Why Lembeh?

[hedonist222]

1- Ok.
I would state that Lembeh needs a boat to go to the dive spots because :
- half of the dives are on the other side of the strait or around islets.
- there is no road that allows access directly to the dive spots on the same side of the strait.
therefore all dive centers use boats for almost any of their dives, except for their housereef.

On the contrary if you look straight out of Tulamben's shores you will see the island of Lombok in the far distance -whenever the weather is clear- and in the midst there will be the very large Lombok strait which is probably 1500m deep or more, host to one of the wildest currents on the planet called the Great Indonesian Throughflow. This body of water is also called the "Wallace line" (Named after Alfred Wallace, naturalist of the XIXth century who discovered many of the South East Asian animal species) and runs so powerfully that it separates two distinct zoological zones, east and west of the Lombok strait. The idea is that eastern/western animals were stopped by this throughflow and could not get across to progress to further islands, it acts like a limit of their eco-system.

In other words so you won't go far out diving because it's too deep and too currenty.

2- Like wise Bonaire in the Caribbeans, it's easier and cheaper to climb into a car, follow the main road, stop at the dive spot, kit on the shore and go diving, than wait for all divers are ready to get into the boat, ride the boat to a spot located 5 miles away, wait for all divers to be back on the boat, etc.
Hence most of the dive shops don't have any necessity to own a boat to dive Tulamben, they will drive you to the spot whenever a guide and his customer wants to go back or stay on the dive site for another dive, it will be easy to arrange without any inconvenient for the remaining divers. .

Thank you very much for you elaborate response. You, among others, are a lighthouse of knowledge.

Now I'm wondering if that Tulamben suits my diving style.

I like to do 4 dives a day. 3 day & 1 night.
Most other dive centers usually go out by boat for 2, come back for lunch, then go out for the 3rd dive of the day. Then 2-3 hours later we go out for a night dive.

So what's a typical day at Tulamben?

Is surface interval spent on the road after dive 1, on the way to dive 2 ?

Then back for lunch then another drive out?

 

[Luko]

So what's a typical day at Tulamben?

To sum it up, it's the day you'd like you deciding how it should be.
Typically a good dive centre will assign you a guide and as many nitrox tanks as you want per day for 30USD/dive (at least it's how it works with Liberty Dive resort, other SB fellows will elaborate).

YOU decide when the dive starts and where (or you can ask a reco to your guide according to what you'd like to see).
Some people like to do the early morning wreck dive at 6AM to spot the school of bumpheads leaving the Liberty wreck, personally I hate it. I am not a morning guy, my longtime private dive guide neither, that's how we match .
I usually start around 8:30 AM, I get fetched at my hotel or go to the dive centre if you're sttayng on premise, as you wish.
It takes 5mn ride to the dive spot on the platform of a truck where all your stuff await inside a crate box.
Time to kit up, discuss about various things plus dive briefing with your guide, you're into the water at 9AM.
10:20AM or so you're out, either you stay on premise take a local shower, drink some local coffee, eat a snack... or you move to another dive spot where at 11:30AM your guides sets a new tank, time to start the second (or third) morning dive.
At 1PM it's time for lunch, either they drive you back at your place or you go with the diveguide for an indonesian lunch (I like bakso soup with meat balls or the grilled fish, mahi mahi, rainbow runner or tuna with rice, that you order at the local stall on teh dive spot).
2:30 PM it's your afternoon dive back home at 4PM.
Time for 1hr balinese massage (less than 10USD), most important time of the day...
At 6:30PM you smell jasmine massage oil but you're ready for the nightdive which will bring you back to a restaurant around 8:30PM .
I take time to look at my photos from 10PM to 11PM and send 3 or 4 of the most significant ones to my diveguide by messenger. It gives him some ideas for diving the day after as I get his comments in the morning.

Personally I like to do 3 dives per day, no early morning but skipping every other day the afternoon or the night dive.
the night dves are VERY good for macro.

Basically you understand that you taylor each diving day the way you want. The important thing is that you get along well with your guides, so I encourage everybody to discuss and take some time with them, take them for a drink, dinner, etc. Most of them are happy campers.

Sometimes your guide will ask you to arrange for not diving at night or starting late, because they are Balinese hinduists and they have ceremonies (Lembeh guides are mostly christians). Balinese Hinduism have ceremonies for many things on a high frequency, you will discover it's really important for them to attend, so just be flexible with that and everything will be ok.

