The drive was rejuvenating and made me feel the excitement of travel after the last few weeks of big cities and the same old town/market scene. Eastern Bali accomplished the long sought after rainy rice field view I had been dreaming about every time I thought about traveling to SE Asia. Maybe the main image that I think of when thinking of SE Asia is the flooded terraced rice field and on this 3 hour Uber ride I saw everything I had been dreaming of. Bali finally got its full day of rain (after a very low average rain for the "rainy season") and it happened to be the time we are swerving through the slolem (as our driver called it) switchbacks heading to the coast. The beauty of the fields was only amplified by the downpour of rain with the view being completed by the volcano peeking though the clouds in the background. This was the first drive since Thailand that had me childlike with my face pressed against the window and recording the entire scene in short snapchat videos.
We arrived at the Bedulu Resort just as the sun was setting and were taken to the most beautiful bungalow. Our private building is at the top of ~200 steps on the slope looking towards the ocean. To the left is an infinity pool that is truly infinite...with the edge of the pool only blurring the line between water and the ocean horizon. The waves crashing on the shore drown out any other noise. Whats even better is that, because of the low season, we are the only people staying at this resort. It is by far the nicest and most stunning place we have ever stayed (and all for $50 USD per night! Pricier than we usually spend but totally worth it).
After swimming in the pool during the light rain we called it a night. The next day we woke up for the 6am sunrise and noticed a coastline full of small boats. After asking our host at breakfast about the boats we found ourselves boarding one of them to head out into the deep blue. The boat was tiny but effective. The small Longtail motor moved us along nicely.
The fishing process involves hooking the tied lure to the rim of a plastic bag holding a rock....dropping the weight into the ocean until about 50m of line goes out. Then yanking up on the line to rip the bag and let the rock and plastic sink to the bottom (hello pollution). There must be a million bags on the bottom from all these fishermen. Our guide dropped about 15 in an hour while we were out there. Multiply that by 6 hours of fishing and hundreds of fishermen...everyday. damnnnn.
Once the line was deep enough we would troll over to any fish surfacing, taking on the line bare handed as we went. We were pretty good luck for our guide and landed 7 more in the 2 hours we were with him. Six mackerel and 1 barracuda that he snagged by the tail.
The best part was how excited he got once he started catching more and more fish. He was constantly hooting and yelping to all the other fishermen rubbing it in their faces. He dropped us of when he ran out of rocks/bags and headed back out to catch more.
We turned around to see him in this mask (AKA sun protection) haha a little terrifying.
The fishermen nap by the road under bamboo huts with their fish laying out like this until some restaurant owner pulled up on their moped and bought them all for the night.
After fishing we rented scooter to find a dive shop. We ended up at the number 1 dive shop Adventure Divers Bali(thanks trip advisor!) and booked the next day diving the USAT Liberty wreck. We then scooted around checking out some back roads that led to some rural farms and trails. After some dinner we called it a night and prepared for the next day diving.
After a quick breakfast we got picked up at 7:30 AM and driven to the dive shop. After some coffee we tried on gear and hopped in the van for a 40 minute drive to the dive site.
The USAT Liberty was a U.S. army transport ship that was struck by a Japanese torpedo during WW2. They beached the ship before abandoning it on the Bali coast. Then, when the volcano erupted in 1960, the ship was pushed further into the ocean where it sits today. This is all what our guide told us...I haven't fact check any of it...but it sounds legit.
Anyway, the dive was great. We spent an hour looking at a wide verity of aquatic life and trying to identify the different parts of the ship. We saw a gun barrel and our first sea turtles.
They fed us quite well at the dive shop.
We dove the same site for our second dive but this time went through the hallways and through out the wreck. Very cool.
The next day we dove again. This time we dove the Amed beach. These 2 dives were great, relaxed dives around some cool coral reefs and a wall.
We feel in love with Amed and it was hard saying goodbye to our incredible accommodation and the beautiful coastline. We had to head back down south in preparation for our morning flight back to Singapore. The drive was nice and we were able to fit in a coffee plantation stop to try some of the famous Luwac coffee...not to bad. (If you're not familiar with Luwac coffee it is coffee made from red beans that were eaten and digested by the Luwac animal A.K.A. Pooped out coffee beans). We also were able to taste tons of flavored coffee and teas, everything from coconut to hibiscus. This was all free, the coffee plantation assumes that you'll love some enough to buy it on your way out (and they are correct).
Sadly we did more research later on and found out that Luwacs are nocturnal but are often fed coffee beans day and night and aren't given a very diverse diet because the beans are so profitable...
Special luwac coffee preparation
All the different flavors.
THE luwac coffee.
We checked back into the Radisson for our last night and had another great meal at our favorite restaurant.
The next morning we took a shuttle to the airport and flew off to Vietnam! (With a quick...6 hour...layover in Singapore)
