We had a lovely time in Ubud and enjoyed spending time with a Danish couple we met on the way there. Our next stop was Amed. A 2 and a half hour drive through the wonderful countryside and along the coast led us to a quaint fisherman village with a couple of beach bungalows and black volcanic beaches. We chatted (like always) to the driver and he told us all about the last volcano eruption, what he thought about tourism and the Hindu festival Nyepi that was a very big deal in Bali. The Hindu religion practiced in Bali seems to be rather different to that practiced in India. For example, they do not celebrate Holi or Dawali on Bali and they also eat meat, whereas in India they do not celebrate Nyepi and they definitely to not eat meat.
The festival, Nyepi, indicates the New Year and on the 20th there are huge parades with home-made monsters carried through the streets to ward off the evil spirits and on the 21st it is a day of silence and meditation. The whole island shuts down and only hotel rooms are allowed electricity. You are not even allowed out on the streets and the airport totally shuts down for 24 hours. So before this all happened we enjoyed three days in Amed.
Within the first ten minutes we met a young Spanish couple (18 and 20) who were travelling around Asia and had even been to India. They were sleeping in a tent on the beach to save money and were very keen divers so gave us some good tips. We rented snorkels and went to a Japanese fishing boat wreck where there were tons of colourful fish and coral. This was a good snorkelling introduction. The next day Christian and I went diving. I am pretty much a total beginner and Christian has his open water license but the instructor was happy to take us out on two dives for a very good price. the equipment looked good so off we went to what is considered 'one of the world's best diving sites' (I'm sure this is always used for marketing but I was still excited!) the dive was called 'Liberty wreck', which is an American cargo ship that sunk during the Second World War. The instrutor taught me everything I needed to know and off we went. It was pretty nerve racking at the beginning but once I got the hang of everything I relaxed and could really enjoy diving. We saw soooooo many wonderful colourful fish and coral! we even swam through the wreck, something I heard afterwards not many beginners do. We also dove down to 20 metres...something else not many beginners usually do, but it was a fantastic experience. On our way back we got stuck behind a massive ceremony which was a precursor to Nyepi so instead of sitting in a car for two hours we walked with the locals all dressed in white to Amed and the instructor picked us up on the road once he got through the crowd. The locals were so friendly and seemed glad that we had decided to join in!
The next days were spent chilling in the bungalow with the Spaniards, snorkelling and trying some delicious local fish. Something you have to do when you see the fishermen coming in with there morning catch every day.
Next stop on our trip is Gili Air...
The festival, Nyepi, indicates the New Year and on the 20th there are huge parades with home-made monsters carried through the streets to ward off the evil spirits and on the 21st it is a day of silence and meditation. The whole island shuts down and only hotel rooms are allowed electricity. You are not even allowed out on the streets and the airport totally shuts down for 24 hours. So before this all happened we enjoyed three days in Amed.
Within the first ten minutes we met a young Spanish couple (18 and 20) who were travelling around Asia and had even been to India. They were sleeping in a tent on the beach to save money and were very keen divers so gave us some good tips. We rented snorkels and went to a Japanese fishing boat wreck where there were tons of colourful fish and coral. This was a good snorkelling introduction. The next day Christian and I went diving. I am pretty much a total beginner and Christian has his open water license but the instructor was happy to take us out on two dives for a very good price. the equipment looked good so off we went to what is considered 'one of the world's best diving sites' (I'm sure this is always used for marketing but I was still excited!) the dive was called 'Liberty wreck', which is an American cargo ship that sunk during the Second World War. The instrutor taught me everything I needed to know and off we went. It was pretty nerve racking at the beginning but once I got the hang of everything I relaxed and could really enjoy diving. We saw soooooo many wonderful colourful fish and coral! we even swam through the wreck, something I heard afterwards not many beginners do. We also dove down to 20 metres...something else not many beginners usually do, but it was a fantastic experience. On our way back we got stuck behind a massive ceremony which was a precursor to Nyepi so instead of sitting in a car for two hours we walked with the locals all dressed in white to Amed and the instructor picked us up on the road once he got through the crowd. The locals were so friendly and seemed glad that we had decided to join in!
The next days were spent chilling in the bungalow with the Spaniards, snorkelling and trying some delicious local fish. Something you have to do when you see the fishermen coming in with there morning catch every day.
Next stop on our trip is Gili Air...
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