Bali Adventure Part 1 - Sanur, Tulamben, Padang Bai

My boyfriend, Mike and I just returned from 9 days in Bali and 4 days in Taipei. Since everyone is interested, here's what we did. If it's too detailed, just skip down a few lines. :) I put all the pictures on my Picasa account. So I'll only put a few here and there in my posts.

November 10-11 Flight and Sanur
Our flight to taipei was fairly uneventful with only the TSA theft of our tub of hummus which they apparently consider to be a hazardous liquid. "Any spreadable food is subject to the same rules as shampoo." The plane was comfortable. We sat together in the very back of the plane in our own little 2 seat set. Having requested vegetarian meals, we received our food first. International flights provide each passenger with her own control panel which gives access to movies, music, games, and flight information. Mike and I watched Ted and Rock of Ages (which I loved) while we chased the night around the world.

Once in Taipei, we were transferred to China Airlines since our EVA flight was canceled. The plane was not even half full! This meant we had window seats AND a full center row to lay down in. We watched Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. Mike read while I slept. I really can't waste the chance to actually lay out on a flight. That never happens!

Bali Denpasar Airport is hot, humid, crowded and noisy. The minute we left we were surrounded by people demanding outrageous sums of money for a taxi to Sanur. Finally we overpaid at half the amount demanded. The driver dropped us at our hotel, the adorable Sukun Bali Cottages. Sukun has a nice pool, free breakfast and beautiful gardens throughout. Mike found a lovely bunch of coconuts and immediately pilfered some for our enjoyment.

The two of us walked to the beach and found that we could hang out at the clean and upscale Mercure without paying. ta da! We played a giant game of chess on the beach to tinkling Balinese music. On the walk back, we bought a haircut for Mike who was well past due and a pedicure for me. Neither was spectacular, but the price was a grand total of $5.50.

Nov-12- Sanur
We woke up early, still adjusting to the time change. The hotel fed us a breakfast of banana pancakes with fresh fruit. Yumm! We walked to the beach and played a game of chess on the Mercure’s giant chess board. Stand up paddle boarding sounded fun so we wandered off in search of paddle board rentals. They were more expensive in Bali than in Hawaii, so we gave up and eventually settle for spending even more money on a kite surfing lesson. It was a lot of fun. We only did the level 1 class which involved learning kite skills and how to set up and steer the kite. We played with small trick kites and a bigger kite for several hours on the beach.

Mario, our Italian coach, suggested we go just up the road to a padang style restaurant for lunch. We got to the restaurant and learned that you pay for rice as the base then add on curries, veggies and meats/tofu/tempeh. We had an interesting time finding vegetarian food most of the time, but this was easy. The whole meal cost 24,000 IDR which sounds like it could be a lot, but is probably about $2.50.

Since the whole day was ours to get adjusted, Mike and I grabbed our books and headed to a resort to lay in the shade on chaises. Afterward, we stopped in at a massage parlor (they are everywhere) and had hot stone massages. The stones were really hot! Jet lag hit us early and we really weren’t even hungry. We went straight back to the hotel and were asleep before 9.

Nov 13- Tulamben Diving.
Tuesday was our first day of diving. I had forgotten to set my watch to local time the day before so I guessed what time zone we were in based on my apparently not so excellent geography skills. The alarm went off at 6, we got ready and walked out the door. It was pitch black out. Mike suggested we go up to the front desk. It was 4:30 in the morning. I was 2 time zones off. Whoops! Since I was wide awake by 3:30, it was nice to have a little time to go back to bed. Yay time change.

We had our customary breakfast pancakes and headed to the dive shop for gear. Once in the car, we met Depu our dive master as well as Humberto and his wife Marisa who were on holiday from India, but originally from Mexico. We had a nice time with them and Humberto shared his diving pictures with us. I didn’t take any of the diving pictures I post for this.

Two hours later we arrived at Paradise Dive Resort in Tulamben. All of the dives today would be beach dives, a first for me. The first dive was a reef dive. We saw a small black tip reef shark, tons of ribbon eels, shrimp, fish, spotted rays, gorgeous coral, etc. This place is amazing diving! We were playing with these little shrimp that clean your hands and teeth. Mike opened his mouth to let them clean for a picture. All was going well until a reef fish wanted to see what he was missing out on. The fish nipped him right on the lip. It was hilarious! The dive master and I laughed as hard as you can through a regulator.

The second dive was the USAT Liberty wreck sunk in WWII (as recommended by both Randy Niven and Yooko Yoke). It is fairly deep on the one side and there was a ton to see. We saw things that were similar to the first dive, but bigger! I always enjoy a wreck dive. There are a lot of places for little critters to hide.

In addition to the two day dives, we did a night dive on the wreck. It was my first night dive and I was a bit nervous. We took our torches and headed into the dark water. I was amazed at the difference in life between the afternoon and the evening. The big bumphead fish were hiding inside the rusted out hull. My torch picked up different colors and textures I hadn’t noticed before. I saw a reflective band running down the spine of a ray, several fish I hadn’t noticed during the day, a couple of mantis shrimp. Neat!

Nov 14- Padang Bai
In the morning we piled into the van and headed to Padang Bay for our second day of diving. We added to our dive group for the day Benjamin from the Netherlands and Nicolas and Vincent from France. The six of us piled with our dive gear into what looked like a canoe with a canopy and motor. This place was extremely different from the diving at Tulamben. It was a sandy bottom with coral living on rocks. The current here is very strong, so the visibility is not great. We could only see a few meters as opposed to the 20 meters of visibility in Tulamben. There was not as much to see, but still plenty of diversity and intrigue. We saw a lion fish (my favorite), some eels, a big octopus, several large rocks covered in coral and fish.

The second dive was more in the current. I struggled with this one. The current was strong so there was a lot of swimming involved. On top of that, it is hard to work with a group of six divers. I think four is the maximum I like. With six, things get crowded, you have people coming up underneath you and running into you and everyone wants to see the same fish. It’s a bit frustrating for me. 

It was back to Sanur that evening. Mike and I took a walk down the beach in a different area from the night before. We checked out a few shrines and the sides of the roads, looked at menus, and just enjoyed the sunset. It’s a rough life we live. We also found a travel agency and booked a car up to Ubud with a tour for the next day.