Amed, Bali

Amed is on the east coast of Bali and is famous for The Liberty, a ship that was hit during WWII and ended up a few meters from the shore.  It's also quiet and without the congestion of many other places in Bali.  Amy enjoyed yoga there, we got to spend hours a day snorkeling, and of course we dove at the Liberty wreck, which was very cool.

 Jemeluck, a small fishing village.

Bean bag bliss

 Standard breakfast: pineapple pancake (or sometimes bannana) Balinese coffee, and usually a fruit plate with papaya, watermelon, banana and pineapple. Yummmm.

Our dive shop. 

We stayed in our cheapest room yet with them - 60,000 rupiah or about $5! It was a small very basic, dark concrete room that was actually just fine but for the boisterous family, barking dog, and roosters that lived just a little too close. Though, actually you can't get away from roosters anywhere you go.

Getting ready for our dive. Our first one right from the beach, which was nice and easy. It being low season, we were the only ones to dive today. It was nice to have our own personal dive tour.

I read an article about this in the guide book before we arrived. It was called "Are you man enough to let a girl carry your dive gear?" Apparently, awhile back the local village women saw an opportunity with all the divers coming for the wreck and created a porters collective. You pay them a small fee, then hand over your big, heavy gear for these, mostly older women, to carry for you on their head to the beach. Geeze, Amy was hardly woman enough to let them do it, but it is the way. And the money is a good source of income for the village. So we walked sheepishly and looked on with awe.

 Nudibranch.

The wreck is old enough to have extensive coral growth and marine life.

 

One of the many swim throughs in The Liberty.

Those long skinny things are garden eels peeking out of the sand. Below, a sea anemone.

The ship was big enough to go inside. A little intimidating, but the hanging coral above us was plenty worth it. A very unique reef experience this was.

So many baby fish. The wreck gives them protected spot for them to live and grow.

Organik cafe and yoga? We must be back in Bali. 

Post-snork, under Gunung Agung, the sacred volcano.

 Fish market? The singular road through here has tiny stands like this where the fishermen put their daily catch and the rice farmers set out little bags of rice for sale. The middle fish is a barracuda.

"Art" everywhere, even in the reefs.

                                                                    Yep, that's a cuttlefish!

We called them gulper fish, not sure their real name but it's fun to swim in a school of them. 

Monsoon season

At least some people understand this. Though it is saying something that this is in English.

After some days in Amed, Amy's birthday was looming and she chose to spend it back inland for a few more happy days in Ubud (and a visit to the chocolate factory!). Stay tuned for that. As we post this now we are in Kuala Lumpur and are heading to Bangkok today. In a week, we will be back in America.