Blogs from Pemuteran, Bali, Indonesia, Asia

Different fields, different grasshoppers; different seas, different fish… ~ Indonesian Proverb HE SAID... Today we were travelling east from Ketapang (Java) to Pemuteran (Bali)– by road and ferry. Locations > Ketapang is a seaport on the eastern coastline of Java > Gilimanuk is a seaport on the western coastline of Bali > Pemuteran (our destination) is a fishing village located on the northwestern coastline of Bali. Transport We arrived at Ketapang’s ferry terminal in the early afternoon. The place was deserted. We breezed through security and didn’t need to show our passports. We were, after all, travelling between two Indonesian islands. We boarded a small ferry via a narrow metal walkway. It was fairly basic. We walked into the bowels of the ferry, climbed a set of steep narrow stairs and entered an open (but covered) ... read more

We spent a few nights on the north coast of Bali, which was much quieter than what I remembered from other parts of the island.... read more

We hired a taxi for the scenic three hour drive from Ubud, over a high mountain range, to our destination of Pemuteran, on Bali's northern coast, where diving at numerous beautiful dive sites is the primary tourist activity. Pemuteran is very quiet, with a few excellent restaurants and only one live acoustic music venue every Friday night at Joe's Bar. Fortunately, we arrived on a Friday afternoon, and were informed of the Friday night action shortly after by our hotel management, Amanda Spencer, who is a devoted Friday night local live music supporter. We unpacked, rested a bit, and shortly after found ourselves at Joe's bar. Well it wasn't long after listening to the band do a soundcheck jam of classic 70's American folk rock tunes that I was could not resist joining them. I was ... read more

On our sixth day we headed north-west from Benoa to Pemuteran via Pura Tanah Lot Temple on the west coast. We knew the drive would be quite hilly and take around 4 hours so we wanted to go with a driver we trusted. A friend back home had recommended Ketut to me (Facebook ‘Zoe Diex’ – because there’s a million Ketuts!). Ketut was very friendly, spoke great English and took us to heaps of hidden local gems. We would recommend him without hesitation. There was an entrance cost of $7AU (70,000IDR) at Tanah Lot, the traditional Balinese temple located on a small, rocky island. On the walk down we stopped for local gelato for $2AU (20,000IDR) but also spotted fresh coconuts and satay stalls. We enjoyed our time at Tanah Lot but felt it was fairly ... read more

I have 6349 images taken in 84 dives in Bali 2013. 2953 of them are already marked as Rejected ready to be deleted when I am in a cleaning mood. I learn to wait a a few weeks and keep them in the freezer in case I change my mind. 2599 I haven’t looked at because they are mostly boring. I have flagged only 88 to look at and only 4 that I am really happy with so far. My first night at the airport in Taiwan I was playing taking photos of my computer screen at low light and I set my ISo at 3200. Then I did about 30 dives with my camera like that. A complete Amateur mistake. Unforgettable! I was concentrated in playing with snoots and finding a hairy shrimp and doing ... read more