I've done 17 dives around east coast of Bali by now. Diving in Bali seems to have many sides to it, from huge manta rays to teeny tiny pygmy seahorses, coral gardens and shipwrecks. I've been diving with Blue Season Bali and had so much fun with them! I can definitely recommend Blue Season to anyone who wants to dive around Bali in good company and people who are truly passionate about diving. They have awesome facilities, boats and instructors/ divemasters. They also have a lot of divemaster trainees around, and they're always happy to help one out with what ever problem or question.
The weather in Bali has been quite weird this summer... when I arrived it was raining and the waves were really big for days so I couldn't go on the trips that I wanted to and was getting really antsy to just get into the water. So I went fun diving in Sanur... which is really not a dive spot. Nothing to say about the dives really, but it was good to get back into the water anyways!
Padang Bai:
I wanted to dive in Tulamben the next day but the weather conditions hadn't improved enough, so we went to Padang Bai instead. The drive from Sanur takes around 1 hour, a little less. After arriving to Padang Bai we jumped into our wetsuits and on a banka boat. The first dive spot, Blue Lagoon, was just a few minute ride off the beach. I got to gear up in the water for the first time... you put your fins and mask on and jump into the water, then someone gives you the weight belt and finally your gear and you squeeze into the BCD (boyancy control device) in the water. And off you go.
I wasn't very impressed with either of the dive sites we went to, to be honest. I've heard there are amazing dive spots in Padang Bai... The first one was just plain boring to me, a lot of sand bottom and nothing too special to see. The second one, Jepun, was a bit better, small Buddha statues in the bottom and artificial reefs etc. Still quite plain and simple to my taste... I love coral and wall diving etc a bit more impressive and colorful stuff, so I wasn't too blown away by these dives. The funniest part was when I almost got hit by a tourist submarine(: I was taking photos of two nudis when I suddenly look up and see a huge white submarine with it's driver making furious hand signals and apparently shouting something like "get out of my way crazy diver!". I quickly swam out of it's way and was laughing my ass off.
I took my camera under with me for the first time and it was very interesting. I made a big mistake though by forgetting the diffuser to the dive shop in the morning so I couldn't use the flash. Got some cute photos anyways, it is really difficult to take photos under water! Everything is moving, you're moving, the currents take you away just as you are about to get that awesome picture and buoyancy control is really important. But it's fun! I'm not taking it too seriously, learning slowly... but it's so cool to get a couple of cool shots out of 200, that's all you need really in the beginning to make you happy(: But diving with a camera is different from diving without one and I think it's nice to do dives without it too, to really just concentrate on the present.
Nusa Penida:
I was super excited for the Nusa Penida day trip! Full day on boat, 3 dives off the coast of Nusa Penida, around 45 minutes by speed boat from Sanur. Our first dive was at Buyuk and it was my first proper drift dive ever! The currents were really strong, making us fly through the reef(: The feeling was unlike anything I've ever felt before... so free and light but also very much out of control. At first I was really enjoying myself, eyes wide open trying to absorb in everything... you can see so much on a drift dive! But then the currents got stronger and as my divemaster and buddy hung onto the reef and stayed there for a little bit, I was taken away by a current and just couldn't get back to them anymore. I thought to myself: "shit". Then I saw another group of our divers and did the only thing that came to my mind at that moment: swam towards one of the guys and grabbed his hand(: It calms me down under water to hold someone, the human contact just makes me feel less out of control and more secure. So after a minute or so holding his hand and calming my breath I saw my divemaster and buddy approaching and joined them again. The dive was awesome in the end, saw a turtle a lot of triggers and huge coral formations! Very nice.
Between the dives we were chilling on the boat, had some coffee and enjoyed the sun on the sun deck of the boat. The surface interval is usually around an hour, depending on how many dives you'll do that day and how deep/ long they are.
The second dive spot was Chrystal Bay. The divemaster trainees scared the living hell out of me before the dive by telling me stories about the crazy currents at this dive site... almost wet my wetsuit. Not. (: I knew that there might be a slight chance of seeing Mola Mola so I was super excited! So down we went again and I was amazed on how great the visibility was and how beautiful and colorful the corals were! But the thing that really blew my mind was how many fish there were! Millions of fish in different colors and shapes and sizes. After the Philippines where most of the fish are gone because of the dynamite fishing, this was really an amazing experience. But the best was yet to come... suddenly someone started to point out into the blue and everyone realized there can be only one explanation for the sudden excitement like that... Mola Mola! My heart started to race and I swam with the others towards the guy who had spotted it... and there it was! Huge oceanic sunfish swimming in the big blue, like a dinosaur, a glimpse from ancient times. It was absolutely amazing. Then this one mother effer kept on swimming closer and closer to it until the mola just turned away and disappeared to the big blue again. There's always someone who ruins the fun for everyone... but I still couldn't believe my luck! It was barely the season for sunfish and the other group on the boat didn't see it. I was later told that people who had been diving there over 40 times hadn't seen the mola mola yet, so I consider myself extremely lucky(:
The last dive spot was Manta Point and I could barely stay in my wetsuit! I had been waiting to see manta rays for such a long time and now it was about to happen(: Off we went and oh my how amazing it was! Saw an absolutely beautiful, black, 4,5 meter manta ray that was flying so gracefully through the water... and then another smaller white one. I was over the moon(: They're definitely on the shared 1# position with Thresher sharks on the list of creatures I've seen on my diving trips.
