We arrived in Indonesia at the Bali Airport, right next to a town called Kuta, which is a bit of a party town. This is not a feature (for us). As far as I can tell, other than the airport, the town has very few good qualities. There was a beach, but it was about as straight, empty and bland as anything you can see in California. I know, I know… for people who live in places like Washington, DC, the beaches in San Diego might sound nice. But my standards have changed. We came to Bali to snorkel and dive. If your beach doesn’t let me do that, then I have no interest in it. If you’re into surfing, I imagine the beach in Kuta might have been more appealing. That’s not my game, though. In any case, this is the starting city, and so we stayed for a few days.
We found a really nice hotel in a back alley of a back alley in the backpacker district. Actually, the hotel (Anemone Hotel) was very nice! It was clean, well-built, nicely landscaped, and even had a pool. Their yard was covered with a bunch of REALLY beautiful potted Desert Rose (Adenium) trees, all shaped into Bonzais, with artistically-arranged roots and everything. We decided our yard at home really needed a few, so... expect that in the near future.
Our room at the hotel even had a little porch, and they would us bring breakfast there every morning, which was pretty cool. Being a popular backpacker area, there were plenty of cheap restaurants in the area, and we found our favorite about 2 blocks away, where we could order anything from local Bali and more general Indonesian food to European dishes and even some super specialties like Dutch (Holland) food. All options were cheap, and all were pretty good (though I will admit we chose to skip the Dutch options, which oddly seemed to all be variations on an omelet). Between the restaurant and the pool at our hotel, we didn’t really mind that there was nothing else we wanted to see in this town. We were plenty happy to start off the SLOW part of our trip by just lounging around and doing absolutely NOTHING of constructive value. The pool was especially great for that.
(The pool)
(Desert Roses all in a row)
One of the things you see right away on Bali is that religion is life here. EVERYBODY is religious. I don’t know a lot about the main religion except that it’s called “Balinese Hinduism”, which is a mix of Hinduism and an older, local religion featuring animism, magic, and worship of ancestors, and that it’s followed by roughly 93% of the population. The religion is everywhere around you. Every single house, hotel, store and restaurant has at least one altar; some homes even have three big altars in the front yard. On top of that, virtually every city block and many businesses have their own temple. People also make many small offerings everywhere, around their homes and businesses. Offerings are typically little packets containing cooked rice, sometimes colored, and also some small flower petals. From what we could see, they set out the offerings twice a day, every day, in front of just about every doorway, driveway, porch and altar. The person setting them out even wears a ceremonial sash around their waist (imagine pajama shorts, t-shirt and flip flops, but with a brightly-colored sash tied around the waist). The packets for the offerings are little hand-made boxes or baskets, made from palm leaves. Mostly the boxes were just little squares, but sometimes they were nicer, with fancy-weaving. As a result of all this, the religion, and the various traditions and symbols that go with it, give Bali a very unique and special character, even compared to the other Indonesian islands, which are largely Muslim, with some Buddhism as well.
(Various offerings)
(A fancy altar)
(The alley by our hotel)
To be fair to our story, we did TRY to do one productive thing while we were in Kuta. We went to the immigration office to try to extend our visa for another 30 days (US Citizens are given a 30 day Visa On Arrival, which can be extended once for another 30 days). We read online that this would take about a week to process, and we didn’t want to have to come back here after only 3 weeks out of our 2 months to deal with that. So one day we got up early, got a taxi, got a bunch of copies and print-outs ready to deal with the bureaucracy like good Ticos are expertly trained to do. We arrived at the office, bought our forms, and got in line to take a number (interestingly, this was all following pretty much the exact script I went through at the Immigration Office in Costa Rica to apply for my Residency). We got seen by somebody fairly quickly. She reviewed our paperwork and had good news and bad news for us… Good News: Our papers seemed to be very well in order (with the exception of mine being in blue ink instead of black, but that was easily fixable, and a replacement form would be free). Bad News: We were too early to apply for an extension. We’d only been in town for 3 days. We had to come back in 2 or 3 weeks. D’oh!!
Well, we did some more digging around on the interwebs and figured out that other towns had immigration offices, and a few of them were closer to places we wanted to go. So, it wasn’t the end of the world. At least now we wouldn’t be stuck in Kuta longer than we wanted to be. I guess it was really good news all around!
