The Diary An early morning, this time to go snorkelling. We were driven, in the rain, to Tulamben on the north coast. The view of Mt Agung and the paddy fields was amazing and the last few km resembled a rocky N Yorkshire Moors.
When we arrived our helpful guide said "there's the beach, the wreck is over there" pointing vaguely out to sea. It was still overcast as we made our way along the black pebbly beach to a group of divers. We changed and swam out into the dark waters. Amazingly we found the wreck of the USAT Liberty almost immediately. It was a bit deep to see properly and there were no signs of the promised "koral reef" so after about an hour we gave up and headed back.
The rest of the day was spent having photos developed, copied made and picking up washing.
The Diary Caught a bemo to Amlapura to see the palace. Completely unremarkable. It started raining so we sheltered in the only restaurant in town. It was completely empty. Oz ordered a babi kecap. When I tried to order the same thing we were told it was off. The meal we finally had wasn't worth the wait. We then caught another bemo to the water palace at Tirtagangga.
This was much more interesting and, although it looked older, was only built in 1947. We all went for a swim in the pool, despite the plant life that was covering the bottom. Not quite Lane Cove. We managed to avoid the old man who wanted to give us a shave and a haircut and catch a bemo back to Amlapura. Here we caught another bemo but before it headed back to Candidasa we had to wait for the driver. When he turned up he went off on a detour, chatted to friends, did a 3-point turn and picked up more passengers. We got back eventually.
Our evening meal was at the Legend Rock Cafe which had big pictures of Bob Marley, Elvis and Jon Bon Jovi. We were eventually scared off when they wheeled in a Balinese version of "the pub singer".
The Diary A battered old Perama van took us to the ferry port at Lembar via Mataram.The ferry journey was just as dull as the previous time and dragged on. At Padang Bai we got our free bottle of Coke and caught a much better bus to Candidasa. At Candidasa we were offered a real shit-hole of a room for 7,000rp. No thanks. After looking at several not quite up to scratch places and a superb place that was USD80 we settled on the Wiratha Bungalows for 15,000rp. 3 Canadians than came in and asked for 13,000rp so the owners then came to us and said 13,000. We agreed to be bartered down.
Candidasa Lagoon
The beach was pretty non-existent despite lots of concrete jetties that had been built and the town was just accommodations, shops and restaurants. We spent the evening in a restaurant watching Doc Hollywood.
2012 Doc Hollywood ? What on earth was that? Had to google it as I had no recollection at all.
