Diving Report
by
Clive and Peggy Wheeler
August 2000
|
Here is an account of our trip last August, it will give you some idea of what we saw & what it cost. I increased my knowledge of the Indonesian Language & have 2 CD Rom's (Bahasa Kita. Indonesian for school & business as well as Rosetta Stone language library.) They are an interesting & fun way to learn Bahasa Indonesian. It was a lot better at communicating with the Indonesians, on this years trip. We left a wet chilly Australia, for a hot & dry Bali on July the 28th, leaving on a Garuda flight, as we we’re getting ready for take off, the hostesses handed out the Australia Post newspaper, on the front page was a full size photo of the Concorde crash, on take off from Paris, they are never very subtle, & wont change their routine for anything, which I always find amusing. Our diving guide was at the airport to meet us & take us to the dive shop to store our dive gear & then of to our favorite Hotel, “Bumi Ayu” 10 nights & flight for Aus$1100. We had 2 bottles of Southern Comfort & were able to purchase the local vodka for only $7 a bottle. We soon met up with our old friend Heni, a Dutch woman who lives in Melbourne & spends every August in Bali, arranging trips out & getting everybody into a big happy family, One of our customers arrived on the following day with her Granddaughter, We also found several other couples we’d met before as well as several new faces from Adelaide, Kate it turned out, play's night lawn Bowls at the same club as us, but on another night. Her & her husband belong to an Australian / Indonesian society in Adelaide, they meet each month for a dinner at a members house, some are Australian & some Indonesians living in Adelaide. They raise funds to help an orphanage in Bali that has 190 children, some from Lombok & East Timor when their parents we’re murdered. We will go to their next meeting & probably get involved. One evening our friend Wayan came to visit us with his new 8 ˝ month pregnant wife, They arrived & left by motorcycle, & refused our offer to pay for a taxi. We chatted on our balcony for a couple of hours & I got to chat in Indonesian with her, as she knows no English. We booked a mini bus for a trip to see the lakes in Northern Bali, eight of us set off for a cost of $5 each. After viewing the lakes we asked the driver if he would take us to see the hot springs in Central Bali, he had never been there before so was eager to take us, The road got narrower & rougher as we spent over an hour getting lost until we eventually found it. The road down was almost at 45 degrees & we prayed his brakes would hold out. We followed a sign pointing to HOT SPRINGS but as there was no distance indicated & the walk was down a huge valley of beautiful paddy fields. I asked an old Indonesian local in his language, how far it was, 2 kilometers he replied. It was getting late so we decided to head back. Another day we went to see an Indonesian Lady & her 3 children who we have visited every year, over the last six, we take them presents & they have become almost like family, her husband left her to bring up the children on her own, as he has a gambling habit. This time we took the two little girls for a ˝ hour taxi ride to the beach too watch a huge kite flying contest, we got a table at an out door restaurant with a good view & had a meal there. Then back to our Hotel for them to see & have a drink & back to their Mum, after a nice trip out for all of us. We didn't get to fly to Medan to see the Orangutans as we had planned as the flight was an extra $600 each, so we decided to go to Yogyakarta by bus, the tickets we're only $16 for the 350 mile trip, including ferry crossing from Bali. At the time it seemed a good idea to sit in the front two seats to get a good view of the scenery, & some good video shots. The bus was a modern, air conditioned, complete with toilet & excellent reclinable chairs, I commented on the rusted state of the upper deck on the ferry, saying “I bet you could kick a hole in the hull with your thong”. Luckily we didn't find out until after our return that 2 ferries had sunk in the last year. The only downside of the trip was one of the drivers who overtook everything in his path & seemed unconcerned at the oncoming traffic swerving to avoid him. We wished we'd sat nearer the rear, but too late now. He did drive with more care nearing Yogya, after a motor cycle cop stopped him & gave him a ticket. In Jogya we stayed at The Bladok Hotel as recommended by the Lonely Planet book, It was very clean with air/con, TV, toilet / shower balcony & a swimming pool for only Aus $20 a night, local bus trips ranged from $3 to $10 PP, The $10 trip was 3 ˝ drive into the mountains to the Dieng Plateau, to view the Volcano’s, boiling mud, rice paddy’s, temples etc. for 3 hours, & return to hotel. Another day we went to see the Borobudur, it's the largest Temple in the world, built in the 8th Century by the Javanese Buhdist inhabitants at the time. It is very spectacular & is a bit like a giant wedding cake. We did this trip with a young Danish couple staying at our Hotel, (Stephon & Gabriella) we ended up becoming good friends & met up with them again later back in Bali. He sings in a choir & she is a violinist, they travel a lot & may come & see us in Adelaide one day. Another trip was to the Prambanan Temple, originally there were 244 minor temples but only the largest remain, the six biggest were