nwflyboy
Contributor
August 20 - September 3, 2007, Bali (multiple locations) and north Sulawesi (Bunaken Marine Park)...details follow.
Disclaimer 1: This is my first-ever trip report (here or anywhere else), so I hope I get all the protocols right - my apologies if everything isn't perfect
. I made heavy use of the forums here during the planning for our trip, and I'm very grateful to those who answered all my questions and provided their own feedback - that definitely helped a lot, and was one of the reasons why we had a great trip. I hope the info here in this report helps others.
Disclaimer 2: This was my first attempt at underwater photography. I did not invest a great deal of money or effort towards that - I already had the camera, I just bought the housing and a couple of very small accessories - no external strobe. I left the camera on the basic "underwater" setting (i.e. the "lazy" or "idiot" setting) and just shot lots and lots of frames. Some of them came out OK (a lot of them didn't). Got some video, too (of varying quality) Considering the minimal effort and money that I invested, I'm pretty satisfied with the results. Some of my better shots can be viewed here: http://www.geoduckmedia.com/travel/Bali_Sulawesi/
Technical details: For those who care, about the underwater photos: Canon PowerShot A620 with the Canon WP-DC90 underwater housing. I used the Canon weights (two of them) to make the camera slightly negatively buoyant (and glad I did). I clipped the housing to my BC. I did minimal post-processing of the photos using Photoshop CS2.
About us: I'd call myself an intermediate (maybe an "advanced intermediate") diver with a basic PADI open water certification. I've probably done about 100-125 dives total (sorry, I don't log them), over the course of nearly 20 years. My diving typically happens in spurts, with (sometimes) long gaps in between trips. I'd say my wife is more of an advanced beginner, with about 40 dives now scattered across maybe 8 years, with the same long gaps in between trips. Prior to this trip, it had been more than 4 years since our last dives. We did a scuba refresher course (in the pool) a few days before we departed. We're pretty casual divers, out there to have fun and see things, not looking to set any records or impress anyone else. We have basic snorkel gear and wetsuits (which we brought along on this trip), but rent BCs and regs at our dive destinations. Previously we've dived Cozumel, Hawaii, and around Thailand.
This was the best diving I have ever done. I know we're completely spoiled now. Oh, well. OK, here's my trip report...
Outbound travel: We had a long string of flights to Bali (Seattle - San Francisco - Hong Kong - Singapore - Denpasar) - it was a long slog (almost 2 days en route) but since the tickets were essentially free (thanks to good use of frequent flyer miles), I can't complain. We arrived in Denpasar in the early evening, and after a variety of minor airport hassles and some complex luggage shuffling (a long story..) we caught a taxi to our hotel. We spent the first night at the Hotel Bali Agung Village in Seminyak (near but not in Kuta). We have absolutely no interest in the night life and party atmosphere of Kuta, so all we wanted was a good night's sleep before heading away the next morning. The hotel was OK but not great (I wouldn't call our room 100% clean), but it was adequate for 1 night and the price was reasonable.
We spent the next 4 days at the Mimpi Resort in Menjangen. The next morning our driver from the Mimpi picked us up at our hotel in Seminyak as requested. It was about a 4-hour drive. We went up through pleasant scenery in the mountains as we crossed to the north side of the island. We stopped a few times enroute to do some quick sight-seeing (waterfalls, mountain lakes, etc.). We arrived at the Mimpi Menjangen late in the afternoon.
About the resort: we completely fell in love with this place and want to go back. It was about as nice a place as I can ever imagine - and the diving was great, too. We had booked a standard "courtyard" room, and that was delightful. The grounds were just beautiful, manicured and flawless, with two cold water swimming pools and several natural hot-springs pools; one swimming pool and 3 of the hot-springs pools were perched right on the edge of the bay - really beautiful. The hotel was not very full when we were there (I'd guess maybe 50% full). The staff was friendly and incredibly attentive. Because of a minor issue with our room the first night, the staff upgraded us to a nicer room for the next few nights - with a private, stone hot-spring soaking tub. It was blissful, and we didn't want to leave. The food in the restaurant was fine. Not exactly 5-star but not bad, either, especially considering the isolated location. Top-notch service everywhere. OK, about the diving...
