Here are some more pictures and videos I could get the slow internet to upload at the Villas. The video with the rocks is mostly for the sound
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Tag: Amed
HFS
Sitting at breakfast looking out to the ocean. It’s not hot – it’s overcast and there’s a nice breeze. At some point I change my focal point and notice the there are a bunch (100 or more) dragonflies buzzing around a few feet above the black sand. It looks like a miniature helicopter fly-in. Fascinating.
So, I remember thinking the other day that I hope I don’t have to drive the POS in the rain. After breakfast, I packed up and checked out of the wonderful little hotel in Amed and started the journey to the next place. The plan for today was two waterfalls and an overlook into the crater of an old volcano which is now a lake. On the way to my next location in the mountains.
First waterfall at Les was easy to find. The last bit of road had me questioning if I was lost, but I wasn’t. A guy helped me park and then said I could pay 20,000 to go see the waterfall or 70,000 and he’d go as a guide. 70,000 is around $6 so I took the guide option. He told me all about all the plants growing that we passed as well as other tidbits of Bali information. The waterfall was beautiful. I wish I had brought my bathing suit, but waded in the stream until the mist cooled me off.
Then I started heading up into the mountains and got google maps back on line for the next waterfall. Google maps lied. It lies a lot. It was starting to rain and the road was quite steep and narrow so I decided to not try to turn around and go back for the waterfall. But 15 minutes past where google maps would have me go there was a sign for the Gitgit waterfall so I didn’t miss it after all. The entrance fee for this one was way more and I almost turned around. But, I put on my rain jacket and went anyway. It was rushing brown water and extremely loud. It was eerie and dark in the canyon. I put some of Scott’s ashes in the waterfall.
Now it’s raining harder and google maps decided not to map the next location. Google maps will still show me where I am, just not where I’m going. So, that should still work, but it’s annoying. The road got narrower and steeper and the rain got harder. I had to drive with the windows open most of the ride to keep the window from fogging. At least the windshield wipers worked. I turned on the lights, but have no idea if they were working or not. In a lot of places it wasn’t wide enough for 2 cars and the oncoming cars would be over the centerline. Sometimes the road was crumbling away on one side or the other. Then the POS started singing a horrible screeching song in 1st or 2nd gear, but I refuse to go fast enough downhill to use 3rd. Every other switchback is some horror or another. I must have the world record for the most times anyone has said “Holy Fucking Shit” in a two hour period. In Colorado there is a road between Idaho Springs and Central City called the “Oh My God Road”. The road from Gitgit to Munduk must be named the “Holy Fucking Shit Road”. I got to the overlook of the first lake. There should also be a hot springs nearby, but there is no way I am looking for a hot springs right now. My fingers are freezing because it’s cool at this altitude and I have had the AC blowing full blast and the windows open to try to keep the windshield from fogging. A hot springs actually sounds great. It’s raining so hard, there is no crater lake view to be had.
I finally drive down some side street forever into the middle of nowhere and find the villas I am staying at. Everything in the area looks run down and deserted. I hope the villas exist. It’s far enough away from the village that I won’t be walking into the village later. I find the place and someone comes out with an umbrella and helps me with my suitcase. I walk into the reception / open air restaurant area and see that there are a bunch of buildings surrounding terraced rice fields. What? My villa is in the middle of a rice field. It’s beautiful. They bring me coffee and a snack. Then they tell me the garden (rice fields) room I booked won’t be available tonight, but they will move me there tomorrow. The room they give me for tonight overlooks a small waterfall.
The wifi sucks. The dinner was fabulous. I signed up for a tour and a class tomorrow. Right after the sun set the rice fields and area around came alive with sounds I’ve never heard before. Probably frogs and snakes and bugs. It’s creepy and wonderful all at the same time. I came back to my cute little room above the rushing waterfall. The water is so loud, but I can still hear some of the chattering sounds outside. My door is slatted so I get to live with the bugs. I put bug spray on after my shower just to be safe. Then I heard the very loud unmistakable sound of a tokay. It sounds like he’s in my room. My room is slightly less wonderful now. I guess it’s training for going back to Sam Ngao. After moving most of the furniture to check behind it and use it to stand on to see up high, I have determined that the tokay is not in the room. He must be outside by the window or on the thatched roof. I’m not going outside to confirm that. I’m just going with that story.
