Considering all bus drivers in Bali fancy them selves as ralley car drivers, the road from Lovina to Amed seemed as though it was designed as a trail to filter out only the best drivers the island has to offer the world. Either die on the offroad mountain side mudtracks or survive the deathtraps and pass the initiation to reach full "Bali ralley bus car driver" status.

We thankfully survived. But there were a few moments when i thought this could be it, i was history, and i never even got to hear the new Red Hot Chilli Peppers album! So as my eyes shut, my ears tuned into Californication and my mind imagining i was on stage with Flea and Anthony rocking out to a screaming crowd benith us, the mountain roads began to stop miandering and winding down down down, the mud slowly turned into tar mac and the beautiful little fishing town of Amed came into site. thank funk... Thank the Chilli Peppers...

Katie read that Amed was like what Kuta was in the 70's, to me that was incredible, as this place was not much more than a small yet active fishing village, with a close community of locals who offered out their houses as homestays and did their best to accomodate the travellers visiting their ends,who were there mainly to hit the volcanic beaches checking out the amazing coral through a set of snorkels and flippers.

The sand was black, the coastal line rugged and raw, and the ladies on the beach selling massages made the most of the resting snorkellers and divers who chilled out across the short beach front leading up to the mountanous headland, which created the secluded bay where we both relaxed on for hours. "This is one of my favourite places so far..."

The sea food was incredible, caught about 50 meters away from you and put directly onto the BBQ. We ate Mahi Mahi and moaned with delight, we snorkelled and gasped with amazement and we travelled back down the east coast to our next destination and realised how lucky we were to see Amed before people find out about it and it turns into Kuta.

On our way down the coast to Legian, about 3.5hours, ralley car tour stage 2, we stopped at the water gardens and palace which was built by a Maharaja with a spare few bucks back in the day. It was a whole palace built on water, with awesome gardens and natural beauty surrounding it. quite extravagant, but quite pretty.

Leaving Amed behind was always going to be sad, but made even worse by the fact that we only have 2 more nights left in Bali!!!!!!!!!

Peace and Flip Flops

Nic and Katie xxx