrance fee of 5,000rp and a wedding party was in the parking area enjoying a snack when we arrived.

I was the only candidate for the cooling swim in the raja’s pool and afterwards, with the rain still lashing we ran to the nearby restaurant for a cup of dark ginger coffee. If you’ve never had ginger coffee give it a shot, just add a little sugar to take the edge off.

We ordered a plate of food each, myself going for the nasi goreng for 11,000rp. A local man in his mid 40’s sat down and entertained us with his foot massage cure all’s. He had been doing massage for 25 years and his little book had diagrams showing different pressure points for conditions ranging from headache, back pain, fever, impotence, malaria and cerebal palsy. I think they were stretching the facts on some of those.

When the rain let up we drove on to the coast and just part Candi Dasi turned inland to have a look at the Bali Aga village in Tenganan. The road dead ends at the village and there is a donation to get in. The village is supposed to be traditional and had long bale structures and traditional houses. People do live here, unlike those ‘traditional western towns’ in the US where everyone changes and goes home afterwards. We visited a couple of weavers making ikats, the wall hangings popular in Indonesia. You will find ikats in Sumatra, Java, Lombok and Sumba also and there is a style that goes along with location. Trisna showed me her loom and told me a double ikat is a very time consuming business. She learned to weave after school from her mother.

I noticed as well as selling ikats made here they also had ones from around the country, similar to the stuff you can find in Kuta. Balinese mask making was on display also.

One thing that made us laugh was when we walked to the top end of the village to watch the gamelan orchestra we could hear. Nearing a longhouse we saw that the music wasn’t coming from a live orchestra but 2 large JBL speakers. So much for tradition.

In my opinion this village is partially traditional and you will see a more traditional side of Bali from driving around in the mountains.

Our route back to Seminyak was heading through the large towns of Klunkung and Gianyar. I was concentrating hard to find the turnoff to the coastal town of Lebih where the highway starts. We found it and basically connected the highway dots all the way to my house the rive taking about 3 hours from the Bali Aga.

Related Posts

• Amed coast in Karangasem Bali
• Coast of Amed Bali
• Amed: What is it and where is it?
• Photos from the last week in Bali
• More photos from Ubud

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