I'm back from BALI with photos !!!
- Thread starter lukeROB
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H2Andy
Contributor
yeah, me too!
so many fish!
so many fish!
marpacifica
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I'm a sucker for those pygmy seahorses -- great shot. Where did you find that one? I dove Tulamben and Menjangan Island and went blind trying to find one. My dive guides said they're hard to find. Thanks for the virtual dive.
sapphire
Contributor
fantastic shots! I am envious of the pygmy seahorse... and look forward to your trip report 
PADI-SoCalDiver
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lukeROB:
Nice Pictures.
Going to Bali in March! I was getting by with March until now! I'm wanna go now!!!
Joe
Joe
Very nice shots. Which sites did you dive?
I'm heading to Bali for a wedding in Sept and hope to get a few dives in while I'm up there
I'm heading to Bali for a wedding in Sept and hope to get a few dives in while I'm up there
OP
lukeROB
Contributor
Ok I'm going to do this report in installments:
I'll attach and link to some photos from the dive sites mentioned.
To some other questions - shots were mostly taken with macro (inon 1.4X) and WA (inon 105 degrees) or the standard lens (not many).
The pygmy is about 1/2 inch and shot with the macro from about 10cm away full zoom (I really wish I had two stacked macros - there is always next time)
Part 1 - Bali, Penida and Padang Bai
Ok this is not going to be a huge report but I always like to hear other peoples experience from a trip so Ill share a few of mine.
The weather was perfect it never rained and the temperatures were mild at around 28-30 degrees C. We had been in Bali for about 8 days before Tanya and I left our main group to dive. We had planned to dive in Penida (toyapekah) but I had a small motorbike incident (hehe) so I couldnt bring myself to put on a wetsuit for a couple of days. I did snorkel a Nusa Lembongan and the vis was fantastic and the corals the most healthy I saw in Bali. After talking to our guide Purwano I have decided that the only regret about my trip is I never managed to dive in Penida (I really wanted to see Mola Mola).
Now onto the important part the diving. We dived with Bali International Diving Professionals (BIDP) and I really cannot say enough good things about them. I organized the whole trip through email and by phone. They were the first place I emailed and although I found out a few other prices from the first emails onwards they seemed like a great bunch. Choosing them to dive with was the best decision I made, they are not the cheapest but they were fantastic. The owner Avandy is a really great guy and is himself a very good photographer but now is deadest on video (hes good at that too). We both shared the common interest of strange and interesting macro marine life so we got on well from the start. He had a heap to do at the office as they have just moved so he couldnt didnt manage to take us on the trip but we got in one dive together. This didnt matter he sent a guide with us named Purwano defiantly one of the best guys I have met. Many nights were spent chatting about diving and life and a few Bintangs (local beer very tasty) were had. And this I think typifies Bali - the people are fantastic.
I must make the point that BIDP are very professional and everything they did was geared toward the customer. They stressed it was our holiday and whatever we wanted to do we only had to ask. Along the drive we stopped at scenic spots and everything for each days diving was totally taken care of stress free diving. They were extremely safe and Purwano a very skilled diver (or fish I think he had lungs after 90 minutes he had only used 100 bar).
Our first dives were at Pandang Bai on the way to Tulamben (East Coast) it was a really nice place except the swell had been up and still hadnt totally died so we were fairly limited in the dive spots. We dived both dives around the Blue Lagoon area and had reasonable vis at about 15m, warm water of about 28ºC so it was still a good intro coming off my last dive which had vis of about 5m and water temps of 19ºC. The dives started in a calm bay and move down a slope which had a gentle current running along it. The life was interesting here and I would come back as we found a lot of good critters although the corals are not fantastic - it is pretty. Found hinge-beak shrimps, many cleaners, big and varied morays, multiple leaf fish, pipefish plus many others and obviously are the usual tropical reef suspects.
Both pictures from Padang Bai - more at HERE ! (cuttlefish, hinge-beak, two cleaners and christmas tree) - if you want some scenic WA let me know.
I'll attach and link to some photos from the dive sites mentioned.
To some other questions - shots were mostly taken with macro (inon 1.4X) and WA (inon 105 degrees) or the standard lens (not many).
The pygmy is about 1/2 inch and shot with the macro from about 10cm away full zoom (I really wish I had two stacked macros - there is always next time)
Part 1 - Bali, Penida and Padang Bai
Ok this is not going to be a huge report but I always like to hear other peoples experience from a trip so Ill share a few of mine.
The weather was perfect it never rained and the temperatures were mild at around 28-30 degrees C. We had been in Bali for about 8 days before Tanya and I left our main group to dive. We had planned to dive in Penida (toyapekah) but I had a small motorbike incident (hehe) so I couldnt bring myself to put on a wetsuit for a couple of days. I did snorkel a Nusa Lembongan and the vis was fantastic and the corals the most healthy I saw in Bali. After talking to our guide Purwano I have decided that the only regret about my trip is I never managed to dive in Penida (I really wanted to see Mola Mola).
Now onto the important part the diving. We dived with Bali International Diving Professionals (BIDP) and I really cannot say enough good things about them. I organized the whole trip through email and by phone. They were the first place I emailed and although I found out a few other prices from the first emails onwards they seemed like a great bunch. Choosing them to dive with was the best decision I made, they are not the cheapest but they were fantastic. The owner Avandy is a really great guy and is himself a very good photographer but now is deadest on video (hes good at that too). We both shared the common interest of strange and interesting macro marine life so we got on well from the start. He had a heap to do at the office as they have just moved so he couldnt didnt manage to take us on the trip but we got in one dive together. This didnt matter he sent a guide with us named Purwano defiantly one of the best guys I have met. Many nights were spent chatting about diving and life and a few Bintangs (local beer very tasty) were had. And this I think typifies Bali - the people are fantastic.
I must make the point that BIDP are very professional and everything they did was geared toward the customer. They stressed it was our holiday and whatever we wanted to do we only had to ask. Along the drive we stopped at scenic spots and everything for each days diving was totally taken care of stress free diving. They were extremely safe and Purwano a very skilled diver (or fish I think he had lungs after 90 minutes he had only used 100 bar).
Our first dives were at Pandang Bai on the way to Tulamben (East Coast) it was a really nice place except the swell had been up and still hadnt totally died so we were fairly limited in the dive spots. We dived both dives around the Blue Lagoon area and had reasonable vis at about 15m, warm water of about 28ºC so it was still a good intro coming off my last dive which had vis of about 5m and water temps of 19ºC. The dives started in a calm bay and move down a slope which had a gentle current running along it. The life was interesting here and I would come back as we found a lot of good critters although the corals are not fantastic - it is pretty. Found hinge-beak shrimps, many cleaners, big and varied morays, multiple leaf fish, pipefish plus many others and obviously are the usual tropical reef suspects.
Both pictures from Padang Bai - more at HERE ! (cuttlefish, hinge-beak, two cleaners and christmas tree) - if you want some scenic WA let me know.
H2Andy
Contributor
those are two AMAZING pictures... wow
Your whole gallery is great! Thanks for the report so far....
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