Amed

Kadek picks me up again from Munduk and drives me east along the coast - back to the heat. As we drive along I ask him more questions about Balinese culture and he is very good at explaining; even though as he says Balinese Hinduism is very complicated. We talk about death, karma, reincarnation, animism, filial and parental responsibility, government corruption – all manner of light-hearted topics really.

We arrive in a small place called Amed, which is a collection of small fishing villages strung out along the coast on the eastern cape of Bali. The landscape is more arid here – more Mediterranean. People come here for diving and snorkelling and also because it is a good place to get to the Gili Islands, which is my next destination. I book into a guest house and get a lovely bungalow just across the road from the beach. I am lucky to be here in the low season, because accommodation is relatively cheap. Normally by this time of year the tourists are flocking in, but this year, wherever I have been on Bali the locals are saying it is unusually quiet. It makes me realise that the financial situation in the west is having a very far-reaching impact.

My room

In the relative cool of the late afternoon I walk out onto the headland and take in the view of the village. Then I walk back along the beach and watch local boys swimming and playing in the sea. They swim out to a moored fishing boat and clamber over it and push each other off it, in the way boys do.

Amed

Boys playing in the sea

The fishermen go out in their boats in th early morning, before it is light. When they come back, it takes four men to haul the boat up onto the beach.

Hauling in a boat



There is a type of selling on the beach here that is new to me so far. Children of between 8-10 years old wander up to me and ask me where I am from; how long I am staying and what my name is. They each have a notebook in which is written something along the lines of, ‘These children are selling locally-made items to help pay for their education. They have been weaving baskets in school. Anything you buy will help pay for books and other necessary items.’ I buy a small wooden boat in the style of the traditional fishing boats from a girl. It comes in pieces, so I hope I will be able to get it to New Zealand safely and then send it back for Megan and Elliot. I take a photograph of her with a real boat on the beach, so Kate will know how to put it together. While I am talking to the girl another two boys see that there is a sale being made and hurry over. One is particularly pushy and thrusts necklaces at me saying, ‘You buy from me’. He gets sulky and cross when I tell him I’m not buying anything more.  He mutters a curse, ‘Your boat will break’, he says. Top of the class for use of English and intimidation, but bottom of the class for manners and sales technique – but he might be right.

Girl and fishing boat

As it gets dark I sit in the restaurant overlooking the beach and eat dinner and drink beer. I chat to Made who works here. He is eighteen and left school 2 years ago. He has a girlfriend who is 16 and a dancer, but they hardly see each other because he is usually working. Later a blood-red gibbous moon rises from the sea.