pughio83
Contributor
Thought i'd post a short trip report on my little diving jaunt to bali recently, in particular to two fish divers.
We travelled to nusa lembongan from uk via Emirates out of Manchester on Sept 20th, via Dubai to Jakarta, staying overnight in a new hotel called FM7. Essentially this is an airport hotel being only 15mins drive. Hotel was spacious, clean and had massive rooms (usual mod cons), swimming pool etc... The food at the restaurant there was amazing, best tom yum soup i have ever had!! Approx £50 for the night for deluxe room.
Flew to Denpasar, Bali, the following day with Airasia at around 8.10am. No problems with them, efficient, cheap, on time, paid small amount for 55kg baggage between the two of us for our gear. Arrived on Bali around 11.30am. With Two fish divers i had paid our deposits online, and through emails i had arranged for boat transfer and pickup to n.lembongan (which costed approx 38euros return which wasnt bad). A member from Rocky fast boats met us and another lady at the airport and transfered us to the jetty area via the ticket office, where we waited an hour or so for the 2.30 boat over.
The boat over was smooth and took approx 30mins. Had to walk through water onto beach at other end so adv wear shorts!! We were then taken to Two fish divers which was approx 100m from the beach. Welcome drinks and orientation followed.
Two fish divers were very well organised and very friendly. The resort was laid out very well and was a better standard than i expected. It had lovely tropical gardens well kept, everything looked new, lovely little pool and great sunning areas. The restaurant area is very much like other two fish establishments, help your self to drinks, tea, coffee etc..There is also a bar area, wifi all around the pool and on room verandas which was great. The rooms were spacious, large bed and hot water, plus aircon. All the staff were super friendly and bent over back wards to do things for you, from ordering in lunch from nearby restaurants between dives, to booking other restaurants etc...
The equipment they used was all brand new stuff, mostly aqualung, although i had my own. They were very accommodating re where you dived each day, though they were also very safe - if the tides werent right for a dive site, then it was a no go. This included manta point, which we were only able to get out to once in 8days due to the swells. The following week however looked like most days you could get out!! sods law!! The boats were rented boats and quite small but 6 divers per boat was comfortable enough and to be honest most days there was only 2-5 divers per boat (max 4 people per guide).
The Dm's were great, always trying to please, and are very experinced in the currents. This was very important for my gf who did her advanced course there and was new to diving, let alone strong currents. The guides ensured that minimal exposure to hazardous conditions occured and she ended up having a great time. Even then the currents can be unpredictable on some dives and i certainly encountered a couple of down currents when i was there. None the less i couldnt fault the dm's, especially catur. They looked after our gear very well as well.
ok the diving.....in my opinion it was excellent. Generally very good viz, temps varied from 28-18C. i dived mostly in rash guard and shorts as i dont get cold easily, though i did wear a 5mm suit for crystal bay, though the coldest dive i did was actually the lembongan house reef for a clean up dive!! Most people tbo used 5mm suits which is probably the way to go!!
We saw 6 mola mola there: one at blue corner on two occasions, 3 on a dive at buyuk, and one at crystal bay, there was a second at CB but we missed it. We also saw 2 mantas at manta point (got robbed a bit there but hey). Large bamboo nurse shark (for a bamboo nurse!) at ceningan wall, plenty of green and hawksbill turtles, loads of banded sea kraits, tuna, mackeral and quite a few great barracudas, marble rays and fan tailed rays.
The coral was excellent, with so many reef fish, especially toyapakeh and SD. There was also some macro, incl a frogfish (which we missed), black and white types of leaf scorpionfish, stick pipefish, walleys squat lobster, few nudis, octopus, various crabs etc. I though the amount of corals, soft and hard were excellent and some of the best i have seen. We also had dolphins on surface and some people at other centres had been seing a whaleshark.
We were also lucky enough to do the first Two fish trip to Tulumben and dive liberty wreck, and coral gardens. Excellent for macro incl pygmy seahorses, ornate ghost pipefish, octopus, candy crabs, ribbon eels, various moray types, and various shrimp types. All in a days work, and i think they are the only operation to do this. They also plan to go to sites at Candidasa, gilli tepekong and padang bai.
All in all no complaints. The prices at two fish are so cheap for what you get. I cant actually believe the value of their accomm/dive packages. The weather was hot and sunny all week which added to our delight and we were v sad to leave.
Hats off to a well run centre - Jason (who instructed my gf who was excellent) and to Laurent who managed the resort as well, and to stephanie who was another instructor who helped arrange the Tulumben trip!!
They make the guests feel very welcome and even invited us to various parties, quiz nights etc....
I have dived with Two fish in bunaken, lembeh and lembongan now and i dont really have a bad thing to say about any of the resorts.
I look forward to returning to them all again one day.
Ps thanks Luko for advising me on the restaurants there - Indiana kenanga - what a restaurant - some of the best food i have ever had (although not cheap!)!!!
Return to mainland Bali was smooth again, and then went onto Ubud for land based action!!
---------- Post Merged at 06:31 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 06:30 PM ----------
ps if anyone wants to see some pics of resort/place then i can put some on. Have lots!!! HA!
