We spent a few days in Amed but I’m going to condense it all into one post as it wasn’t nearly as busy as some of our destinations. In fact we specifically chose to go there for a few days downtime given we had spent 3 months sightseeing pretty much non-stop.
After our marathon journey we were glad to check into our accommodation at Depotrek Villas – our en-suite room was beautiful with a veranda and typical Balinese bathroom (although with only cold water available!!). The two brothers who were running the place were super-nice and quick to answer any questions we had. The breakfast was great and their pool, although quite small, was really nice to relax by and great for a morning swim. If you can stand cold showers (and when its 30 degrees plus it ain’t so bad!) then we’d definitely recommend them.
Although it is quiet with regard to tourism there is still a large local community which mainly subside on fishing. This does mean that the seafood is both cheap and plentiful! We were getting fresh tuna steak with vegetables, rice and Balinese sauce (a slightly spicy tomato sauce) for around $2 a go – awesome. The menu of every warung (family restaurant) is virtually identical which is a little disappointing, however there should be enough choice to keep you busy for a few days. We’d like to give particular recommendation to Warung Ole which was a bit of a walk from our accommodation but provided a stellar meal of delicious juicy ribs.
Amed is also home to a few of that universal constant, the reggae bar. It seems no matter what far flung corner of the world you might find yourself you can always find a red, gold and green painted bar blasting out Bob Marley. I once read that Bob Marley is the most internationally recognised figure on the planet (beating even Jesus and Ronald McDonald), now I believe it. This is good news as it means you’ll always find good tunes, a cold drink and friendly people (and probably some ganja if you’re looking, but we weren’t). We enjoyed a couple of nights with local bands serenading us with reggae covers and many bars have local dance performances on every couple of days as well.
During the day you can take your time doing anything. Kicking back on the beach was the main mission for us, however the beach here is not a sandy paradise, it’s a pebbly one. The beach is covered in dark smooth volcanic stone alongside a lot of trash which washes in from the locals dumping in the ocean. I discussed this with the local dive centre and it would seem that it gets worse at particular times of year due to the currents, and we were in the middle of a bad patch. Don’t let that ruin anything however. Walking down to the edge of the bays you can usually find a quiet cleaner spot to kick back and catch some rays.
Amed is also particularly good for snorkelling, with the reefs lying just a few metres from the shore. We spent a good few hours with our heads under the surface messing about with the underwater camera. Life near the shore was quite plentiful, although there were areas of significant reef damage too. My favourite bit was finding this tiny cuttlefish hanging around just inches from the shore. It wasn’t at all frightened and was flashing warning signs at my hand (because I bunched up my hand and pretended to be a cuttlefish too).