The wifi sucks here so not all my pictures uploaded. I’ll try in a few days.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Muck Diving
Today I went diving. I had almost private diving again. There was another guy diving and since we were different experience levels, they gave us two dive guides so that I could do deeper and longer dives. Wow, I’ve never had a dive company do that before. It was shore diving. They drove us 20 minutes to the next town. The shore operation was fascinating. It was a 5 minute walk from the parking lot down a trail to a rock “beach”. There were quite a few other divers. There were porters that brought all the stuff down. Woman would carry bags or bins of gear down to the beach on their heads. I saw some carrying tanks on their heads as well. Then there were guys that rode motorbikes down while carrying 4 tanks and weight belts. I’ve seen a lot of things on motorbikes, but four heavy tanks of air balanced in front of them was just nuts. Then, the whole process would reverse itself as they brought stuff back up to the parking lot.
Getting in the water was tricky as there was no sand, just rock and the rock moves as the water and your feet connect with them. The rocks are all black and when you swam out to the sandy part, it was all black. I’ve never dove blank sand before. It looked so alien. Because it’s so rocky, there is very little coral as it’s difficult for coral to attach to rock. There is a wreck not far off shore which is full of coral and fish life. The ship was the USAT Liberty which was a cargo ship that was torpedoed in 1942. They were able to beach it on Bali and get the cargo off. It stayed beached until 1963 when the tremors from a volcanic eruption caused it to slide into the water and sink. This area is known for what is called muck diving. Not a ton of big fish, but lots of tiny things hidden in the rocks, sand and the little bit of coral that has managed to grow. There is a small royal blue fish about 1 to 2 inches long that I’ve seen on almost every dive everywhere around the world. My favourite part was seeing schools of these swimming above the black sand. The black background made the blue so sharp it looked like the fish were glowing with blue light. I’m not a huge fan of wrecks, but this one was pretty cool. The amount of coral and fish life was amazing, probably because there isn’t much else around. The wreck was very large too. Saw another sea turtle. The second dive was like Easter egg hunting – swimming from one tiny bit of coral reef to the next looking for tiny creatures. My dive guide was good at finding them. He found an itty bitty sea horse about a quarter inch big.
After diving I ventured into town. I think ‘town’ might be a big word for where I’m staying. I think it was small enough that I actually walked the length of two towns. There is basically one street and that is all. It is lined with guest houses and homestays, restaurants, and dive shops. It’s mostly still a fishing village. I got a massage. They use oil so now I’m just hot, sweaty, covered in oil and sand. Everything is sticking to me. I had dinner at a different place and wanted to stay out and check out the place with live music, but I couldn’t stand the oil anymore and I love the place I’m staying so the thought of a shower and then camping out in my wonderful bed won over live music.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
The Plan
My experience with making a plan is that 90% of the time nothing goes according to the plan. Still, we make plans. Today was no different. The first beach I chose was supposed to have the blackest sand on this side of Bali according to the guide book. I got there and it was a construction zone. Machines were moving large boulders around. The tide was in so there was no beach. I could tell that if there had been a beach, it would have had very black sand. So, back into the POS to find the next beach. I got to see rice fields on the way to and from the beach so, check! – Picture of rice fields. Now, one of the side roads I was going to take later to see rice fields didn’t need to happen. The next beach was supposed to have a ton of mica in the sand so it’s extra glittery. I like glitter. There was a parking lot and some Bali restaurants and not much else. Since the tide was still in, the water came up to the wall. I could tell from the parking lot, that, yes, this would be a glittery beach, but not right now. I tried to order lunch, but all they had was fish. How do you have fish, but not shrimp? Then again, Google Translator could be lying. It does that often. I gave up and decided to eat lunch at the next beach. The next beach was not part of the plan, but I was determined to get a beach. No, not a beach. It was a harbor for a very large ferry and more dive operations than I’ve ever seen in one location. I did find a restaurant for lunch though. So, that’s the end of the beach portion of the plan and we are 0 for 3.
At many points of the day I am sweating so hard that I think water is pouring out of my face. I didn’t think a face could sweat that much. I grew up in Florida, but I don’t remember heat and humidity like this.
