This has to be my favourite dive trip so far. I've been trying to get in the habit of writing these after a few weeks of reflection so I can see past the small things that bothered me.
I've taken a lot of trips in the last 12 months, after moving out of HK last Oct and finally freed from quarantine. I had ~2 years worth of cancelled and rescheduled trip credits due to COVID, and I basically packed everything into this year. Starting from 2.5 weeks in Galapagos in Dec 2021, I then lined up a 6 day liveaboard in Tubbataha at end of Mar, 10 days in Anilao and Puerto Galera at end of Apr, squeezed in a short weekend of diving in Sydney while on a work trip in June, spent 12 days in North Sulawesi (mostly Lembeh and Bangka) in July, and finally a 11 day liveaboard to the Visayas & Malapascua at the beginning of August. By the time I made it to Bali at the end of Aug I was honesty pretty tired of travelling and felt like I had seen so much already I was beginning to question what else could possibly impress.
Part 1 - Bali (Padang Bai) i.e. the failed mola hunt
Photos: Bali (Aug 2022)
We started with a short 3 night stay in Bali, in Padang Bai area at a cute resort called Bloo Lagoon, which had great wifi (router in the room!) that enabled me to work remotely for a bit. They have a free shuttle you can use / call on demand that will bring you to any of the dive shops. Tons of privacy, really great views overlooking the bay, a nice pool, and the BEST massages. Food is decent but nothing to write home about.
We got OW certified in Tulemban back in 2017, and our first 2 dives post OW was to Crystal Bay and Manta Point, where we were lucky to see both the mola mola and the oceanic mantas in the one day we had before moving on to the Gili islands. (In hindsight we were vastly underprepared, looking back my logbook says 35min dives, and I remember holding on for dear life at Crystal Bay where a big down current swept past us). I wanted to try my luck at the molas again now that I was better prepared (250+ dives in w decent current experience, equipped w drysuit, free diving fins, reef hook, and a camera I was comfortable with). I booked with Geko Divers based on recommendations from here, and while they do cut dives pretty short (~45min average, everyone goes up together once someone hits 50bar) I would overall still recommend them.
This was the dive plan and temps for the Bali leg - unfortunately the water was still too warm for mola. Our divemaster did see one mola very far off in the distance on one dive, but I was too far behind (trying to be polite and taking photos of a mantis shrimp another guest was very excited to have found), so I missed out. I was very glad to have the drysuit for the 23-25 degree sites, and it seriously made the dives so much more enjoyable not feeling like I'm about to die from the cold. I was still in shock from the cold that first dive at Manta Point, as my abysmal SAC rate on that dive shows. Manta Point did yield 2 oceanic mantas, which were huge and larger than what I remember, but there wasn't much else to see in the way of corals or reef.
I wish I spent more time diving Nusa Penida. I only made it to one site - PED. It was really pretty but the current was ripping - on par or stronger than the worst we've experienced thus far. It was impossible to swim against and most I could do was reef hook and pull myself against it slowly, take a quick shot, and let go and drift. We were meant to see Toyapekeh as the second dive on the last day, but because of the fleeting mola encounter on the first dive at Crystal Bay, the other guests elected to try again (no luck). The downside of diving in a group - on my next return I will pay for a private guide, not only to get full freedom of site selection, but also to dive my full tank and not have the dives cut short at 40 min... mind you I was paired with a couple with >700 dives yet one still ran out of air at 40min. Crystal Bay is like a zoo, even if you did see mola the chances are another group will swim towards it and scare it away in an instant. Perhaps I just have bad luck with molas, missed it in Galapagos also although did see many on the surface.
Gili Biaha and Gili Tepekong was a bit disappointing. The highlight of Biaha is a cave/swim through, which I don't particularly care for. I did not see the piles of white tips sleeping in the cave that it's known for. Tepekong had better corals and a few turtles, but was not as fishy or colorful as PED. The highlight of Tepekong was a pygmy seahorse ironically. No molas on either site.
My favourite part of the Padang Bai leg is the macro dives - Jetty, Jepun, and right below the resort Bloo Lagoon wall. Jepun I did as a night dive and it was pretty good with a lot of the usual suspects. Jetty I did as an afternoon dive and it was really good, I had a private guide that day and we did a nice long 75min dive. There were a lot of pretty and colorful sea fans on the pillars (no photos cuz macro lens on), and there was actually a really big school of fish (I think snappers?) that kept swarming around us. A really pretty big purple jellyfish at the end too, which was cool. In the muck there was a TON of blue/red/multicolor dragon nudis. We followed this up with Boo Lagoon wall night dive which yielded some really pretty prawns, cuttlefish, multiple Spanish dancers, and the prettiest frogfish I've ever seen.
I feel like a proper week+ return trip to Bali is in order, split Tulemban and Nusa Penida. Luckily Bali is only a short and cheap 2.5hour direct flight from SG.
On the last day we finished our two dives at Crystal Bay ~11.30am, and got a car to pick us up at ~1pm to get on the Mermaid, for a 3pm departure. It was a bit tight but doable.
