Amed

Great two days in Amed. Amed is at Bali's East coast and it is very quiet and peacefull place. We did a lot of snorkeling at the Jemeluk and Japanese shipwreck. I have never seen coral and all these different colored fishes before so it was a great experience! It is also nice to see the difference between areas here in Bali. We only decided to go on the same day we went and I'm so happy we did.

Evening view to the Jemeluk and mt. Agung.

Fishing boats at the japanese shipwreck.

The Sails restauraunt.

Giulia, Bagus and Marion at Sails.

Jemeluk, great place for snorkeling. So many wonderful fishes and corals.

Sea

Road between the mountaisn and the sea.

Fishing boats.

Morning at the hotel

Our hotelroom.

Giulia, me, Marion and Bagus before leaving.

Climbing to the volcano

On Monday morning at 2 am we woke up and started our trip to the mount Batur. It is an active volcano lockated in North Bali. First we drove to the Kintamani area and then with flashlights we started to climb up. Around 6 o'clock we arrive to a beautiful spot to watch the sunrise with a good view to the hightest mountain in Bali, Agung. After the sunrise we continued to the very top of the mountain. First it was all foggy there so we saw only the tiny bit of land we stand on, but after a while the fog went away and the view was amazing.

A moment before sunrise. Mount Agung and lake Batur.

Panorama view of the sunrise.

Feeling happy and enjoying the views almost at the peak of mt. Batur.

Giulia, Bagus and Marion. It was freezing up there.

Us four.

You could see many holes puffing volcanic steam.

Golden sunrise. Treking to the very top.

At the peak of mt. Batur, 1717m.

Foggy but great views to the lake Batur.

And mt, Agung.

And then started to trek back down.

Looking back to the mount Batur.

Tiny building to enjoy the view and maybe eat somethig.

And finally back down.

Main enterance's floor

Finally from plan to action! The making process of mosaic floor to the main enterance. First I sketch the shapes and patterns for the floor. After selecting the shape I sketch for the colours. After selecting the colours we started to actually make the mosaic for the floor and stairs.

It feels so great to see it there. The men doing it were so happy and fast! After it was ready they said they really like the design, and by the look on their face when they took the paper with measurements and all I wouldn't be surprised to see them making it to somewhere else too :) 

Kecak and fire dance

Kecak is classical balinese dance style where they use no musical instruments but only human voices. Almost a hundred men sits in a circle making the kecak sounds and the dancers performs in the center around the big light stand.  This kecak was a story from the Ramayana epic. This circle has also been seen in films like Avatar and The Fall because of the strong visual effect.

The sanghyang dedari dance followed after the kecak. In this dance two young girls (dedari = angels) does the whole performance in trance, eyes closed. In the end they are brought out of trance by the pemangku, a man who prays deside them and blesses them with holy water. In my opinion this was the most beautiful part of the evening. The girls were so serene and the contrast between the older women in simple clothes and the young girls in gold and decorativr clothes was impressive.

The last part of the dances were the sanghyang jaran dance. This fire dance were performed by a young man playing to ride on a horse (jaran = horse). First he just dance around the bonfire but if the sanghyan song leads him to the fire he will dance on it. It was very cool to see him dancing on the fire and see no sign of pain or anything.

Lurking in the dark

Tonight I took a flaslight and went to see how the night view from the house looks like. On my way there I stopped by the pool to ponder what are those small stones casting the long shadows. Taking a closer look there were toads just staying still every here and there in the darkness.
  

The remains of the dinosaurs?

Funny looking one