The hotel has its own dive shop on the premises, and I thought they were pretty good. Diving was done from small wooden "panga"-style boats, which were adequate but not fancy at all. There was some shade on the boats (important to me - I burn easily), a cooler with water and soft drinks (usually not very cold). Typically about 4-6 divers per boat, sometimes up to maybe 8 but no crowded boats. Maybe this was a function of the time of year - everyone kept telling us it was high season, but it sure didn't seem very crowded to us. Rental gear was OK - not brand new, but not all beat up either. Usually one dive guide for every 2-4 divers. Dive guides gave a cursory pre-trip briefing that was pretty short on details and appeared to sometimes be short on any real planning (this was probably one of the few criticisms I would make of their operation).
Divemasters were mostly local guys, so there were some language issues - English was the language used by (almost) all, and the dive guide's English was not always great. Clientele was mostly European and Japanese (we were the only Americans we saw there). The hotel gets a lot of Japanese visitors, the natural hot springs being a big draw for them (I can see why - it was great!). There was one Japanese divemaster, who was typically assigned to the boat with the Japanese divers. When all the Japanese guests had departed (our last day there) we dove with her, and the briefing and dive seemed much better organized. All dives were all done at sights around Menjangen Island, about 20-40 minutes away by boat (depending on the location, boat and conditions). I would say that the viz at all the sights was very good - consistently 60-80 feet. Most places the reef seemed very healthy, although occasionally you would see an area that looked damaged or dead. There was plenty of marine life. We saw lots of small fish, one reef shark, nudibranches all over the place, scorpionfish, lots of lionfish, many garden eels, and a variety of critters. the marine environment seemed very healthy.
Surface intervals were a bit of a disappointment. All were done on Menjangen Island. Typically the boats would just drop you on the island and you were given a box lunch, and left (divemasters disappeared or went back on the boat). There were two different places where they dropped you, both weren't particularly pleasant: garbage was strewn all over the place, and there were few comfortable places to sit in the shade. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't on a par with the rest of the experiences. I wish the local dive operators would take the initiative to help clean up the island and educate everyone to the necessity of not trashing the place.
After 4 days at Menjangen, it was time for us to head east to Tulamben - although it was hard to leave...we really loved the place. The Mimpi driver (same one who brought us there) drove us to the Mimpi Tulamben, about 3 hours away. We arrived at Tulamben around sunset. We had been scheduled to do a night dive that evening, and I was tired but we were only planning one night and one day there, and my wife insisted, so we dumped our bags in our room and grabbed our gear.
The night dive was kind of a minor fiasco - we stumbled down the beach (the beach is rocks, and difficult to walk on even in the best of conditions, and it was dark, we had tanks on our backs, and there were waves). Once in the water I was having trouble with my mask fogging up very badly. The rental light I had been given was really dim and barely usable. I couldn't see much other than follow the lights of my wife and the DM leading us. I did see a few interesting critters - some lobsters, crabs and a skate - but mostly was just waiting for the dive to end. The DM found one very interesting item: a Spanish dancer (although it wasn't in the mood to dance much). OK, that was cool. Other than that, I would probably have enjoyed the time more having a beer at dinner. Oh, yeah: there was bioluminescence in the water: turn off your light, swish your hand back and forth, and watch all the little lights. I hadn't seen that in years, so thought it was cool.
Our room (a basic, "patio" room) was OK but was most definitely a real step down from the accommodations at Menjangen. Staff at the resort and dive shop were nice, friendly and helpful. Food at the restaurant was fine - maybe a bit better than at Menjangen (perhaps because they're less isolated and have more competition?).
The next day we had two dives scheduled: first, an early morning dive on the Liberty ship wreck. Our hope was to beat the crowds there and I think we mostly succeeded - there were a handful of other divers in the water with us, but I wouldn't call it crowded with other divers (crowded with fish, yes - but no complaints about that!). This was one of the more memorable dives on the trip (and that's saying something). The wreck itself was pretty cool, all encrusted with coral and other critters, with big swim-throughs and large, gaping holes. But the dense schools of big fish were the real hits for us - there are a LOT of fish around there. I got to sit inside a couple of giant, swirling clouds of fish - a unique experience when you're surrounded by so many fish you can't see any water between them. Very, very cool. The second dive of the day was on their drop-off, and there were lots of fish on that, too. If I had it do it over again, I would probably have done both dives on the wreck - it was that good.
