We took off for one of favorite beach haunts here on the north east coast of Bali for a few days of rest and relaxation. There really is lots of work for us to do in Ubud so it was a welcome respite. Ted and I had many mellow B.E. (Before Elsa) days in Amed our last 2 times here (17 and 13 years ago) and while it was still lovely, BOY how it has changed!
Villas, homestays, bungalows, hotels, spas, restaurants e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e.
Every square inch of coastline has some sort of building on it. Life is still slow and easy but it is also one of the poorest and driest places in Bali so it's not only cushy beach world. The majority of Balinese live a hard life there of fishing and hustling the tamus - and many of them walk for a hour to get to the beach communities to work. Water is also not easy to come by either - which may be a growing problem throughout the island. Anyway, we rented a lovely little bungalow very near the beach and spent some time snorkeling and sunning and swimming in the two pools at our hotel! We met some nice folks from Santa Cruz (our first Americans!) and also a nice couple from Vietnam (mom Vietnamese and dad British) who (thanks be to the gods!) had an 8 year old daughter, Amber who Elsa connected with immediately. I was like a vulture mama when I spotted them by the pool the first day -- so eager to get Elsa a playmate! They watched Maleficient in our room together, eating gummy bears and drilled each other in diving! Elsa wants to practice for swim team (which starts up in 3 weeks - egads!). We got more rain than we bargained for during our three days there but managed to have our fun!
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| Lipah Beach, one of the few sandy beaches in Amed. Most beaches are little black volcanic rocks. Sand is black too. Catamaran Fishing Boats. |
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| Water much bluer when the sun shines! But we still saw lots of glorious coral and all the fantastical colored fishies! |
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| Elsa at our bungalow - saying goodbye to Amed! |
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| This is for my yahtzee peeps (you know who you are!). Elsa's first roll of the night - and she went on to get a SECOND yahtzee and yes, one of those dearly sought after bonus chips. Sigh. The girl's got LUCK! |
Bekah - Amed sounds fabulous. Interesting about the development - controlling that sort of thing takes a civic discipline that needs to be in place first!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, still looks nice. Any beach community is a good one!
G&G