All in all my first day of diving in Nusa Penida was pretty much perfect(:
After that I've done two more days in Penida with amazing diving. Especially happy about the drift dives we've done, I want to learn more and it's been very forwarding to realize you're starting to feel more comfortable in different kinds of conditions. Drift diving is pretty much the closest thing to flying without wings that one could ever experience.
Tulamben:
Tulamben is a very popular spot for diving because of USAT Liberty wreck from WW2. The 120m wreck lies just 35 meters off the coast. Because Tulamben is a shore entry dive spot, big waves and rocky weather conditions can make it impossible to get in sometimes. I loved the Liberty wreck dive a lot! Got to swim through a part of the wreck and it was just amazing... biggest wreck I've ever seen. There was a storm before I went to dive at the wreck and apparently a part of it fell down a little bit, but I couldn't tell the difference. It was a very impressive wreck dive all in all. Saw barracudas, cleaner shrimps, blue ribbon eel, blue spotted stingrays, clown fish, loads of garden eels, trigger fish, oriental sweetlips, nudibranch, surgeon fish, leaf scorpion fish, a lot of snappers etc. The other dive we did wasn't very interesting and I would've preferred just two dives at the wreck...
Amed:
We stopped in Amed for one night on our road trip around Bali. I had heard that Jukung divers is the place to go to and wasn't disappointed! I paid 55 eur for 2 fun dives and lunch. Turned out I was the only diver that morning and got to dive with a local divemaster, just him and me.
First we did an amazing 70 minute dive in Jemeluk Bay, absolutely brilliant dive with loads of scorpion fish, soft coral spiders, huge sea cucumbers, trasparent shrimps, blue fin revali etc. Went back to the dive center for some coffee and took a little nap too(:
The second dive we did in Gonkang reef and it was one of the coolest and most memorable dives I've ever done... 106 minutes of pure bliss(: Pygmy seahorses, turtles, white margin unicorn fish, leaf scorpionfish, giant frogfish, flounders, tuna, blue spotted stingray, flatworms, nudibranch, moray eel, squirrel fish, the biggest lionfish I've ever seen, garden eels, trumpet fish, star puffers etc. Saw artificial reefs, did a drift dive along a wall and ended up in a more shallow reef and stayed there, examining the macro until we just decided to go up even though we would've still had a little more air left. I came up with almost 60 bar. Water was 30 degrees and I was diving with a shortie, wasn't chilly at all, which was a first one for me(:
Right now I'm waiting for some little bruises and scratches to heal before I go diving again. Flying to Malaysian Borneo on 27th and really excited to go dive in Mabul and Sipadan(: I'll report on those later!
<3 Emma
The weather in Bali has been quite weird this summer... when I arrived it was raining and the waves were really big for days so I couldn't go on the trips that I wanted to and was getting really antsy to just get into the water. So I went fun diving in Sanur... which is really not a dive spot. Nothing to say about the dives really, but it was good to get back into the water anyways!
Padang Bai:
I wanted to dive in Tulamben the next day but the weather conditions hadn't improved enough, so we went to Padang Bai instead. The drive from Sanur takes around 1 hour, a little less. After arriving to Padang Bai we jumped into our wetsuits and on a banka boat. The first dive spot, Blue Lagoon, was just a few minute ride off the beach. I got to gear up in the water for the first time... you put your fins and mask on and jump into the water, then someone gives you the weight belt and finally your gear and you squeeze into the BCD (boyancy control device) in the water. And off you go.
I wasn't very impressed with either of the dive sites we went to, to be honest. I've heard there are amazing dive spots in Padang Bai... The first one was just plain boring to me, a lot of sand bottom and nothing too special to see. The second one, Jepun, was a bit better, small Buddha statues in the bottom and artificial reefs etc. Still quite plain and simple to my taste... I love coral and wall diving etc a bit more impressive and colorful stuff, so I wasn't too blown away by these dives. The funniest part was when I almost got hit by a tourist submarine(: I was taking photos of two nudis when I suddenly look up and see a huge white submarine with it's driver making furious hand signals and apparently shouting something like "get out of my way crazy diver!". I quickly swam out of it's way and was laughing my ass off.
I took my camera under with me for the first time and it was very interesting. I made a big mistake though by forgetting the diffuser to the dive shop in the morning so I couldn't use the flash. Got some cute photos anyways, it is really difficult to take photos under water! Everything is moving, you're moving, the currents take you away just as you are about to get that awesome picture and buoyancy control is really important. But it's fun! I'm not taking it too seriously, learning slowly... but it's so cool to get a couple of cool shots out of 200, that's all you need really in the beginning to make you happy(: But diving with a camera is different from diving without one and I think it's nice to do dives without it too, to really just concentrate on the present.
