Pemuteran
9th to 14th January 2017
Day 6 in Bali saw us heading to Pemuteran, a fishing village on the north coast of the island.
We drove for almost 4 hours up steep, winding roads, through bustling villages, and past some monkeys casually hanging out by the side of the road.
It's low season at Pemuteran right now, which meant a quiet, uncrowded stay for us, and some pretty impressive weather. Every day, the morning was hot and sunny. Late afternoon brought clouds and impressive thunder for about 30 minutes or so. Huge rainstorms then joined the party for a couple of hours, bringing the temperature nicely down for a cooler night, interspersed with quiet flashes of lightning. We loved it.
We stayed at Mango Tree Inn, where our super host, Chok, welcomed us warmly and made sure we had all the information we needed throughout our stay. Such a cool guy!
We took a snorkelling trip to Menjungan Island and spent a couple of hours cruising around like a turtles, discovering the rainbow of fish and coral waiting for us there. One of our group, Ros, commented that if you watch the fish long enough, you can begin to make out little fish dramas going on all the time. So true! I recommend trying it, but remember not to giggle, or you'll get a mouthful of saltwater!
We met some really great people in Pemuteran. It seems like a spot where people like to hang out and have a chat, but that may just be in low season.
We tried as many local foods as we could get our paws on, and even ended up with totally authentic moonlight and candlelight dining when the village had a total blackout for an hour. Luckily, we had our trusty head torch available so that Nick could finish his ribs!
Pemuteran Snapshots
- Eating pizza on our porch, in a mango tree garden, during a thunderstorm.
- Forgetting the golden rule about sunscreen re-application between snorkels and burning the buns off myself!
- Watching a shoal of tiny fish, all different colours whirl about in perfect synchronicity.
- Chok playing guitar for us :)
- Finding our way back through the village in darkness.
- Tiny black piglets sneaking into our garden like divils.
- Watching local fishermen wading out to lasso fish (well, that's what it looked like!) at sunset.