Snorkelling the Japanese shipwreck.

12.11.11

Today we hired mopeds and went off up the coast to try and find

the site of the Japanese shipwreck. We buzzed over the

hilly terrain with terrific views over each little black

sanded cove lined with smiling water-boatman fishing boats.

We took a wrong turning in land and wound through a tropical

feeling valley, the road shadowed by tall palm trees. Coming

reound a corner at one point was a swarm of school children all

piling out of school, driving like lunatics on both sides of the

road. We had quite a hairy experience when one boy came

tearing towards us on the wrong side of the roads turning around

chatting to his passengers, after several beeps on the horn he

realised he was heading straight for us and at the last second

swerved to avoid us and then continued laughing with his friends.

We didn't find it quite so funny!! We stopped for petrol from a

man at the side of the road, sat on his veranda, he kindly told us

we were going the wrong way and were headed straight for the police!

So we back tracked and found the turning he had directed us to. This

continued up and down hill aong the coast passed numerous small

resorts and diving schools, until we came across a sign for parking

for the Japanese wreck.

The wreck was off a stony beach, only about 5 metres off shore.

However it still took a little time to find as the tide kept taking

us off in the wrong direction. Snorkelling around this wreck was

another magical experience. We had been disappointed that we couldn't

afford to scub around this and the Liberty wreck but in actual fact

you couldn't have seen a huge amount more around this wreck as it was

in such shallow water.

It's really quite eery under water, I'm always a little afraid, especially

when you are swimming over the skeleton of a near complete hull and you

can imagine what the ship must have looked like. On the ships carcass

was all different types of coral. Barin matter was being nibbled on by

tiny electric blue fish. I swam through huge sholes of silver fish

flashing in and out the autumn forest growing off the main hull. Below

on the sea floor was huge blue starfish and larger fish lurking in the

shadows. Just behind the main bulk of the ship the sea bed suddenly got

a lot deeper. There was little coral from this point and the water seemed

a lot cloudier. I was too scared to venture beyond this point, my

imagination going in to over drive!

Afterwards we went for lunch a short walk in to a resort up a hill with

great views overlooking the bay, before we had to nip back for a taxi to

take us to Kuta.

On the 3 hour drive back to Kuta, we passed Tirta Ganga again and the

beautiful views of the rice terraces in the valley below. Our driver

kindly stopped for me to take snaps. The journey was relatively swift

all the way to Sanur, as there is a dual carriage way that is partly

open. Then at Sanur you hit traffic and Kuta is a maze of one way

systems with hundreds of taxis sat at a stand still.

Our driver 'missed' the turning for the one way road we needed to get to so

dropped us off in Poppies II and we began the arduous prcess of room hunting

in our budget. We ended up choosing somewhere slightly over our budget

because it was just so much nicer and cleaner than the places we had

found at the top end of our budget, which were just really grotty!

To be honest neither Martin nor I had been looking forward to coming to

Kuta, with it's reputation for being the 'party capital' of Kuta but

we thought we should probably do some partying at some point on our

travels. I particularly had to coax Martin in to coming somewhere

where the main purpose was to go out for beer!!

Anyway on first impressions, Kuta lived up to our expectations. Poppies

I and II are full off tacky souvenir stalls and trinket shops interspersed

with cafes and bars. The place is full of skimpily dressed Aussies/Brits in

obscene T-shirts! But we found a a warong that was in lonely planet that

had a huge menu of Indonesian food and for really cheap.

Snorkelling in Amed.

11.11.11

We had arranged for Ari to pick us up and take us to Amed

about 3 hours away. About 3/4's of the way there we stopped

at Tirta Gangga, a beautiful water palace built for the

regional sultan to relax in. It is set amongst green

rice fields and on the site is a small temple at the base

of a 200 year old Baboban tree and the source of the spring.

There are beautiful pools with fountains and carp. We had a very

amusing guide who crammed in as much Australian 'lingo' as he could

and asked if we were clear after every sentence!

Half an hour of driving later we were on the stetch of coast known

as Amed, which is a 15-20km stretch of villages, one of which

is called Amed. Ari took us to a few different guesthouses/

homestays before we found one in our price range that was

located away from the beach but only a 3 minute walk and right

near the coral reef.

Again the black stone beach was deserted apart from fishing boats

and local people, with the odd tourist snorkelling. We had a

really good fresh fish lunch in a warung on the beach and

then hired some snorkelling sets.

I hadn't snorkelled for about 10 years and at first I felt a

little bit panicky until I got used to just breathing through

my mouth. But I soon forgot all about this when I got to

reef which was only a few metres off shore. The sheer numbers

and different type of fish was amazing and there were so many

different varieties of coral. I saw 'nemo' type fish, sholes

of tiny electric blue fish, stiped yellow and blue fish, large

fish that looked like a huge razor, giant blue star fish and

fish that were about 1 foot in length and different shades of

pale reds, blues and yellows. It was definately a highlight

of our time in Indonesia so far.

This evening we went to a different warung. I had fish in

Balinese sauce (lemon grass, ginger and chillies) steamed in

banana leaves with rice. I'd had chicken like this before,

and both time it was delicious. We decided to try Arak, the

palm wine for the first time, so ordered 3 shots. The shots were

huge - 2/3s of a wine glass. First taste, it was disgusting!

So we piled in fresh lime and topped it up with sprite. It got

a bit more bearable! By the end of the glass Martin was quite

enjoying it - I still wasn't convinced!! But we kept the

warung owner entertained watching us trying to drink it!

As we were sat having our meal there was a huge storm, which

was amazing to watch. Each time the thunder made us jump

and it was frightening watching the fork lightening strike.

It's not something you really experience very often in the UK.

I couldn't believe how loud the thunder was.