MrClean
Guest
I am posting this trip report a little belatedly as I just joined the forum. My wife and I honeymooned in Bali last Oct. The flight was hellish, 22 hours. EVA does have an Evergreen class which is somewhere between coach and business for only a few dollars more than coach. The seats were very spacious and this is especially important to me as I am 6'4".
Upon arriving in Bali (Denpasar) we had a friend of a friend pick us up and take us straight to Ubud, a mountain town in central Bali. We stayed at the wonderful Alam Indah on the outskirts of the Monkey Forrest, about a 30 minute walk from central Ubud. The hotel was wonderful with an amazing staff who looked after us quite well. We would recommend the Rambutan Villa, a beautiful 2 story thatched roof cottage with amazing carved wood doors. A palace for about $100 US a night.
After a few nights there, we headed of to the remote NW corner of the island to a town called Pemuteran for the diving portion of the trip. We stayed at a resort called Taman Sari. Not quite as nice but still wonderful and palacial for the price especially compared to US accomodations.
While in Pemuteran we completed our OW certification with Chris Brown and Reef Seen Aquatics. http://www.reefseen.com. We cannot recommend Reef Seen enough. Chris was the first dive shop to open in NW Bali and in the process has helped to educate the locals about the value of a healthy reef. Through this education, dynamite and cyanide fishing have been eradicated here. Chris also runs a turtle hatchery project, paying locals to bring him the eggs instead of eating them. He then hatches them and releases them. Chris and the town have also started an artificial reef system just off the beach to help bring life back to areas destroyed by bad fishing practices and coral bleaching.
While there we dove the reefs around Pemuteran, Close Encounters, Napolean Reef, and Kebun Chris. Very enjoyable although vis wasn't quite as good as we expected about 45 to 60 feet for the entire trip. Saw many scorpion fish here. Later in the week we dove off of Menjangan Island, drift and wall dives. Very beautiful. Eel gardens, Pos 2, Coral Gardens, and Temple Slopes were some of our dives here. There were only 3 divers and the DM on any of our dives and we recieved great personal attention. Gede, our DM was wonderful at spotting and pointing out all the hidden wonders that our novice eyes would have passed up. Great operation.
While we had a wonderful time in Bali and will definately return there some day, here is a word of warning to eco-tourists. There is a LOT of pollution on Bali, both air pollution in the form of exhaust and from the burning of trash, mainly plastic bottles of water from tourists, and just trash along the sides of the roads. Now I know it is a third world country and I expect that to an extent, but after reading all the glowing guidebook reports we were shocked. Especially with the burning trash. We rise early every morning and that is when it seemed to be the worse. So when you go, please reuse your plastic bottles. Every hotel has purified water that you can refill your bottle from.
We have used Scubaboard several times to plan our trips befor becoming a member. I hope this report helps someone plan ttheir own trip.
Upon arriving in Bali (Denpasar) we had a friend of a friend pick us up and take us straight to Ubud, a mountain town in central Bali. We stayed at the wonderful Alam Indah on the outskirts of the Monkey Forrest, about a 30 minute walk from central Ubud. The hotel was wonderful with an amazing staff who looked after us quite well. We would recommend the Rambutan Villa, a beautiful 2 story thatched roof cottage with amazing carved wood doors. A palace for about $100 US a night.
After a few nights there, we headed of to the remote NW corner of the island to a town called Pemuteran for the diving portion of the trip. We stayed at a resort called Taman Sari. Not quite as nice but still wonderful and palacial for the price especially compared to US accomodations.
While in Pemuteran we completed our OW certification with Chris Brown and Reef Seen Aquatics. http://www.reefseen.com. We cannot recommend Reef Seen enough. Chris was the first dive shop to open in NW Bali and in the process has helped to educate the locals about the value of a healthy reef. Through this education, dynamite and cyanide fishing have been eradicated here. Chris also runs a turtle hatchery project, paying locals to bring him the eggs instead of eating them. He then hatches them and releases them. Chris and the town have also started an artificial reef system just off the beach to help bring life back to areas destroyed by bad fishing practices and coral bleaching.
While there we dove the reefs around Pemuteran, Close Encounters, Napolean Reef, and Kebun Chris. Very enjoyable although vis wasn't quite as good as we expected about 45 to 60 feet for the entire trip. Saw many scorpion fish here. Later in the week we dove off of Menjangan Island, drift and wall dives. Very beautiful. Eel gardens, Pos 2, Coral Gardens, and Temple Slopes were some of our dives here. There were only 3 divers and the DM on any of our dives and we recieved great personal attention. Gede, our DM was wonderful at spotting and pointing out all the hidden wonders that our novice eyes would have passed up. Great operation.
While we had a wonderful time in Bali and will definately return there some day, here is a word of warning to eco-tourists. There is a LOT of pollution on Bali, both air pollution in the form of exhaust and from the burning of trash, mainly plastic bottles of water from tourists, and just trash along the sides of the roads. Now I know it is a third world country and I expect that to an extent, but after reading all the glowing guidebook reports we were shocked. Especially with the burning trash. We rise early every morning and that is when it seemed to be the worse. So when you go, please reuse your plastic bottles. Every hotel has purified water that you can refill your bottle from.
We have used Scubaboard several times to plan our trips befor becoming a member. I hope this report helps someone plan ttheir own trip.
