After 5 nights in Ubud we were pretty much over jet lag but needed a rest after the hectic pace we had started with. Just to recap - there were 16 girls on this trip, ages 28-75 and we're from Canada. This wsa my 16th trip to Bali since 1983.
Our second destination was Amed. One the way out there we stopped at Celuk for some silver shopping. Last year I took a group of ladies to Bali who were mostly silver jewelry makers and they create hand blown glass beads. Needless to say, I got an education on silver last year and found some great wholesalers. We stopped at 2 places. SSS Silver was the first stop and they have a fairly good selection of necklaces, earrings, rings, pendants etc. Not really unique jewelry but the prices are great. After that we went to UC Silver, which is totally upmarket and even if you don't buy anything, the building is beautiful (and they have clean bathrooms...very important when travelling with 16 girls!) UC has fabulous jewelry and even though the prices are high, the quality is top notch. I had hoped to buy a ring there that I saw last year (but thought it was too expensive...never will make that mistake again!!!) but they had no more of that particular design. I did buy pieces after last year's mistake but most of what I bought (which were presents), I have already worn!!!! Speaking of jewelry, I also can recommend 2 places in Ubud - Studio Perak (3 locations) and
Hari Ini Silver. Bought some really cool silver pieces at both places.
After getting a recommendation on the BTF, we stopped for lunch at Vincent's in Candi Dasa. Overall, it was a perfect choice except it's on the main road so no view. The food was excellent. I had the house salad which was one of the best salad's I have ever had. I also had the Thai chicken curry dish which everyone drooled over. The service was wonderful...attentive, very friendly and professional but the food was abit slow in coming out. I guess when you have 16 orders and a little kitchen, it was to be expected. We liked Vincent's so much that we stopped here on the way back 3 days later and had another great meal.
Now to the Dancing Dragon Cottages! I chose this hotel for a few reasons. The first was that I am a Feng Shui Consultant and being that this is a Feng Shui hotel I thought it would be cool to take a group here. I had stayed here Sept. 06 and loved it. I had never been to Amed before Sept. 06 and thought it might be a great place for a group so they could do some snorkelling or diving.
I was able to book the entire hotel...10 rooms in total. We had a blast here and I think that was partly because we had the whole place to ourselves. Our meals were all included, which I wasn't too keen on at first, but they did a fantastic job with the food. I love the restaurant which is overlooking the ocean. They also have a beautiful little infinity pool, which we spent many hours in, also overlooking the ocean. There are massage ladies here as well and most of us took time for at least 1 massage. They used the beach chairs right in front of the restaurant and did a great job.
I should mention that there really is no beach here. It's all rocks but if you have beach shoes (or really tough feet!) you can walk over them to the ocean. You can snorkel right in front of the hotel if you want. There seemed to be quite a distance that you could walk out into the ocean so no major drop offs or strong currents.
The rooms are quite comfortable, with AC and ceiling fans. All the rooms have patios with comfortable furniture. Most have a view of the ocean except for the 2 that are closest to the reception, which are called garden view. That's where I stayed but if you can get one of the 3 front units (ocean front cottage), that's what I'd recommend. Those rooms only have 1 double bed though but they have the most amazing view from the patio...perfect for reading and having a cold Bintang!
The bathrooms are all marble and most have tubs and showers (not the Garden View). The rooms are totally enclosed so no worries about any geckos (or larger iguanas like we had in Ubud). They do have mosquitos nets above the beds but I didn't use it as it wasn't necessary.
There was no internet available at the hotel and no outside phone connections in the rooms. You can walk about 3 minutes (to the south) and get internet...but it is slow...just like life in Amed!
The whole place has a very relaxing feel it to. If you don't know anything about Feng Shui, I think you'd probably just feel that it has a good energy to it - curved pathways with abundant lighting, well appointed and clean rooms and lots of beautiful scenery. The property is dotted with wonderful stone carvings and beautiful gardens. It's owned by Karen Kingston, a Brit, who was married to a Balinese but is now divorced and re-married to an Aussie. She has the property up for sale but I'm sure if you go in the next 6-8 months, probably nothing will change. Karen offers retreats as well and if you google her name, you'll find her web site.
The hotel arranged snorkelling for us and I think it cost 200,000 rp. for a boat and that was for approx. 4 hours. They will take you to the best snorkelling sites. We rented the equipment from the hotel, but their supplies were abit limited for sizes etc. You can always rent from other beaches where there is snorkelling. My only warning would be about getting on/off the boat. The boat guy can either take you to a beach where you can just hop off or sometimes they anchor out in the ocean and you jump off. No problem getting off but getting back on is another matter. The boats don't have ladders so unless you can lift your body weight out of the water (and we're talking in deep water) and swing yourself up on the boat ask them to let you off on the beach.
The snorkelling was beautiful. Tons of very colourful fish and coral. I can't honestly tell you where we snorkelled other than it was south of Dancing Dragon's and it took us about 30 minutes to get there. The beach has a little hut on it (kind of like something out of Gillian's Island) and they sold cold Bintang...a beautiful thing! That's where you can get the snorkelling equipment as well. We saw a few people kayaking as well. I've snorkelled at Menjanan Island (west of Lovina) and I thought this area was pretty comparable. Not sure about the scuba diving but I did have friends that dived near Amed last August and loved it.
They stayed at the Scuba Seraya and really liked the staff, location, rooms and the fact the staff organized all their diving (and snorkelling for 2 kids that didn't dive).
One night I hired a group to perform for us. They are called a Gong and Genjek group and it consisted of 35 men playing traditional Balinese instruments. I also knew that there would be some dancers but I didn't know it would be kids. They were fantastic and we were all totally impressed and humbled by the whole performance. It was held at the Mandala Conference building next to the hotel (which is also owned by Karen and her ex husband Rai). We sat on mats in a semi circle and the sound was amazing. I'd have to say this was a highlight of the trip for me. They played for 90 minutes without a break and we were so mesmerized, we hardly moved. The men got a couple of the girls up to dance so we all had a few laughs after our ‘zen' moment!
I would highly recommend a visit to Amed if you really want to get away from it all. There are quite a few restaurants popping up and there seems to be a large choice of hotels - all smaller places - no big hotels here. Not much in the way of shopping or nightlife but that's what you are trying to get away from.
If anyone has any other suggestions for hotels in this area, please let me know. I've got another group for May.08 but it looks like Karen is doing a retreat at the same time so her place is not available. It would need to accommodate 16 people.
After 3 nights of peace and quiet (other than our happy hours!) we were ready to hit the shops again. Back to the hectic pace of the beach where we spent 5 nights at the Kartika Plaza. Part 3 to follow incl. our 2 nights in Hong Kong ...