Candidasa and Amed

Lunch overlooking the water in Chandidasa

Candidasa is on the east coast of Bali and our next destination. This place is much smaller then the previous two cities we've been to. But it's nice, and we like it. We're dropped off in the center of town (if there is such a thing here) and go to the first bungalow we see: Temple cafe and bungalows. We look at their cheapest room and it's 140,000 for 1 night. We're 20 feet from the beach and have our own bungalow. Pretty sick deal if you ask me and totally lucky we found the perfect place on the first attempt. Normally we walk around for 45 minutes trying to find a good room. 

Candidasa is a sleepy town but has the essentials. The only negative part about the place is that there's really no beach. Well, there's kind of a beach but not really. Hotels line the water and there is a jetty every 25 meters. This is to protect what is left of the beach and hopefully encourage Mother Nature to bring it back. 

After making ourselves comfortable, we get lunch down the street overlooking the sea. It's such a beautiful day and we sit down as stare at the turquoise water. This is something were accustomed to but not in Bali. Kuta beach is more like California water. So we order some sandwiches and just do what you're supposed to do on vacation: kick back, relax, and enjoy. 

Marvelous sunset

Because the actual beach has essentially disappeared, if you wanted to lie out, you'd had to do it pool side with some lawn chairs. The only thing you could do in the water was snorkel. We rented some cheap gear and plunged into the water. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of sea life, just a bunch of beat up coral. 

We watched to sunset over the mountains to the west and later grabbed some food at our hotel restaurant. I had some amazing Balinese pork with rice while Heather took it easy since she was experiencing her first case of Bali belly.

Watch out!

Our second day in Candidasa was pretty much identical to our first day. We had lunch and dinner at the same two places, watched the sunset, and had a mellow night before heading to Amed. 

View of the secret white sand beach

The only difference was we went the secret White Sand beach that's apparently not so secret. It's a 15-minute drive to the place with all sort of weird turns and dirt roads. Our motto has been: b!tches on a budget so we decided to rent a moped to get there ourselves rather than a taxi. Neither of us have taken the reigns on a moped before so I volunteered to be the guinea pig.... And I was f@cking terrified! To make thing a little less anxious, we named our little speed demon, Juan Carlos. He did us proud and got us there and back in one piece. Although I know Heather probably will insist she do the driving next time. Hey, it's harder then it looks! 

Once we got to white sand beach, we found some beach chairs to lie out on. The view was beautiful but the seas were rough. The rip tide was so violent; you couldn't go past knee deep in the water. Regardless, we got out tan on and enjoyed a quite change in scenery. 

Jealous?

Since Candidasa is so far east, shuttle buses to Amed are impossible to get, so we had no choice but to hire a taxi. We headed through the desolate and arid hills until we came upon the uber sleepy town of Amed. They dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, only a handful of restaurants and bungalows around and we ended up booking a room at the first place we see. Another lucky draw! It's low season (not that I can imagine high season being any different) so we got an amazing rate at Cistra Listari on the room not far from the black sand beach. Plus it had a super cool outdoor bathroom with a waterfall shower coming out of a vase. 

Our whole point of going to Amed was it’s a transfer port to the Gili Islands. There really wasn't a lot to do there except walk around and go to the beach. The beach was beautiful and the water was crystal clear, but the sand was rocky and impossible to lie out on. We hung out but it wasn't long before the locals got bored of no customers and came to keep us company. Heather even made two really great girlfriends (probably aged 7 and 9). We played in the water and made a seashell garden. It was fun and it probably made their day. 

The girls and their seashell garden

Awesome bungalow in Amed!

View of Mount Anjung from Amed's black sand beach

Later we had an Indonesian dinner at Warung Bobo. It was decent, but had an amazing view of the sea as well as the sunset going over the volcano. There wasn't much to do so we ended up hanging out with the hotel manager and had an arak cocktail (local moonshine). Brith makes a mean cocktail and we sat around learning about Bali and the Balinese culture. It was really interesting and he was such a doll. Everything was going fine until some devil bug bit me on my thigh. That sucker was hiding under the seat cushion and took a chunk out of my leg! No cool man. It was barely bleeding but hurt enough to have the pain radiate down my leg. I was actually frightened for the first hour because I didn't know if it was poisonous or if it was just a gnarly bite. It turned out to be fine although I had a mark on the back of my leg for the next week. I now have been paranoid about seat cushions and I just don't sit my ass down anywhere anymore. Thanks devil bug. Sincerely, Shannon.