Our first real stop on Bali, then, was to a town called Padang Bai, on the South side of the island, about 90km East of Kuta. Padang Bai is a big public Ferry harbor and Fast Boat transportation hub, so it sees a lot of traffic, but not usually a lot of people staying there (that’s apparently starting to change lately, but not so much in the tourism low season). The main area along the waterfront was pretty to look at, but there was still no good snorkeling right there (apparently there ARE some corals in there, but with all the boats constantly coming and going, it did not inspire confidence). There were, however, 2 really popular snorkel beaches near by – one a bit north and one a bit south. These were why we came.
Our hotel (Kembar Inn) ended up being the first one we saw when we got off the bus. They even had a tout (person who approaches you to sell something) greeting us as we got off. As a rule, we never trust touts, because if they’re actively campaigning for tourists, they usually want to rip you off. So, we took their card to be polite, but hiked on down to the boat dock anyway to begin our planned and coordinated search of the area.
We found a spot to sit, dropped our bags and (one of us at a time) walked around the small town for about an hour, checking out every place high and low that we could find. After all that, we ended up coming back to the first place we started at, Kembar Inn. Despite having touts meet us at the bus, they actually turned out to be the best deal in town. Aside from the room rate, which was pretty good, their breakfast ended up being the best one of the ENTIRE TRIP - not just Indonesia. They gave us MASSIVE portions (the omelets must have had at least 3 eggs each, plus veggies and cheese), plus coffee/tea and an open fruit buffet every morning. They also had gigantic banana pancakes made with ripe plantains (platano maduro). WIN! The hotel itself wasn’t pretty, but it had every feature we could ask for (large bed, fan, windows to the outside, private bath with a shower and western-style toilet, free WiFi, breakfast included). Those breakfasts, though, really make them a hard act to follow. In particular, they gave us our first taste of a local fruit we had never heard of before (except for maybe 2 days earlier, randomly from another tourist) called snake fruit. Snake fruit is very interesting stuff! The skin looks exactly like snake skin… it’s even got scales! The fruit inside has the same appearance and texture as cloves of garlic, but the flavor is very sweet and sour (like… maybe a cross between apple and lemon).
(Snake Fruit has snake skin)
Our first venture out for snorkeling was to a small, white sand beach called Bias Tugal. Getting there meant a roughly 30 minute walk south, up and over a big gravel hill, in full sun. The walk definitely sucked. The beach was beautiful, though! Sadly, the water was too rough to snorkel the first day. Next time we went there, the surge wasn’t quite so bad, but it was still not very nice. Also, the corals weren’t that spectacular.
(Bias Tugal from above)
The other snorkel spot was called Blue Lagoon, and it was about a 15 minute walk over a paved hill in the opposite direction. It was an easier walk, with even a little bit of shade along the way. This area was much nicer, and the beach was also gorgeous. The water was a bit challenging to get in and out of, due to a lot of rocks and some surge, coupled with a very shallow entrance into the water. In fact, we’d been warned to ONLY go at high tide, because low tide could actually be dangerous. I went online to find the tide times, and we waited for high tide. Alas, high tide seemed to be coming in the late afternoons, when the waters were too rough to get in. In the mornings, regardless of tide, the surge seemed to be mostly non-existant. We finally ended up coming back in the morning on a predicted low surge (overall) day. It wasn’t high tide, but at least the waves were calm and flat, so we could get in and out with almost no trouble at all.
(Blue Lagoon from above)
Finally! Real Snorkeling!! The corals here were definitely pretty! Lots of fish! Jime’s underwater camera bag finally began its glory days after all that traveling. Speaking of which, Jime’s underwater photography and videography are pretty damned impressive. We (now) have more beautiful underwater pictures than we have above-water pictures of anywhere else on our trip. Of course, as they say, with great power comes great responsibility. Photo editing has now become an almost daily ritual for her (by necessity). We also started taking videos. It turns out fish are more fun to watch when they’re moving. However, since Jime already has MORE than enough work with the photos (especially now), I have taken charge of the videos.
A quick note on underwater photography: pictures are very difficult to take underwater. You’ve got lots of challenges to work against: the water has particles which make it difficult for the camera to focus, the fish move fast!, when you do get a picture ready, the wave comes and moves YOU, the sunshine doesn’t reach very deep, and the light comes in as lines that ALSO move! And the prettiest fish are incredible because the actually reflect the light back, so it makes them look SHINY! Unfortunately the light shining INTO the camera confuses it and makes it not want to focus. Also, there are many TINY things hiding in large things, and LOTS of things underwater have camouflage… some have very GOOD camouflage (and some have fucking AMAZING camouflage that will break your brain). All the pics require photoshop touch-up to correct colors (i.e. tone down the blue, increase the red and yellow). Even with that, there’s not much that can be done to fix low-lighting conditions (increasing brightness in photoshop dulls the colors and makes things look less crisp). The flash on our little camera work under water because of the bag it’s in, and we don’t have a $5,000 underwater housing setup with external flash. Many, MANY pictures come out blurry due to a combination of factors. When it goes right, though, we can get some really wonderful pictures.
