Once in Amed I instantly got played by a 5 year-old salesman. He asked me where I was from, what my name was, & how I was doing, then he pulled out what he wanted me to buy. I didn't buy the little thing he had (no reason to encourage this). I know in Fiji the kids were just interested in telling you about themselves & learning about you. Just never that way here. He seemed rather offended when I didn't buy his trinket! Although later Kutut started singing a song which he joined in on. It was so cool to listen to, it was a song they learned from their family & was obvious very popular. It was in Balinese so I did not know what they were singing but it was beautiful nonetheless.

Our first dive required a five minute boat ride (in a similar boat to the one that I went snorkeling on). The coral in Amed is not quite as nice due to a recent El Nino which broke some of it according to Kutut. It is more patchy than in Tulamben, but still very nice! We saw the same fish as the first dive in addition to a SHARK...ok it was only a little white-tipped reef shark ;) We also saw our first Moray Eel & Lizard fish. As I am sure you can see from the pictures my underwater photography skills were improving each day. After the dives we headed back to the restaurant, but held off on lunch & just laid around for the required 45 minutes until we did our second dive. I caught up on some journal writing as well at that point. I also fended off some more sales attempts from my little entrepreneur, who had now been joined by another little girl, which must have been plan B.

On the second dive we saw more eels, but I called it the Sea cucumber dive because of how many kinds of them that we saw, it was very nice dive as well. After the dive & getting my log book updated I caught lunch. At Kutut's encouragement I ended up having a 3 course meal. The first 2 were tomato soup & bread, then a chicken curry (which was in soup form & very spicy). The topper was the banana split which had 3 different kinds of ice cream! The ice cream helped my throat after the morning of spicy food, which was good. If there was ever a picture of a person trying to make sure his customer was happy it was Kutut. But I do really think it was more than that, he just appreciated people coming & said a couple time to tell other people to come to Bali. As I am writing this after I got back home I know there has been another bombing in Bali, but I would still go back. It is not the Balinese people who are like this, it is the Muslim extremists & they are such a small part of Bali. After the meal we got everything together & headed towards Padangbai.

Once in Padangbai I started to do some shopping for a place to stay, but it ended with one visit. I stayed in a room with a bed, fan & shower/toilet for about $4 USD, even though her first price was 50% higher...the good old Bali walk away works every time! You state your price, then if they don't take it you just start to walk away. I have had people track me down as many as 3 buildings down to come back. It only took about 2 steps with her though. People here just can't stand to see money walk away, which given the economic state I can see why, but they expect the negotiation that is why they start higher. I got all my stuff into the room them said good bye to the Pro Dive guys who were going back to Kuta for the night. I then went for a walk around town to find a place to eat, take pictures & find Internet. I also got another $2 massage, except this time it was really good. The original lady did my back then her sister did my front, because the first lady was the better saleswoman. It was about 20 times better than the Kuta massage & this one was on the beach as well. I always am very careful not to fall asleep though because I never 100% trust that my sandals & shirt would be there when I was done. After the massage I walked more of the town & did Internet. I had about 400 more messages from that looping message I had gotten in Tulamben! This time the first place I chose was a total dog. After about 30 minutes I left, because the connection was so bad. They didn't have change (no where here ever does) so I was just out about 50 cents extra. Considering how bad it was I think I should have paid less, but it doesn't seem to work that way. Then I went to another place, which was much faster, which is strange considering they were both dial-up & the second place had older computers. After that I went to get some supper at Ozone which was right next to my hotel. It was a pretty good fish, rice & vegetables fair, with water for about $3. The place also had pillows instead of chair which made it a comfortable place to read before your food comes. After that I went back to the hotel & did some reading & journal writing before getting to sleep.