Bali

Well, after just over a year spent at home, we decided it was time to go overseas again. Instead of going straight to Europe, we discovered that it was the same price to stop along the way, so we decided to do some more adventuring around Asia. First stop – Bali!

We decided to stop in Bali first to teach the kids their Open Water Scuba course and get them certified in warm water so that we could have the option of stopping for some dives during our travels. So, our first stop in Bali was the town of Amed on the east coast where supposedly the best snorkelling and diving is.

Amed

The town of Amed is essentially one road where every other shop is a dive business! I have no idea how all these businesses remain afloat because it doesn’t seem like there are enough divers to keep them all in business… 🤔 Here are some pictures of the street in Amed (view from our hotel):

Anyway, we stayed for a week at a nice little bungalow at the La Bila Dive Resort. It was a very small, family run place with only about 6 bungalows (we took 2) and for most of our stay, we were the only guests there. Ketut and his family were so nice and friendly and went out of their way to help us and make our stay enjoyable and memorable. Here are some photos from around La Bila:

The French manager of the on-site dive shop informed us that due to various Indonesian laws, we would not be able to just rent dive gear and teach the kids to dive, we would instead have to hire a guide / instructor to be there with us. In the end, we negotiated a good price. They found a family member to lend us their pool for a day and we had another instructor with us just hanging out for the Open Water dives. And, the bonus was that this instructor led the dive for us on the last dive to the USAT Liberty shipwreck, drove the van for us and arranged for porters to carry the tanks and gear! 😊

We found the weather to be incredibly hot and humid (rainy season is approaching so the humidity is really high). The kids enjoyed trying out new and different flavoured ice creams from the shop. These ones were the strangest:

Amed to Candidasa

Our original plan was to spend the next 4 nights on an island off Bali called Nusa Penida. However, once we factored in the additional cost of the ferry and the time spent getting there and back, we decided to change this and go to Candidasa instead.

Our hotel owner, Ketut, drove us to Candidas and suggested that we stop at a coffee and tea tasting place and Tirta Gangga water palace on the way.

Coffee / Tea tasting

This place offered a tasting of a bunch of different coffees and teas.

We even tried the famous Lewak coffee for an extra $5 – this is the one where the Lewak animal eats the beans, then poos it out. They collect the poo, then separate the beans and then remove the husks to get the bean inside.

Tirta Gangga

Tirta Gangga is a beautiful water palace. There were fountains and water features everywhere – including a swimming pool that you could pay extra to use. The koi fish were so huge!

Candidasa

We found a nice little 2 bedroom apartment in a resort on Airbnb where we could use the resort pool and facilities. It was right on the beach and the view from the balcony and bedrooms was amazing!

The balcony was a perfect place to have a drink and watch the sunset.

The second night we were there, our resort hosted a Barong dance. We had a band come and play and several dancers doing various dances while we had dinner at the small restaurant.

And here’s a short video clip of a small part of one of the dances.

Kuta

After Candidasa, we went to Kuta for 3 nights. We only spent one day walking around Kuta as it was just so touristy and crowded. On our last day in Bali (New Year’s Day) we just hung out at the pool at our hotel and relaxed. Here are some photos of Kuta (although I really didn’t take many for some reason).

Next, we’re off to Kuala Lumpur for a few days…