munkispank
Contributor
Trip date: Late June 2005.
Getting there:
Got to Bali via Kuala Lumpur on Air Asia- good cheap flight, no luggage problems, flight full of Malaysian's or Indonesian's. Warning: if you want to buy a drink or food on Air Asia flights, they take different currencies (USD, ringgits, Rupiah, Bhat etc) but thye do not take coins- only notes. Change may not be given in the same currency.
got to Tulamben on arrangement with Tulamben Wreck Divers (TWD)- car picked us up from our hotel and drove us the 2.5-3 hours from Kuta to Tulamben- cost was $30 USD for the car, payable to TWD.
Accomm: Tulamben Wreck Divers
Nice small place, very clean. Has three rooms with one double and one twin bed in each, AC/fridge (with mini-bar)/DVD player/coffee and kettle. Bathroom is shared (kind like upmarket camping). Rooms are nice and $20. Two ground floor rooms with bathroom and one double bed for $30 and two upstairs rooms at the same, for $40. All include a breeakfast basket delivered at 7 AM to your patio/balcony. (crackers, bolied eggs, fruit, cereal). Owner is Australian and really friendly, nice little swimming pool too. Located across the road from the beach and diving area and near to restuarants and mini-shops. Overall, a really good place to stay.
Diving
Did our diving through TWD. Rental equipment was of great quality, wityh lots of sizes and choices, but I wish we had taken our own gear. One of the problems of renting equipment was the package organization which encourages you to take a DM with you. This is good to support the local economy, but a little frustrating when you want to be a little more free. The DM's are excellent, and flexible to whatever schedule you want to dive to. They can take you to the beach dive sites, and also arrange for boat dives and car trips to differnt destinations. Still, we would rather have done diving alone after the first day or two.
There is an agreement inthe area with porters to carry your tanks (included inyour package price) and you basically have your tank set up and taken down to the beach for you. You walk down in your gear with weightbelt and gear up on the beach. TWD is close to the sites with just a short walk.
Dive sites
Liberty wreck: was my second visit to the Liberty- great site, short swim to the wreck, entry can be a bit hard with the waves and rocks: advice would be to take it easy on entry and exit. I fell in the surf on one of the exits and it was very difficult to get back up- unfortunately the rocks mean that crawling out on your hands and knees is not really an option. Vis varied from 60 ft to about 90ft. Can be done between 85 and 35 ft. water temps I can only guess, but most people were in 3mm full suits. I was toasty in this, but the skinny DM's shivered in two suits!!!!
As everyone says- get to the wreck before 10 Am or After 3 pm to avoid the mobs form South Bali- although 'diver-watching' is quite fun during busy times
Drop off: excellent spot at the end of the beach. Little bit further to walk to , but close enough. Closest resort is the Mimpi. Easier entry here as the stones are smaller- basically just pebbles. Drop off is fantastic- you get that great vertigo feeling. Not sure how deep it goes, did it between 90 and 30 on different dives. Saw lots more fish here- Lion fish, lots of nudibrachs, barracuda, and the usual reef fish. The current whips around the bend, so watch for that, but dissapears when you duck back in. (imagine a letter M) There were fewer divers at this site, compared to the wreck.
Coral Gardens: Nice shallow site located in-between the wreck and drop off- easy entry, shallower site. Tons of coral, lots of small stuff to look at, saw lots of nudibrachs, ribbon eels, frog fish, black tip reef shark, and a huge octopus. Nice pleasant site and we only ever saw one other diver there. It can allegedly be done as a drift dive, but we never had any current there. Great shallow site, and there is a fake plane wreck, so would be easy to orient for a night dive.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me, or post up. We did 5 days of diving, with three a day, in Tulamben and were just getting ready to move on by the end. I'm glad I spent more time there than the usual day trip from South Bali.
Getting there:
Got to Bali via Kuala Lumpur on Air Asia- good cheap flight, no luggage problems, flight full of Malaysian's or Indonesian's. Warning: if you want to buy a drink or food on Air Asia flights, they take different currencies (USD, ringgits, Rupiah, Bhat etc) but thye do not take coins- only notes. Change may not be given in the same currency.
got to Tulamben on arrangement with Tulamben Wreck Divers (TWD)- car picked us up from our hotel and drove us the 2.5-3 hours from Kuta to Tulamben- cost was $30 USD for the car, payable to TWD.
Accomm: Tulamben Wreck Divers
Nice small place, very clean. Has three rooms with one double and one twin bed in each, AC/fridge (with mini-bar)/DVD player/coffee and kettle. Bathroom is shared (kind like upmarket camping). Rooms are nice and $20. Two ground floor rooms with bathroom and one double bed for $30 and two upstairs rooms at the same, for $40. All include a breeakfast basket delivered at 7 AM to your patio/balcony. (crackers, bolied eggs, fruit, cereal). Owner is Australian and really friendly, nice little swimming pool too. Located across the road from the beach and diving area and near to restuarants and mini-shops. Overall, a really good place to stay.
Diving
Did our diving through TWD. Rental equipment was of great quality, wityh lots of sizes and choices, but I wish we had taken our own gear. One of the problems of renting equipment was the package organization which encourages you to take a DM with you. This is good to support the local economy, but a little frustrating when you want to be a little more free. The DM's are excellent, and flexible to whatever schedule you want to dive to. They can take you to the beach dive sites, and also arrange for boat dives and car trips to differnt destinations. Still, we would rather have done diving alone after the first day or two.
There is an agreement inthe area with porters to carry your tanks (included inyour package price) and you basically have your tank set up and taken down to the beach for you. You walk down in your gear with weightbelt and gear up on the beach. TWD is close to the sites with just a short walk.
Dive sites
Liberty wreck: was my second visit to the Liberty- great site, short swim to the wreck, entry can be a bit hard with the waves and rocks: advice would be to take it easy on entry and exit. I fell in the surf on one of the exits and it was very difficult to get back up- unfortunately the rocks mean that crawling out on your hands and knees is not really an option. Vis varied from 60 ft to about 90ft. Can be done between 85 and 35 ft. water temps I can only guess, but most people were in 3mm full suits. I was toasty in this, but the skinny DM's shivered in two suits!!!!
As everyone says- get to the wreck before 10 Am or After 3 pm to avoid the mobs form South Bali- although 'diver-watching' is quite fun during busy times
Drop off: excellent spot at the end of the beach. Little bit further to walk to , but close enough. Closest resort is the Mimpi. Easier entry here as the stones are smaller- basically just pebbles. Drop off is fantastic- you get that great vertigo feeling. Not sure how deep it goes, did it between 90 and 30 on different dives. Saw lots more fish here- Lion fish, lots of nudibrachs, barracuda, and the usual reef fish. The current whips around the bend, so watch for that, but dissapears when you duck back in. (imagine a letter M) There were fewer divers at this site, compared to the wreck.
Coral Gardens: Nice shallow site located in-between the wreck and drop off- easy entry, shallower site. Tons of coral, lots of small stuff to look at, saw lots of nudibrachs, ribbon eels, frog fish, black tip reef shark, and a huge octopus. Nice pleasant site and we only ever saw one other diver there. It can allegedly be done as a drift dive, but we never had any current there. Great shallow site, and there is a fake plane wreck, so would be easy to orient for a night dive.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me, or post up. We did 5 days of diving, with three a day, in Tulamben and were just getting ready to move on by the end. I'm glad I spent more time there than the usual day trip from South Bali.
