April 26th, 2011
I wake just before 6 — what I get for going to bed before 9! I spend a while reading and watching the light brighten outside our cottage. After showers (the bathroom here is heaven) we go down for breakfast. I go daring with the banana porridge, plus the usual Bali tea and banana papaya juice. The porridge is good, but I’m stuffed quickly, and bring half my juice back to the room’s fridge for later.
April 25th, 2011
We have the Eco Dive people drop us at Aiona Garden of Healing, halfway between Jemeluk and Bunutan, for lunch — only to discover it’s closed. Next door at also-recommended Santai we share chips & salsa and pumpkin ravioli, and banana/papaya juice. The food is good but I manage only a few raviolis, and again feel queasy for an hour afterward. I’m ready to be done with this Toya Bungkah curse now! (Thankfully the rest of the symptoms seem to be gone.)
April 24th, 2011
We wake before the alarm, but putz around a while and head down for breakfast at 7:30. I have part of a slice of toast and banana/papaya juice and a cup and a half of tea. Joe’s faring better than I am and goes bold with the mie goreng (fried noodles).
We’re out of spray-on sunscreen (boo) so we’re a little late getting back down for our 8:30 pick-up from Eco Dive. The dive center is in the next little town over, Jemeluk, just a short drive. We spend a little while waiting and doing forms, then I go back to be fitted for gear: wet suit, mask, flippers & booties, vest. The diving instructor (who is the spitting image of Avery from Grey’s Anatomy) conducts the orientation in English (for me & two Australians) and in French (for three French guys and two Canadians — the Canadians are helping keep an eye on us seven newbies as part of their Divemaster certification). We learn a bit about our equipment and techniques we’ll need to know in the water, then head across the road to practice in the shallows.
April 22nd, 2011
In the morning we do feel better — not 100%, but dramatically improved.
April 21st, 2011
We wake early Monday morning sick. It hits Joe a couple hours before me, but soon we’re both miserable, taking turns in the bathroom and curled up on the bed. We’ve pre-arranged for Wayan, our favorite driver, to pick us up at 10 a.m. We stagger through the rest of our packing before then and I try, unsuccessfully, to make myself throw up before the long drive to Amed.
The next three and a half hours are a grueling trial. The road winds back up out of the mountain crater, then down and around the foothills. We ask Wayan to detour to Amlapurah so we can stop by an ATM (it has the only international ATMs on this side of the island) and the pharmacy (apotek). He is a wonderful driver — it could have been much worse with someone peeling around the many corners or too timid to overtake slow vehicles.