Amed Amusements

The final stop on Martha's whirlwind Indonesian trip was Amed, my favorite beaching/snorkeling/chilling spot on east Bali.  I love the mountains sitting right next to the sea in the Amed area... it makes for some pretty beautiful scenery:

 

The mountain and sea views from our hotel room at Baliku ("my Bali")... please note the frequent rooster and pig noises:

Jukung fishing boats all lined up along the black sand beach:

I just liked these vintage-looking matches:

Baliku's delicious bubur hitam (black rice pudding, topped with coconut milk and palm sugar syrup)... the rest of the food at Baliku was pretty awesome, too.  Particularly their beef rendang, which is served fusion style with pita and cucumber yogurt sauce- awwwwwwesome.

While in Amed I was actually successful in getting Martha to snorkel!!  Score!  We had tried in the past with little success, but I was determined for her to see the beautiful coral and fish just under the surface in the Amed area.  Turns out the key is: rent a life vest!!

We saw a ton of stuff, too (although I forgot my underwater camera... doh!).  Right in front of our hotel, we saw some sweet coral as well as the coral-covered Japanese wreck.  Then we spent some time at nearby Lipah beach (having hopped motorbike taxis to get there- exciting!), where there was more lovely coral and lots of fish, including Moorish idols, titan triggerfish (which we saw picking up and transporting bits of coral), trumpetfish, giant clams, a Spanish dancer nudibranch eggs, and approximately a zillion other fish.

Lipah beach is pretty awesome- rent a chair and umbrella for the day, snorkel and swim, listen to the gamelan being played behind you:

We also did a sunset cruise on the junkung (like Tim and I did for my birthday last year), which was lovely:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also saw some amazing sunsets from our hotel's balcony area... the perfect happy hour drink spot:

 

From our balcony we could also see the top of Lombok's Mt. Rinjani looking imposing in the distance. Check out Colleen and Steve's insane photos from the top of Rinjani!

And lots and lots of jukung fishing boats, out quite early in the morning (this is them coming back in at 7 am) with their beautifully colored sails:

Miss you, Amed!