All the dives here were shore dives - from that rocky "beach" that made just walking on it (without any gear) a challenge. The entry point for the Liberty wreck is about 1/4 mile down the beach from the hotel. Fortunately, there are "helpers" who carry your tanks for you: little old ladies (about 4' 11" tall, and small in stature) who balance one or two(!) tanks on their heads and then carry them down the rocky beach for you. Pretty humbling to watch them as we stumbled along behind them just trying to walk while holding our snorkeling gear. Oh well, I figure they're professionals.
That afternoon we checked out and our driver took us to our next stop: Candidasa. It was about an hour drive. Next time we'll stay longer in Tulamben.
Our plan was to move to someplace along the eastern shore of Bali and use that as a base for a couple days of diving Nusa Penida, in hopes of seeing mola molas. I had picked out a resort at Candidasa, which seemed like a good place to use for the day trips across to Nusa Penida. It was OK, but the accommodations weren't quite what I had expected. We stayed at the Bali Shangrila Beach Club, which turned out to be a sort of condo-resort place with a largely Australian/New Zealander ownership and clientele. It was comfortable enough (and the food as quite good) but it was a bit too "programmed" for my tastes - the rooms are all clustered around the (small) central courtyard with pool and restaurant, and they had some sort of live music and/or other activities in the restaurant every night, which I wasn't really in the mood for.
The next day we were scheduled to dive Nusa Penida with Aquamarine Divers. The goal, of course, was to see mola molas, which all indications seemed to suggest was likely: we were there at the optimal time (or so everyone said) and Nusa Penida is the most reliable place to see them. So I built in 1-2 days into our dive schedule for mola molas. I know that there's no guarantee with nature, so I figured we would dive the first day in hopes of seeing them. If the Mola molas were a no-show the first day, we could try again the next day. But if we were lucky and we saw the mola molas on the first day, we might be ready for a break from the diving at that point - we would had been on Bali for almost a week at that point and had been diving 2-3 times every day (after a grueling series of flights from the US) and had done nothing else, so I figured we might be ready to give the diving a rest and do some topside activities.
...continued in next post...
Disclaimer 1: This is my first-ever trip report (here or anywhere else), so I hope I get all the protocols right - my apologies if everything isn't perfect
. I made heavy use of the forums here during the planning for our trip, and I'm very grateful to those who answered all my questions and provided their own feedback - that definitely helped a lot, and was one of the reasons why we had a great trip. I hope the info here in this report helps others.Disclaimer 2: This was my first attempt at underwater photography. I did not invest a great deal of money or effort towards that - I already had the camera, I just bought the housing and a couple of very small accessories - no external strobe. I left the camera on the basic "underwater" setting (i.e. the "lazy" or "idiot" setting) and just shot lots and lots of frames. Some of them came out OK (a lot of them didn't). Got some video, too (of varying quality) Considering the minimal effort and money that I invested, I'm pretty satisfied with the results. Some of my better shots can be viewed here: http://www.geoduckmedia.com/travel/Bali_Sulawesi/
Technical details: For those who care, about the underwater photos: Canon PowerShot A620 with the Canon WP-DC90 underwater housing. I used the Canon weights (two of them) to make the camera slightly negatively buoyant (and glad I did). I clipped the housing to my BC. I did minimal post-processing of the photos using Photoshop CS2.
About us: I'd call myself an intermediate (maybe an "advanced intermediate") diver with a basic PADI open water certification. I've probably done about 100-125 dives total (sorry, I don't log them), over the course of nearly 20 years. My diving typically happens in spurts, with (sometimes) long gaps in between trips. I'd say my wife is more of an advanced beginner, with about 40 dives now scattered across maybe 8 years, with the same long gaps in between trips. Prior to this trip, it had been more than 4 years since our last dives. We did a scuba refresher course (in the pool) a few days before we departed. We're pretty casual divers, out there to have fun and see things, not looking to set any records or impress anyone else. We have basic snorkel gear and wetsuits (which we brought along on this trip), but rent BCs and regs at our dive destinations. Previously we've dived Cozumel, Hawaii, and around Thailand.
