Bali down below!

Hey all!

We've had quite the exciting few days underwater in Bali... I think I like underwater better than the land stuff!

After Ubud, we headed out to Nusa Lembongan, a small island off the coast of mainland Bali. We took a taxi and ferry out to the island. It's a little place, nice and quaint and very different from Ubud. It's still a tourist destination, but from what I saw, it's still in its tourism infancy. The island's draw is primarily it's marine life. The island has a regular population of manta rays and a seasonal population of mola mola or ocean sunfish. Google them. It's the weirdest fish you'll ever see, but for some reason they love Nusa Lembongan (unfortunately we didn't see any molas, but we saw EVERYTHING else).

It took us a couple days before we got in the water, but once we did, it was stunning. Indonesia is part of an area called the Coral Triangle, which is an area of the Pacific that includes places like Indo, the Phillippines, the Solomon Islands and more, but it has the most coral diversity and fish life of anywhere else on the planet. It does not disappoint!! Our first dive was in a place called Manta Bay. It it aptly named! Within two minutes of being in the water, we had our first manta drive-by. In total we saw at least three, if not more. They came and went, so it was hard to tell if it was the same one. Another great thing about diving on Lembongan was the current! There was lots of it! Koh Tao, as lovely as it is, has no current at all. This may sound like a good thing, but when used to your advantage, current is magic. The rest of our dives were awesome drift dives. You jump in at one place and let the current carry you along. Not much kicking involved, its great! These drifts had so much life, I didn't know where to look. So many fish everywhere! And there was all the crazy little things! Nudibranchs, garden eels, scorpion and lionfish... you name it! And we met Dory! After two years of diving with Nemo, we finally met his best buddy!!

The best came on our very last dive, however. We were diving on a site called Mangroves. It was one of the fastest drift dives I've done. Zooming along, trying to look at all the fish before they fly by you... The first 40 minute of the dive were awesome, but nothing particularly special. Until about the time my camera died... Drifting along we see a couple of sea turtles cruising along. I love turtles, and seeing them never gets old, so that pretty much made the dive for me. But a few minutes later I started hearing the squeaking and squealing that you so often associate with dolphins. Nah... can't be... but low and behold a few moments later, our dive guide starts bangning on her tank and pointing into the blue, and then we saw pod of about 15 dolphins, including a few babies!! They didn't stick around for long, but its always amazing seeing them underwater. You can really tell they're looking at you and checking you out. As if that wasn't enough, a few moments later our dive guide starts banging on her tank and pointing again... this time, it was a school of six eagle rays hanging out in the current. They weren't moving at all, even though we were swimming like hell against the current to stay with them. Needless to say, it was an incredibly memorable dive and a great way to end our awesome stay on Lembongan.

We left Lembongan to head to a new dive location. It was a bit of a hike... took us nearly all day in a ferry and then in a taxi. We did make a couple stops in the car on the way, though. We stopped at a place called the water palace. It used to be the king's bathhouse, full of fountains and beautiful sculptures, but its since been opened to the public. So we stopped there for lunch and had a bit of a wander around the gardens. I wish all taxis and transport would do that for you! Oh, long drive? Why don't we stop at this beautifully scenic lunch place for 30 or 40 minutes?

Anyway, we finally got to Tulamben, our next diving destination. Tulamben's main dive site is actually a wreck, rather than a reef. It's the site of the wreck of an American warship, called the Liberty. It was torpedoed by the Japanese in WWII, but it was dragged on shore before it could sink, so the cargo could be salvaged. The ship stayed on the beach in Tulamben until 1963, when the big, bad Bali volcano erupted. The lava flows pushed the wreck just offshore and tore it up a bit. Now, it lies just off the beach and starts in about 5m(15ft) of water, all the way down to 30m (100ft).

Initially when we got in last night, the waves on the beach were quite big, so we thought it might be a blowout... the dive shop next door said visibility was going to be iffy at best and conditions weren't so hot. But we got up early this morning to have a look and things were looking pretty damn good, so we said what the hell, let's go for it. The dive was awesome. Tons of fish life, and since the wreck has been underwater since the 60's, there's tons of coral growth as well. One of the dive guides described it as an iron cathedral, and it seems fitting. The wreck is a bit torn apart, so its hard to see which bit is what, but regardless, the towering beams and bits of decking make a stunning backdrop to an awesome dive.

We did a second beach dive in the afternoon, just down the shore from the wreck. The highlight of this dive may seem a little silly to most... but I convinced a cleaner shrimp to crawl inside my mouth and it was the happiest moment ever. It has been one of those weird bucket list things for as long as I can remember to get my mouth cleaned by a cleaner shrimp. They offer that service to fish, so why should I be any different?? And my mother worries about my dental hygiene... BAH! The fish will take care of it, right?

Anyway, we're off to the Gili Islands for more diving and island fun! We have a couple friends staying there as well, so it should be a good time! Hopefully we'll have more fishy fun and adventure over our last 7 days in Bali!

Love and fishes!!!