I decided to head to the place I’m staying tonight. The road goes more inland. There is a water temple on the way which is the next part of the plan. Google Maps decides to not work so we are going by signs and the map in the guide book. It shouldn’t be an issue to get to Amed without google maps, but the water temple is probably a loss and hopefully the resort is easy to find when I get to Amed.
I’ve finally figured out what the white stripes on the road mean. If you see a white stripe on the road, there is a driving lane to the left of the stripe, a driving lane to the right of the stripe and a driving lane straddling the stripe. At some point the road narrowed and buildings lined both sides of the road so there was no way to pull over, stop and check the map. The road wound up and down with huge curves. Often, the buildings would go away on one side of the road revealing stunning views. I couldn’t take pictures of any of it because there was no where to stop and I need both my hands to drive. The signs did not lead me astray though. I only missed one turn – the one to the water temple.
I saw an area with about 20 cars parked so I assumed that might be the temple. I had to drive quite a distance before I found a place I could turn around. I wasn’t going to miss everything on the plan though so I went back and it was the parking for the water temple! Actually, it wasn’t a temple, but a water palace. Taman Tirta Gangga was built in 1948 and has two swimming ponds, and a bunch of other ponds with fountains and koi in them. My favorite had stepping stones at water level so it felt like you were walking on water. They led different paths through the water like a labyrinth. As I headed back to my car there was a guy with snakes you could pay to pose with for pictures. He also had a bat and tiny owls. OWLS. My distaste of animal tourism out the window. Hell yea, I’ll pay you to hold a tiny owl and get my picture taken.
After that I headed to Amed by way of sign instead of electronic map. The road got smaller and smaller until it was slightly larger than one lane. Yet from the signs advertising guesthouses and scuba diving, I knew I was on the right path. I almost missed the sign that pointed to the place where I’m staying, but managed to hit the brakes and turn at the last second. I parked near the entrance and a guy asked if I was Kim.
This is no five star resort, but I’m in love with it. The dive shop is at the same place as the hotel so I was able to check in and I don’t have far to go tomorrow morning. There are a row of rooms on either side of a courtyard. Almost the entire courtyard is taken up by a pool. There’s a restaurant and a short distance from the restaurant and the pool is a black sand beach. You can see huge mountains when you are in the ocean. Each room has a covered deck looking out to the ocean and the decks all have bean bag chairs on them. My room is large, very yellow and has a bed built into the middle of the room. I can hear the ocean from my room. I stayed here for dinner because I’ve had enough venturing out for today and because I love this place. The food was great and I got to catch up on yesterday and today’s blogs.
I checked in with Mom. My brother is there again. They were getting ready to go to the funeral of my cousin’s son. The funeral for my Mom’s husband is Saturday. I wish I could be there. I’ve been struggling with feeling like I should go back and feeling very strongly that it isn’t the right decision. There’s a huge part of me that doesn’t want to go back to Sam Ngao and teach. That part is telling me to move back to the US. To stay in Sam Ngao would be the more difficult choice. I don’t feel that it’s the right time to go back to the US. I’m stuck again in the place of what “should” I do. I’m thinking of the future instead of being here. I’m feeling like I need to have a plan, make a decision, control the situation. But, I know that this is all part of the learning. The truth is that I don’t know the right answer, I don’t have to make a decision now and if I control the situation, it will not turn out happy for me. So, as uncomfortable as it is for me, I wait. I wait for life to unfold and happen the way it should.
I also had the thought on the dive boat yesterday that I would love to be on a boat and diving every day. Then I had the thought that I don’t have the money to get my dive master certification and it would be a hard life financially. I see that I took something wonderful that I was enjoying and in my head made it impossible to have that as my life. Instead, my life will be teaching in Sam Ngao, moving to Wisconsin which I have no desire to do, or some unknown other thing that is also ok, but I don’t love it. So, the belief that there’s not enough for me is still in operation at a very subtle level. I can never really have what I want. This has been one of my core issues. I want to love my life. I want to love my work and have it be enough financially. I want to put an end to drama and the need for there to always be some hurdle to get over. And it’s tied to doing and planning. And it’s tied to what’s going on with Mom. And it’s tied to the dissolving of the ego. So for now, I have no plan and I don’t know what I’m going to do in a couple weeks when vacation is over. I have no idea how I’m going to get that job I love or what that job is. I’m just watching what comes up and noticing it.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Rraine Drops 