Bali Advice

[Mooseman1007]

My OH and I have just booked my trip to Bali for September, with 7 days based in Sanur followed by 7 days at Scuba Seraya, cant wait!!!
Anyway we were considering just relaxing in Sanur then doing all the diving up at SS, which leaves 2 questions....
1) Is it worth doing any dives in Sanur? We have already prebooked an excursion to dive Nusa Penida from SS so we dont need to do that, but are there any local sites worth a visit or is it only really worth doing trips over to Lembongan when in sanur
2) When we are up at Scuba Seraya, apart from Liberty Wreck and Seraya Secrets, which dive sites are "must do's" along the region from Tulamben down to Amed
We are both newly qualified PADI AOW divers so are open to most options though not TOO extreme !!!
All suggestions gratefully recieved
Mooseman

 

[JudyG]

Greetings Mooseman.

Re Sanur Diving - there are dive ops in the village, but I think most of them are taking divers to Nusa Lembongan etc. I doubt there is much good diving right off that bit of coast of Bali. We stayed in Sanur last year and liked it - not nearly as crazy as Kuta, a nice waterfront promenade with lots of eateries, and lots of other great little spots in town.

Re Scuba Seraya - we have stayed there twice - love it! I would recommend that you plan to dive the Liberty at least a couple of times - it is a large site, and there is much to see on it. The sandy areas around the wreck are full of cool little macro things, including numerous nudis and ghost pipefish. Make sure they take you to the shrimp cleaning station, which is nearby - fun to get your nails (or teeth!) cleaned.

Other than the muck diving at Seraya Secrets and the Liberty, we also greatly enjoyed local reef diving, which tends to get overlooked by the Liberty and the great muck - The Wall (near the Liberty Wreck) was great - tons of nudibranchs, octopi, reef dwelling fish. We also really like Batu Niti, which is just south of the resort, and was recommended by Patrick, the owner of Scuba Seraya. A great reef dive, with lovely shallows at the end of the dive for a great spot to offgas. The only other reef dive we did was something called Coral Gardens - it too was pretty, but not highly memorable.

I think you will find the diving at Tulamben not too difficult - occasionally there are some modest currents, but for the most part, quite benign. I have not done any diving in the Ahmed area, but I know Scuba Seraya can arrange it for you.

If you are interested in a resort review and preview of the diving, I put up a Bali trip report, as part of a large group effort trip report, last year. You will find it here ----> Awoosh Indonesia

I hope this helps,

J.

 

[divewench1]

While you are over the East side, you must dive Amed Japanese wreck, which is, in my opinion, one of the best dive sites in Bali. Not for the wreck, which is very small, but for the diversity of sealife and guaranteed pygmy seahorses!

 

[Mooseman1007]

ok.....so Im desperate to get in the water now......only 77days 6hrs and 27....no wait....26 minutes to go (not that Im counting !!)
I will look into the Japanese wreck and Batu Niti, and will do our first un guided dives from the shore at SS which we are looking forward to. Hopefully we get to see the mantas and molas on our trip down to Penida from SS
Now I just need to get another camera and decide whether to get a strobe or macro lens...this holiday is going WAY over budget but what the hell!
Whats the likelyhood of spotting sharks in the area?

 

[donsilcock]

Perfect timing... I just updated the Bali pages & Image Galleries pages on my site. Here are the links to the Seraya Secrets page:

Scuba Diving in Bali - Seraya Secrets near Tulamben in Bali | Indo-Pacific Images

Here is the link to my Seraya Secrets gallery:

Scuba Diving in Bali - Seraya Secrets Image & Photo Gallery | Indo-Pacific Images

Bottom line is that there is some great diving in the general Tulamben Bay area and round at Seraya.

Don

 

[Tortuga68]

Whats the likelyhood of spotting sharks in the area?

Padang Bai is pretty reliable for White Tips, just around the north point of the bay. Just take a Jukung & guide out there from PB

 

[JudyG]

ok.....so Im desperate to get in the water now......only 77days 6hrs and 27....no wait....26 minutes to go (not that Im counting !!)
I will look into the Japanese wreck and Batu Niti, and will do our first un guided dives from the shore at SS which we are looking forward to. Hopefully we get to see the mantas and molas on our trip down to Penida from SS
Now I just need to get another camera and decide whether to get a strobe or macro lens...this holiday is going WAY over budget but what the hell!
Whats the likelyhood of spotting sharks in the area?

All shore dives appear to be guided at Scuba Seraya - and a guide is great, both for navigation and to show you all the incredible little stuff that you might otherwise overlook. Hopefully you bought an all-inclusive package, which usually includes accomodations, breakfast and four dives daily - two boat and two shore, all guided.

I would go for both the Macro lens and the strobe - you are going to need them!

Have a great time.

J.

 

[JudyG]

PS - there are at least two pygmy sea horses on the Liberty and two leaf scorpionfish (or at least there were last year) - see if you can find them ;^)

 

[Mooseman1007]

not fair....work to do and all I can do is daydream about getting my fins wet on the other side of the world !!!
One thought tho, do the Molas and Mantas make it up as far as the NE coast or are they mostly down at Penida?

 

[ScubaduoAdventures]

not fair....work to do and all I can do is daydream about getting my fins wet on the other side of the world !!!
One thought tho, do the Molas and Mantas make it up as far as the NE coast or are they mostly down at Penida?

Your best bet is Penida and make sure you have at least a 5mm suit for the Mola Mola dive.