How best to spend a few days in Bali before my liveaboard departs

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Thanks for quick feedback. It looks like it would only take 90 minutes or so to head about toward the pandang bai area.

Seems like I could do some diving (include over to Nusa Lembongan / Nusa Penida. I know Mermaid Liveaboard will do a transfer from this area to their dock for 30EUR. There might be cheaper options as well.

If I stayed in this area, is Besakih Temple close enough for a day trip?
 
Illini-Fan: Football, basketball or both? Lovie's new beard? May I try a completely different suggestion. We spend 4 nights on Bali before our 10 day trip to Wakatobi. We did all cultural and were really glad we did. We stayed in Ubud, saw temples, rice paddies, the Sacred Monkey Forest (going at 8:30 when it opened and leaving at 10:30 when the tour buses showed up), saw a dance at night at the temple on the main drag of Ubud and really liked it, despite thinking it would be hokey, hiked two rice field trails and loved every meal we had. We knew we were going to get lots of diving in over the 10 days and had never been to Indonesia before. Yes, there's some good diving you can do around Bali, but just consider opting to see and experience a rather magical place and then diving at an amazing place.

Rob
 
I'll admit I've not seen Lovie's near beard yet. I follow both FB and Mens BB, but jump on the bandwagon for the other sports. I'll actually paid attention to baseball when they had that long winning streak a few years back.

Interesting on the pure cultural -- this all started with it being Mola-Mola season and this trip possibly being the best time to see that behemoth. So I figured that was at the top of my list and I'd plan around that.

The beauty of having a year to plan is this type of feedback, so thanks for chiming in.
 
It may be Mola-Mola season but that doesn't guarantee you will see them.
On the other hand, a day or two wandering around Ubud and the rice fields, with a good driver (don't drive yourself!), WILL guarantee you will see some really cool stuff not found elsewhere.

Ditto on Mike Vietch and the Underwater Tribe.
 
I actually came up with the same idea as OP to get a couple days in Bali before a boat trip to Banda Sea this Nov. I can be in Bali in the beginning of November. Anyone think it will be too late for Mola season?
 
I'll admit I've not seen Lovie's near beard yet. I follow both FB and Mens BB, but jump on the bandwagon for the other sports. I'll actually paid attention to baseball when they had that long winning streak a few years back.

Interesting on the pure cultural -- this all started with it being Mola-Mola season and this trip possibly being the best time to see that behemoth. So I figured that was at the top of my list and I'd plan around that.

The beauty of having a year to plan is this type of feedback, so thanks for chiming in.

Fellow Illini fan in the DFW area here. 2-0 is a nice feeling right now. Sadly I think were heading to the 2-10 range.

As for Bali; I leave next week for a 10 day trip. Spending most of that time in Padangbai and a few nights in Tulamben. Will let you know about our experiences!
 
@SeaHeid2288 - safe travels and have a great time. I'm really interested in your experience in Padangbai as I'm heavily leaning toward doing 2-3 days there before my liveaboard. Seems close enough to the airport, close for cultural / temple day trips and close enough to do a dive of mola-mola diving.

I think we will beat those conference newcomers from New Jersey.
 
Hey Sports-fan,

Before a liveaboard, or any diving where we pay Big Bucks, we like to spend several days to a week diving as close to the embarkation point as possible, so that when we get on the LOB we have everything just the way we want it and we're really, really relaxed. That way we take maximum advantage of our time paying $500/day to dive! It's SOOO nice to get on Mermaid and feel READY not ANXIOUS. This works for us even though we have hundreds of dives. YMMV of course.

The last time we were on Mermaid we did exactly this, we spent a week diving with Geko Diving in Padangbai looking for mola-mola. (Didn't find any.) We stayed here:

Home - Sea Breeze Candidasa

Nice place! About 20 min drive to Geko.

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Top-side Bali has a lot to offer. The downside is traffic as others have mentioned. I personally have never gotten much out of a temple visit on Bali because they are all so crowded with tourists. Just doesn't work for me. YMMV.

My suggestion if you want to stay a couple days is to go to Ubud and find some peaceful ricefields like this:

IMG_1527.JPG



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Now for the part no one wants to talk about. Some 30% of international travelers get traveler's diarrhea. It's not from bad water, it's because there are different bacteria in different parts of the world. Mexicans get it when they come to the US. I got it a lot until I started taking pepto bismol as a preventative. Easy, cheap, and doesn't taste bad. It's a LOT better than spending $500/day to have the sh**s.

Also wash your hands a lot when you're on board.

Hope this helps.

- Bill
 
Now for the part no one wants to talk about. Some 30% of international travelers get traveler's diarrhea. It's not from bad water, it's because there are different bacteria in different parts of the world. Mexicans get it when they come to the US. I got it a lot until I started taking pepto bismol as a preventative. Easy, cheap, and doesn't taste bad. It's a LOT better than spending $500/day to have the sh**s.

Also wash your hands a lot when you're on board.

Bali belly! 2 of my worst days ever! On the bright side, I realised I could run much faster than I thought possible back then.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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