Sideways
Contributor
PART 1
FINALLY! Some free time to sit down and try to recap a fantastic trip, before my "Oldtimers" sets in and I forget all the details. We had planned this trip initially for last October, unfortunately because of circumstances beyond our control, we had to postpone until April. It's funny that after almost 2 whole years of planning, it still seemed like we were being rushed at the end and not quite ready when the day finally arrived. This was our first trip to Indonesia, and to say we were excited is a massive understatement. The itinerary was..... 7 days in Candidasa, 3 in Talumben, 10 in Wakatobi, then the last 5 in Kuta. I'll try not to drag the report out too much, and believe me...there is PLENTY of diving to come!
Travel Day - Ahhhh…the long, dreaded travel day begins! I know folks who make these 20+ hour excursions effortlessly and without stress. I wish I knew their secret! Our flight left Los Angeles around midnight. The biggest hurdle for me to surpass is the ticket counter and carryon luggage dilema. I knew that the potential was high for them to enforce the strict carry on weight policy. Being a Underwater photographer AND videographer makes it doublely tough to get all the big money items into carryon's. This was my solution on this trip…
My Carryon - My soft sided padded cooler , which I use to carry my DSLR in the housing with dome port, all assembled. This came it just under the regulatory weight of 15 lbs. The cooler doubles as a rinse tank after dives too
My Personal item - Small back pack with HD vid camera in housing (wrapped in our Bali change of clothes…LOL), just in under 15lbs
Wife's carry on - 13" macbook, 2x YS-110 strobes for DSLR, regulators and dive computers, just under 15 lbs
Wife's purse - 4 lenses for DSLR, 3 SOLA video lights, right under 13 lbs.
A new addition for this trip was a Scotte Vest. These vests are just awesome for travel. If need be, I was ready and able to put the macbook in the back pocket of the vest.
In my vest I had…
Phone
Ipod & earbuds
Ipad
Sunglasses
Glasses
Passports
$$$
Bose NC headphones
Travel documents
And tons of other small items like aspirin, chapstick, etc…..
Sure enough, when arriving at the ticket counter, we were instructed to weigh our 2 main carryon's. We passed with flying colors! After the ticket counter we stepped into the bar for a preflight libation, and to redistribute our gear before the security checkpoint. All the stuff in the wife's purse and everything from the vest except the passport/$$$/Tix billfold, went into the other carryon's. I LOVE the vest! Even for regular travel with out all the camera gear, it comes in so handy. Security checkpoint? No problem, take the vest off with everything zipped in pockets safe and throw it in a bin.
The flight wasn't too bad. We flew to Thailand a few years ago and discovered EVA airlines. A friend told us about them and their Evergreen club. You sign up for free then buy their "Elite" tickets. For the Thailand trip the tickets were about $100 more each, for close to business class seats. Very nice seats with pop up leg rests, more recline and overall much roomier. After a 4 hour layover in Taiwan, we boarded the 2nd flight, 5 hours to Bali. Upon our arrival at Denpasar we got our first taste of Wakatobi Dive Resort's spectacular service. When arriving in the immigrations section, the cue was PACKED. A Wakatobi rep was there holding a sign with our name. He asked for our passports and the $25 each for visas and told us to wait. He returned after less than 5 mins and then escorted us to the luggage carousel. We got our luggage and he took us straight to the front of the line for customs and walked us through. We spent no more than 15 mins in the airport, the cue we saw folks waiting in had to be at the very least 30 mins long in immigration. What a perk!! He then led us outside and straight to our Candidasa hotel driver.
Now begins the final 2.5 hour leg of our travel day, and our first exposure to the infamous Bali traffic. Mind you, we're from LA and we live with traffic, but Bali traffic was sheer mayhem! It took us 1 hour to travel 3-4 kilometers. SO!! After 27 hours, we arrive at the Pondok Bambu Hotel in Candidasa. In this day and age of the internet, trip advisor and such, I really enjoy doing the research and planning. That being said, the only part of this trip I was a little concerned about was Candidasa. There wasn't a whole lot of info and media on Candidasa, so it was a bit of a dicey decision for me. I had to decide between Candidasa and Padang Bai right up the road as to where we stayed. Between the 2, the deciding factor actually came from a dive operator in Padang Bai. His advice was spot on and I appreciate his insight. He could have easily said.."Oh just come here with us!" but he took into consideration our wants and needs and actually recommended we stay and dive in Candidasa. I thank him for his honesty and integrity!
Our first sunrise at the Pondok....yeah...we were wide awake at 4am bouncing offf the walls, our internal clocks all wacked out...