(Beautiful corals)
(Nemos in beautiful purple anemone)
(Unidentified Spotted Boxfish)
Some of the most difficult pictures to take are when we dive under water to try to get a closer pic of something deepish (let’s say anything 2m-7m down). In that case, you have all of the above problems, but then also have buoyancy issues. It’s really difficult to stay still during a breath-hold dive! Stable video, of course, is even harder than clear photos.
Sometimes I try to grab onto a rock or something to hold me down a bit easier, but I have to be SUPER careful when I do that, partly so my feet or body don’t bump into any coral (which is incredibly fragile, and which only grows back at around 1cm per YEAR), and partly so I don’t end up accidentally grabbing or bumping something nasty, like, say… a a Stonefish…
(I am a rock.)
that you often don’t see until they are right in your face, or right under where your hand was about to go (remember what I was saying about really GOOD camouflage? This is one example). This is why we always TRIPLE check the ground before we actually touch anything under water now. Dying from sudden, surprise puncture wounds laced with potent neurotoxins… that’ll ruin your whole day.
By the way… this topic will come up again in Indonesia Part 2.
While we were OUT of the water in Padang Bai, we happened to be there during a 3 day religious festival that happens twice a year, and that the whole island comes to. So for the first few days we were there, it was incredibly crowded, with full parking lots, an endless procession of people walking through town up to the temple on the hill, at all hours of day and night. Both the men and women wore sarongs, in different styles. The women often carried big bundles on their heads, the offerings that they would leave at the temple. With the big crowds of people we kept trying to get out of the way and make space for the women carrying huge loads on their heads, but it was very tricky!
We were invited/suggested to go check it out at night and told that there would be music and dancing. So, we dressed up in our mandatory Sarongs (pareos) and headed up the hill. It was pretty neat! We sat in a corner out of the way, and watched as people arrived at an open area, and gathered for a while. Every 30 minutes or so they would get ready and all climb the steps up into the temple. There was no dancing the night we were there, but there was some really cool music played by a large percussion band. They had all sorts of drums and pipes that they were playing, even something like a vibraphone that used the natural vibrations of metal bars for the vibrato effect. The musician in me was particularly impressed at the level of tempo and volume control they had… especially considering there was no conductor! In an entire band of percussionists… finding the leader was a bit of a challenge for me (but I did it anyway, because I had to know). We didn’t take pictures of people here because we did not want to be impolite, but we did get a couple of blurry shots of the band.
(Festival people, dressed in their finest, bringing their offerings to the temple)
(Festival band)
For food in town, we found ourselves a restaurant that was VERY nice - fancy even - but with very cheap prices (lower even than some back alley places). It was right at the waterfront, so on top of being beautifully-decorated, and having great food, in large portions, and presented with artistic flair, they also had a beautiful sea view. We made it our favorite place and ate most meals there.
(Pineapple Fried Rice: $3.50 / 1,750 colones)
Eventually we decided to move on from Padang Bai and head for another very popular snorkeling spot: Amed, on the East coast of Bali. Amed is actually a connected set of 5 little towns, so even within Amed, there were a lot of specific options up and down the coast. We started at the south end, and stayed in some bungalows called Good Karma. The bungalows were beautiful! They were all completely all hand-made from local, natural materials (mostly bamboo). For pretty much the first time on our trip, we had no Wifi for a few days straight. Actually, though, it was a nice break. If ever there was a place designed to get you to slow down and unplug, this was it.
Good Karma is set in their own little bay, so we had essentially our own private beach with nice sand, only steps from our front door. Finally, this was the “Snorkel Out” life we’d been looking for! The water in the bay was incredibly gentle, and almost completely flat. Even currents were non-existent unless you get out past our little bay, but then you really go for a ride. At one point, we were worried we were gonna have to get out, and hike back on the road barefoot. Fortunately, we were able to make just enough headway against the current that we were able to get back around the bend and into our protected bay again. Days like that, though, you’re very glad to be wearing big fins on your feet.
(Our bungalows at Good Karma)
(Our porch)
(Our beach. Amed is a fishing town. Those boats are called Jukung, and they’re what we used on our boat dives here)
As for the corals, they were definitely beautiful! They had good shapes, and pretty good variety, but not a lot of color. There were tons of fish, though, which was very cool. One of the unique fish we saw was a gigantic Map Puffer. It was FRIGGIN HUUUGE! We didn’t even know they existed in that size, so it was pretty exciting to see it, we did a lot of pointing and rushing around trying to follow it. We’d seen lots of little puffer and boxfish by this point, and this Map Puffer was easily 3 times as big as any of them. When we returned to that spot the following day, we found it again! We figured out his territory!
