To north-east Bali

Back to mainland Bali

We had a 0915 ferry from Nusa Penida back to Sanur.  The hotel had arranged a car for us departing at 0815 so that we’d get to the ferry 30 minutes before departure.  It turned out to be shared with another couple.  Perhaps that explains why it is cheaper than the two separate motorbikes that we took.

Traffic was heavy along the narrow roads and we had to stop a few times to allow opposing vehicles to pass.  We chatted to the other couple who weren’t too friendly.  They said they were from Croatia but when I asked which city, they said they were actually Croats from Bosnia-Herzegovina.  I could feel the negativity about their country in our conversation and it is a good indicator that the country’s turbulent history isn’t history just yet.

We got to the ferry office about 30 minutes prior to the ticketed departure time.  We waited till after the departure time when they loaded the bags and then boarded us by way of a floating walkway.  We left only 20 minutes late for the 35 minute journey.  As with the journey from Sanur, the engines were very quiet.

The “extreme” ride

Disembarking at Sanur, we were only knee-deep.  I found our driver Adi and his understudy Purnama (born on a full moon night).  After some waiting for our luggage and admin, we set off around 1100.

Google Maps indicated a 2h drive but Adi indicated 3h.  We stopped for lunch near the Bat Cave Temple.  They knew a good place for pork satay but it was closed.  Their second choice was closed too so we settled for third choice.  The meal was light but I was full enough.  I said to Adi I was “kenyang” (full in Bahasa Indonesia) but he joked that in Bahasa Bali, it means the male erection!  People joking ask to clarify whether they mean “kenyang” in which language!

When paying, I realised the price was just over half what I had tallied up according to the menu; perhaps the menu was foreigner price!

With festivities in progress along the way, we took some interesting detours through very hilly windy country roads which Adi described as “extreme”.  Parts were a little extreme and with poor phone signal none of our phone sat-nav worked well meaning we took a few wrong turns.  To make matters worse, the roads were too narrow with no safe shoulders to allow u-turns.  The car’s radiator temperature gauge went up bordering the red zone.  But it was quite nice to see many people dressed up in the countryside and women carrying offerings on their heads.

My only requirement on the ride was to get some money from the ATM.  The BRI ones hadn’t worked for me this trip nor on previous ones.  Sadly they were the only ones we encountered once we had left the built up areas.  We arrived into Amed around 1430, some 3h30 after departure without a successful ATM stop.  I was a little worried about being short of money but fortunately the Putra Lebah guesthouse people told me there were other ATMs further along on the street.

Settling into Amed

The walk to the nearby ATM and back was very hot.  I was very ready for a swim.  The water was pleasantly cool and very clear due to the stony (rather than sandy) beach.  The water was also very salty and buoyant and we later realised that locals collect it to make salt by dryng it in dug-out halfves of logs over four days.

We had attempted an early dinner in the guesthouse looking out to sea.  It wasn’t that early by the time it arrived though.  For the first time, someone heeded our pleas for the food to be prepared as if it was for locals.  The pepes ikan in particularly was flavoursome and spicy.

Thinking about the ride from Sanur today, it cost us IDR300K (NZD30).  We used to pay more than double that in Fiji (from the airport to Coral Coast) for a ride three-quarters the distance … and that was 20 years ago.  No wonder people from New Zealand and Australia holiday in Asia despite the distance; it is so much more affordable.