This was the best diving I have ever done. I know we're completely spoiled now. Oh, well. OK, here's my trip report...
Outbound travel: We had a long string of flights to Bali (Seattle - San Francisco - Hong Kong - Singapore - Denpasar) - it was a long slog (almost 2 days en route) but since the tickets were essentially free (thanks to good use of frequent flyer miles), I can't complain. We arrived in Denpasar in the early evening, and after a variety of minor airport hassles and some complex luggage shuffling (a long story..) we caught a taxi to our hotel. We spent the first night at the Hotel Bali Agung Village in Seminyak (near but not in Kuta). We have absolutely no interest in the night life and party atmosphere of Kuta, so all we wanted was a good night's sleep before heading away the next morning. The hotel was OK but not great (I wouldn't call our room 100% clean), but it was adequate for 1 night and the price was reasonable.
We spent the next 4 days at the Mimpi Resort in Menjangen. The next morning our driver from the Mimpi picked us up at our hotel in Seminyak as requested. It was about a 4-hour drive. We went up through pleasant scenery in the mountains as we crossed to the north side of the island. We stopped a few times enroute to do some quick sight-seeing (waterfalls, mountain lakes, etc.). We arrived at the Mimpi Menjangen late in the afternoon.
About the resort: we completely fell in love with this place and want to go back. It was about as nice a place as I can ever imagine - and the diving was great, too. We had booked a standard "courtyard" room, and that was delightful. The grounds were just beautiful, manicured and flawless, with two cold water swimming pools and several natural hot-springs pools; one swimming pool and 3 of the hot-springs pools were perched right on the edge of the bay - really beautiful. The hotel was not very full when we were there (I'd guess maybe 50% full). The staff was friendly and incredibly attentive. Because of a minor issue with our room the first night, the staff upgraded us to a nicer room for the next few nights - with a private, stone hot-spring soaking tub. It was blissful, and we didn't want to leave. The food in the restaurant was fine. Not exactly 5-star but not bad, either, especially considering the isolated location. Top-notch service everywhere. OK, about the diving...
The hotel has its own dive shop on the premises, and I thought they were pretty good. Diving was done from small wooden "panga"-style boats, which were adequate but not fancy at all. There was some shade on the boats (important to me - I burn easily), a cooler with water and soft drinks (usually not very cold). Typically about 4-6 divers per boat, sometimes up to maybe 8 but no crowded boats. Maybe this was a function of the time of year - everyone kept telling us it was high season, but it sure didn't seem very crowded to us. Rental gear was OK - not brand new, but not all beat up either. Usually one dive guide for every 2-4 divers. Dive guides gave a cursory pre-trip briefing that was pretty short on details and appeared to sometimes be short on any real planning (this was probably one of the few criticisms I would make of their operation).
Divemasters were mostly local guys, so there were some language issues - English was the language used by (almost) all, and the dive guide's English was not always great. Clientele was mostly European and Japanese (we were the only Americans we saw there). The hotel gets a lot of Japanese visitors, the natural hot springs being a big draw for them (I can see why - it was great!). There was one Japanese divemaster, who was typically assigned to the boat with the Japanese divers. When all the Japanese guests had departed (our last day there) we dove with her, and the briefing and dive seemed much better organized. All dives were all done at sights around Menjangen Island, about 20-40 minutes away by boat (depending on the location, boat and conditions). I would say that the viz at all the sights was very good - consistently 60-80 feet. Most places the reef seemed very healthy, although occasionally you would see an area that looked damaged or dead. There was plenty of marine life. We saw lots of small fish, one reef shark, nudibranches all over the place, scorpionfish, lots of lionfish, many garden eels, and a variety of critters. the marine environment seemed very healthy.
Surface intervals were a bit of a disappointment. All were done on Menjangen Island. Typically the boats would just drop you on the island and you were given a box lunch, and left (divemasters disappeared or went back on the boat). There were two different places where they dropped you, both weren't particularly pleasant: garbage was strewn all over the place, and there were few comfortable places to sit in the shade. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't on a par with the rest of the experiences. I wish the local dive operators would take the initiative to help clean up the island and educate everyone to the necessity of not trashing the place.