(These lovely things, called Black-belly Triggerfish, are all over the place)
(Pretty and HUGE Map Puffer)
One challenging thing about staying in Amed was that there was no public transportation of any kind, nor taxis. So, when we decided we wanted to check out another snorkel site a couple kilometers down the road from us, called the Japanese Wreck, we actually rented a motorbike. That day, of course, was a story all by itself, but you already know it by now. J Sadly, the damned (and I mean that literally) Titan Trigger at the Japanese wreck site means we don’t have any good pictures of it. Oh well.
After 4 nights at Good Karma, we decided to move up the road a bit to Jemeluk Beach. After using the motorbike on Japanese Wreck day to scout out our next place, we hired them to pick us up 2 days later. Unfortunately, we assumed they would be picking us up in a car, we never thought to ask… they showed up on 2 motorbikes (yay, more motorbikes… our favorite… and no helmets). Joy. So, we sent them off on their own with our 4 backpacks first, and had them come back on a 2nd trip to get us.
The place we chose was about 2km up the road from Good Karma - a place called Warung Ombak/Papa Homestay (Warung means restaurant in Indonesian… it’s equivalent to a Soda in Tico). We bartered the room down from $20/night to $12/night, including breakfast (they told us not to tell our neighbors, who were paying full price). It was a very small place, only 2 rooms. It had more modern construction than Good Karma, so it was a bit less charming, but still immaculately clean inside and in good condition. They even had a beautiful little garden right in front of our door. The place itself was hidden from the street behind some mostly undeveloped land (being used as cow pasture). If we hadn’t seen the sign on the road, we would have had no idea it was there. So, every day when we went out for lunch, we’d walk past the pigs, the chickens, the neighbors and the cows.
They had no WiFi here either, but there were some restaurants nearby that had it. The rooms themselves were not on the beach here, but the restaurant was. So, really... instead of a 3 meter walk, we had a 10 meter walk. There was no suffering here. The beach wasn’t as nice as Good Karma. It was rocky, rather than sandy, but not too painful to walk on. The corals in front of our place were good but not spectacular. There were plenty of fish, though. Actually, we saw our first Lionfish here! From the stories that Jime’s mom used to tell, we were expecting Lionfish to be all over the place in Bali, so we were actually surprised that this was the first one we saw. But then we learned; we learned that all Lionfish are cowards! It turns out they ARE all over the place, but… they’re all hiding under rocks! We had no idea they did that. You’d think a fish that’s decorated like a peacock or a tiny parade float would be strutting through the water like a runway model, showing everybody how Faaaabulouuuus it is. But, no. They hide themselves in the dark, like trolls, under large rocks, and only come out for tiny moments in time when they think nobody is looking. Maybe all that decoration is the sign of an inferiority complex? I have no idea, but… I will say that once we knew where to look, we started seeing them almost every day.
(Cowardly Lionfish)
The bay here was a bit larger than at Good Karma, so after getting bored of the spot in front of our place, we went around to the other side, in front of some restaurants. Since those restaurants had WiFi, we’d bring our computers in a locked backpack and leave them with the restaurant, snorkel around for a few hours, then come back out, have lunch and enjoy the internets. On THIS side of the bay, though, in front of our restaurant, is where we finally saw our first SPECTACULAR corals. The colors were bright… vibrant even. The fish were abundant and fun. In fact, after only a short while in the water, we even got swarmed by a school of about 6 Orbicular Batfish that were not only unafraid of us, but seemed to genuinely be excited to hang out with us. We were pretty excited to hang out with them too, and we spent an hour having them come aaaaaalmost up to our hands. There were also a couple of Blue Nose Parrotfish in the little swarm, but they weren’t quite as… “on” us… as the Batfish Other stuff was definitely cool. But when we got back, the Batfish came hurrying out to greet us. It was the coolest thing. We made that our favorite snorkel spot for the rest of our stay there.
