Bali/Wakatobi Trip 9-27 thru 10-14-07

Bali

Arrived in Bali from LA at about 2pm with severe jet lag. Upon arrival at the Bayou Cottages in Amed my over weighted 65 lbs dive bag was hoisted by two men and put atop a young ladies head, which she proceeded to walk up a couple flights a stairs. I told the two guys that was tooooo heavy for them to carry. The response I got with a smile "our women are used to it." I will not get used to that custom!

The Amed region is remote--nothing fancy here in this part of Bali. The Bayou Cottages was nice but not luxurious. Great staff, great food and nice rooms. The one thing that bothered me a bit was this hotel is built on a hillside with a road in front of it. Therefore, you heard cars, motorbikes etc...but great view of the bay.

The first day we did a couple of dives on the Liberty Wreck. Sleeping shortly after arrival in the afternoon until Midnight, I thought I was rested up. Thus ambitious to do three dives. During the second dive at about 50' I felt severe narcoses a couple of times thus I decided major hydration was needed along with a little more sleep and called off the final dive of the day.

Our first dive was around the wreck. Saw a very large school of Jacks--a giant big fat Barracuda (at least 5- 6' long), big Napoleon Wrasse, frogfish, scores of small marine life. Very good dive. The second dive was more of diving inside the wreck and looking for smaller stuff. Rest of the diving was great saw a couple of Sharks, Rays, Cuttlefish, Sea Pens, Fire sea urchins, Flounders, Ornate ghost pipefish etc.

The Weather was wonderful and the water temperatures were around 81-82. If you are going thru Bali, Stop and Dive! My suggestion is dive in Tulamben. I also dove the Amed wall, which was OK, I found more stuff in Tulamben and if you stay in Amed, it is a hour drive daily. If you want to dive with the Mola Molas or Mantas in Nusa Penida (much cooler water) perhaps stay in a more central area as the daily drives to the sites are long. You will not regret a couple days or more of the diving and the wonderful hospitality.

Wakatobi

Wow what an operation. The dive boat can hold up to around 30+ divers. Only 10 on board my boat, two Instructors and 4 crewmembers. My group has only 4 people and the other 3 are semi-professional photographers and they linger on subjects. Thus, I have my own dive guide! You analyze you own Nitrox tanks (they have 100's for air hogs--Big smile) everything is put on the boats in the AM. They will set up for you if you like but I prefer to do my own. Excellent dive operation!

The rooms are nice but basic and can get warm in the afternoon. The AC will get things cooled down by about bedtime. My roommate was a retired Surgeon and a great guy. The food--again Excellent great Breakfast, Lunch and Dinners.

Did our check out dive the first dive in the AM, which you have to do the basic flood your mask and the air share buddy skill.

When comparing dive locations, I judge everything against Palau for Pelagic's plus overall best Bio-Diversity and East Timor for Corals and just plain weird stuff like Carpet anemones and Spanish Dancers etc. Wakatobi is most like Timor and overall probably better. Most of the diving is wall diving. Unfortunately, the visibility was only about 20' to 40' max the entire time and the water temperatures were between 77 to 81 degrees--too cool for me. It looks as though there may sea life out there i.e. schools of fish but unless they come close, you cannot tell. There are plenty of Pigmy seahorses to see (if you can), many types of Nudibranchs, Cuttlefish, Ornate Ghost Pipefish, Flounders, Crockfish, Eggshell cowrie's etc. Corals both soft and hard of almost every imaginable shape and color. Some of my favorite dive sites are the Zoo, Turkey Beach for the fish life and Magnifica for the corals.

You can pretty much dive all you want as they have a great house reef in front of the resort. I tend not to dive to get wet and if all I am going see pretty much the same thing it becomes a bit redundant to me. Being I did travel all this way I did not miss a dive and added a 4th dive here and there. I found on a 70 minute dive there was only about 10 minutes of interesting diving to me, let me clarify--I like to be entertained by the diving. In Wakatobi, you have to look and have patience to find your reward. There are people that are in Heaven with this type of diving. In addition, I am diving a shorty with 100 tanks which I get around 70 minutes bottom time. After the 3rd dive in waters of 81 or less up to 70 minutes, it will take me the end of the evening to start to break a sweat--I get downright chilled, LOL... My own internal AC.

Wakatobi is an excellent operation. I have visited about 20 to 25 different dive or dive resort operations around the world--Nothing compares to Wakatobi. The Indonesians take care of these boats like their own. One day after coming up for a dive I went to make a cup of Hot Chocolate, the boat captain waved me off. Not knowing what he meant, I soon learned that was his job! After every dive, I had Hot Chocolate waiting for me. The dive guides are mostly European coming from Germany, Austria, England, France and Switzerland. Alex my dive guide was as good as the best I have dove with anywhere. I cannot say enough about how excellent every facet of this dive operation is.

If you are into small stuff and have patience to find it, this is the place for you. You will not be disappointed! I prefer a more action and warmer waters and if that is what you are looking for, go to Palau, Tuamotus in Tahiti, Kiribati etc.

Finished off my trip by spending a couple of nights in Singapore and had that great $70 Crab at the Boat Quay--Yum!