We wake up very early (around 6:30 a.m.) to hang around in the Ubud Market next to our hotel. There are no tourists, only locals. The decor is authentic. Balinese people shop between fish, vegetables, fruits and especially flowers for the morning blessing ritual. It’s recommanded to have a tour at this market on early morning if you have the opportunity.
Around 8:00 am, the decor begins to change, the small local stands give way to tourist shops. We return to the hotel for breakfast before vacating the room. We leave our motorbike at the hotel, we will come back to collect it few days later. The driver we found via Facebook picks us up at 09:00 to go to Amed. He lives there (Iwayanputu Dinamerta. He tells us to just call him Putu). We will pay 900,000 Rp (60 €) for the round trip with stops in Besakih, Tirta Gangga on the way, and a stop at Secret Beach on the way back (07/09). Let’s go 🙂
Our driver is very cool. He tells us a bit about Balinese traditions and values. He also talks to us about his life dream: to go around Europe 🙂
We arrive at the Pura Besakih temple around 10:45 am. It is the mother temple of Bali which regroups the 3 Hindu deities (trinity): Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. It is said that a few years ago, it was complicated to visit the temple because of some Balinese who lay down the law and ask for astronomical amounts in black to let you visit the temple (50-100 €). Tourists and even locals had abandoned the temple. Local authorities have regained control and it is now well organized. You have to pay 60,000 Rp / person (4 €) which includes, the visit with a local guide and the rental of the Sarong. We have our guide and we start the tour. We can start the visit, we preferred to do it, relatively, quickly. We went around in 1:30, the time to take pictures and soak up the spirit of the temple. The temple is immense, it is even a grouping of temples: one for each deity with a central temple which gathers all the disciples. It’s impressive !
We leave towards the Water Temple : Tirta Gangga, we arrive there around 12:45. At the entrance, you can buy fish kibbles for 5000 Rp (0.40 €). It is more practical to have kibbles to group the fish around you in order to take photos, even if it is not a good practice, because the fish only eat all day long, and get very big and above all, lose their hunting instinct 😦
To access the temple, you have to pay 40,000 Rp / person (2.6 €). We discover the temple: the landscape is lovely but impossible to appreciate with the very large number of visitors. Everyone gathers in the central pool which is full of big fishes, beautiful but very big. To go through the pool, you have to queue for 1 hour under a blazing sun. It’s a tourist trap! We lined up anyway to take some souvenir photos and then we ran away.
It is 2:00 pm, at the exit of the temple, on the main road, we see a nice little warung: « Warung Rijasa ».
We sit down to eat and order the authentic Nasi Goreng and Mie Goreng with a Bintang for 70,000 Rp (4.5 €)
We join our driver and leave for Amed. The landscape is sublime: Rice fields on both sides of the road
We arrive in Amed around 3:00 p.m., we choose to arrive early enough to discover the charming fishing village. The driver drops us off at our accommodation.
Accomodation : Teman Teman Bungalows 1
Address : Amed raya,jemeluk beach
1 night, from 09/03/2019 to 09/04/2019
Price: 14 € / 225.000 Rp
Booked with Booking.com
Once installed, we go for swim and snorkel at the beach in front of the accommodation. It is a beautiful black sand beach with small multicolored fishing boats, the symbol of Amed. The village of Amed is really beautiful 🙂
We return back to our room for a shower: a break is essential. Around 5:00 p.m., we leave for the Sunset point (600 m from our accommodation). We arrive at the right time to watch the sunset.
The view is splendid but spoiled by work in progress 😦
We go down a bit to get a better view, without the works :
After sunset, we take the way back and stop at Villa CORAL for dinner. The place is magnificent: you are alone in the world on the beach with the night falling. We order grilled fish dishes with butter-lemon sauce. The fish is Mahi-Mahi: a local specialty. It’s delicious. I also taste Arak, which is a local liqueur: try it.
We walk back to the hotel on the beach with the moonlight. Our driver comes to give us our return tickets for tomorrow’s for the fast boat to Gili. The only company that makes the Amed-Gili route is Freebird Express. We paid 650,000 Rp for 2 persons round trip (44 €)
My Trip Memories 