(Orbicular Batfish and me)
(Orbicular Batfish at Jime’s hand)
Here in Jemeluk, we finally signed up for our first dives. The day before the dives, though, we screwed up and got ourselves sunburned. BADLY. Second degree burns over our whole backs, extending out to part of the backs of our legs and arms. We had to postpone the dives for about 4 days until our backs could handle putting on a wetsuit. Fortunately, our tiny little hotel had an aloe plant, and they were kind enough to let us cut off a couple leaves. That helped a lot. We also used a lot of skin lotion. Anything to help! We felt pretty dumb. We had intended to get a LITTLE color on our backs that day, in order to build up a tan slowly. But, I guess we both got a little carried away, and ended up “tanning” for about 2.5 hours. Jime actually felt like she had covered up soon enough. Nope. Anyway, I think you know that whole story already too.
As for the dives, I think I’m gonna do something here that might seem a bit gimmicky, and just post our dive log entries (the stuff we’ll mostly copy into our physical dive logs when we get home). I recognize that most of you won’t care for the full details, but I personally find them interesting, and I think they tell their own story, for those who do know how to read them (and there’s plenty of actual story in this version for those who don’t get the rest).
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20-Oct-2012 Amed Wall
Dive Company: Eco Dive
Dive Master: Kadek
Surface Interval before dive: 6 months (Alex); 5 years (Jime)
Max Depth: 22m
Bottom Time: 45min
Visibility: 20m+
Remaining Air: 40bar, Jime: 60bar
Safety stop: 5 meters, but with strong current. Alex had to kick constantly to stay in one place and keep from yanking Jime loose. Dive Master was anchored (but not to anything big) and holding Jime’s hand.
Conditions: Strong current pushing opposite direction from what we expected. Was supposed to be an easy drift dive, but ended up being a work-out “out and back”.
Boat dive, small Indonesian spider boats, same area we had been snorkeling.
Exposure Suit: 3mm Shortie Wetsuit
Weight: Jime: 9kg, Alex: 6kg
Fish: Nudibranch, Big Eye Trevally, Titan Trigger, Clownfish, Anemonefish in Soft Anemone, Emperor Angel, Mackerel, Sea Cucumber, Royal Angelfish. Gigantic corals around 3m high X 2m wide.
General Impressions: Jime’s first dive in 5 years. Difficulty adjusting. She was scared, disoriented and awkward the entire dive. She felt compelled to hold her regulator in her mouth (by hand) the whole time. She had water in her mask that kept getting in her nose. She was too uncomfortable with everything else to clear the mask (also, she has a hard time with those skills in general). Alex was comfortable in general, but slightly awkward with trim and balance. He could have used 1 or 2 more kg. Dive site honestly was not very exciting. We’d seen more things while snorkeling. Kadek held onto Jime most of the time to help her keep up, stay down. Alex’s depth gauge didn’t work. Dive master didn’t care.
20-Oct-2012 Amed Pyramids & Pyramid Wall
Dive Company: Eco Dive
Dive Master: Kadek
Surface Interval before dive: 90 min
Max Depth: 19m
Bottom Time: 51min
Visibility: 20m+
Starting Air: 200bar, Jime: 200bar
Remaining Air: 60bar, Jime: 60bar
Safety stop: 5 meters, no current.
Conditions: Little to none. Very slight drift dive.
Exposure Suit: 3mm Shortie Wetsuit
Weight: Jime: 9kg, Alex: 6kg
Description: Boat dive, small Indonesian spider boats, same area we had been snorkeling. Started out in the middle of The Pyramids (so we could check the current first and then decide which way to go). The pyramids are artificial reef structures. We saw a giant puffer on the second pyramid. Right as we settled at the second pyramid and saw the big puffer, Alex saw a Manta!! It was just over the drop-off, out in mid-water. It was white, and Alex just saw it come in, turn around, and head back out.
Fish: Big star puffer, Leaf Scorpionfish (3, white and pink) standing on coral and in cracks with fins as feet. Blue Spotted Stingray (0.5m below us... made me think of Steve Irwin), Cushion Starfish, Anemonefish, clownfish, Hawkbill Turtle?, Beautiful turtle came around the reef right at our depth, and swam by us, casually, within easy touching distance… It noticed us and couldn’t have cared less that we were there. Jime found an Octopus tentacle (about 1ft). The (most likely dead) octopus body was probably under a rock. The tentacle didn’t really respond when Kadek moved it, but Jime thinks it may have retracted a little. The end was eaten off. If it wasn’t dead then, it will be within the hour.
General impressions: MUUUUCH better dive. Much more coral, many more fish, so many “rare” sights in one dive (Manta, turtle, leaf scorpionfish). Probably the prettiest dive we’ve ever been on. Lots of beautiful anemones, including long-fingered ones. Almost all had clownfish/anemonefish. We started out very shallow, and with zero current. Jime was MUCH more comfortable this time. I was a bit more trimmed out and balanced, but still could have used an extra kilo or two.
