I had time en route to and from a different Indonesia dive destination to do a little diving off Bali. I stayed three nights near Tulamben at Scuba Seraya Resort (inbound), and two nights in Sanur for day-trip diving (outbound).
The Scuba Seraya Resort is fairly new, not quite finished, with very, very nice accommodations for the price (which will certainly go up once the new restaurant and the dive center buildings are completed). It takes about 2 and a half hours by minivan from the airport, and the resort can arrange for transfers. Note that transfers, meals and dive services are provided at additional cost.
Seraya is set on a black-sand beach a couple of kilometers south of Tulamben. The diving is very laid back, with no set schedule, no bottom time limits, no follow-the-leader requirements with the guides. Divers and guides sort of come to a consensus as to where to dive at what time.
Most people I've talked to who have stayed at Seraya spend a lot of time diving the house site (named Seraya Secrets by photographer Michael Aw). My own two diving days at Seraya were spent mostly at Secrets, too. The resort also has two zodiacs, and these will take divers further afield to the Liberty wreck, Drop Off and other sites.
Getting in and out of the water for shore dives is much easier at Seraya than at some other places near Tulamben, most notably the shore entry near the Liberty, since there's just sand and no rocks in front of the resort. When I was there, I only saw two divers go in from the shore near the Liberty because of the strong surge, but I was still able to enter and exit the water in front of Seraya with only moderate difficulty (the waves did knock me down a few times, I must admit). I was glad to be able to dive the Liberty from the comfort of SSR's dinghy.
Seraya is muck diving, but without trash and other debris on the bottom. Divers have to be careful with their fins so they don't kick up silt, and they have to get into a look-for-small-stuff frame of mind. I saw spindle cowries, soft-coral crabs, squat lobsters, sea spiders, thorny seahorses and tiger-tail seahorses, ghost pipefish, harlequin shrimp, frogfish, mantis shrimp, various nudis, and so on, all at Secrets, in less than 20 m of water. I will try to get back there for a longer stay at some point. Below is a shot of a harlequin shrimp I captured at Seraya Secrets.
I also stayed for a couple of nights (one dive day) in Sanur on my way home, and dived with Abyss Adventures. Abyss is an operation focused on particular segments of the diving public: dive professionals, tech divers, and macro photographers. (They do have an affiliated operation that offers courses and dive trips for other customers.) They will take "groups" of at least two on day trips, and they include Nitrox, lunch, and soft drinks in the price. They will also facilitate hotel reservations with discounted rates, and they washed all our gear, hung it up overnight, and delivered it to the hotel the next morning. I found Abyss' service to be very professional, and I will dive with them again.
We went over to Nusa Penida for three decent dives. The speedboat makes the trip in about 45 minutes. The guide suggested 50 minute dives, but was willing to stretch that to 70 minutes, and simply kind of hung around with us in the water like a third buddy rather than shooing us from place to place, so we went pretty much at the pace we wanted (currents allowing). I can't say I saw anything really noteworthy (okay, one reef shark), but the fish weren't particulaly shy, so photographing them was a couple of tads easier than at places that are further off the beaten path. One thing about Nusa Penida is that there *are* currents. One down current pushed me so fast from 25 to 30 m that I had to grab on to something that I wouldn't hurt (and that wouldn't hurt me), one handed (with my camera in the other hand), and crawl back up the reef slope to 20 m, breathing hard from the effort once I got in the lee of a coral head. And then there are the thermoclines... brrrr. Glad I wore my 5 mm.
The Scuba Seraya Resort is fairly new, not quite finished, with very, very nice accommodations for the price (which will certainly go up once the new restaurant and the dive center buildings are completed). It takes about 2 and a half hours by minivan from the airport, and the resort can arrange for transfers. Note that transfers, meals and dive services are provided at additional cost.
Seraya is set on a black-sand beach a couple of kilometers south of Tulamben. The diving is very laid back, with no set schedule, no bottom time limits, no follow-the-leader requirements with the guides. Divers and guides sort of come to a consensus as to where to dive at what time.
Most people I've talked to who have stayed at Seraya spend a lot of time diving the house site (named Seraya Secrets by photographer Michael Aw). My own two diving days at Seraya were spent mostly at Secrets, too. The resort also has two zodiacs, and these will take divers further afield to the Liberty wreck, Drop Off and other sites.
Getting in and out of the water for shore dives is much easier at Seraya than at some other places near Tulamben, most notably the shore entry near the Liberty, since there's just sand and no rocks in front of the resort. When I was there, I only saw two divers go in from the shore near the Liberty because of the strong surge, but I was still able to enter and exit the water in front of Seraya with only moderate difficulty (the waves did knock me down a few times, I must admit). I was glad to be able to dive the Liberty from the comfort of SSR's dinghy.
Seraya is muck diving, but without trash and other debris on the bottom. Divers have to be careful with their fins so they don't kick up silt, and they have to get into a look-for-small-stuff frame of mind. I saw spindle cowries, soft-coral crabs, squat lobsters, sea spiders, thorny seahorses and tiger-tail seahorses, ghost pipefish, harlequin shrimp, frogfish, mantis shrimp, various nudis, and so on, all at Secrets, in less than 20 m of water. I will try to get back there for a longer stay at some point. Below is a shot of a harlequin shrimp I captured at Seraya Secrets.
I also stayed for a couple of nights (one dive day) in Sanur on my way home, and dived with Abyss Adventures. Abyss is an operation focused on particular segments of the diving public: dive professionals, tech divers, and macro photographers. (They do have an affiliated operation that offers courses and dive trips for other customers.) They will take "groups" of at least two on day trips, and they include Nitrox, lunch, and soft drinks in the price. They will also facilitate hotel reservations with discounted rates, and they washed all our gear, hung it up overnight, and delivered it to the hotel the next morning. I found Abyss' service to be very professional, and I will dive with them again.
We went over to Nusa Penida for three decent dives. The speedboat makes the trip in about 45 minutes. The guide suggested 50 minute dives, but was willing to stretch that to 70 minutes, and simply kind of hung around with us in the water like a third buddy rather than shooing us from place to place, so we went pretty much at the pace we wanted (currents allowing). I can't say I saw anything really noteworthy (okay, one reef shark), but the fish weren't particulaly shy, so photographing them was a couple of tads easier than at places that are further off the beaten path. One thing about Nusa Penida is that there *are* currents. One down current pushed me so fast from 25 to 30 m that I had to grab on to something that I wouldn't hurt (and that wouldn't hurt me), one handed (with my camera in the other hand), and crawl back up the reef slope to 20 m, breathing hard from the effort once I got in the lee of a coral head. And then there are the thermoclines... brrrr. Glad I wore my 5 mm.
