Written on June 17, 2021
February 14, 2020: Egypt confirms the countries first COVID-19 case and case numbers continue rising elsewhere. [Wikipedia]
Jill and I packed our bags and ate our last breakfast in Ubud. I probably cried on my pancake but I managed to take a few pictures of the guesthouse cat. Then we walked down the driveway and met, Eddy, our driver who would deliver across the island to Amed Beach. I had booked Eddy through the dive shop in Amed I’d been contacting. He was as nice as every Indonesian we’d met and we chatted until we ran out of things to talk about on the three hour trip. The views along the way were spectacular. We drove east to the coast and then north to Amed. What sticks with me the most is our stop for lunch. I was looking through my records and found the spot again. Someone from the internet had named it “The most costly place to eat noodles in Bali.” It occupies a bend in the road with a million dollar view. There are also several resident monkeys. Other than that I believe they serve coffee, coke, and rice or ramen noodles in an open air gazebo. Don’t worry about the prices. We arrived in Amed in the afternoon and moved into our rather tiny hotel room. In the courtyard of the hotel was a small pool. We walked 200 meters or so and found a gravel beach. After the windy car ride we just walked on the beach for a bit. Then we found the restaurant I wanted to take Jill to. It was an Indian vegan place I found on the internet. It was on a rooftop and amazing. We were both dragging after the long ride and the food and fresh juice was just what we needed. After that we poked around in the mid afternoon heat.
Amed is a small village in a strip of small villages along the coastal road. There doesn’t seem to be much more than the strip of businesses along the road. I soon discovered that there are many alleys wide enough for scooters that can get you to the beach and along these alleys are additional restaurants and guesthouses. They’re layered amongst multigenerational households into a strange community where only a few hand painted signs give travelers directions. That’s how we found the restaurant, you just walk up the ditch and ascend the stairs at the unrelated hostel where guests will look at you strangely; as if they didn’t know there was a quaint restaurant on the roof. That was the first few hours in Amed of our week’s stay. There were many fewer people than in Ubud, Amed was much smaller and remote but for the number of businesses catering to tourists, the place seemed almost deserted.
Great photos and writing, Martin! Love it! Mom
Great views! Did you ever get the SCUBA?