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Our next town was Tulamben, about 30 minutes north of Amed. We stayed in a guest house recommended by our dive master from Jemeluk. They have a small room they rent behind the dive shop, it was a few blocks to walk to the beach, but it’s cheap, and they’re friendly. Speaking of the beach, the beach here is pretty shitty: no sand, only big rocks that hurt to walk on. Since we don’t have booties for our feet (like we usually have when diving), snorkeling here requires dedication. Fortunately, we are champions at this by now. We even have our own refined techniques. We walk down to the water with our flip-flops on, then leave them close to the water-line and put a rock on top of them (saves them from floating away if the water level rises). While most people try to clumsily walk through any water that’s not up over their knees at least, we’ve learned that it’s much easier to swim, and we know how to float in water that’s only a few centimeters deep. So pretty much, we sit ourselves down at the water that’s at least ankle deep, put on our mask and fins, and start swimming. When we’re out, we laugh to ourselves and quietly mock the other snorkeling n00bs, and occasionally express horror when we fear might be standing on the fragile corals. When they do this right next to us, we let them know as politely as possible how very, very wrong that is.
The first day of snorkeling in Tulamben was actually a bit of a let down, though. We saw the wreck of the USAT Liberty (which is an old sunken ship that used to be a US Army Transport (that’s the USAT part) ship that got torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in WWII). This wreck is supposed to be one of the best dive sites in all of Bali, and one of the best wreck dives in the world, because it’s so accessible and so shallow that even snorkelers can see parts of it. Unfortunately we could see much less of it than we expected, so we were done in about 20 minutes, and since the visibility sucked the first day we were there we were worried that maybe we had wasted our time coming here.
We looked toward shore on the north side of the wreck and we found at least some corals, but nothing spectacular. A little farther down the shore, though, we came across a massive, football field-sized area FULL of Garden Eels. There were even two different kinds. Some were small (75cm) and striped black and white. Others were tall, maybe 1.5m, and all black. They’re mostly cowards, but at least not as bad as the Cowardly Lionfish. If you swim towards them, they drop down completely into their holes. But if you just hang out there, and wait patiently, they eventually come back out. The ones right underneath you won’t come ALL the way out, but just enough to keep a healthy distance between them and you. So… maybe this place doesn’t suck after all.
The next day, we again went away from the wreck, but to the South, to an area called the Coral Garden. Holy crap, this area is cool! Lots of great corals, amazing fish life. Also, we saw an Octopus!
The Octopus Story (escrito por Jimena Alvarado Chavarría & Alex Hansen Hansen):
We went snorkeling in the Coral Garden for the first time, and spent quite a while there. From the entry point to the right, the area was pretty filled with corals, anemones and fish. It was beautiful, but choppy and with an annoying current. After a while we decided to bail out and come back the next day. The camera was out of battery anyway, and we wanted to explore it more calmly and with more time. The area to the left of the entry was pretty bare: rocks with a few scattered corals on them, and some artificial reef starters that had some life, but not much going yet. To Alex’s amusement, one of them was in the shape of an airplane. That one had a huge white anemone next to it, about 7m deep, with some really pretty clown fish (Nemos).
(Airplane artificial reef)
(Nemos in anemone)
After looking around for a bit, we gave up on the area and headed out. Alex was just aiming directly for the shore, while Jimena first headed closer to where we’d left our shoes. Before she started going shallow, she stopped to put the camera down the back of her shirt so it wouldn’t scrape on anything as we got out of the water (it was a very SHALLOW exit, pulling ourselves hand-over-hand on our bellies as far as possible because it was stupidly hard to stand or walk on the rocks). At some point, she paused and stuck her head out of the water. When she did, she heard Alex calling out “OCTOPUS!!!!” and hauled ass over to him, trying to get the camera to turn on one last time (battery was just about exhausted), in case there was only a second to see it.
The octopus was beautiful! It was only about 4 meters below us, and his head was about the size of 2 oranges when inflated. He was sitting on a rock, pretending (quite well) to be part it. This was a Day Octopus (Alex looked it up later), and they have INCREDIBLE camouflage (Alex says this is what he was referring to when he spoke of “Brain-breaking”). It was hard to see him even though he was out in the open, and we were looking right at him. You could be looking right at him, and then he’d just DISAPPEAR right in front of your face. Knowing how he does it does not spoil the magic, but rather makes it even more magical because you know he’s NOT using smoke and mirrors to do it. Jimena got a few pictures in, but aside from the octopus being very hard to photograph under the best of circumstances… the camera stopped responding: it wouldn’t zoom at all, and wouldn’t confirm that it had taken pictures! Noooo!