After 4 days at Menjangen, it was time for us to head east to Tulamben - although it was hard to leave...we really loved the place. The Mimpi driver (same one who brought us there) drove us to the Mimpi Tulamben, about 3 hours away. We arrived at Tulamben around sunset. We had been scheduled to do a night dive that evening, and I was tired but we were only planning one night and one day there, and my wife insisted, so we dumped our bags in our room and grabbed our gear.
The night dive was kind of a minor fiasco - we stumbled down the beach (the beach is rocks, and difficult to walk on even in the best of conditions, and it was dark, we had tanks on our backs, and there were waves). Once in the water I was having trouble with my mask fogging up very badly. The rental light I had been given was really dim and barely usable. I couldn't see much other than follow the lights of my wife and the DM leading us. I did see a few interesting critters - some lobsters, crabs and a skate - but mostly was just waiting for the dive to end. The DM found one very interesting item: a Spanish dancer (although it wasn't in the mood to dance much). OK, that was cool. Other than that, I would probably have enjoyed the time more having a beer at dinner. Oh, yeah: there was bioluminescence in the water: turn off your light, swish your hand back and forth, and watch all the little lights. I hadn't seen that in years, so thought it was cool.
Our room (a basic, "patio" room) was OK but was most definitely a real step down from the accommodations at Menjangen. Staff at the resort and dive shop were nice, friendly and helpful. Food at the restaurant was fine - maybe a bit better than at Menjangen (perhaps because they're less isolated and have more competition?).
The next day we had two dives scheduled: first, an early morning dive on the Liberty ship wreck. Our hope was to beat the crowds there and I think we mostly succeeded - there were a handful of other divers in the water with us, but I wouldn't call it crowded with other divers (crowded with fish, yes - but no complaints about that!). This was one of the more memorable dives on the trip (and that's saying something). The wreck itself was pretty cool, all encrusted with coral and other critters, with big swim-throughs and large, gaping holes. But the dense schools of big fish were the real hits for us - there are a LOT of fish around there. I got to sit inside a couple of giant, swirling clouds of fish - a unique experience when you're surrounded by so many fish you can't see any water between them. Very, very cool. The second dive of the day was on their drop-off, and there were lots of fish on that, too. If I had it do it over again, I would probably have done both dives on the wreck - it was that good.
All the dives here were shore dives - from that rocky "beach" that made just walking on it (without any gear) a challenge. The entry point for the Liberty wreck is about 1/4 mile down the beach from the hotel. Fortunately, there are "helpers" who carry your tanks for you: little old ladies (about 4' 11" tall, and small in stature) who balance one or two(!) tanks on their heads and then carry them down the rocky beach for you. Pretty humbling to watch them as we stumbled along behind them just trying to walk while holding our snorkeling gear. Oh well, I figure they're professionals.
That afternoon we checked out and our driver took us to our next stop: Candidasa. It was about an hour drive. Next time we'll stay longer in Tulamben.
Our plan was to move to someplace along the eastern shore of Bali and use that as a base for a couple days of diving Nusa Penida, in hopes of seeing mola molas. I had picked out a resort at Candidasa, which seemed like a good place to use for the day trips across to Nusa Penida. It was OK, but the accommodations weren't quite what I had expected. We stayed at the Bali Shangrila Beach Club, which turned out to be a sort of condo-resort place with a largely Australian/New Zealander ownership and clientele. It was comfortable enough (and the food as quite good) but it was a bit too "programmed" for my tastes - the rooms are all clustered around the (small) central courtyard with pool and restaurant, and they had some sort of live music and/or other activities in the restaurant every night, which I wasn't really in the mood for.
The next day we were scheduled to dive Nusa Penida with Aquamarine Divers. The goal, of course, was to see mola molas, which all indications seemed to suggest was likely: we were there at the optimal time (or so everyone said) and Nusa Penida is the most reliable place to see them. So I built in 1-2 days into our dive schedule for mola molas. I know that there's no guarantee with nature, so I figured we would dive the first day in hopes of seeing them. If the Mola molas were a no-show the first day, we could try again the next day. But if we were lucky and we saw the mola molas on the first day, we might be ready for a break from the diving at that point - we would had been on Bali for almost a week at that point and had been diving 2-3 times every day (after a grueling series of flights from the US) and had done nothing else, so I figured we might be ready to give the diving a rest and do some topside activities.
...continued in next post...
