pakman
Contributor
A bit late on the report... Some of you may have seen the photos already in the photo section...
Spent all last week down in Bali. Unlike my usual dive trips, this time I only spent half the time actually diving.
While I've been to Bali a number of times before, this was only my 2nd dive related trip there. Actually the first time was over 10 years ago when I decided to take a break from all the Kuta clubs/bars and do something productive by signing up for an OW course in Sanur...
For the first half of our trip, we stayed in Jimbaran Bay and only did 1 day of diving out in Nusa Penida Island. I decided to use one of the better locally-owned shops, Bali Int'l Diving Professionals (BIDP), which has their own dive boats. Like most dive ops in Bali, they will arrange for your pickup in the morning from your hotel from around the major tourist locations and provide door to door service. Most divetrips to Nusa Penida & Lembongan depart from Sanur beach near the Hyatt. The boat that morning had 6 divers, 1DM, the shop owner Avandy himself and two boat crew. We took the larger of their boats, powered by twin 200hp outboards. Plenty of deck space to setup your gear (um, I mean for the staff to setup your gear
...). The sunning deck is a bit cramp but was comfortable with 5 people up there.
We hit Crystal Bay on Nusa Penida Island for our first dive. This is the primary site for Mola Mola (Oceanic Sunfish) spotting. Most will say August is the best time to see mola mola's and October is getting into the tail end of the season, but this was the only time we could schedule our Bali trip.
We spent most of the 1st dive swimming around the northern side of Crystal Bay, enjoying the coral and small fish around the area. As we were just about to begin our ascent for our safety stop, we caught a glimpse of a dark disc shaped shadow below. There was a baby mola, but still a good size one, in a head's up position getting cleaned. It was down a bit deep around 25-30m and we were starting to get low on air, so most of our group stayed shallow to watch the show. I was able to drop down briefly to get off a few shots. By then, the tank bangers were going off as the other dive groups spotted it and in no time the little fellow was surrounded by around 20+ divers. Eventually it had enough and swam away. Well, I finally got to see a mola mola and can now check it off my list.
For the second dive, we debated doing Manta Point or staying for a 2nd dive in Crystal Bay. As we had been hearing the mantas haven't been showing up consistently this season, we decided to do a 2nd dive at Crystal Bay (** see other posts and it appears that the mantas are still there lately...). But we didn't get another mola mola encounter . Instead, we got hit by thermoclines that had my DC temp readings showing 16c at one point!!! Brrrr... I was initially in a 3mm full suit and 3/2mm hooded vest. As the first dive wasn't that bad temp wise (20-22), I made the mistake of taking off the hooded vest for the 2nd dive:11doh:. We were dumbfounded by a couple of divers in another boat that were diving in just a shortie:11:!! For those like me who don't like carrying their 5mm suits around, the dive shop had 3mm diagonal zip shorties to put over your own wetsuit.
A couple of observations. I had heard that the crowds at Crystal Bay were getting worse with even stories of 20 dive boats during peak season. It wasn't as bad during our daytrip, but still pretty crowded with 8 boats in total. The corals are showing some wear and I was disappointed to come across a brain coral with graphitti scrawled on it .
For the second half of our trip, we stayed/ dived in Tulamban at Mimpi Resort. Mimpi provided the driver/van and we stopped in Ubud for some shopping and lunch overlooking the rice terraces. I was a bit disappointed with how much Ubud has become commercialized over the years. Still a nice place to visit but just not the same sleepy little artist town it was years ago.
We skipped the volcanoes and headed to Tulamben. If you're transiting to Tulamben in the late afternoon, you'll be treated with some of the most stunning scenary as you wind through the hilly pass before arriving in Tulamben: Beautiful valleys of lush rice patties with Mt. Agung (3,000m+) towering in the background.
Mimpi was an enjoyable resort. We stayed in the beachfront bungalows and loved the local Balinese-style Bale where we would lounge and watch the sunset on the parade of local fishing boats passing by. Food was OK and a good mix of Western and Asian. The Bali coffee was great but their cappucinos were a bit disappointing... The crowd was mostly European, but there were also groups of local Indonesian, and one Japanese photographer who would do these 2 hr solo nite dives every single nite...
The diving arrangement at Mimpi is very laid back. The USS Liberty is a short walk down the stony beach and they will arrange to have the local porters drop off and pick up your gear at the entry point. They don't require you to dive with a dive guide, don't restrict you to 60min or some other arbitrary time limit, and were fine with me doing solo dives.
I had done my OW check-out dive on USS Liberty, but back then, I was so obsessed with my spg that I didn't really appreciate the beauty of the site:no. Despite the large crowds from the Sanur-based daytrippers, USS Liberty is a wonderful site for divers of all levels. Visibility is great, wonderful sealife on and around the wreck itself. The school of jacks were there every morning whipping up into a tornado for everyone. As you head back to the beach entry point, you'll see large garden eels in the sand, occaisional rays, and even mantis shrimp scurrying around.
Just south of the resort is Drop Off Point which has some lovely gorgonians on its walls and healthy fishlife in the shallows. Memorable dives included swimming in the 2-5m shallow portion on top of Drop Off Point and coming across the school of jacks, Napoleon wrasse, and good size groupers.
In front of Mimpi resort, there is a house reef towards the left. But straight in front of the resort pool, there is a massive green moray. A smaller yellow moray and other eels were found in this area. The area can make for some interesting muck dives with my favorite find being a nice bright green/blue bobtail squid the size of a fingertip during a 80+min solo nite dive.