In any case, we watched the Octopus for about an hour, and it was an incredible show. When he would move from one place to another he would turn dark brown and smooth, floating away with his tentacles curled in. Sometimes he would move from one spot to one a bit far away, and let his tentacles fly flat behind him, like an airplane wing. Sometimes he would just… melt, slowly, between one rock and another, oozing his body and tentacles like liquid from here to there.
When he stopped at a rock, hunting for food, he’d spread out, stretching the membranes between his arms like plastic wrap around the entire rock. Doing this, he’d turn briefly white and bluish, then change color to match the rock. Other times, he would just stop and rest on the side of a large boulder, with a few tentacles out, and transform completely into the rock: color, texture, patterns of light and dark. He’d melt out of your sight right in front of your face. You’d be staring right at him, neither one of you moving, your eyes would still lose him.
He put on a nice show with the colors, all told. He would go from brown while swimming, white while landing, bluish while he stretched membranes to brown like the rock, and finally grow bumps and spikes to match the texture of whatever he landed on. It was incredible. We watched him for a long time, sometimes calling over divers to come see it, but mostly they were dumb and scared him. Jimena was sooooo disappointed not to be able to get video, because it was such an incredible spectacle. She went over to his favorite spots and memorized where they were to try to find him later.
The following morning we ended up back in that area at the end of our second dive of the day, and he was there!!! Of course, we had no camera at all then, because we had been diving, but she was at least able to see him for a few seconds before he hid under the rock. It seems we scared him a lot more this time by being so close up (as opposed to yesterday, when we were floating at the surface).
Since now we knew we could find him again, though, we decided to go RIGHT back into the water after our dive. We got the camera and headed for the same spot. Alas, nothing. NOTHING!! We looked in that area for about an hour, over and over, knowing full well that if he wasn’t actively moving, we really had no chance of seeing him because of the damned camouflage. We swam to other areas and came back a few different times. While in a different area, Alex finally DID spot him… but only for a second. Unfortunately he looked up to get Jimena’s attention and lost him. D’oh!! Even though we looked in that area for a long time, we never saw him again. It seems he knew exactly when there was a camera around and made sure to stay away from the lens. Oh well. At least we saw it! And, we did get a couple pictures in. I will warn you, though, that even when you know he’s there, it’s STILL really hard to see him.
(This is the only picture where you can see him clearly)
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Dive Log Entry:
24-Oct-2012 Tulamben Liberty Wreck
Dive Company: Sea Hua Ha Ha
Dive Master: Kadek (a different one!)
Surface Interval before dive: 4 days
Max Depth: 28m
Bottom Time: 56 min, in the water about 7am, already lots of divers!
Visibility: 30m+
Starting Air: 200 bar Alex, Jime: 200bar
Remaining Air: 20bar, Jime: 50bar
Exposure Suit: 3mm full suits
Weight: Jimena 10kg, Alex 8kg (belt)
Description: Alex’s depth gauge didn’t work again (different city, different gear, different company, different dive master). Dive master didn’t care.
Shore dive, egg-size rocks for a beach. Entry went fine, no problem with nerves or clearing, we started shallow. Jime has had her left ear plugged since the last dive-day, 4 days total. Alex was feeling very well-balanced and trimmed, recommended that he keep his weight belt very high up, and that helped stay horizontal. Jimena was feeling pukey!!
Fish: We first saw a small white frog fish, not too close up. Later we saw a pink pigmy seahorse, about 7mm total!! Got to see it close up, with time to take a good look. We were at 18m. Even though we were right next to it, it was very difficult to tell it apart from the coral, it just looked like any other branch!! Swam around for a while, went into the wreck and out. It was beautiful seeing the sun shining through the soft corals, and very impressive being under big corals. Hard to be careful not to bump into anything. Saw a couple of bumpheads close up. Stopped to take a close look at a big red anemone and a red clown fish. Alex was looking for a place to rest his hand, and almost put it on a red scorpion fish!! About 10 inches long, lots of fringes, VERY close up! Beautiful. Also stopped to look at a yellow (pink?) frog fish, this time closer up, and more time. Swam around the wreck for a while, and went out to the corals next to it. Jimena found the Giant clam we had seen while snorkeling!! Able to stop and get a good look, even get hands on it to gauge the size, about 75cm! It was not embedded into coral, sitting out in the open. Also swam RIGHT over a blue-spotted stingray, maybe 50cm away! Jimena had a BIG problem! While we were ascending into the corals, she was feeling too buoyant, and she was trying to be responsible and ascend slowly. She pressed her deflate button, but didn’t feel a difference, even though it was bubbling. The more she pressed, the worse it got, until she floated to the surface!! The dive master was watching and came to help. It turns out that while she pressed with her index finger, her THUMB was pressing the inflating button! Learn that mistake once, and thankfully it did not happen at a worse time. When we were almost back at the shore, we stopped at look at a Mantis shrimp. We had time to stop and get face to face down on the sand. Incredible colors, red eyebrows, big blue eyes!! Alex says he was able to see the crosshairs in the eyes. He had about half his body out of the hole and stayed around for a few minutes. Awesome and unexpected!
