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Sunday morning in Jasri Karangasem

Waking up at Kang Kung Cottages of any other small guest house in east Bali is one of the most pleasant aspects of being out here.

At Kang Kung the rooms are 2 storey and face towards Gunung Agung. Looking over the open air bathroom wall I could see fields and beyond a row of tall palm trees, the ocean.

When I visited this place before the owner Mark described how he build the place using local labor and materials. Bamboo frames support natural alang alang roofs. In the dining area long poles made from palm trees lay horizontal in the structure, themselves supported on large concrete blocks decorated with volcanic rocks.

There is considerable cement decoration in the guest house including the bathroom walls and the ‘trees’ which run vertical outside the rooms and have places to hang things from. I quite liked this but Angie said it was a disappointing aspect of the place for her.

The walk down to the closest beach is about 5 minutes, there are also now other guest houses which I’d like to try next time.

Angie said she wanted to snorkel so I asked Wayan to show us the way to Pantai Puti (White Beach) a few miles away.

We said goodbye to the staff who were busy with their kids and I promised to return sometime.

I had tried in vain to take Sean and Chris here and ended up getting us stuck on a steep slope. It really bugged me that I took a wrong turn especially as I basically followed the road till the end that time. Following Wayan on his motorbike Angie and I rode the bumpy dirt road in the Suzuki, which Wayan had assured me was possible. Nearing the parking area that me and the guys had been to before Wayan directed us up a narrow dirt track off to the side, really a counter intuitive direction but one that led after 10 minutes to the lovely strip of white sand that we had been waiting for.

The whole beach is maybe 500 meters long and is home to a couple of shacks and the fishing fleet. We sat next to 3 Indonesian girls from Candi Dasa who were here for a visit.They didn’t swim or sunbathe, happy to enjoy the view. On the left side of the beach the cliff provides some well needed shade. It wasn’t long before a couple of locals showed up offering shells, coconuts and services. One young guy sat next to me and explained that while the cliff provided shade sometimes stones fall down so I should watch out. He also explained that the ocean was a little dangerous to swim in because of the currents, “many time fishing boat have to go and get somebody,” he said.

I saw some local kids splashing around in the middle of the beach and decided there was safety in numbers. They were playing basketball in the water with a coconut and one of them said hello in English. “Bisa bahasa English?” I shouted to them. “Tidak.” Was the reply. “Bisa basaha Bali?” I joked. “Bisa.” They chorused.

Strolling to the other end of the beach I could see there wasn’t much activity other than 3 European tourists who had just arrived. This beach does not have good access and that’s great for those of us who don’t mind a bit of travelling.

We did manage to get the Suzuki out of there without being towed as Wayan had said and after returning the snorkels were off to Tirtagangga.