 

[ChrisM]

Nothing substantive to add but wanted to thank folks for the reference to the Indonesian Throughflow. Had never heard of this before so did a little reading this morning. Fascinating.

 

[hedonist222]

Nothing substantive to add but wanted to thank folks for the reference to the Indonesian Throughflow. Had never heard of this before so did a little reading this morning. Fascinating.

Yes. I'm very grateful for Luko and the others who enlighten us with knowledge. I too enjoyed reading about the throughflow.

So if I'm getting this correctly, most Tulamben dive resorts will assign me a private guide and car.
While this sounds wonderful, it also sounds too good to be true?

 

[Luko]

So if I'm getting this correctly, most Tulamben dive resorts will assign me a private guide and car.
While this sounds wonderful, it also sounds too good to be true?

A good Tulamben resort I know and patronize like LDR will assign you a private guide for yourself (or to you and your partner), and provide a transportation (not a car but certainly a truck where you'll jump on the back platform) to and from the dive sites, truck that you may share or not with a couple of other divers.


And I forgot to mention nitrox for free.

 

[Wisnu]

Typically we (myself and wife) dive tulamben up to 4x per day. Early morning dive not later than 06:30 at wreck or slope, no car needed. The entry point is literally only few steps from the dive center. Note, on our last 4 trip to tulamben, we always stayed and dived with Puri Madha.
Two dive at 09:30 and 13:00 at five site beyond the wreck. Then night diving if we wish.
Typically we drive a rental car from Bali airport.
Many of you might say driving in Bali is insane. Actually not that bad once you know the rythm.
The other reason of having rental car, I don't like and don't want sitting at the back non passenger car, no seat, no seat belt.
Most of Diving operator in Tulamben use mini pickup/truck car to transport divers to dive site beyond the wreck. By law (most if not all don't follow) it is illegal to use this car to carry passenger on the back.
The rental car also give me more flexibility to visit top site attractions on the way or around the area after third dive, as well as to enjoy better restaurant further away for dinner, in case no night dive.

 

[Searcaigh]

For me, I have more control of the dive with shore dives. There is no boat schedule to get back in time so that the boat can go our again on a schedule.

As. I mentioned before, you dive as long as you have gas in your tank within limits, 90 min dives are the norm, you'll never get that on a boat dive.

If you find a critter you want to photograph and miss it one dive, or not get decent shots, it's easier to return and find it again doing shore dives, the guides are in general damn good and of course get rewarded for finding the critters you are looking for.

Last year my favourite site was Bulakan up at Tulumben, loads of sheep nudis and quite a few melibe sp.

Most dive ops have a house reef, great for night dives and then when you're finished for the day no transport needed to get back to the accommodation and you can enjoy a beer whilst de-kitting and rinsing your gear

 

[Laurie S.]

I've been wanting to dive Tulamben, but am wondering if I can do the shore dives. I have difficulties walking with all the gear on me, plus carrying a very large camera rig. Getting out of the water is even worse. Is there help there that would allow me to do this?

 

[Saldiac]

I've been wanting to dive Tulamben, but am wondering if I can do the shore dives. I have difficulties walking with all the gear on me, plus carrying a very large camera rig. Getting out of the water is even worse. Is there help there that would allow me to do this?

The guides in Bali are very accommodating. They'll go out of their way to make things as easy as possible for you. Generally speaking, the dive gear (BCD & tank) is carried to the beach by older ladies and dive guides can help carry it into the water.

 

[hedonist222]

For me, I have more control of the dive with shore dives. There is no boat schedule to get back in time so that the boat can go our again on a schedule.

As. I mentioned before, you dive as long as you have gas in your tank within limits, 90 min dives are the norm, you'll never get that on a boat dive.

If you find a critter you want to photograph and miss it one dive, or not get decent shots, it's easier to return and find it again doing shore dives, the guides are in general damn good and of course get rewarded for finding the critters you are looking for.

Last year my favourite site was Bulakan up at Tulumben, loads of sheep nudis and quite a few melibe sp.

Most dive ops have a house reef, great for night dives and then when you're finished for the day no transport needed to get back to the accommodation and you can enjoy a beer whilst de-kitting and rinsing your gear

Inspiring because 90 minute dives do sound very nice.