Overall a great trip and a nice change from my usual dive trips where it's "dive dive dive, eat, drink, sleep, dive dive dive..." nonstop for a week
Spent all last week down in Bali. Unlike my usual dive trips, this time I only spent half the time actually diving.
While I've been to Bali a number of times before, this was only my 2nd dive related trip there. Actually the first time was over 10 years ago when I decided to take a break from all the Kuta clubs/bars and do something productive by signing up for an OW course in Sanur...
For the first half of our trip, we stayed in Jimbaran Bay and only did 1 day of diving out in Nusa Penida Island. I decided to use one of the better locally-owned shops, Bali Int'l Diving Professionals (BIDP), which has their own dive boats. Like most dive ops in Bali, they will arrange for your pickup in the morning from your hotel from around the major tourist locations and provide door to door service. Most divetrips to Nusa Penida & Lembongan depart from Sanur beach near the Hyatt. The boat that morning had 6 divers, 1DM, the shop owner Avandy himself and two boat crew. We took the larger of their boats, powered by twin 200hp outboards. Plenty of deck space to setup your gear (um, I mean for the staff to setup your gear
...). The sunning deck is a bit cramp but was comfortable with 5 people up there.We hit Crystal Bay on Nusa Penida Island for our first dive. This is the primary site for Mola Mola (Oceanic Sunfish) spotting. Most will say August is the best time to see mola mola's and October is getting into the tail end of the season, but this was the only time we could schedule our Bali trip.
We spent most of the 1st dive swimming around the northern side of Crystal Bay, enjoying the coral and small fish around the area. As we were just about to begin our ascent for our safety stop, we caught a glimpse of a dark disc shaped shadow below. There was a baby mola, but still a good size one, in a head's up position getting cleaned. It was down a bit deep around 25-30m and we were starting to get low on air, so most of our group stayed shallow to watch the show. I was able to drop down briefly to get off a few shots. By then, the tank bangers were going off as the other dive groups spotted it and in no time the little fellow was surrounded by around 20+ divers. Eventually it had enough and swam away. Well, I finally got to see a mola mola and can now check it off my list.
For the second dive, we debated doing Manta Point or staying for a 2nd dive in Crystal Bay. As we had been hearing the mantas haven't been showing up consistently this season, we decided to do a 2nd dive at Crystal Bay (** see other posts and it appears that the mantas are still there lately...
). But we didn't get another mola mola encounter . Instead, we got hit by thermoclines that had my DC temp readings showing 16c at one point!!! Brrrr... I was initially in a 3mm full suit and 3/2mm hooded vest. As the first dive wasn't that bad temp wise (20-22), I made the mistake of taking off the hooded vest for the 2nd dive:11doh:. We were dumbfounded by a couple of divers in another boat that were diving in just a shortie:11:!! For those like me who don't like carrying their 5mm suits around, the dive shop had 3mm diagonal zip shorties to put over your own wetsuit.A couple of observations. I had heard that the crowds at Crystal Bay were getting worse with even stories of 20 dive boats during peak season. It wasn't as bad during our daytrip, but still pretty crowded with 8 boats in total. The corals are showing some wear and I was disappointed to come across a brain coral with graphitti scrawled on it
.For the second half of our trip, we stayed/ dived in Tulamban at Mimpi Resort. Mimpi provided the driver/van and we stopped in Ubud for some shopping and lunch overlooking the rice terraces. I was a bit disappointed with how much Ubud has become commercialized over the years. Still a nice place to visit but just not the same sleepy little artist town it was years ago.
We skipped the volcanoes and headed to Tulamben. If you're transiting to Tulamben in the late afternoon, you'll be treated with some of the most stunning scenary as you wind through the hilly pass before arriving in Tulamben: Beautiful valleys of lush rice patties with Mt. Agung (3,000m+) towering in the background.
Mimpi was an enjoyable resort. We stayed in the beachfront bungalows and loved the local Balinese-style Bale where we would lounge and watch the sunset on the parade of local fishing boats passing by. Food was OK and a good mix of Western and Asian. The Bali coffee was great but their cappucinos were a bit disappointing... The crowd was mostly European, but there were also groups of local Indonesian, and one Japanese photographer who would do these 2 hr solo nite dives every single nite...
The diving arrangement at Mimpi is very laid back. The USS Liberty is a short walk down the stony beach and they will arrange to have the local porters drop off and pick up your gear at the entry point. They don't require you to dive with a dive guide, don't restrict you to 60min or some other arbitrary time limit, and were fine with me doing solo dives.
I had done my OW check-out dive on USS Liberty, but back then, I was so obsessed with my spg that I didn't really appreciate the beauty of the site:no. Despite the large crowds from the Sanur-based daytrippers, USS Liberty is a wonderful site for divers of all levels. Visibility is great, wonderful sealife on and around the wreck itself. The school of jacks were there every morning whipping up into a tornado for everyone. As you head back to the beach entry point, you'll see large garden eels in the sand, occaisional rays, and even mantis shrimp scurrying around.
Just south of the resort is Drop Off Point which has some lovely gorgonians on its walls and healthy fishlife in the shallows. Memorable dives included swimming in the 2-5m shallow portion on top of Drop Off Point and coming across the school of jacks, Napoleon wrasse, and good size groupers.
In front of Mimpi resort, there is a house reef towards the left. But straight in front of the resort pool, there is a massive green moray. A smaller yellow moray and other eels were found in this area. The area can make for some interesting muck dives with my favorite find being a nice bright green/blue bobtail squid the size of a fingertip during a 80+min solo nite dive.
Overall a great trip and a nice change from my usual dive trips where it's "dive dive dive, eat, drink, sleep, dive dive dive..." nonstop for a week