I've taken a lot of trips in the last 12 months, after moving out of HK last Oct and finally freed from quarantine. I had ~2 years worth of cancelled and rescheduled trip credits due to COVID, and I basically packed everything into this year. Starting from 2.5 weeks in Galapagos in Dec 2021, I then lined up a 6 day liveaboard in Tubbataha at end of Mar, 10 days in Anilao and Puerto Galera at end of Apr, squeezed in a short weekend of diving in Sydney while on a work trip in June, spent 12 days in North Sulawesi (mostly Lembeh and Bangka) in July, and finally a 11 day liveaboard to the Visayas & Malapascua at the beginning of August. By the time I made it to Bali at the end of Aug I was honesty pretty tired of travelling and felt like I had seen so much already I was beginning to question what else could possibly impress.
Part 1 - Bali (Padang Bai) i.e. the failed mola hunt
Photos: Bali (Aug 2022)
We started with a short 3 night stay in Bali, in Padang Bai area at a cute resort called Bloo Lagoon, which had great wifi (router in the room!) that enabled me to work remotely for a bit. They have a free shuttle you can use / call on demand that will bring you to any of the dive shops. Tons of privacy, really great views overlooking the bay, a nice pool, and the BEST massages. Food is decent but nothing to write home about.
We got OW certified in Tulemban back in 2017, and our first 2 dives post OW was to Crystal Bay and Manta Point, where we were lucky to see both the mola mola and the oceanic mantas in the one day we had before moving on to the Gili islands. (In hindsight we were vastly underprepared, looking back my logbook says 35min dives, and I remember holding on for dear life at Crystal Bay where a big down current swept past us). I wanted to try my luck at the molas again now that I was better prepared (250+ dives in w decent current experience, equipped w drysuit, free diving fins, reef hook, and a camera I was comfortable with). I booked with Geko Divers based on recommendations from here, and while they do cut dives pretty short (~45min average, everyone goes up together once someone hits 50bar) I would overall still recommend them.
This was the dive plan and temps for the Bali leg - unfortunately the water was still too warm for mola. Our divemaster did see one mola very far off in the distance on one dive, but I was too far behind (trying to be polite and taking photos of a mantis shrimp another guest was very excited to have found), so I missed out. I was very glad to have the drysuit for the 23-25 degree sites, and it seriously made the dives so much more enjoyable not feeling like I'm about to die from the cold. I was still in shock from the cold that first dive at Manta Point, as my abysmal SAC rate on that dive shows. Manta Point did yield 2 oceanic mantas, which were huge and larger than what I remember, but there wasn't much else to see in the way of corals or reef.
I wish I spent more time diving Nusa Penida. I only made it to one site - PED. It was really pretty but the current was ripping - on par or stronger than the worst we've experienced thus far. It was impossible to swim against and most I could do was reef hook and pull myself against it slowly, take a quick shot, and let go and drift. We were meant to see Toyapekeh as the second dive on the last day, but because of the fleeting mola encounter on the first dive at Crystal Bay, the other guests elected to try again (no luck). The downside of diving in a group - on my next return I will pay for a private guide, not only to get full freedom of site selection, but also to dive my full tank and not have the dives cut short at 40 min... mind you I was paired with a couple with >700 dives yet one still ran out of air at 40min. Crystal Bay is like a zoo, even if you did see mola the chances are another group will swim towards it and scare it away in an instant. Perhaps I just have bad luck with molas, missed it in Galapagos also although did see many on the surface.
Gili Biaha and Gili Tepekong was a bit disappointing. The highlight of Biaha is a cave/swim through, which I don't particularly care for. I did not see the piles of white tips sleeping in the cave that it's known for. Tepekong had better corals and a few turtles, but was not as fishy or colorful as PED. The highlight of Tepekong was a pygmy seahorse ironically. No molas on either site.
My favourite part of the Padang Bai leg is the macro dives - Jetty, Jepun, and right below the resort Bloo Lagoon wall. Jepun I did as a night dive and it was pretty good with a lot of the usual suspects. Jetty I did as an afternoon dive and it was really good, I had a private guide that day and we did a nice long 75min dive. There were a lot of pretty and colorful sea fans on the pillars (no photos cuz macro lens on), and there was actually a really big school of fish (I think snappers?) that kept swarming around us. A really pretty big purple jellyfish at the end too, which was cool. In the muck there was a TON of blue/red/multicolor dragon nudis. We followed this up with Boo Lagoon wall night dive which yielded some really pretty prawns, cuttlefish, multiple Spanish dancers, and the prettiest frogfish I've ever seen.
I feel like a proper week+ return trip to Bali is in order, split Tulemban and Nusa Penida. Luckily Bali is only a short and cheap 2.5hour direct flight from SG.
On the last day we finished our two dives at Crystal Bay ~11.30am, and got a car to pick us up at ~1pm to get on the Mermaid, for a 3pm departure. It was a bit tight but doable.