Diving in Bali

[Indah]

The Tulamben wreck is excellent for an Open Water Diver.

 

[Blackcrusader]

It's still a bit in the air at the moment because my wife is Indonesian and her family will have a large presence. Given their interests, their presence means the vacation will be more centered on restaurants and tourist sites (I'd imagine). I'd LOVE to see these authentic villages and islands.

But my whole diving excursion is more like I'm "sneaking away" for a day to do diving. My wife mentioned one of her friends is a diver over there and suggested we could maybe go together. She suggested Tulamben which is possible to do as a day trip from Denpasar. I won't be able to go down to the actual shipwreck there as I'll only be certified down to 60 ft I think it is for OWD, but there's other stuff there as I understand.

I've heard good things about Lombok (I guess Gili Air is very near). We've discussed going there a couple times. Who knows, maybe she'll be interested in visiting one of the other islands.

It seems you figured out the formula "happy wife, happy life."
I will let you know where we end up diving if you're interested... bringing my gopro so hopefully can get a few good pics.

Tulamben as a day trip, yes if you leave at 6am as it is over a 3 hour drive. The wreck starts at 15 feet on the shallow end.
There is no such thing as a 60ft limit once certified. Lot's to see even if you don't want to dive deeper.

 

[Big Dan K]

I'm going to be there in November. I'm a new diver (certs this coming weekend). My wife also does not dive, so I'm going to try to stay near to Denpasar. Do you know of any reputable places nearby that do equipment rental, guided dives etc?

I enjoyed diving with Neptune Diving in Denpasar.

 

[coder_underwater]

I enjoyed diving with Neptune Diving in Denpasar.

Thanks for the info. So far I have talked to Adventure Diving and Aqua Marine diving. Both seem good. AD says they offer transportation to and from the dive sites which is ideal. Aqua Marine sounds more flexible on number of dives you can do in a day. I would like to get 4 in given I'm only diving one day. They said you can do an early morning dive, 3 day dives and a night dive if you're feeling froggy.

I'm taking a look at Neptune as we speak.

 

[coder_underwater]

Tulamben as a day trip, yes if you leave at 6am as it is over a 3 hour drive. The wreck starts at 15 feet on the shallow end.
There is no such thing as a 60ft limit once certified. Lot's to see even if you don't want to dive deeper.

Ah, thanks. I was just reading about that 60ft "limit." Apparently, there is confusion about that because that is the "in-training" limit set by PADI, SSI etc. Once you are certified you can make those decisions on your own, as long as you feel comfortable in your training and experience. So it seems the wreck is still an option. Thanks!

 

[CJS]

Thanks for the info. So far I have talked to Adventure Diving and Aqua Marine diving. Both seem good. AD says they offer transportation to and from the dive sites which is ideal. Aqua Marine sounds more flexible on number of dives you can do in a day. I would like to get 4 in given I'm only diving one day. They said you can do an early morning dive, 3 day dives and a night dive if you're feeling froggy.

I'm taking a look at Neptune as we speak.

I did my AOW with Adventure Divers many years ago. I remember them being nice people. I have a friend who travels to Bali regularly and he speaks highly of Aqua Marine. Any of the operators should sort out transport for you, but an early morning dive at Tulamben from somewhere near Denpasar means a pretty early start.

I once met a young guy who had come to Tulamben for one day and was diving five times...without a computer, or, from what I could gather, any understanding of his nitrogen loading. I hope he made it.

 

[coder_underwater]

I did my AOW with Adventure Divers many years ago. I remember them being nice people. I have a friend who travels to Bali regularly and he speaks highly of Aqua Marine. Any of the operators should sort out transport for you, but an early morning dive at Tulamben from somewhere near Denpasar means a pretty early start.

I once met a young guy who had come to Tulamben for one day and was diving five times...without a computer, or, from what I could gather, any understanding of his nitrogen loading. I hope he made it.

Wonderful. I've been talking to Aqua Marine. They seem pretty good about organizing the transportation side of things so I'm leaning towards them.

He was diving five times in a day without a computer and no understanding about nitrogen loading? Scary. I hope the dive pro was keeping an eye on that. That's the only purchase outside of my snorkel system I made so far as the last thing I need is the bends in a foreign country.

 

[coder_underwater]

Very late update but I ended up going with Aqua Marine. They were pretty solid. It was a very long trip to get to Tulamben to dive the USAT Liberty from South Kuta but I think the experience there was far better for me than in Blue Lagoon.

Before going, I read Blue Lagoon was supposed to be a bit more beginner friendly but I found the currents pretty strong there. It felt like being on an underwater treadmill, my legs were pretty tired at the end. The visibility wasn't too good at that time, which is expected in November. It also required boat entry and exit, which I hadn't trained for. The guide was pretty good at showing me the ropes though, literally.

Funny story. As I'm climbing up the ladder on to the side of the boat for my last dive in Indonesia for that trip. The guy was pointing to my shoulder "kepiting" he repeated this a few times. And I knew that it meant "crab" but I couldn't make sense of what he meant.

Turns out I had a free-loading crab riding on my shoulder.