Woodiver
Contributor
- Messages
- 211
- Reaction score
- 51
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
We’re in Bali now, just finished up 8 nights at Scuba Seraya. We did five days of diving in the Tulamben area and one day at Nusa Penida. While we were at Scuba Seraya, we had our own guide for the whole time, we could decide what time we wanted to dive and based on what we wanted to see, the guide picked the sites. Our package included two boat dives per day and if you wanted to shore dive, Seraya Secrets is 20 feet from the dive shop. The boat dives were nice, we didn’t have to schlep gear or hire porters. It was nice to be resort based rather than being on a dive safari, finish a dive take a shower, change clothes and have something to eat. Next to Scuba Seraya one of the dive safari groups uses the area to stage diving at Seraya Secrets so most days there were groups of people sitting around in their wetsuits waiting for the next dive.
Regarding dive sites, the wreck is best done very early in the day, some were going as early as 6:45 to be the first ones on the site. We went at 8:00 both days we did the site, the jacks were still there but the bumphead’s were long gone. The one site we didn’t want to do again was the Drop Off, poor vis and not much to see. Others staying at the resort had similar opinions regarding the Drop Off. Coral Gardens is next to the wreck and has nice cleaning stations, numerous leaf scorpion fish and is a mix of muck and patch coral, this is only site other than Seraya Secrets that we repeated. For coral sites we liked Batu Kelebit, Batu Beleh and Bunatan Village. All of these sites are within 10 minutes by boat. Seraya Secrets is a muck dive so the focus is on small critters and most people are totally reliant on the eyes of their guide. Since this is the house reef, all of the Scuba Seraya guides know where everything hides out.
You may want to reconsider the trip to Nusa Penida from Sanur if the boat departs from Padang Bai. The road from Sanur to Padang Bai is under construction and traffic sucks. When we dove Nusa Penida, the trip to Padang Bai took about 1:15 minutes from Tulamben, from Sanur it will take longer. Also be sure to take extra rubber for Nusa Penida, water temp’s in Tulamben were warm, 86-87’ but Nusa Penida temp’s were around 76’ and are usually cooler in a couple of months.
Regarding dive sites, the wreck is best done very early in the day, some were going as early as 6:45 to be the first ones on the site. We went at 8:00 both days we did the site, the jacks were still there but the bumphead’s were long gone. The one site we didn’t want to do again was the Drop Off, poor vis and not much to see. Others staying at the resort had similar opinions regarding the Drop Off. Coral Gardens is next to the wreck and has nice cleaning stations, numerous leaf scorpion fish and is a mix of muck and patch coral, this is only site other than Seraya Secrets that we repeated. For coral sites we liked Batu Kelebit, Batu Beleh and Bunatan Village. All of these sites are within 10 minutes by boat. Seraya Secrets is a muck dive so the focus is on small critters and most people are totally reliant on the eyes of their guide. Since this is the house reef, all of the Scuba Seraya guides know where everything hides out.
You may want to reconsider the trip to Nusa Penida from Sanur if the boat departs from Padang Bai. The road from Sanur to Padang Bai is under construction and traffic sucks. When we dove Nusa Penida, the trip to Padang Bai took about 1:15 minutes from Tulamben, from Sanur it will take longer. Also be sure to take extra rubber for Nusa Penida, water temp’s in Tulamben were warm, 86-87’ but Nusa Penida temp’s were around 76’ and are usually cooler in a couple of months.