After my culturally intoxicating visit to Ubud I decided to leave the weirdly calming chaos behind and head to the beach for some proper R&R. I wanted to explore the East side of the island, which is much quieter than the Southern beaches near Kuta.
As the sun rose, the tip of Gunung Agung turned red, it was magical.
Salt manufacturing - the traditional way.
Jukung lined up along the beach.
It was a long drive from Ubud, but the scenery was spectacular (see my previous entires for Taman Tirta Gangga and the rice terraces) and I loved driving through the little villages and settlements along the coast and on the mountain roads.
Amed is one such little village, which used to solely depend on rice, fish and salt for its industry but now caters somewhat for the tourist trade, especially for diving and snorkelling. There is a WWII wreck just off the coast and very clear waters (although I did not experience this for myself).
After checking into my beachside bungalow and chilling by the pool for a while I went for a walk along the black sandy beach to watch the sunset behind the volcano.
The next morning I took a stroll along the beach to watch the spectacular sunrise and I was happy to see that the traditional village life still continued (at this quiet time of day at least). I saw the fishermen heading out in their traditional style boats which are called jukung (there were even some wooden ones amongst the shiny new fibreglass ones), there were families rising early to start the day's work - with their pigs and hens running on the beach, the fish smokers were getting going to preserve the fish for its journey to market and guys making salt metres from the waterline - still in the traditional solar evaporation methods which have been used for centuries in this part of Bali.
I even saw fish jumping out of the water right in front of me - but even with my ninja camera skills I'm sorry I missed the shot. Maybe next time. Amed is a beautiful, peaceful and tranquil place and I'm glad I made the trip here.
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