bassplayer
Contributor
Just wanted to jot down some brief notes.
After spending about a week or so in Ubud doing non-diving stuff, headed to Amed. for those who don't know Bali, it's not too hard or expensive to book rides across the island.
Diving:
- 2 recreational dives (dropoff, liberty)
- 3 DPV dives (training dive, dropoff -> somewhere southwest, then even further southwest)
- 2 tech dives (deep reef -> kubu wreck, dropoff area)
- 2 tech dives + DPV (bunutan -> further southwest, "hammerhead point" ending at japanese wreck)
All tech dives were to 45m on doubles with one slung deco gas as per my AN/DP certifications last month.
I wouldnt say the geography of Amed perfectly suits me, as a non-scooter driving walk everywhere person. my idea of a perfect setup is downtown cozumel.
that said, Bunga Laut was very pleasant, with a spacious clean room, good working AC, nice shower, good pressure hot water, and nice grounds including a decent sized pool. the bed wasn't too great (2 twins pushed together) but I could sleep fine. The restaurant was basic but decent. within close walking distance is "good stuff amed", a restaurant that I liked a lot.
the dive shop is quite luxurious. classrooms, workshops, etc. looked like everything needed for high level tech diving, though I only participared in my beginner style tech diving.
Antoine, the owner and resident tech diving guru, was very welcoming and helpful, and was very open to doing any type of diving i could dream up. not knowing the area, I went for some fairly basic stuff but seemed like sky was the limit. The other two in-water people I met were Jordan and Jelsa, both of whom were good divers and nice people.
the main recreational shore dive spots were very crowded with people but we had a ton of fun using the dpvs to get out into completely empty areas. i was especially impressed by bunutan, just crowded with so much life. reminded me of the best palau dives. We even saw a mola mola along the way about 40m deep which was pretty awesome.
the other people at Bunga Laut were for the most part french speakers but they tended to be nice and talk to me in English so it didn't feel like a french only vibe. various groups came through and seemed well taken care of whether doing their advanced open water certifications, fun diving, or diving with other ops.
After I had already booked this, I noticed that there are some active posters here who run a dive op in Amed - if i had noticed that sooner would have given them a visit. will have to do it next time.
After spending about a week or so in Ubud doing non-diving stuff, headed to Amed. for those who don't know Bali, it's not too hard or expensive to book rides across the island.
Diving:
- 2 recreational dives (dropoff, liberty)
- 3 DPV dives (training dive, dropoff -> somewhere southwest, then even further southwest)
- 2 tech dives (deep reef -> kubu wreck, dropoff area)
- 2 tech dives + DPV (bunutan -> further southwest, "hammerhead point" ending at japanese wreck)
All tech dives were to 45m on doubles with one slung deco gas as per my AN/DP certifications last month.
I wouldnt say the geography of Amed perfectly suits me, as a non-scooter driving walk everywhere person. my idea of a perfect setup is downtown cozumel.
that said, Bunga Laut was very pleasant, with a spacious clean room, good working AC, nice shower, good pressure hot water, and nice grounds including a decent sized pool. the bed wasn't too great (2 twins pushed together) but I could sleep fine. The restaurant was basic but decent. within close walking distance is "good stuff amed", a restaurant that I liked a lot.
the dive shop is quite luxurious. classrooms, workshops, etc. looked like everything needed for high level tech diving, though I only participared in my beginner style tech diving.
Antoine, the owner and resident tech diving guru, was very welcoming and helpful, and was very open to doing any type of diving i could dream up. not knowing the area, I went for some fairly basic stuff but seemed like sky was the limit. The other two in-water people I met were Jordan and Jelsa, both of whom were good divers and nice people.
the main recreational shore dive spots were very crowded with people but we had a ton of fun using the dpvs to get out into completely empty areas. i was especially impressed by bunutan, just crowded with so much life. reminded me of the best palau dives. We even saw a mola mola along the way about 40m deep which was pretty awesome.
the other people at Bunga Laut were for the most part french speakers but they tended to be nice and talk to me in English so it didn't feel like a french only vibe. various groups came through and seemed well taken care of whether doing their advanced open water certifications, fun diving, or diving with other ops.
After I had already booked this, I noticed that there are some active posters here who run a dive op in Amed - if i had noticed that sooner would have given them a visit. will have to do it next time.
