Travel Day 662 – Driving on Bali by Scooter, INDONESIA
07/09 Amed via winding Coastal Road to Padangbai
The night in local Amed was nice and quiet, but unfortunately in the early morning some really loud roosters decided that it was about time to get up…
Black Beach and Fishing Boats in Amed on Bali, Indonesia
The good thing about the natural wake-up call was at least that I was able to enjoy the local beach at sunrise time and go for a long exploration walk along the water. Besides me there were only some fishermen and a few locals working in the fields while trying to avoid the oppressing heat of the day. But it seemed overall that not really a lot of the fishing boats had left to try their luck. So what was left was a really calm and peaceful appearing beach with fishing boats in the front and volcano Gunung Agung in the back…
Now that it was daytime, it was quite surprising to realize that literally every single house at the waterfront was advertising as either a hotel, a guesthouse, or a homestay of some kind with a warung-like restaurant attached to it. Luckily everything was on a really low development scale and so nothing appeared to be out-of-scale or out-of-place, but it was still an indication that this area was probably slowly developing and people were rather making a living off tourism than from fishing…
Cliffs and Beaches at the Coast of Bali, Indonesia
When leaving Amed, the road was leading for a really long time through one village after the next until a place called Aas was passed. After that, the coastal road was snaking its way merely through untouched looking nature. Actually the road was winding up and down while it was necessary to drive low in the setbacks of the coast and then drive high again at the points of the cliffs, which made for a really fun drive with great views. But the best views were probably always from the cliffs down to the little beaches, populated with local fishing boats…
Eventually the road was passing Candidasa, a once popular beach town that unfortunately lost its biggest draw card, the beach, to continued erosion and what was left today was just a town with some concrete breakers. But the lack of tourists made Candidasa to a great stop for some lunch at a little local market right by the waterfront. From here it was already possible to see Padangbai across the bay and it was only a short drive until I finally reached it and settled for a cheap room in a traditional straw hut on stilts…
Shady Beach by Padangbai on Bali, Indonesia
In order to make some good use of the rest of the afternoon, I tried to check out the beach to the east named Blue Lagoon, but it was already entirely covered by shade. So the next try was then the other beach west of Padangbai, but it turned out to be much further away and by the time I finally arrived, it was also already in the shade of the adjacent trees. In fact the only place left with a little bit of afternoon sun was back in town, at the local beach where all the boats anchored. Even if this beach was not the nicest, at least it was offering the much desired combination of sand and sun…
Considering that Padangbai was normally only considered a transportation hub to catch a ferry over to Lombok or Nusa Penida, it was actually a surprisingly nice place. There were different beaches around, a central market was offering cheap local food and there was even an outdoor restaurant by the beach for an evening beer, making Padangbai quite a relaxed place to easily spend a day or two…
Find all Amed – Padangbai and Amed to Padangbai photos here.
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