We travelled to nusa lembongan from uk via Emirates out of Manchester on Sept 20th, via Dubai to Jakarta, staying overnight in a new hotel called FM7. Essentially this is an airport hotel being only 15mins drive. Hotel was spacious, clean and had massive rooms (usual mod cons), swimming pool etc... The food at the restaurant there was amazing, best tom yum soup i have ever had!! Approx £50 for the night for deluxe room.
Flew to Denpasar, Bali, the following day with Airasia at around 8.10am. No problems with them, efficient, cheap, on time, paid small amount for 55kg baggage between the two of us for our gear. Arrived on Bali around 11.30am. With Two fish divers i had paid our deposits online, and through emails i had arranged for boat transfer and pickup to n.lembongan (which costed approx 38euros return which wasnt bad). A member from Rocky fast boats met us and another lady at the airport and transfered us to the jetty area via the ticket office, where we waited an hour or so for the 2.30 boat over.
The boat over was smooth and took approx 30mins. Had to walk through water onto beach at other end so adv wear shorts!! We were then taken to Two fish divers which was approx 100m from the beach. Welcome drinks and orientation followed.
Two fish divers were very well organised and very friendly. The resort was laid out very well and was a better standard than i expected. It had lovely tropical gardens well kept, everything looked new, lovely little pool and great sunning areas. The restaurant area is very much like other two fish establishments, help your self to drinks, tea, coffee etc..There is also a bar area, wifi all around the pool and on room verandas which was great. The rooms were spacious, large bed and hot water, plus aircon. All the staff were super friendly and bent over back wards to do things for you, from ordering in lunch from nearby restaurants between dives, to booking other restaurants etc...
The equipment they used was all brand new stuff, mostly aqualung, although i had my own. They were very accommodating re where you dived each day, though they were also very safe - if the tides werent right for a dive site, then it was a no go. This included manta point, which we were only able to get out to once in 8days due to the swells. The following week however looked like most days you could get out!! sods law!! The boats were rented boats and quite small but 6 divers per boat was comfortable enough and to be honest most days there was only 2-5 divers per boat (max 4 people per guide).
The Dm's were great, always trying to please, and are very experinced in the currents. This was very important for my gf who did her advanced course there and was new to diving, let alone strong currents. The guides ensured that minimal exposure to hazardous conditions occured and she ended up having a great time. Even then the currents can be unpredictable on some dives and i certainly encountered a couple of down currents when i was there. None the less i couldnt fault the dm's, especially catur. They looked after our gear very well as well.
ok the diving.....in my opinion it was excellent. Generally very good viz, temps varied from 28-18C. i dived mostly in rash guard and shorts as i dont get cold easily, though i did wear a 5mm suit for crystal bay, though the coldest dive i did was actually the lembongan house reef for a clean up dive!! Most people tbo used 5mm suits which is probably the way to go!!
We saw 6 mola mola there: one at blue corner on two occasions, 3 on a dive at buyuk, and one at crystal bay, there was a second at CB but we missed it. We also saw 2 mantas at manta point (got robbed a bit there but hey). Large bamboo nurse shark (for a bamboo nurse!) at ceningan wall, plenty of green and hawksbill turtles, loads of banded sea kraits, tuna, mackeral and quite a few great barracudas, marble rays and fan tailed rays.
The coral was excellent, with so many reef fish, especially toyapakeh and SD. There was also some macro, incl a frogfish (which we missed), black and white types of leaf scorpionfish, stick pipefish, walleys squat lobster, few nudis, octopus, various crabs etc. I though the amount of corals, soft and hard were excellent and some of the best i have seen. We also had dolphins on surface and some people at other centres had been seing a whaleshark.
We were also lucky enough to do the first Two fish trip to Tulumben and dive liberty wreck, and coral gardens. Excellent for macro incl pygmy seahorses, ornate ghost pipefish, octopus, candy crabs, ribbon eels, various moray types, and various shrimp types. All in a days work, and i think they are the only operation to do this. They also plan to go to sites at Candidasa, gilli tepekong and padang bai.
All in all no complaints. The prices at two fish are so cheap for what you get. I cant actually believe the value of their accomm/dive packages. The weather was hot and sunny all week which added to our delight and we were v sad to leave.
Hats off to a well run centre - Jason (who instructed my gf who was excellent) and to Laurent who managed the resort as well, and to stephanie who was another instructor who helped arrange the Tulumben trip!!
They make the guests feel very welcome and even invited us to various parties, quiz nights etc....
I have dived with Two fish in bunaken, lembeh and lembongan now and i dont really have a bad thing to say about any of the resorts.
I look forward to returning to them all again one day.
Ps thanks Luko for advising me on the restaurants there - Indiana kenanga - what a restaurant - some of the best food i have ever had (although not cheap!)!!!
Return to mainland Bali was smooth again, and then went onto Ubud for land based action!!
---------- Post Merged at 06:31 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 06:30 PM ----------
ps if anyone wants to see some pics of resort/place then i can put some on. Have lots!!! HA!
