Bali-one week-Recommendations for where to stay and dive - end of Feb. (after Phuket)

[Divedoggie]

Dd it's great to get an update on Mimpi Mejangan.

We have considered returning (I was last there in 08). Do you know whether they are offering night dives now (before it was just a dusk mandarinfish dive)? Also did you do any three dive days?

Would be interested to hear more about your Secret Bay dives. Have heard it is sometimes hot, sometimes not. Have yet to make the journey but revisited the option last time I was in Bali...

Glad you had a great trip.

We stayed at Mimpi for 4 days in Tulamben and then 4 days at Menjangen, so we only dove 3 days in each resort. All of our dives were 3 dives/day. Night dives were easy in Tulamben. We didn't do any night dives at Menjangen Island. We did a dusk Mandarine dive which finished as a night dive, and true night dives were a drive over to Secret Bay.

Strangest and most unusual creatures I've seen anywhere were in Secret Bay. There is an upwelling there which makes the water temp a few degrees colder than anywhere else, but also is rich with nutrients. It is easy and shallow diving, very comfortable night dives, but a 5mm suit is definitely needed. There are some small wrecks and various piles of scrap that make little clusters of artificial reef, but they attract life like crazy. Viz was ok, maybe 5 meters.

Mimpi still does not offer Nitrox and all of our dives except Secret Bay were held to 1 hr. I think that this has less to do with dive profiles and more to do with the fishing boat and it's captain that are contracted out for each dive day. At Secret Bay, being a shore dive, we enjoyed dive times of 75 minutes.

We had a bungalow with the private hotspring and infinity pool. Hardly anyone else was there, so the spa facilities, diving and restaurant were always available.

We stayed at the Elephant Safari Lodge in Taro , did some mountain biking, visited quite a few temples, spent time in some coffee gardens, and made friends with locals who took us under their wings and showed us around. The Elephant Safari Lodge was a bit touristy, but the elephants don't know that, and we really enjoyed the hands on experience that we were able to have with them.

From Bali we flew to Wakatobi and spent 10 days there. Incredible diving and pristine reefs teeming with life were the norm. We had an outstanding time at Wakatobi, but the most memorable and special part of the trip was the time spent in Bali and with Mimpi. In all we enjoyed 40 dives and over 50 hours of bottom time.
We can't wait to go back! ...not sure when that is going to happen though!

 

[Luko]

Would be interested to hear more about your Secret Bay dives. Have heard it is sometimes hot, sometimes not. Have yet to make the journey but revisited the option last time I was in Bali...

I have a different opinion on secret Bay but maybe my expectations were too high. Did 2 dives on this spot with SeaRovers, along with their most experimented diveguide and a dutch photographer.

Of course we found the usual suspects and photo ops like hairy frogfish, other types of Froggies, GPF, Banggai cardinals, lots of tube blennies, some nudis, etc, even a small wreck. We had been lucky that day since the viz was amazingly clear, beyond the 20m (60') range and the water temp was freezing as usual (21°).








On the other hand, I thought it lacked humph. If you ask me, the definitive macro stuff on Bali is either located on Tulamben Wall or most certainly lying on the grey slopes of Seraya Secrets. I am quite certain a regular macro buff could spend three full days diving on Seraya Secrets.

I have been very much tempted to spend a day on Puri Jati but for some reason, it could not happen. Hence I can't say about this site.

 

[Wisnu]

we had similar trip end of May 2011; 3days Tulamben, 1d Menjangan and 1d SB.
viz SB was not good, 19C, lot of critters, but I'll rank after ambon, lembeh and seraya, though my daughter will not agree since she get her best picts there.
here the report
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/in...mben-menjangan-secret-bay-end-may-2011-a.html


cheers

 

[cephalopod2]

Thank you everyone for the details on Secret Bay. I really do want to try diving there.

Dd thanks for the Mimpi update. I agree the hot springs are really fantastic.

Luko I am excited to hear that you saw a Bagghai cardinalfish in Bali. I thought they were endemic to Lembeh/Bangka - I love them. Great photos thank you so much for posting them! I have only seen 1 hairy - SB would totally be worth it just to see one more.

Wisnu - I really enjoyed your report. LOVE the double frogfish!!! What an incredible shot!

Re. Seraya, the last two summers we have stayed about 1 week at Scuba Seraya. But I have to report there was a big difference between 2010 and 2011. Summer 2010 the house reef was so crammed with life, they had to divide it into 3 dive sites -- even then you barely made a dent in a 70 min dive. Last summer (2011), not just the Seraya reef but also all the shore and house reefs in the area all seemed to have significantly less life. Talking to people, including the owner, it was not clear whether the cause was a natural cycle, or increased pollution, or increased diver/photographer pressure, but I saw some sad damage. E.g. all the wire coral with Xeno crabs on them for example were all dead from handling at the top end, confining the Xeno to a very tiny area; ripped apart crinoids, etc. Obviously there is more to it than some diver damage - but no one could really say for sure.

Folks who have been since Aug 2011 - and have dove the region before that - have the Tulamben muck sites bounced back or what is your perspective?

Note that I would still not hesitate to recommend Tulamben for people who have never dove in Bali - even on a quiet day the macro is better than lots of the diving I have done in many other parts of SE Asia, thanks in no small part to the talented guides. My 2011 Seraya week I saw many obscure animals I hadn't seen before (MANY not yet classified nudis, including two Doto sp., a wonderpus, some sort of super obscure octopus (not a hairy but close), tiger shrimp, not to mention all the regular lovelies - mouth breeding cardinals, boxer crabs, coconut octopus, mimic, rhinopias, crinoid crabs and shrimp, frogfish, ornate ghost pipefish, crinoid cuttlefish, nudis galore, etc etc)

EDIT: I haven't actually edited many of my photos yet (5 week trip - lots of photos) but since everyone is sharing, here's one of my fave nudis from 2011 I edited for another purpose. Locally called the doughnut nudi, an unclassifed Doto sp.

N

 

[Luko]

I am excited to hear that you saw a Banggai cardinalfish in Bali. I thought they were endemic to Lembeh/Bangka

There 's a quite important population of Banggais in the surroundings of the wreck in secret Bay. Don't ask me how they got there, probably via an aquaria fish trader.
I supose Bali is home of many expats above and under water, like for instance the Luwak "coffee digester", which I thought was endemic to Medan and Banda Aceh forests.

Natasha : I also looked for the donut Nudi that Alex Mustard made famous on a cover of a dive mag, but I didn't find it.

 

[cephalopod2]

Those 'coffee digesters' are cute, but I can't say I was blown away by their coffee. Must be an acquired taste. Nice stop on the way back from Menjangan however.

Luko if you ever want to see a doughnut, DM Komang at Scuba Seraya definitely knows where they are (they were not shallow in Tulamben - 70 fsw or deeper IIRC - and almost always on the hydroids (?) in the pix). Of course searching is always fun....find so many neat things along the way...