Indonesia: Scuba Diving

Eleven dives each are now in our log books! Amed was by far the best scuba diving and most memorable bungalow experience. We left Kuta at 8am on our motorbike while Andy drove and I wore a backpack to get us through the next 7 days. Even though we had a map, we got pretty lost leaving Kuta since there are no street signs anywhere. Four hours later, we found ourselves in Amed with sore arses and tired shoulders with a layer of grime on our faces. Andy looks down and the key is suddenly gone from the ignition. Whaa? He swore he just saw it so we drove up and down the same 1km stretch no no avail even though it had a bright red lanyard attached to it. Andy pulled into a garage shop and explained the problem while both of us are emphasizing "Don't turn the motor off" and what does the guy do, he shuts it off. An F bomb dropped out of my mouth while Andy remained very calm. Luckily these guys had a motorbike ignition so we waited for 20 minutes as they fixed us right up for a whopping $10 US.

We found an absolutely stunning hotel on the waterfront called Kembali Bungalows with Jukung Dive shop across the street. We were exhausted by then and the hotel pool on the water was glistening on this gorgeous day so we set it up to dive the next day, which was quite possibly the day I could repeat for the rest of my life. We awoke early to the sound of roosters (well ok, maybe this part not so much) and enjoyed a breakfast of banana pancakes, fruit and yogurt in the open air restaurant. Jukung Dive was ready for us as we suited up and headed out. They have a relationship with the local fisherman so we used their tiny jukung boats from the black sand beach directly in front of the hotel that fit max 3 people. We headed up the coast and saw the stunning and majestic Agung volcano in the background and dropped in to Amed Wall II. Too many beautiful fish and coral to recount on this dive and the second one in the afternoon, so I will leave it at that. The dive shop fed us lunch afterward of nasi goreng and we enjoyed the seaside views next with our dive buddy Charles from India. We spent the afternoon lounging by the pool (see photos, this hotel was amazing) in the warm sun and reading the Bali Times and Asian Diver Magazine. As the sun was setting we shared a bottle of white when and went for dinner on at a nearby warung on the beach with nothing but the sound of wooden wind chimes and ocean waves with views of sparkling stars. Très romatique!

Ok but this post is about scuba diving. Gili Trawangan Island is a tiny 1km long island off the coast of northeastern Lombok that caters to travelers - the most Western people I have seen in one place in Indo! Pillow seating underneath palm bungalows lined the dirt path with no motorized vehicles, only horse pulled buggies. We found a sweet place complete with mossy nets with an upstairs patio overlooking the ocean. We did 4 dives off the coast, two of which went towards our advanced diver certificate - Deep Water and Night Dive. We can now go 30 meters, anytime! Plenty of sea turtles and the moray eel were the highlights here. The night dive, however, was frightening to say the least. The current was quite strong underwater and with just our torches to light the way my breath was shortened in a mild state of panic as I tried to avoid slamming into the rebar biodome that our instructor found necessary to swim against the current towards. The one interesting part of the dive was turning the torch off and waving our hands to see a sea of phosphorescent lights surround us - I felt like we were on another planet! Very luckily I found a mooring rope and grabbed on for dear life as I was at 50 bar and needed the group to ascend. The current on the surface was worse and tried for dear life to avoid slamming into moored boats. Frankly, I don't feel much like writing about it anymore since I was so frightened so I will leave it at that. Needless to say we are fine, but in the future I will never go on a night dive with a strong current.

The strangest part about Gili Trawangan was the Muslim Mosque and its SIX TIMES DAILY call to prayer, starting at 5:30am. Thank heavens for earplugs!