After a 15 hour bus ride from Mount Bromo we arrived in Denpasar, Bali, and choosing not to camp in Kuta – the tourist mecca – we jumped straight in a cab and headed for Amed, a sleepy village on the north east coast of Bali.  We arrived at 3am (total journey 18hrs) and all was closed so we camped on the beach until the following morning (Christmas eve).

As expected, there wasn’t a hint of Christmas in Amed other than a piece of tinsel rapped around a Buddha in the entrance of our hotel. We relaxed and toured the area most of Christmas eve and booked two dives (a wreck and coral) for Christmas day, as there was nothing else to do.  Sam chose to snorkel rather than dive to save herself the pain of another ear infection over the Christmas.

We dived early in the morning and although visibility was only around 10m the dive itself was top class and was my first wreck.  I dived to 25m for 50mins which was a new personal best.  The stern of the ship was at a shallow 5m so Sam was in her element snorkeling too.  With the poor visibility we didn’t get many good photos as you’ll see below.

Christmas evening we went off for a drive on the bike sat and watched the sunset and had many beers back on our hotel veranda with Zoe.  Zoe presented us with a handmade kite as a Christmas present, a very thoughtful jesture especially as she doesn’t celebrate Christmas.

It was a strange day overall and we did miss our families and the Christmas dinner but we had some great company which made it somewhat easier.