22 nd October 2007
I was convinced that I would manage no more than 2 or 3 nights in Amed but here I am 5 nights later having only just checked out of the Sunrise Café this morning. Oddly enough for me that attraction was the serenity of it all. Evenings would end at about 9.30pm at the latest. I drunk little beer or any other alcohol (until the last evening) and ate healthily as dinners were always served with robust portions of vegetables and steamed rice. I think there must have been 5 small resorts along the beachfront that comprised of ‘Sunrise Bay’ so I had dinner in a different one each night. With that simple task complete it just felt like time to move on. The days were a mixture of walking, rehydrating, reading, eating and chatting although the chatting was pretty limited (another reason for choosing to move out and move on now I think about it) as there were virtually no tourists and conversation was limited to brief encounters with the locals viz the temperature, snorkeling equipment and transportation ‘bargains’. My biggest thrill was the snorkeling which revealed extensive hard coral no more than 10metres off the shore line with such a diverse range of marine life it kept me entranced for hours. Box fish, Jacks, I saw one bloody big Barracuda just skulking over sand, Cuttle fish, Angel fish, a plethora of Banded Sea Snakes with their heads out of the sand.. comical!, arguing/fighting Trigger fish, those little spindly buggers that hang vertical in groups of about a dozen, Moorish idols, it was endless and quite incredible.
A close second on the notable events calendar was the sunrise which despite the early evenings to bed I only managed to surface once in time to capture it on camera. It was supreme and added much to the mental image that the Amed visit created in my mind. The pictures are either on Flicker or Facebook.
Yesterday evening brought the Amed visit to a fitting close. The least attractive looking restaurant and therefore my last port of call on the dinner expedition turned out not only to serve the best food but to be the most friendly; and on the evening of my visit allowed me to meet some excellent company and make two lovely new friends. Warung Bali looked like a shed. I’m sorry Warung Bali but it does. A shed with some tables and chairs out the back..beachside. But it served one of the nicest fish curries I have eaten in years. Not rich in cholestrol (coconut milk) sauce it had a gentle non spicy curry flavour to it and was loaded with fresh (steamed, I guess) fish and vegetables. A perfect delight! At the next table were Alain and Mireille. Alain and Mirelle from Belgium. Also a perfect delight. Alain thought I was younger than him and he was younger than me! He knows how to make friends! Conversation was a pleasure and never an effort. Alain is an artist who works with metal. I wasn’t sure but I think he was into household items like candleholders. Forgive me Alain if you read this and I have that completely wrong. We both enjoyed to travel so there was plenty for us to talk about. Alain explained that he plays the flute and in his younger days took his flute on his travels earning his food money from his flute playing. He would learn the local music styles for the country he was visiting which I am sure attracted a few more sheckels than foreign music. He earnt just a little bit of admiration from me for all this. Just to complete the picture Alain still sports a healthy crop of curly hair (which spiked a seam of envy in me) and on this evening wore a Sarong. This is a note to me – I must have a look at the Turkish interior and the South of France. Mireille approved of everything as far as I could tell and clearly felt comfortable with Alain frontstage! Bless them. Oh Yes – Alain introduced me to the Balinese drink Errak. The locally brewed drink that derives from palm trees I think. We took it at Alains suggestion with lemon, honey and ice. It probably doesn’t taste much on it’s own because it tasted like we were drinking lemon, honey and ice. However it oiled the evenings progression admirably
Down The Road 