Chasing the Volcano and Exotic Fish

On Friday, we left our private piece of heaven and headed for Padang Bai with plans to take a boat to one of the islands east of Bali. Rather than continue south along the coast road, which was rough with sharp curves climbing steeply and back down again, we took a main road inland from Amed to Amlapura, a city that was mostly destroyed during the 1963 eruption of Agung. All day this photographer sought in vain to capture a clear shot of this magnificent mountain. Alas, it stayed partly to mostly shrouded by clouds. When we arrived at the port of Padang Bai, our Bali hosts, Aron and Hapny, negotiated a deal among the gathering of boat operators for a roundtrip overnight excursion on a large Bali style boat to Lembongan, the nearest island to the southeast. After an hour’s ride at full throttle, we arrived at a lovely tourist oriented cove with clear water a beautiful shade of seafoam green. We disembarked wading through knee high water to a restaurant and inn called Bungalow No. 7. We had lunch there and took two rooms for the night. After settling in, we got our swimsuits on and hired a boat to take us out to the coral reef for snorkeling. In a word, “Wow!” The clear water showcased the vibrant corals and tropical fish. We counted dozens of different fish varieties previously seen only in large public aquariums. Oh, how we wished we had an underwater camera! When we returned to our cove and the second floor terraced Bali style bungalow, we caught yet another magnificent sunset. By now, the island’s electricity, which is turned off during daylight hours, was on and we dined at the water’s edge, enjoyed the night breeze and retired early for a good night’s rest.