Lombok and Bali Trip Oct - Nov 2021

[AlMitch]

Man I'm absolutely craving to return to wonderful Bali. I desperately need some Vitamin Sea!

There is talk that Singapore will open up a VLT to Indo soon. VTL = Vaccinated Travel Lane (gotta love Singapore and all the acronyms). This means no quarantine on return. So here's hoping to a bit more freedom of movement.

The psychedelic batwing slug has always been on my wish list...never managed to spot one before.

How much do you pay for a rental car per day?

The Bali economy has really been devastated by all of this!!

 

[Wisnu]

Man I'm absolutely craving to return to wonderful Bali. I desperately need some Vitamin Sea!

There is talk that Singapore will open up a VLT to Indo soon. VTL = Vaccinated Travel Lane (gotta love Singapore and all the acronyms). This means no quarantine on return. So here's hoping to a bit more freedom of movement.

The psychedelic batwing slug has always been on my wish list...never managed to spot one before.

How much do you pay for a rental car per day?

The Bali economy has really been devastated by all of this!!

Hi Al,
You (and Al Jr) do need vitamin Sea. Crucial for mental health.
Hope the VLT will be established soon. Heard they are working for same arrangement with Aussie too.

For car rental we paid Rp. 225K per day for minivan Toyota avanza, self drive, excluding Rp 200k extra cost for delivery to Padangbai.
We returned the car at airport.

Seem not very difficult for widana or his assistant Didu to find the psychedelic batwing or other batwing. Last year, we found several batwings too, unfortunately I didn't bring my aquako IV diopter.
Without them, no way for us to spot batwing ourself.

 

[Centrals]

No way for us to get to 7k or even 6k. We're too old for that.
EBC + gyoko Ri supposed to be in
March this year but Nepal was closed. So, we reschedule for next year.

Enjoy the take off at Tenzing-Hillary Airport(Lukla).

 

[Wisnu]

Part 5 - Tulamben

Tulamben is very special for me. For the first time we visited Tulamben in 2003. I knew nothing about scuba diving. We did snorkeling only - amazed with the massive school of jackfish and Barry - the barracuda; returned again a year later and practically almost every years as scuba diver.
My elder daughter received her padi OW in Tulamben in 2007 at Mimpi. She saw her first black tip at coral garden during her course.
Her sister received her jr. OW in 2010 from Ricardo Tom of ocean sun and finally my wife in 2011 while we stayed in Matahari.

In Tulamben we stayed at various accommodation including Mimpi, Joe, Coral, Matahari, TWD, Ocean sun, Liberty, Scuba Seraya (not really in Tulamben) and Puri Madha.
For this trip, we stayed and dove with Puri Madha again - one of few resort/DC that still operating daily due to their location and their customers are predominantly domestic.
In fact, Puri Madha could be very busy at weekend though the crowd was still far from prepandemic.
Many of dive resorts and restaurant in Tulamben is closed or not daily operating.
Wayan restaurant was open, no staff, Wayan himself was doing everything.
Warung Rusti was open only one day when we were there. The Chinese restaurant seem RIP.

The Liberty Wreck
We had two early morning dives. The reefs are very healthy, significantly better than our previous visit in February 2020.
On both dives, we saw black tip and Napoleon patrolling the wreck. Very shy, always nice away when approached. No pics, sorry.
Unfortunately, only two bumpheads we saw in the wreck and one at coral garden. Hopefully they only move somewhere in the area.

Liberty wreck, Tulamben, Bali-081410.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Liberty wreck, Tulamben, Bali-081396.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Liberty wreck, Tulamben, Bali-081475.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Soft Corals Liberty wreck, Tulamben, Bali-071152.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Diver at Liberty wreck, Tulamben, Bali-071153.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Liberty wreck, Tulamben, Bali-081463.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

 

[Wisnu]

Melasti
Our Tulamben routine on day 1: early morning dive at the wreck (Wide angle), breakfast at Puri madha restaurant and then load our gear to my rental car (I just don't like sitting on the back of mini pickup truck typically used in Tulamben) for macro diving at Melasti.

Melasti was very quiet. We were the only divers. Unlike prepandemic, no porter help us to unload it gear from the car. They came later. Probably they didn't expect any visitor.
There's new Dive resort in Melasti, seem they were open but I didn't see their guests.

As expected from Melasti site, our guide easily found various costasiella sp aka the Shaun the sheep, skeleton shrimp, and other critters.
Here few shots from Melasti.

Nudibranch, Nembrotha Kubaryana, Melasti Tulamben, Bali-081565.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Shaun the sheep Nudibranch (Costasiella kuroshimae) Melasti, Bali-071235.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Skeleton shrimp, Melasti, Bali-071231.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Octopus, Melasti, Bali-071254.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Sea slug TBA, Melasti, Bali-071275.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

I dont know the name of the last one. I forgot to bring my nudi book. Thanks for helping me to identify.

 

[Centrals]

Could well be the right time to visit Indonesia before the crowd return.
3 days of quarantine is NOT that bad to endure.

 

[Indah]

Could well be the right time to visit Indonesia before the crowd return.
3 days of quarantine is NOT that bad to endure.

Crowd from where?

 

[Centrals]

Crowd from where?

You have never been to Bali during peak season when the airport WAS packed with Aussies?

Bali wants $70 ‘tourist tax’ on Australians

The current $15 tourism levy could skyrocket to $70 under the latest government proposals.

www.executivetraveller.com

Aussies accounted for 25% of all tourists arriving in Bali.

 

[drrich2]

Love that close up face shot of the colorful mantis shrimp. Looks like some amazing times. I'm curious about something, given that you spend considerable time in forested topside areas. Did you see much wildlife of interest?

Sometimes when I see a foreign land like that, I wonder whether they have cobras or other potentially dangerous wildlife to be mindful of when walking around outside in rural areas. I like snakes, so to me, cobras would be a feature, not a bug, but still...

 

[matts1w]

Sometimes when I see a foreign land like that, I wonder whether they have cobras or other potentially dangerous wildlife to be mindful of when walking around outside in rural areas. I like snakes, so to me, cobras would be a feature, not a bug, but still...

About ten years ago in Jakarta, I had a small cobra slither into my living room while I was half asleep watching TV. I woke up pretty fast.

I will spare you the rest of the details.