in a large square complex, in the evening we had a smorgasbord meal under the stars & then sat in an outdoor theater complex to watch a Javanese Rameyana Ballet. The tickets were $1 economy seats, $2.50 deluxe seating & $ for VIP, we chose VIP. We ended up seated directly in front of the stage, seated in very large comfortable seats with armrests, some of our group chose economy & were seated at the rear side, with a poor view & the seating was a stone hollowed out affair, with the option of hiring a cushion for 50 cents, they wished they'd splashed out for the dearer seats afterwards. It was very spectacular with very elaborate costumes, firing bows & arrows & ending in 2 large straw roofed huts being burned giving off a lot of heat. On this trip we're an Italian couple, Belgian couple, Austrian couple & 2 French girls who spoke perfect English with no accent whatsoever.. They all spoke English so that was the language we all used, during the day we dealt with locals who couldn't speak English so they kept asking me to interpret & negotiate for them. We found shopping in Java very cheap & bought heaps of things for ridiculously cheap prices including CD roms & what we thought were music CD’s for $2 each, that turned out to be DVD’s. I also bought some very good quality shorts with several pockets with Velcro flaps for $4 a pair. Opposite our hotel was an Internet Café so I tried my hand to find I’d accumulated 26 messages. I didn't have anybody's e-mail addresses with me, so I could only reply to those who had written to us, they only charged me $3 an hour. We tried to book a flight back to Bali, but they were fully booked for 6 days so we ended up going by train, choice of economy, Business class or VIP. We chose VIP at $17 each. Each station had very spacious, comfortable VIP waiting rooms. For some
unknown reason they were always locked & appeared unused. We saw an economy train go past, & it was packed full like a giant sardine can, & smelt even worse. The trip was through some very beautiful areas & we saw a lot that we would normally have missed. The trip took 19 hours including the ferry crossing & Bus to
Denpasar. We met an Italian couple while we waited 3 hours at the ferry terminal & they were on an economy bus & while they were asleep somebody stole their bum bags
with all their money. We both wear money belts under our shirts & have our bum bags on top with just enough cash for that day, & have never had any problems, when I go diving I seal all the money in a waterproof container, & wear it around my neck & put it in my BCD just before we enter the water. The dive Safari is US $85 per night for air con bus & driver, dive guide, accommodation, all meals & soft drink, so fairly cheap. Back in Bali we stayed one night in Sanur & early next day our dive guide, Kanci & driver picked us up & we headed for Padang Bay, a little inlet where the lombok ferries leave every 2 hours. We did two dives there & we're relieved to see the coral regrowth was 75% it's usual spectacular self. On the second dive we ended up in a strong drift dive & Kanci signaled for us to hang on to the seabed, Made looked worried & I could see he was thinking out the best course of action for our predicament as we had drifted a long way from where our little outrigger was waiting. After 10 minutes thought, Made signaled for us to ascend together, holding each other to avoid separation. In all the dives I have ever done the current is always strongest on the surface & weakens as you get nearer the seabed, so I was expecting a horrendous ascent & an out of sight boat on the surface, two meters off the bottom the current died to nothing,
much to my relief, & we ascended safely with no further problems, Kanci said he had never experienced this before. We then drove on to the Paradise hotel in Tulamben to find our old room demolished & a new room in its place, as we're most of the old rooms. I couldn't understand why the Hotel had 2 satellite dishes, until I found out the owner has a Balinese wife, as well as a Japanese wife who have a mutual dislike of each other, so double up on everything & their only
common possession is their husband, & presumably parts thereof. Tulamben is growing fast these days, with new Hotels springing up like mushrooms, the largest being just the perimeter wall at present, stretching almost a
kilometer, to keep the locals sweet, he is providing free education for all the village children. In the water the global warming damage of two years ago is almost gone with regrowth everywhere & I would expect by next year all will be back to its normal brilliance. We had four nights in Tulamben & everyday the ocean was flat & calm so visibility was between 60 & 100 meter's with an ocean temperature of 26c. We did two dives a day including a night dive on which we saw small lights moving around above us, when we turned off our torches, the lights turned out to be several hundred small fish with their own lighting system. On our day dives we saw five large Bump Headed Wrasse, we we're able to get within two meter's of them. We also saw a strange creature in a rocky crevice that emitted a six-inch streak of light that looked like lightening. Other interesting sightings we're Moray Eels, lots of Lion Fish, big Tuna, colorful Nudibranch’s, blue coral returning, acres of stag horn coral, huge colorful fans, at Amed there we're artificial tyre reefs similar
to those we have in South Australia.
