Id prearranged with a Candi Dasa driver to pick me up from the hotel as I gained the impression that if I had tried to arrange this when in Amed I could be at the mercy of market forces (both Hotels in Amed and Candi Dasa had given me high prices $40 US for transport). Ketut Sudiarta from No problem transport had responded to emails and we had agreed on 250,000R for day hire with stopovers.
I was told once in Amed that the usual price for a straight transport to CD would have been around 100,000R.
Ketuts village was in the midst of ceremonies so he sent his nephew along, Nyoman.After bidding farewell to the Dancing Dragon staff it was off along the coastline from Amed to our first stopover, Amlapura. The coast drive is along a very narrow road, with the most breathtaking scenery rolling down down to little villages perched beside the waters edge. (most appeared inaccessible to cars). The amount of work that must have gone into the terracing of the mountainsides that I saw made my mind boggle. Nyoman said that a lot of the villages are without modern water supplies (no water pipes reach this far) and are almost as they were 20 years ago.
Amlapura is about 13 kilometres from Candi Dasa and is the largest city on eastern Bali., with a lot of one-way streets. There we stopped and looked through Puri Kanginan, an old palace of the last raja. He co-operate with the Dutch during that occupation. This was the same raja who loved water palaces and who designed Ujung Water Palace and founded Tirtagangga in 1947. There's interesting architecture styles here to see (three tiered entrance gates, blend of Chinese architecture and Balinese, in three main areas- one 'bendngah' between the main entrances designed for visitors and main attractions; second area 'jaba tengah' or gardens of the palace; and third area 'maskerdam' which was home to the family of the King of Karangasem. Look out for the two huge lychee trees in the second area, along with the tooth filing building. There is also a collection of old black and white photos of the royal family and furniture in the inner area that was donated to the raja by the queen of the Netherlands.
Next stop was Ujung Water palace, which was built in late 19th century/ early 20th century only to be almost destroyed during the volcanic eruptions in the 70's. A small entrance fee is payable here. If you look to the far right of the property you can see some of the original ruins, with rebuilt buildings now taking center stage. Being the dry season, the full effect of the water moats really couldn't be seen as they were reduced at the time of my visit to middy brown waters. There were a few fisherman there casting nets the day I visited (cant say whether they actually caught anything though). My driver said that are villas or hotels being built up on the top of the terraced hills overlooking the site.
Tirtagangga is another water palace south of Amlapura, based on spring fed pools and fountains built in 1948. The spring itself appears to almost gush out of a huge banyan tree, and is believed to have healing powers. There is also numerous fountains and a pool with stepping-stones set amongst beautiful statues. Here you can also have a swim, or just walk around the property, which is still home to some of the royal family ( ? son of the last raja?)
There's a restaurant (deserted at time of my visit) and there are also a hotel overlooking the site that you can stay at if interested. Looking back on my photos, this was a very photogenic and peaceful spot – an overnight stay and walk around the surrounding paddy fields could have been very interesting if Id had more time. As it was, it was time to go onto Candi Dasa. Nyoman drove into Soraya shores and showed me the almost black volcanic sands along the beaches here, and pointed out some for the villas, which are available for rental. Apparently this area very popular with Dutch community.
We arrived at Kubu Bali Bungalows in Candi Dasa about 2.30 pm. I had made this booking via internet, at $33 US a night including breakfast. This hotel is set on the hillside overlooking CD, in a small ravine. The restaurant is one the main road in CD, with a small lane leading up to main reception area and then the terraced grounds leading up the hillside. Here I was very glad that I didn't have to carry my bags up to my cottage!!!! (Poor houseboys). Nether less, it had the most amazing gardens and the cottage itself was great – verandah with chairs and table, as well as wooden banana lounges, air conditioning and fan; fridge; large ample bathroom. Great views of the garden from ones verandah. I immediately changed and went to the pool where my welcome drink was awaiting. Met an American lady called Julie and her 8 year old son at the pool – they warned me not to leave my drink unattended as the pineapple that the drink is served in apparently irresistible to the local monkeys who have been known to swoop on unattended drinks by poolside. There were very few people staying here, and to be honest very few seen around CD as well during my two days here (apparently the high season starts in July).
Julie, Nicholas and I ended up walking down to the Watergarden (about 200 metres down the road from Kubu Bali) for dinner. This hotel has recently changed owners and TJs Café is no longer here- the restaurant is now simply known as the Watergarden. (it still offers a few Mexican dishes on the menu). The atmosphere here was lovely – ponds and fountains make it appear to almost floating. I ended up ordering two entrees ( Thai fish cakes, 17,000R samosas 15,000R, plus coconut tart 15,000r and a diet coke 6,000R – a very good meal, all up 52,000R) Julie was an interesting lady to talk to with as she was married to an Indonesian from sulewesi; they now both now live in America. Her husband was absent for a few days as he'd had to travel back home for a family funeral (apparently the trip too harrowing for the son who gets car sick). The next day Julie was heading north of CD, out to white sands beach, and I decided to head over to Pandagbai and look for the little hidden beach that Id read about on one of the Bali forums.
On the way back to the hotel, I stopped at Temple café and introduced myself to the owner Shirley whom was a friend of Kay and David. Had a bintang or two with this very interesting Australian lady who has called Bali home now for about 15 years, before making my way back after 10 pm. I stopped at Kodak Market along the road, recommended by other forumites and found this are pretty good value as they are fixed price selling almost everything from food to clothes to wooden carvings.
