We Can Only Wish
27.03.2010 - 28.03.2010
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Burma, Indonesia and Laos
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THE JAPANESE WRECK NEAR AMED
The carcass lies barely two meters below
And very close to shore, rusty since the war
Six swaying yellow angels guard the bridge
While the trumpet fish sounds its silent call
There are no bones left around here
Gone is the sweat and stench of fear
The dead have long since gone away,
To haunt their killers another day
Left is the bluegreen water, coral and fish
Let us not destroy them, we can only wish
From Amed we took an hour long speedboat ride, bumpy and expensive to Gilliair. Unfortunately most of the coral there had apparently been dynamited in years past, in a facile attempt to catch fish. Although much ballyhooed in The Lonely Planet and by many travelers, it did not live up to billing.
We stayed at Bernard's place, run by a gay expat Frenchmen, also recommended, and deservedly so. Unfortunately with the pool construction and located well off the beach, there was no breeze. Air and fans went off in the middle of the night, supposedly because one of Bernard's men got stoned, and forgot to put on the generator when the power failed, seemingly a daily occurrence. To his credit, Bernard did not charge us for that evening and the 2nd night things were okay. However there were many guest houses and restaurants scattered along the beach, and the place was crowded with tourists and touts.
Main Street in Gilliair
Except for one small stretch, the beach was rocky and not good for swimming. I will say that the open air restaurants were nice, with small bamboo sun shelters and comfortable pillows. A good place to lounge, which we did for most of the time.
Cassie and Nanette
The view towards Lombok and the mountains was impressive, especially at sunset, but after a couple of days we had enough and headed on.
Posted by jonshapiro 11:23 Archived in Indonesia Tagged postcards Comments (6)