We have been in Amed on the East coast of Bali for the last 4 days
after the most beautiful drive over from Ubud. Bali is mountainous and
lush green, it’s just really pretty. Especially beautiful is the huge
volcano (see photo), the 1st we’ve both seen, which looms over Amed.

Amed was tiny and very quiet because it’s low ‘rainy’ season.
Aparently it’s busy when it’s all dry and brown, although it is
slightly cooler than now apparently. It is hot here!

Amed is supposed to be renowned for snorkling, however, the sea was
quite rough and a bit dirty most of the time we were there. Jen even
scraped her bum when the waves attacked when we tried to snorkel the
Japanese ship wreck – we gave up shortly after.

We did get one morning when we were able to do 2 hours of snorkling
right off the beach in front of our hotel. The visibility was
incredible and we saw even more different fish than in Thailand. We
even managed to spot 2 reasonable sized turtles where it got deep.
Fantastic!

Otherwise we spent our afternoons by the pool reading and trying to
keep cool. Last night was a little more tense after we found a huge
but apparently harmless spider in our room – Ben screamed like a girl
and jumped on the bed to avoid it’s scuttling but bravely removed it
shortly afterwards. Jen stayed within the safety of the mozzy net.

Now in Candidasa further south after trying to batter down the hotel
prices which are surprisingly expensive even though it’s dead
everywhere. We have a fairly ‘expensive’ ($20 a night) hotel but it’s
gorgeous and incredibly luxurious to us. Can’t escape the taxi and
massage touts though, even around the pool!