Blogs from Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia, Asia
May 17th 2012
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
April 26th 2012
Today I went diving for the first time. It was totally wierd experience. WE dived around 18 meters, x2 for 45 mins each time. It was a shipwreck so we got to explore. I'm sure I wasn't supposed to be doing all of it as a benginner but hey that's what's great about travel! I saw NEMO in an enenemamama or whatever it is. the coral stung me and we came across unicorn fish which are poisenous. Only found out afterwards though thank goodness. x... read more
April 23rd 2012
Today is the day I have been waiting for! Finally started my advanced open water diving course. Early start got picked up at 7am and had a 2 hr drive to north coast of Bali to tulamben bay. First dive was around an old world war 2 cargo ship wreck called USAT liberty. It was sunk by a jap torpedo and got washed close to the shore after a volcano eruption. Was eerie bit cool. Second dpractise practicing buoyancy control and last off was navigation. Had instructor to myself which was cool. Saw pufposh fish, angel, trigger, butterfly fish a sting ray and garden eels. Asides from diving the headlines are that we are disgustingly tanned, found some cool places playing decent music which attracts hot men (had issues with only going to young Aussie gap ... read more
July 26th 2011
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
October 26th 2010
So, da bin ich also wieder. On the road again. Die erste Woche in Bali ist vorbei. Nach einem nicht mehr enden wollenden Flug ueber 18 Stunden mit Landungen in Doha/Qatar und Singapur kam ich abends in Kuta - Flughafen auf Bali an. Ich war froh, den Flug gemeinsam mit Didi zu haben, so konnten wir wenigstens ein wenig quatschen und uns gemeinsam die Zeit vertreiben. Die erste Nacht habe ich mich ueberwunden, in den Touristenort Kuta zu gehen und hatte ein einfaches Hotel reserviert. Es war guenstig und halbwegs ok, aber der Massentourismus macht mir jedes Mal fast Angst. Am naechsten Tag organisierte ich mir ein guenstigen Transport nach Kubu an der Ostkueste. Dort fahren keine Busse hin, da bleibt einem nur ein Privatfahrer. Ich erwischte aber einen zu einem sehr fairen Preis. Der war ... read more
September 24th 2010
After Borneo I flew to Singapore and had a great relaxing 24 hours with book reading and fabulous Turkish food! Then I took a late flight and arrived in Denpasar at 21.30. After tons of paper work I got my visa and took a taxi to my 'home stay' as they call the small hotels. The next morning I got ready to see the Mola Mola/Sunfish at Nusa Penida. I was very lucky and saw two on the first dive!! It was such a cool creature, very surreal. Apart from that the diving was average and I had some reef wreckers on the boat...had to play reef police but they still kept on lying all over the reef.. Transferred to Tulamben which is a bit further up north and got an ear infection...arrrrrrghhh!!! After a couple ... read more
July 25th 2010
I said goodbye to Richard on Thursday even though we found out just a few minutes before leaving for the dive centre that his flight was on Friday morning as to that morning. It was too late to cancel going on my 2 day trip to Tulamben so hopefully he enjoyed his extra day in Sanur anyway. The reason for the overnight trip was that one of the girls here is short on logged dives to get her divemaster before she leaves so we had to do as many dives as we could. I thought this would involve lots of short dives - I was definitely wrong. We spent an hour underwater followed by an hour surface interval and repeated until we had 5 dives each day. The dives started to last as long as our ... read more
July 20th 2010
I was given about 24 hours notice that Richard would be joining me as his visa has run out in China and he’s got to wait for his work visa to be sorted out. Apparently it was between seeing me and the Philippines so I’m glad he decided to come to Bali. I was also glad he was able to find my hotel with only the street name and being told to look for a small sign with the name of where I am. We went up to Tulamben which is at the north of the island and is a popular diving place as there is a sunken US liberty wreck very close to the beach. I helped on an open water course whilst Richard tried a bit of snorkelling and chatted to the locals. I ... read more
July 2nd 2010
I've been addicted to dive since February this year. Especially after I get my diving Certificate. One of my favourite spot is Tulamben. Tulamben is a small fishing village on the north-east coast of Bali. It is located on Kubu ditrict, Karangasem Region. It is about 100 Km from my house in downtown capital of Bali, Denpasar. Takes about 3.5 hours motorcycle riding. It is among the most popular dive sites on Bali since the wreck of the Liberty, a US Army Transport ship torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in 1942 lies just off shore. During high-season, up to 100 divers descend to the wreck each day. The town's name is derived from the word batulambih, which roughly translates as "many stones" a reference to the destructive eruptions by Mount Agung that have effected this part ... read more