Nusa Penida:
I was super excited for the Nusa Penida day trip! Full day on boat, 3 dives off the coast of Nusa Penida, around 45 minutes by speed boat from Sanur. Our first dive was at Buyuk and it was my first proper drift dive ever! The currents were really strong, making us fly through the reef(: The feeling was unlike anything I've ever felt before... so free and light but also very much out of control. At first I was really enjoying myself, eyes wide open trying to absorb in everything... you can see so much on a drift dive! But then the currents got stronger and as my divemaster and buddy hung onto the reef and stayed there for a little bit, I was taken away by a current and just couldn't get back to them anymore. I thought to myself: "shit". Then I saw another group of our divers and did the only thing that came to my mind at that moment: swam towards one of the guys and grabbed his hand(: It calms me down under water to hold someone, the human contact just makes me feel less out of control and more secure. So after a minute or so holding his hand and calming my breath I saw my divemaster and buddy approaching and joined them again. The dive was awesome in the end, saw a turtle a lot of triggers and huge coral formations! Very nice.
Between the dives we were chilling on the boat, had some coffee and enjoyed the sun on the sun deck of the boat. The surface interval is usually around an hour, depending on how many dives you'll do that day and how deep/ long they are.
The second dive spot was Chrystal Bay. The divemaster trainees scared the living hell out of me before the dive by telling me stories about the crazy currents at this dive site... almost wet my wetsuit. Not. (: I knew that there might be a slight chance of seeing Mola Mola so I was super excited! So down we went again and I was amazed on how great the visibility was and how beautiful and colorful the corals were! But the thing that really blew my mind was how many fish there were! Millions of fish in different colors and shapes and sizes. After the Philippines where most of the fish are gone because of the dynamite fishing, this was really an amazing experience. But the best was yet to come... suddenly someone started to point out into the blue and everyone realized there can be only one explanation for the sudden excitement like that... Mola Mola! My heart started to race and I swam with the others towards the guy who had spotted it... and there it was! Huge oceanic sunfish swimming in the big blue, like a dinosaur, a glimpse from ancient times. It was absolutely amazing. Then this one mother effer kept on swimming closer and closer to it until the mola just turned away and disappeared to the big blue again. There's always someone who ruins the fun for everyone... but I still couldn't believe my luck! It was barely the season for sunfish and the other group on the boat didn't see it. I was later told that people who had been diving there over 40 times hadn't seen the mola mola yet, so I consider myself extremely lucky(:
The last dive spot was Manta Point and I could barely stay in my wetsuit! I had been waiting to see manta rays for such a long time and now it was about to happen(: Off we went and oh my how amazing it was! Saw an absolutely beautiful, black, 4,5 meter manta ray that was flying so gracefully through the water... and then another smaller white one. I was over the moon(: They're definitely on the shared 1# position with Thresher sharks on the list of creatures I've seen on my diving trips.
Tulamben:
Tulamben is a very popular spot for diving because of USAT Liberty wreck from WW2. The 120m wreck lies just 35 meters off the coast. Because Tulamben is a shore entry dive spot, big waves and rocky weather conditions can make it impossible to get in sometimes. I loved the Liberty wreck dive a lot! Got to swim through a part of the wreck and it was just amazing... biggest wreck I've ever seen. There was a storm before I went to dive at the wreck and apparently a part of it fell down a little bit, but I couldn't tell the difference. It was a very impressive wreck dive all in all. Saw barracudas, cleaner shrimps, blue ribbon eel, blue spotted stingrays, clown fish, loads of garden eels, trigger fish, oriental sweetlips, nudibranch, surgeon fish, leaf scorpion fish, a lot of snappers etc. The other dive we did wasn't very interesting and I would've preferred just two dives at the wreck...
Amed:
We stopped in Amed for one night on our road trip around Bali. I had heard that Jukung divers is the place to go to and wasn't disappointed! I paid 55 eur for 2 fun dives and lunch. Turned out I was the only diver that morning and got to dive with a local divemaster, just him and me.
First we did an amazing 70 minute dive in Jemeluk Bay, absolutely brilliant dive with loads of scorpion fish, soft coral spiders, huge sea cucumbers, trasparent shrimps, blue fin revali etc. Went back to the dive center for some coffee and took a little nap too(:
The second dive we did in Gonkang reef and it was one of the coolest and most memorable dives I've ever done... 106 minutes of pure bliss(: Pygmy seahorses, turtles, white margin unicorn fish, leaf scorpionfish, giant frogfish, flounders, tuna, blue spotted stingray, flatworms, nudibranch, moray eel, squirrel fish, the biggest lionfish I've ever seen, garden eels, trumpet fish, star puffers etc. Saw artificial reefs, did a drift dive along a wall and ended up in a more shallow reef and stayed there, examining the macro until we just decided to go up even though we would've still had a little more air left. I came up with almost 60 bar. Water was 30 degrees and I was diving with a shortie, wasn't chilly at all, which was a first one for me(:
Right now I'm waiting for some little bruises and scratches to heal before I go diving again. Flying to Malaysian Borneo on 27th and really excited to go dive in Mabul and Sipadan(: I'll report on those later!
<3 Emma
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