I was all set to snorkel (for the first time ever!) off the boat before catching the sunset. My practice sessions with the snorkelling gear had not gone well in the pool, but that was hardly reason enough to prevent me from jumping into the deep. One look in had me hooked forever, and all the pains of getting used to the salinity of the water, seepage into the mask, etc were nothing compared to the fantasy land that I could see underwater. Yeah, all that lovely coral formation, and schools of multicoloured, gorgeous fish swimming around peacefully, tolerating stupid ‘big fish’ like me – simply magical! Never one to let go of an opportunity to try funny stuff, I stuck my ziplocked camera into the water (bad experiment or faulty bag – water got in and the pictures were awful).

I had to be hauled back into the boat to continue the ride into the sunset, and what a disastrous effort it was. Firstly, to haul myself up to a height higher than my head would require super upper-body strength. Now, while I grant you there’s plenty of upper body here, the strength is in short supply, so all my efforts would have embarrassed any self-respecting person out there. Thankfully, none of those people were around, and Souvik is well used to my ungracefulness, so I insisted we drag the boat to the shore, and I could flop in.

The sun setting behind Gunung Agung was pretty, only fell short of my expectations with the cloud obscuring what could’ve been a very dramatic view. No matter, it took everything of me to shower and tuck in dinner before falling into a deep sleep.

To catch the rising sun was a lofty plan that was thwarted by us forgetting to set the alarm. But we woke up in time for another big breakfast and immediately headed off to one of the good beaches. I’d been working on Souvik to attempt snorkelling, and those chaps at the beach helped matters in a big way by offering life jackets.
After the first couple of false starts of tripping over our flippers and swallowing some salty water, we ventured 5 feet from the shore, and how that opened Souvik’s eyes! The reef was more spectacular than our wildest imagination, the colors and shapes unbelievable, an amazing blue starfish, all those beautiful fish in their fluorescent glory! Souvik the Sane & Cautious decided that as soon as we reached the truly exciting deep-ish sea, it was time to head back. So I obediently went along, and after depositing him on the shore, went right back in for a quick second round, to see a few more spectacular species.

The sun on our backs, mouthfuls of salty water, pebbles in our flippers – a morning well spent! Souvik couldnt stop exclaiming, and I was speechless. O gorgeous Amed, we can’t wait to get back and stick our faces in the water, mask and all!
Mandatory shower and even more mandatory lunch (at Sails – great view, delicious crepes!) later, we’re back on our day-beds, committed to spending the rest of our vacation snoozing!