Day 11-Padangbai and Bas Tegul hidden beach
After a good American breakfast at Kubu Bali overlooking the pool, it was off to find Pandangbai and the hidden beach. Armed with my print out of how to find it off the travel forum, I wandered down the street to find transport, which we agreed on for 40,000R (it turned out later the hotel could have provided this for 30,000R – lesson learnt here, don't always assume that hotel will charge more!)
Pandangbai is about 11 kilometres south of CD, and is a major port for ferries to Lombok. It had the appearance of little village on the waterfront, complete with pradhus, market stalls, temples, hotels, numerous ferries around a bustling terminal.
I found a café on the waterfront and sat and watched the locals, especially the poor ones that were loading by hands sacks of? cement onto the boats in the heat. Chatted to one of the local sarong sellers who did have gecko sarongs ( a personal favourite of mine) so I brought two from this hard working lady before heading off to find the beach. Turns out there are two spots one should check out- now I'm home and I'm rechecking information if Id gone left at the harbour Id have ended up at a spot called Blue Lagoon which also receives rave reviews. I also found mention of another traveler saying he'd hired a local pradhu and local from CD and had gone by boat over to the Blue Lagoon.
As it was, I went right from the harbour, walking up a lane next to the police station. Once you go past a temple on your right, look for a warung on your left- literally on the back wall of this warung you will find a track through a rubbish dump, which is to be followed up and over the hill in the bush. Make sure you wear decent shoes, as the track can be a bit rough in patches. Just when I was beginning to rethink where the hell I was going, I spotted water and the bush opened up to show a track leading down to a lovely little cove with almost white sand, blue green waters and dotted by about five warungs. There were about 15 other people there the day I went, along with the inevitable hawkers offering massages, jewelry, sarongs and reiki. It was high tide when I arrived and the waves were dumping along the shore line however by the time I left it was low tide and safer to swim. The warungs offered a fairly extensive menu (meat and fish dishes along with drinks) but I erred on the side of caution knowing that everything had to be carried in I wasn't too sure e about freshness of any meat on menu! Banana pancakes, a fanta and later a bintang sounded safe to me for 20,000R all up. Cheap and tasty! I spent about three hours just relaxing and swimming on the beach, along with a really friendly black and white dog that snuggled up to every tourist on the beach, which was very unusual for a dog in Bali I thought. Every half hour or so you'd hear a 'honk' and look up to see one of the Lombok ferries glide past into Pandangbai which was around the other other side of the cliff.( I took a photo which looks quite surreal).
About 2 pm I decided I had better head back so with reluctance it was up the hill and back down again. There are numerous deviations of these tracks and none of which are signposted and I ended up taking a track, which took me further right than my original way in. Before I knew it I was in the back of a small yard complete with nonplussed cows and the inevitable chooks- I decided to blunder on and then found myself in the back of some ones home! Luckily the two grandmas sitting in the yard didn't seem to be offended (maybe I'm not the first silly tourist to wander down out of the hills) so I hurried on with apologies to the roadway, which came out near the harbour.
Back at the harbour I looked around for transport and asked a bemo driver how much to CD. I knew that a normal bemo ride is fairly cheap and that they will automatically up the price for a tourist so when he said 15,000r I didn't quibble, said fine, and hopped in. However, about 100 metres up the road the driver stopped and spoke to another bloke in a khaki uniform and suddenly they were both telling me the price was now 50,000r to CD. I told them in no uncertain terms that I didn't appreciate their rudeness in changing the price and I hopped out walking back down to the harbour and main transport area. By this time I realized as one of few tourists walking around I was probably going to have to make another donation to the Balinese economy so after finding that the perama bus didn't depart for another hour I ended up hiring a bemo for 40,000r after all (but at least we arrived at the price before I hopped in and it didn't get altered).
Outside Kubu Bali I bumped into Ketut who asked what I wanted to look at the next day. I had penciled in my diary the Mother Temple at Besikah but was concerne d about the hawkers and the guide scamming being reported to the travel forums. Ketut mentioned that his village ( bug bug) which we had driven past on the way into CD was having its final day of temple celebrations tomorrow and he was happy to take me along there tomorrow before going onto Sanur. I'd be able to see the kris dance, and see a village celebration. This sounded like a good proposition so we agreed on that plus a stopover at Klung Klung.
Back at Kubu Bali by the pool, Julie and Nicholas were back from White sands (Julie had a hire car and did her own driving) – apparently it was beautiful and they both really enjoyed it. Even luckier for them, a hotel from CD had brought guests out for the day and had set up a BBQ lunch and had then offered to fed Julie and son as well for 60,000r, which had solved their lunch dilemma. Sounds like a trip to white sands is a definite must do for anyone with time to spare whilst in CD. Filos pages also recommend this place.
That night I headed back to Temple café (opposite Watergarden Hotel) and spent a few more hours with Shirley and had a great dinner (fish with special Balinese sauce and rice, two bintangs 50,000R). Met a American lass who'd climbed Mt Agung that morning – sounds like a must do if you are fit and are prepared to get up at 3 am to get there for sunrise. She was saying that her friend that took her up there was an experienced mountain hiker and he rated it as an 8/10, so it sounds like you need to be fit.
The two nights in Candi Dasa had flown---I wish now I had stayed an extra couple of days and wandered around more. Filos pages have details of so many things to see and do around here - maybe next trip.