I don't have any diving experience outside Bali, but all my 89 dives done in Bali (
check my divelog!), so I will give a little guidance about diving in Bali. Basically Bali though not as popular as other dive sites in Indonesia, like Bunaken or Komodo, it is a good place to go. You can have a variety of good dive sites all around Bali. Mostly all dive sites in Bali can be dived everytime, but the best season is on June, July and August. I will describe each dive site I know and that must be the place I dived before.
Tulamben
This place is located on North East Bali. It has several good places, the most popular is the ship wreck. This USS Liberty wreck is very easy to access. In the WWII this ships was torpedoed by Japanese submarine in Lombok Strait and was getting towed by another USS ship to Bali shore. But for no particular reason, they just abandon the ships there until Indonesia proclaimed its independent on August 1945. One day in 1963 the biggest mountain in Bali, Mt. Agung errupted, and make the ships get rolling into the water. That's why this wreck situated only around 20 meters from the shore. Current is seldom and visibility usually about 10-20 meters. Other dive sites that I found interested in Tulamben, is the Drop Off (wall) and Coral Garden (shallow reef, good for photographer). Another interested site is Batu Kelebit which has a beautiful & abundant reef start in 30 meters depth. One of my tek-diver friend has been in 70 meters and found that there are still wide area up to 90 meters below him. Tulamben offers variety of dive sites along with good accomodation. Also good for a night dive here, especially in the full moon.
Nusa Penida
This sister island of Bali is a good place to do the drift diving. Most area has strong current with the good visibility (around 20-30 meters). In the best season (June to August), some divers meet whale shark anmd sun fish (mola mola) here. I found this place interested to do drift diving. Since spear fishing is banned here, there are many reef fishes live here.
Menjangan Island
I've been to this place several times, most of all the dive sites are wall. The visibility is very good here. Also you can find a wooden ship wreck here. This place best for Nitrox diving, since mostly the good area of reef can be found under 30 meters.
Gili Tepekong & Shark Point
The most difficult area for diving in Bali, the current is unpredictable. I dove here once and plan to have another in upcoming months (waiting for best season). You will find many pellagics here. The last time I dove here on November, I saw very beautiful canyon situated in 25 meters depth. Dive around the small island. The other part of the island, is the shark point, which has a place called shark point, you know what you'd meet if you go there. But the last time since the viz is not very good (about 5 meters), I did not find any sharks here, though at that time there was a rumour that a 5 meters Bull Shark occured there.
Amed
Only 2 of 3 popular dive sites there I've been dove. It is situated in the northmost part of Bali island, you can find several good resort here with sun rise scene. It was a good wall here but El Nino sweep all its beautiful coral reef and the recovery is quite slow here.
Padang Bai
Situated next to a traditional ship harbour. It has a shallow reef and many divers encounter nurse shark here.
Gili Selang
For those who never heard about Gili Selang, you should give it a try. It has a beautiful soft coral between 7-15 meters depth. I never saw such beautiful coral reef in Bali.
This site situated on the easternmost part of Bali island which faced Lombok Strait. That's the reason sometimes the current here is unpredictable and quite strong. One time I saw a river-like current where schools of jackfish jumps out one by one like in the white water and the rest of them strugglingly swam fighting the current. For your information, I'm talking about 50 centimeters jack fishes.
Besides that, the last time I dove there I encounter 8 (eight) hammerhead sharks and also 3 two-meters white tip sharks. However, the temperature could be freezing in such tropical water (down to 23 degree Celcius). Unfortunately, on the subsequent dives, I didn't find any sharks there. But still, the soft coral amazed me!
To get there, you could have various access, but to the best of my knowledge, from Diver's Cafe, Jemeluk Beach, Amed is the most appropriate way to go there. This small dive shop along with a restaurant runs by a local Balinese divemaster who is knowledgeable about all dive sites in Amed area and Gili Selang.
If your friend need a good diving accomodation, probably my friend who had a dive center here can help. Just take a look at the web site at
http://www.baliscuba.com or directly contact
Simon, Chris or David at
letsdive@baliscuba.com.
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