Despite all this I still got a decent sleep and awoke at the ripe hour of 5:21am for our sunrise boat cruise. But, the time of sunrise must have been a shock to the captains, since we actually watched it come up from the beach before they arrived. Regardless they picked us up in their funny fishing/sailing boats called Jukungs. They are like trimarans, with bamboo runners parallel to a narrow and uncomfortable wooden hull, an outboard motor and V shaped sail.
We motored out to a WWII Japanese ship wreck, hopped in the water and went snorkeling! My scuba class taught me well as I was able to easily freedive down to the bottom, although I skipped the wreck and went straight for the fish and coral instead. It was absolutely amazing, and definitely made me excited for what I’d signed up for later in the day….SCUBA DIVING!
After returning to the bungalows, downing a quick breakfast and packing up my stuff Sara and I were off on our adventure! What are the chances there’s another scuba certified person on this trip, right? They are actually two others but Molly had decided she had spent too much money already. We drove to the dive shop, signed our lives away, tried on some gear and then drove to the dive site, Tulamben, which is where an American ship was sunk in WWII.
I was a tad nervous, especially since this is my first actual dive, and I’d been having ear trouble, but Sara is rescue diver certified, and we had our guide, and I knew if I didn’t go I’d really regret it, so I went, and it was AWESOME.
On our first dive we went around the perimeter of the wreck for about an hour, reaching 21 meters in depth! I saw the most amazing things, tons of fish swimming within inches of us, large fish, tiny fish, colored fish, camouflaged fish, coral that looks like snow, coral that will sting you, coral that moves in the current, coral that holds it form in majestic shapes, everything! I even saw a small manta ray attempting to camouflage himself by burrowing in the sand, although once I knew where he was I didn’t have trouble following his movements. My favorite part of this dive was probably what looked like a field of waving plants, but were actually snakes coming out of their holes and surfing the current. The current was actually really strong in parts of the dive, wish I’d been able to try out my new fins!
Everything was astounding and I’m smiling just thinking about it but I have already started to forget the beauty of everything, so I really wish I’d had an underwater camera to capture it with!
But, I do remember the difference between my bitterly cold New England checkout dive in 7mm wetsuits with hoods versus Bali’s balmy weather with only a short wetsuit, no gloves, no 20lbs of weights and no inability to bend my elbows, quite the change! Also the visibility of Hathaway’s Pond versus clear sea water, despite the rather windy day we had, was astounding. But, as my first time diving in seawater I was amazed by how dry and salty my mouth got. I expected the usual dry mouth, but a dry salty mouth is quite a different story and I had to keep running my tongue along the roof of my mouth to feel somewhat hydrated!
We returned to the surface and awkwardly exited the ocean on the beautiful but precarious black stone beach. With an hour surface interval before our second dive to the center of the boat, we had some time to kill, so we talked to some locals and gazed in amazement at the women who would balance one or even two scubs tanks on their head to shuttle them from the vans to the beach. For those who have never hefted a tank before they are heavy! Full steel tanks can weigh 50 lbs or so I’d guess? One guy told us the guys usually do it on their backs but the women do it on their heads or shoulders, and most of the people I saw carrying gear were tiny and sometimes old women!
There were also divers from around the world, although we didn’t actually talk to them. Some had intense looking camera setups and others were decked out in the latest AquaLung gear or wearing Bali Diving wetsuit shirts. Once we were back in the water we saw many of the others drifting about same as us, and one even removed his regulator in order to blow me a kiss, not a task that I’d deem important enough to remove my air supply for.
Our second dive was more of a wreck dive as we want through some tighter spaces and got to take a closer look at some of the hiding spaces for larger animals throughout the boat. All was going well, I was cheerfully peering at the different types of coral and wishing I knew more fish types when all of a sudden I look up and a sea turtle has emerged from somewhere below us and is swimming towards Sara who I am about two feet behind. A FREAKING SEA TURTLE! I froze, and luckily my buoyancy was doing pretty well at this point so the three of us just stared at this gorgeous, perfect, bluish, greenish, giant, majestic, cute, I-want-to-grab-on-and-ride-it-across-the-ocean creature in wonder. After it had swam out of view Sara and I made eye contact, raised our arms to the heavens, did a little water dance, high-fived and then carried on throughout the dive. New best day ever.
The rest of the dive did not disappoint either, I saw a little nursery housed in coral with tiny little fish, that looked like black angelfish, who kept popping up and down as they played. Also saw an eel, maybe? I didn’t see it until it was back hiding in its cave, but the head shape looked eelish at least. A giant black and yellow angelfish, my new favorite neon blue tiny fish, the most awesome white and glowing purple slug I have ever seen and thousands more amazing things rounded out the 65min dive.
After emerging from the depths once more we showered, took rocks from the beach for our personal collections, compared amazing stories, took some pictures and drove back to the bungalows to bask in the glory and food that awaited us. A lazy afternoon at the beach complete with $5 massage rounded out the day before we drove back to Singaraja and reality along the bumpiest road (or it might have just been the scariest driver) I have ever experienced. My head bashed the window a few times and I did not manage to get the most restful sleep during the two hour drive, but at least the sunset left beautiful pink streaks in the sky which highlighted the mountains on one side and ocean on the other.
Who wants to return to Amed with me next year?
Lessons Learned:
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