Nov 22nd -23rd
And so we were on the open road, the busy, chaotic traffic in Kuta soon got quiet as we headed east to Amed. The drive took us longer than anticipated at over 2 and half hours, our bums were sore but the ride was thrilling and eye opening at the same time. No one pays full attention to the laws of the road so we had to keep our wits about us the whole time. The views were stunning as we rode along side rice terraces and little villages.
The rice terraces were exactly what I had been wishing to see on this trip.
We had booked 'Hotel Double One Villas Amed II' in Karangasem near Amed for 1 night at £14. The room was clean but the bathroom basic and made us have the heebie jeebies. But it served its purpose and it had a pool and wifi.
We had rode all this way so we could go snorkelling at the site of the sunken USS Liberty ship, located in Tulamben close to Amed. The ship served during World War I, as well as during peacetime, and later again during World War II. She was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in 1942 and, as a result, it was beached on the island of Bali.The ship was first stripped by the American military and then later by locals before it just sat on the beach rusting underneath the hot sun that beat down on her daily. Today, she is one of the most popular wreck dives in Bali after a volcanic eruption in 1963 moved the ship off of the beach into the water.
After having fun snorkelling (no one perished onboard the USS Liberty, otherwise it would have felt eerie) we watched the sunset near our hotel before having a local Balinese dinner.
