A very enjoyable three days of diving with World-Diving on August 23-25, 2010.
DIVE SITES
Manta Point (August 23rd) - Not much coral, a lot of big rocks, and the mantas are the highlight -- we saw three mantas and also spotted a couple of octopi. An easy shallow dive site, and possibly a very crowded one; there was one boat at the site when we arrived and entered the water, and about ten boats when we surfaced.
Crystal Bay (August 23rd) - The preferred Mola Mola sighting spot, and we had a nice long view of a very large one at a cleaning station maybe thirty feet from the edge of the dropoff at about 80 feet depth. We were the only divers there, no one attacked the fish so it stayed where it was, and thus we had a really long and wonderful view. The coral area in the flats of the bay is a delight. This was a much, much nicer memory of Crystal Bay than my visit there in 2008, and that was due largely, I think, to diving with World-Diving.
Blue Corner (August 24th) - Nice gradual drop off with a lot of current. Spotted eagle rays, marble rays (one very large) and a turtle; another diver saw a whitetip "in the blue", but I did not. Tricky current because we started a drift dive to the west, and ended up drifting back to the east! Very nice dive.
Mangrove (August 24th) - Nice shallow dive, that finished with two scorpionish laying side-by-side in the sand.
Toyapakeh Wall (August 25th) - sloping wall on the Nusa Penide side of the channel between Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan, with nice coral and a lot of the usual reef fish, that also featured a mola mola -- the DM said that it was unusual to spot one here. This is a drift dive where we started drifting toward Crystal Bay but reversed direction when the current seemed to change. Chilly thermoclines in spots.
Ceningan Wall (August 25th) - another sloping wall with a severe drop-off on the Lemongan side of the channel between it and Nusa Penida. Nice coral, the usual reef fish and nudis, and -- yes, -- another mola mola swimming by. The DM said you rarely see mola mola on this dive. Not nearly as chilly as the dive on the other side of the channel -- I have no idea why!
DIVE OPERATION. I cannot say enough nice things about Sue Beebe, John and World-Diving. Sue was incredibly helpful in arranging (and rearranging) my Bali hotel, and in generally helping me with the myriad of little details and problems that occur during foreign travel, both on and off of Lembongan, and the dive op itself is first-class.
I was very impressed with World-Diving, and that feeling was echoed by all of the other divers whom I met. It is very safety-conscious, with a DM for every three or four divers. It tries to place each diver into a dive group with others of a similar experience level. The divemasters whom I had (the brothers Wayan and Nyoman, the latter I have christened 'king of the mola mola') were just great, both attentive and aware of the divers in their group, and good at spotting items/fish of interest). SI includes fruit, drinks, and an Indonesia snack bit.
The op uses several dive boats. I was on the "speed boat" which holds maybe four or five divers. It's a bit crowded when gearing up or changing tanks, but not too bothersome. No fresh-water tank for cameras. The boat is shaded.
Dive days begin about 7:30 when folks gather at the dive shop, but we didn't leave until 8AM or so. We did two dives per day, which seems to be the usual. I didn't approach Sue or John about third or fourth dives, and don't know if those are available; it may be that currents get worse in the afternoon, and thus limit diving.
ACCOMMODATIONS, NON-DIVING ACTIVITIES AND GETTING THERE. Pondok Baruna, where World Diving is located. One of the garden-complex rooms. These rooms are new, nicely decorated, and have a/c; all-in-all, very pleasant, with the only "negative" being a couple of power outages when whole island's electrical source from Nusa Penida went down. Nice pool in the center of the garden complex. There are some rooms with ocean view, but I'm not sure if they have a/c or not -- I looked into one, and it did not seem as nice as the one that I had. The hotel restaurant is okay and reasonably priced; the staff is helpful.
I'm not sure about the extent of the island's non-diving activities, but believe that you'd likely need a bike or motorbike to do much exploring.
My Bali hotel was Diwangkara, at the edge of the Sanur Beach area. Room was fine, though you should get one that does NOT back up to the Grand Bali Beach Hotel employee/whatever parking lot. Restaurant was good and reasonably priced.
I took the Lucky fast boat from a place on Sanur Beach that was perhaps 100 yards from my hotel's beach access spot. Costs about $45, and is much faster than the public ferry.
In summary, I had a nice visit and found that staying on Lembongan is an excellent alternative to staying in Bali and day-tripping to Lembongan and/or Nusa Penida.
