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| Checking Out The Reefs |
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| Manta Cleaning Station |
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| Me and the Dragon |
Early in the morning on Aug 15th, we traveled to Bali airport and headed to Bima, one of Indonesia’s islands and the port where our live aboard boat was docked. The boat is called the Damai and you can see what the boat looks if you check out their website at www.dive-damai.com. Our room had two king-sized beds and, in total, was larger than any master bedroom I’ve ever had! It had a separate washroom and shower room, in which sat a huge tub and shower stall. We were with a wonderful family from Israel, the Cohens, which consisted of two brothers and their children aged 14-27. The crew consisted of 5 dive masters and plenty of tank lifters and dingy drivers! We dove in groups of 3-5 and my group was myself, Maureen, and Ariana most of the time. There were two instructors assigned to my group and one was reserved to just help me! Most of the dives were current dives. I made a total of 21 dives over the 11 days on the boat.
The diving was very different from Little Cayman with limited visibility but super soft corals!!! We also saw a major amount of crinoids and too many fish to count each variety. Some of the most interesting things we saw were nudibranches, tunicates, anenomes, cuttlefish, giant clams, and huge gorgonians. The schools of fish we saw were Trevally jacks, bumphead parrotfish, sweet lips of all sizes, morays of all sizes, and on occasional crocodile fish. We also saw some sea snakes, mantus shrimp, scorpion fish, ghost pipe fish, octopus, huge puffers, white-tip sharks, sting rays, and plenty of lionfish. All my dives went smoothly until #19 which was a wild ride in a surging current to the point where I came up after only 30 minutes. At that time, I decided perhaps it was time for this 78-year-old woman should hang up her fins! This particular dive was in the Indian Ocean and, after one more dive in the same “washing machine” conditions, the boat moved. To see some pictures of the sea life, go to www.secretseavisions.com which is Burt and Maureen’s blog and webite.
The crew on the boat could not have been more accommodating. One morning I chose to skip the first dive, I got a free massage! They even did our laundry for free! The food was not up to the par of Pirates Point (needless to say!), but was good and we generally ate 3-4 meals a day. Four dives a day were offered and I made 2-3 most of the days. Last day, Aug 25th, consisted of a hike in Komodo National Park which is a World Heritage site. The hike was about 2 hours and was akin to Glady’s torture trail on Little Cayman! On the hike we saw about a dozen Kimodo dragons of various sizes but made it out alive as it was apparently naptime for the dragons.
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| Snake Fruit |
On the 26th, we left out of Labuan Bajo to fly back to Bali. At the airport, we were bid a fond farewell by two of my favorite dive masters Aris (aka Shrek as he wore a Shrek dive beanie) and Gusti. Once in Bali, we collected our remaining luggage at Burt and Maureen’s and headed to Ubud. My friends Harris and Beverly Harlin arrived the first evening we were in Ubud to join me at our beautiful hotel Tegal Sari (www.tegalsari-ubud.com). Our hotel is located next to a rice field and adorned by beautiful flowers everywhere you look. We even have our own private courtyard just steps away from the restaurant. Our first full day in Ubud, Aug 27th, we spend tracking down an immigration office to have my visa extended 8 days over the 30-day limit. After that, we did some crazy shopping including the art market at town center, buying snake fruit, and then to the monkey forest where a monkey jumped on Ariana’s back! After my usual afternoon nap, we joined our friends from the boat who were also staying in Ubud for dinner at a local restaurant called La Cinta. The amazing thing about Ubud is all the arts and crafts in the area, but even more amazing, is the cheap price for everything. Our hotel room is only $35/night and is a typical hotel room! Meals range from $5-15 and the most expensive thing is alcohol as the Muslim population seldom drinks.
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| Monkey Jumping off Ariana |
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| Unusual local fruits |
Aug 28th we had a driver Eddy for the day who took us all over Bali. We went to a wood carver’s village called Mas where they had giant wood sculptures that were up to 20ft tall, each made out of a single tree. Some of the woods they used were mahogany and hibiscus. After the wood place, we went to Goa Gajah or Elephant temple, a cave temple from the 11th century. It was an exhausting walk as the stairs were quite extensive. Next, we went to a fruit and spice garden called Seribatu were they also had the Civi cats that eat coffee bean pods and poop out the bean. The beans are then collected, rinsed, and roasted. They are then ground and brewed as coffee. The coffee is the most expensive in the world and goes for $30/once! Surprisingly, none of my companions wanted to try it! I did try it last year though when I was in Bali with Betty. Eddy entertained us on a local wooden musical instrument while we drank samples of teas, coffee, and hot chocolate. We then proceeded up to have lunch overlooking the tranquil but semi-active Batur volcano and Crater lake. We stopped at a fruit stand and bought some of the unusual local fruits. We returned to the village of Celuk where we were shown hold gold and silver were processed into jewelry and I bought a great pouty fish picture make of silver! Also thanks again to Maureen and Burt from Secret Sea Visions for the pictures and a wonderful trip (www.secretseavisions.com).
More to come..stay tuned!
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