Blogs from Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia, Asia

I've talked about flashpacking in previous blogs, meaning that you travel around with a backpack pretending to be a proper backpacker, but you actually sneakily stay in pretty nice places, not roughing it at all. In my heart, I'm a backpacker and not a flashpacker. I really dislike big commercial hotels, instead preferring smaller locally owned places. With little kids in tow, it's sometimes easier to give in to flashpacker-dom, and other times it just happens because of a dumb (and expensive) mistake. I'm going to tell you about two back-to-back flashpacker experiences we had recently. Flashpacking in Tulamben Tulamben is a teeny town on the east coast of Bali that seems to survive mostly on the dive industry. This is mostly thanks to the USAT Liberty, a US cargo ship that was sunk by the ... read more

Today, it has been 9 days since I arrived to Bali, Indonesia. And I have decided to start blogging again to continue this photo diary and my dive log that has become my memory keeper for a long time now. Last year my blogs slowed down because I was busy working as a private chef in yachts and I only made a few posts about my experiments with food photography. It was pretty fun too but a whole different dynamic…. specially when hungry guests are expecting food I only had a few seconds to take a quick shot so the food didn’t get cold… Anyway, now Steve and I felt it is time to take a long break and do what we always dreamed of. Work half of the year and move to Asia the other ... read more

The second half of my trip was much more what I was expecting from Bali. Wednesday morning the dive bus picked me up at my hotel and we drove 2.5 hours up the coast to Tulamben. We parked at a beautiful resort on the rocky shore, and the water was pure blue with a pristine infinity pool meeting it. We geared up and made the trek over the rocky beach carrying our tanks on our backs. Once you finally fell into the water, the trick was getting your flippers on. Tulamben is the site of the US Liberty, a ship that was bombed by the Japanese during WW2. It’s just off the coast, so probably the easiest ship wreck to dive because you do not have to go very deep. The coral is beautiful and the ... read more

I arrived at Denpasar airport worrying. My parents and I had planned to meet on the 25th but their plane landed on the 24th. I knew that they had arrived early but wasn’t able to communicate with them to find out where they were going to stay. When I stepped out of customs they were there waiting. PHew...after a celebratory group hug, we looked for my name in the sea of drivers holding up signs and went to Tulamben. The Balinese are super friendly. Everyone smiles at you on the street and says hi. I love it! The people we encountered treated us like friends rather than clients. Don’t let this deceive you though, you have to bargain everything. Tulamben is a diving town set between a 9,300 foot volcano and a beautiful black sand beach. ... read more