DIVE SITES
Manta Point (August 23rd) - Not much coral, a lot of big rocks, and the mantas are the highlight -- we saw three mantas and also spotted a couple of octopi. An easy shallow dive site, and possibly a very crowded one; there was one boat at the site when we arrived and entered the water, and about ten boats when we surfaced.
Crystal Bay (August 23rd) - The preferred Mola Mola sighting spot, and we had a nice long view of a very large one at a cleaning station maybe thirty feet from the edge of the dropoff at about 80 feet depth. We were the only divers there, no one attacked the fish so it stayed where it was, and thus we had a really long and wonderful view. The coral area in the flats of the bay is a delight. This was a much, much nicer memory of Crystal Bay than my visit there in 2008, and that was due largely, I think, to diving with World-Diving.
Blue Corner (August 24th) - Nice gradual drop off with a lot of current. Spotted eagle rays, marble rays (one very large) and a turtle; another diver saw a whitetip "in the blue", but I did not. Tricky current because we started a drift dive to the west, and ended up drifting back to the east! Very nice dive.
Mangrove (August 24th) - Nice shallow dive, that finished with two scorpionish laying side-by-side in the sand.
Toyapakeh Wall (August 25th) - sloping wall on the Nusa Penide side of the channel between Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan, with nice coral and a lot of the usual reef fish, that also featured a mola mola -- the DM said that it was unusual to spot one here. This is a drift dive where we started drifting toward Crystal Bay but reversed direction when the current seemed to change. Chilly thermoclines in spots.
Ceningan Wall (August 25th) - another sloping wall with a severe drop-off on the Lemongan side of the channel between it and Nusa Penida. Nice coral, the usual reef fish and nudis, and -- yes, -- another mola mola swimming by. The DM said you rarely see mola mola on this dive. Not nearly as chilly as the dive on the other side of the channel -- I have no idea why!
DIVE OPERATION. I cannot say enough nice things about Sue Beebe, John and World-Diving. Sue was incredibly helpful in arranging (and rearranging) my Bali hotel, and in generally helping me with the myriad of little details and problems that occur during foreign travel, both on and off of Lembongan, and the dive op itself is first-class.
I was very impressed with World-Diving, and that feeling was echoed by all of the other divers whom I met. It is very safety-conscious, with a DM for every three or four divers. It tries to place each diver into a dive group with others of a similar experience level. The divemasters whom I had (the brothers Wayan and Nyoman, the latter I have christened 'king of the mola mola') were just great, both attentive and aware of the divers in their group, and good at spotting items/fish of interest). SI includes fruit, drinks, and an Indonesia snack bit.
The op uses several dive boats. I was on the "speed boat" which holds maybe four or five divers. It's a bit crowded when gearing up or changing tanks, but not too bothersome. No fresh-water tank for cameras. The boat is shaded.
Dive days begin about 7:30 when folks gather at the dive shop, but we didn't leave until 8AM or so. We did two dives per day, which seems to be the usual. I didn't approach Sue or John about third or fourth dives, and don't know if those are available; it may be that currents get worse in the afternoon, and thus limit diving.
ACCOMMODATIONS, NON-DIVING ACTIVITIES AND GETTING THERE. Pondok Baruna, where World Diving is located. One of the garden-complex rooms. These rooms are new, nicely decorated, and have a/c; all-in-all, very pleasant, with the only "negative" being a couple of power outages when whole island's electrical source from Nusa Penida went down. Nice pool in the center of the garden complex. There are some rooms with ocean view, but I'm not sure if they have a/c or not -- I looked into one, and it did not seem as nice as the one that I had. The hotel restaurant is okay and reasonably priced; the staff is helpful.
I'm not sure about the extent of the island's non-diving activities, but believe that you'd likely need a bike or motorbike to do much exploring.
My Bali hotel was Diwangkara, at the edge of the Sanur Beach area. Room was fine, though you should get one that does NOT back up to the Grand Bali Beach Hotel employee/whatever parking lot. Restaurant was good and reasonably priced.
I took the Lucky fast boat from a place on Sanur Beach that was perhaps 100 yards from my hotel's beach access spot. Costs about $45, and is much faster than the public ferry.
In summary, I had a nice visit and found that staying on Lembongan is an excellent alternative to staying in Bali and day-tripping to Lembongan and/or Nusa Penida.
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