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Published: August 31st 2007
Mount Agung.
As viewed from our beach, the tallest mountain on Bali and a live volcano!Although it is only two weeks since our last published blog it is in fact a month in real time since we were in Sabah. That time has been spent on the wonderful island of Bali. Our time in Bali was split across three parts of the island and as such we will devote a blog to each one.
The first of these three areas was a small fishing village called Amed on Bali's north east coast. We picked this village due to the fact that the area has some great dive sites and we intended to do our PADI Open Water course.
Due to the lack of development (a good thing!!) there are just half a dozen small bungalow sites to stay in. We had booked ahead on a recommendation from Matt and Nicole but upon arriving the room we had booked had been allocated to somebody else so we received a free upgrade to the "The Honeymoon suite" however if it had been our honeymoon we would have been a bit disappointed. That said the room was very nice and even had a 4 posted bed!
Following another recommendation we booked our PADI course with Jukung
Dive, a Dutch run outfit. The first day began with the slightly boring classroom activities of DVD watching and small tests. However, half way through lunch our English instructor made a sharp exit and threw up on the road outside!!! The following day we received our new instructor and began our pool exercises with all the dive gear on. Our change of instructor turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the new one (he was Balinese) was far more confident and enthusiastic.
After completing our pool exercises we were let loose in the ocean on day 3! We completed two dives on Amed Walls 1 and 2. When we took our first underwater breaths it felt amazing, if a little weird! I had to take it slow at first as one of my ears wouldn't equalise but once it cleared I was OK and managed to descend to 9 metres where the sights were quite incredible. By this point Jason was gallivanting around the reef chasing all the fish! Among the many things we saw were sponge corals, fan corals, Angel fish, Lion fish, Scorpion Fish, Nemo's, Tuna, Sand Eels and many other weird and wonderful fish.
The jewel in the crown was on the final day when we dived the Tulamben Wreck, a WW II American transport ship, the USST Liberty. The boat was beached in WW II however a volcanic eruption in 1963 lead to it sliding into the sea. The wreck depth begins at just 4 metres and descends to 28 metres. We descended to 19 metres which enabled us to see an extraordinary amount of marine life as well as the wreck itself. We weaved in and out of the huge wreck surrounded at all times by thousands of fish, some curious and others skittish.
All that was left was to pass the final exam, which we did!! We are now qualified PADI Open Water Divers.
With our final day in Amed we visited Lempuyang Temple, the East of Bali's four key temples. The temple was split between three sites at various heights on Lempuyang Mountain. This involved climbing 1700 steps with each temple being less impressive than the last!! Although this was partly due to the thick fog surrounding the mountain that day.
From here we decided to head inland to the cultural capital of Bali, Ubud, where
we will spend one week absorbing all things arty and crafty!!
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Nick Moss
non-member comment
wish you were here
Nice to see the beard is back. Take take it the food is good over there?