The Pondok Bambu is a seemingly lesser known hotel, not real fancy, but it had decent reviews and feedback. Suffice to say, we were NOT disappointed one bit. Our room was 10 steps from the pool. Our porch view was the pool, and 20 yards beyond that…the ocean. Just an awesome view. The room was big with a HUGE bathroom. Very comfy too! The staff at the Bambu, and really everywhere we stayed in Indonesia, were just fantastic. So genuinely warm and friendly. Right across the street from the Bambu was the Kangaroo Restaurant and Bar (same owner as the Bambu). We stopped in there for our first Indo drinks and a light dinner. During the stay in Candidasa we ended quite a few nights there with a nightcap. Candidasa in general was nicer than I thought it was going to be. It's a very quiet, pretty seaside town. Now, I had read that it was a little…slow as far as nightlife was concerned. That, is an understatement. Most of the places we ate or drank at were about completely empty. The exceptions were Vincent's (on live jazz night) and the Watergarden on one night of the week when a lot of the area expats were there. Now, we're not looking for Studio 54 (oops…dated myself) but we do like a little nightlife.
We purposely planned nothing for the first 2 days, figuring out we might be recovering from the 27 hour travel saga. On the first day we hired a driver right outside the hotel for the day. We hit the white sand beach about 5 KM north of town. We hung there for about 5 hours. There were a bunch of Warung's there for food and drinks. Also renting out chase lounges and umbrellas. Overall the beach was really nice. Our driver hung with us so there was no issue when we were ready to head back to Candidasa. I think we paid him $30 for the day, which in our experience is just a great deal. The next day we booked him again and played tourist for the day. We went to the Tirta Gangga water park and the Taman Ujung water Palace. Both were just gorgeous. We also hit some terraced rice fields, and a local market. Over all it was a very nice day. We had a great lunch at a Tirta Gangga Warung before heading back to Candidasa. This was one of the actual rare instances where we actually did some touristy stuff. Usually it's a case of..."Let's do this" then when the trip is over it's more like "Well....we didn't do that". Overall we were very pleased with the Candidasa "Vibe". On day 3 we headed up to Tulamben for a few days off diving!
Pasir Putih, aka...White Sand Beach (not too be confused with the white sand beach in Padang Bai near Blue Lagoon)
Tirta Gangga water park.....
Taman Ujung water Palace....
Terraced rice fields.....
FINALLY! Some free time to sit down and try to recap a fantastic trip, before my "Oldtimers" sets in and I forget all the details. We had planned this trip initially for last October, unfortunately because of circumstances beyond our control, we had to postpone until April. It's funny that after almost 2 whole years of planning, it still seemed like we were being rushed at the end and not quite ready when the day finally arrived. This was our first trip to Indonesia, and to say we were excited is a massive understatement. The itinerary was..... 7 days in Candidasa, 3 in Talumben, 10 in Wakatobi, then the last 5 in Kuta. I'll try not to drag the report out too much, and believe me...there is PLENTY of diving to come!
Travel Day - Ahhhh…the long, dreaded travel day begins! I know folks who make these 20+ hour excursions effortlessly and without stress. I wish I knew their secret! Our flight left Los Angeles around midnight. The biggest hurdle for me to surpass is the ticket counter and carryon luggage dilema. I knew that the potential was high for them to enforce the strict carry on weight policy. Being a Underwater photographer AND videographer makes it doublely tough to get all the big money items into carryon's. This was my solution on this trip…
My Carryon - My soft sided padded cooler , which I use to carry my DSLR in the housing with dome port, all assembled. This came it just under the regulatory weight of 15 lbs. The cooler doubles as a rinse tank after dives too
My Personal item - Small back pack with HD vid camera in housing (wrapped in our Bali change of clothes…LOL), just in under 15lbs
Wife's carry on - 13" macbook, 2x YS-110 strobes for DSLR, regulators and dive computers, just under 15 lbs
Wife's purse - 4 lenses for DSLR, 3 SOLA video lights, right under 13 lbs.
A new addition for this trip was a Scotte Vest. These vests are just awesome for travel. If need be, I was ready and able to put the macbook in the back pocket of the vest.
In my vest I had…
Phone
Ipod & earbuds
Ipad
Sunglasses
Glasses
Passports
$$$
Bose NC headphones
Travel documents
And tons of other small items like aspirin, chapstick, etc…..
Sure enough, when arriving at the ticket counter, we were instructed to weigh our 2 main carryon's. We passed with flying colors! After the ticket counter we stepped into the bar for a preflight libation, and to redistribute our gear before the security checkpoint. All the stuff in the wife's purse and everything from the vest except the passport/$$$/Tix billfold, went into the other carryon's. I LOVE the vest! Even for regular travel with out all the camera gear, it comes in so handy. Security checkpoint? No problem, take the vest off with everything zipped in pockets safe and throw it in a bin.
