Rai picked us up bright and early, and we were once again on the road. This time we were headed to Amed, a small village on the North-Eastern coast of Bali. What should have been a few hours in the car, ended up taking us nearly all day because Rai had decided to make a few unscheduled “special” stops for us. These stops included different factories that no one was really interested in, however, one stop that we made that is worth noting was the temple of Pura Besakih, the largest Hindu temple in all of Bali. It was quite a beautiful structure, but unfortunately it was a special holiday that day, so we weren’t allowed to see all of it. By 4 p.m we were pulling into Amed, and we were devastated to find that there was no accommodation available. Every place that we went to informed us that they were full. After searching for about an hour we were all “at wits end” and about to give up. That is until we made it to Ekna Purnama (which was at the edge of town and the second last place on the strip). Although they were indeed full, George and his wife Elou, invited us to come and stay in there home with them. They had a fantastic place built high on the side of a hill overlooking the ocean. It was the best room in all of Amed, and they graciously gave it to us to use. Jono and Tim Even ended up sleeping out on a platform on the roof with an amazing view of the stars!
What was almost a complete disaster ended up being truly amazing! After waking up with a beautiful sunrise, we spent our morning walking around Amed. We had planned on climbing one of the mini-mountains close to our hotel, but the closer we got to it, the bigger it became. We were so hot that we decided that we would skip that adventure and instead go snorkelling. Amed was said to have had the best snorkelling in Bali, and it did not disappoint. We saw many beautiful fish and coral, and were even able to catch a few glimpses at the World War II ship that had sunk just off the coast. It was great! We were sad to say goodbye to George, Elou and their cute daughter Yona, but the next day we had to move on.