24-Oct-2012 Tulamben Coral Garden
Dive Company: Sea Hua Ha Ha
Dive Master: Kadek (different!)
Surface Interval before dive: 2 hours
Max Depth: 24m
Bottom Time: 48 min
Visibility: 30m+
Starting Air: 190 bar Alex, Jime: 200bar
Remaining Air: 20bar Alex, Jime: 50bar
Exposure Suit: 3mm full suits
Weight: Jimena 10kg, Alex 8kg (belt)
Description: Shore dive, egg size rock beach. Entry went fine, no problem with nerves or clearing, we started shallow. The initial part was mostly bare sand, with some small patches of coral. We stopped to take a close up look at a white frog fish. We got to lay down on the sand and get face-to-face for a long time. Pretty amazing! Ridiculous and cute! Alex touched his tail and he didn’t move. We swam over to another coral formation that had a dead giant clam, Jime stopped to look at the shell and some teeeeny grey shrimp, and it turns out that was the shrimp cleaning-station. On the other side of the rock there were beautiful cleaning shrimp, red, white and yellow. The body was about 1.5 inch, but they had long white antennae and claws. Kadek had one get in his mouth to show us, and we were able to stop and put our hands in to get cleaned!! They were like little insects, walking all over our hands and picking at our skin. It didn’t hurt, but you could feel them pinching! At some point Jimena had 6 of them on one hand. If you pulled your hand away from the rock, they would jump off and back on the rock, it was a proximity cleaning service. In the meantime, the tiny grey-black shrimp (1cm body) were crawling all over the rock next to us, looking like ants. As we left the shrimp, and went around the rock, there were two morays getting cleaning service. They were right next to each other, their heads sticking out, and we were able to stop and look at them face to face for a while, maybe 2 feet away. They stared right at us for a while, and opened their mouths for the shrimp! Teeth-cleaning like at the dentist. Pretty incredible. We kept going at around the same depth for a while, sandy and pretty empty. When Kadek had us check our air, Jimena was already at 90bar!! So fast! So she gestured to Kadek to go shallower. As we were heading up, we started seeing a lot more corals, and stopped to look at 4 different lionfish. Beautiful and spread out, pretty big, and always under a rock. They move very slowly, as if they were floating or walking, seem like a big parade float. Also saw a big (potato?) grouper, pretty close up. Once we got shallow, we were in the area that we snorkel over regularly. Unfortunately there was a bit of a current there, so we rushed past things pretty fast. There was enough time to look at the anemones close up, and touch them a bit. Suuuuuuuuper soft, just like they look. The tentacles are sticky, and jump back when you touch them. Got to see a few Nemos close up, but between the current and the low air, there wasn’t enough time to enjoy them well. We headed back toward the airplane area (artificial reef) and Jimena stopped to look at the big anemone with Nemos that is down there (looks white and round in our snorkel pics). She also went looking for the Octopus we saw the day before, and checked the two spots where he had been stopping. She was able to locate both spots and FOUND him at the second one!!!
He was mostly out of the hole when she saw him, but as she gestured and got closer, he sank slowly down into the hole. She watched him go from black to white, and had his eyes red as he sank into the hole… white with red eyes receding… incredible. A great end to the dive.
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After Tulamben, we headed off of Bali and took a Ferry to Lombok to renew our Visas for another 30 days. There are at least 3 places we COULD have done this on Bali, but they would all take at least a week. In Mataram, we read consistent reviews saying this could be done overnight at worst, and same day if we paid extra. As it happens, this turned into quite an adventure. That, though, will have to wait for the next post. See ya next time!
And here’s the last little present I’ll leave you with. The pictures starting in Bali show our first underwater experiences. After the first few things above ground, the pictures will eventually ALL be there. And honestly, they are SPECTACULAR! I think Angkor Wat was possibly our best photo set so far, but these underwater pictures are truly something special. I barely included a TASTE in this post. The full set, so far, is here:
You're going to spend your whole time in Portland telling fish stories to Lyzz!
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