The flight wasn't too bad. We flew to Thailand a few years ago and discovered EVA airlines. A friend told us about them and their Evergreen club. You sign up for free then buy their "Elite" tickets. For the Thailand trip the tickets were about $100 more each, for close to business class seats. Very nice seats with pop up leg rests, more recline and overall much roomier. After a 4 hour layover in Taiwan, we boarded the 2nd flight, 5 hours to Bali. Upon our arrival at Denpasar we got our first taste of Wakatobi Dive Resort's spectacular service. When arriving in the immigrations section, the cue was PACKED. A Wakatobi rep was there holding a sign with our name. He asked for our passports and the $25 each for visas and told us to wait. He returned after less than 5 mins and then escorted us to the luggage carousel. We got our luggage and he took us straight to the front of the line for customs and walked us through. We spent no more than 15 mins in the airport, the cue we saw folks waiting in had to be at the very least 30 mins long in immigration. What a perk!! He then led us outside and straight to our Candidasa hotel driver.
Now begins the final 2.5 hour leg of our travel day, and our first exposure to the infamous Bali traffic. Mind you, we're from LA and we live with traffic, but Bali traffic was sheer mayhem! It took us 1 hour to travel 3-4 kilometers. SO!! After 27 hours, we arrive at the Pondok Bambu Hotel in Candidasa. In this day and age of the internet, trip advisor and such, I really enjoy doing the research and planning. That being said, the only part of this trip I was a little concerned about was Candidasa. There wasn't a whole lot of info and media on Candidasa, so it was a bit of a dicey decision for me. I had to decide between Candidasa and Padang Bai right up the road as to where we stayed. Between the 2, the deciding factor actually came from a dive operator in Padang Bai. His advice was spot on and I appreciate his insight. He could have easily said.."Oh just come here with us!" but he took into consideration our wants and needs and actually recommended we stay and dive in Candidasa. I thank him for his honesty and integrity!
Our first sunrise at the Pondok....yeah...we were wide awake at 4am bouncing offf the walls, our internal clocks all wacked out...
The Pondok Bambu is a seemingly lesser known hotel, not real fancy, but it had decent reviews and feedback. Suffice to say, we were NOT disappointed one bit. Our room was 10 steps from the pool. Our porch view was the pool, and 20 yards beyond that…the ocean. Just an awesome view. The room was big with a HUGE bathroom. Very comfy too! The staff at the Bambu, and really everywhere we stayed in Indonesia, were just fantastic. So genuinely warm and friendly. Right across the street from the Bambu was the Kangaroo Restaurant and Bar (same owner as the Bambu). We stopped in there for our first Indo drinks and a light dinner. During the stay in Candidasa we ended quite a few nights there with a nightcap. Candidasa in general was nicer than I thought it was going to be. It's a very quiet, pretty seaside town. Now, I had read that it was a little…slow as far as nightlife was concerned. That, is an understatement. Most of the places we ate or drank at were about completely empty. The exceptions were Vincent's (on live jazz night) and the Watergarden on one night of the week when a lot of the area expats were there. Now, we're not looking for Studio 54 (oops…dated myself) but we do like a little nightlife.
We purposely planned nothing for the first 2 days, figuring out we might be recovering from the 27 hour travel saga. On the first day we hired a driver right outside the hotel for the day. We hit the white sand beach about 5 KM north of town. We hung there for about 5 hours. There were a bunch of Warung's there for food and drinks. Also renting out chase lounges and umbrellas. Overall the beach was really nice. Our driver hung with us so there was no issue when we were ready to head back to Candidasa. I think we paid him $30 for the day, which in our experience is just a great deal. The next day we booked him again and played tourist for the day. We went to the Tirta Gangga water park and the Taman Ujung water Palace. Both were just gorgeous. We also hit some terraced rice fields, and a local market. Over all it was a very nice day. We had a great lunch at a Tirta Gangga Warung before heading back to Candidasa. This was one of the actual rare instances where we actually did some touristy stuff. Usually it's a case of..."Let's do this" then when the trip is over it's more like "Well....we didn't do that". Overall we were very pleased with the Candidasa "Vibe". On day 3 we headed up to Tulamben for a few days off diving!
Pasir Putih, aka...White Sand Beach (not too be confused with the white sand beach in Padang Bai near Blue Lagoon)
Tirta Gangga water park.....
Taman Ujung water Palace....
Terraced rice fields.....