|
||
|
NOTE: Tulamben ship wreck is still a great dive with no real problem with die off, you can dive from 10 mtrs to around 30 mtrs maximum depth, lots of coral, sponges & both very colorful small & medium size fish which you can hand feed banana's or bread when you will disappear in fish numbers swarming within inches of you. We have also seen large Bump headed Wrasse on around 30% of our dives there. This is also a very good night dive with negligible current & good to excellent visibility. A short distance away (12 mins walk) is the Tulamben drop off that makes an interesting alternative dive, some coral die back 2 years ago but
its growing back fast & looks like it will soon be back to normal. & plenty of fish. Amed was looking very sad with coral die off 2 years ago but is looking a lot more spectacular now & hotels & eating places being built at a fast rate. if your on a dive safari. Gili Topekong around 40 mins boat ride to a small reef that you dive at around 15/22 mtrs, the most interesting part of this dive are the reef sharks that approach to within 15 mtrs of divers. Padang Bay is a very pretty little village with a beautiful bay & beach where the ferry's leave for Lombok every two hours, a short boat trip left or right of the bay provides extensive reef 's with a lot of interest & the coral is also coming back well. These are all full day trips so are not the cheapest but the quality of diving is well worth the extra cost & in comparison the other dives nearer Kuta & Sanur are a bit of a
disappointment. The cost varies between US$50 & US$75 each is a full day away & includes air/con mini bus, dive guide, lunch box & soft drinks with hotel pick up & return. Two years ago we splashed out on a 7 day dive safari, & last year a five day safari, This year we had four days & we recomend a few days Safari if you can afford it, diving Pedang Bay, Amed, Tulamben drop off & the Liberty Wreck, they have been the best holiday & diving we've ever had & if you can afford it a safari is a fun filled holiday. We always dive with BALI DIVE SPORTS CLUB & always use
the same guide as he's very experienced, safety conscious, never rushes us & is doing it for his love of diving rather than just a way to make a living, his name is Nengah Kanci, (pronounced CANas in coke & Chee as in Cheetah, "Canchee") he grew up in the village of Tulamben where as a young lad he earn't his first money carrying dive gear & helping the divers, when he was old enough he learnt English & did his diving courses at his own expense, we fully recommend him. (please be aware that workers in Bali earn a very low wage, eg Hotel staff $2 per day & your dive guide, although earning more than this, still earns an extremely low wage by our standards, so a fair tip for the expertise provided will be much appreciated, this is my comment & I have never known any pressure being exerted for tips.) We like Bali Dive Sports Club as they don't skimp, have good drivers & vehicles & provide a very safe ratio of guides to divers, unlike a lot of the cowboy companies in Bali. They also provide a packed lunch, soft drinks & if you want to stop for photo's or a quick look at something, nothings to much trouble. The number for the shop at Sanur is (0361) 286520 or Fax (0361) 287692 email balidive@indo.net.id also try
http://www.bali-dive.com
Best of luck
Clive & Peggy |