April 6th, 2005
Well, like I said in the last post, the reason we went to stay up in Padang Bai was so that we could go Scuba Diving. We booked with a dive company called Waterworx and it was just a few minutes walk from our hotel at Puri Rai.

Address: Jalan Silayukti
Padang Bai - Karangasem
Bali 80871
Phone: +62(0)363-41220

S 8.53037 E 115.51091

www.waterworxbali.com

If you go to their website, there's lots of good info about diving and Bali and the site is maintained by our divemaster, Wolfgang, pictured below with Buffy.


Buffy and Wolfgang at the shop.

On our way to the Tulamben Wreck Dive, we had about a 40 minute drive to the dive site so we got to see some more of the countryside and people along the way. It was an overcast day, put the sun peeked out here and there. In Padang Bai, it was raining but as we moved up towards the mountains it began to clear a bit.


Street market leaving Padang Bai.


We were amused by the motorcycle transports. This woman is dressed for placing offerings or going to Temple, yet buzzing along sidesaddle on the back of a motorbike.


We passed them.


In one of the small towns along the way, we saw some meat that was for sale. Looks great doesn't it? I especially like the dog checking out the meat for sale.


This is how the Balinese carry stuff, well, this is how the women carry stuff. She had quite the load on top of her head.



The road opened up a bit on the right at we caught a glimpse of the valley below. We had a local driver so we were speeding in and out of towns and passing folks, etc...it was a speedy drive. We were lucky to get the shots we did, as it was raining off and on. You can even begin to see some of the rice paddie terraces in the foreground.


Small school children in uniforms.


This was it. This was all we saw of the volcano Gunung Agung, which is home of Pura Besakih, Bali's holiest temple! Even when we went to the big one, Gunung Batur, with craters and lakes, we could see nothing but clouds.


This is where we were to begin our dives. The terracotta roof is where we ate lunch.



Remember when I told you about the Hawkers following you? Well, they even followed us down the beach (this beach is a rocky one!) and hassled you along the way. Where do we even have our wallets? And, as soon as you are stable on the beach when exiting a dive, they are right there to sell you something you do not need. You just had to NOT make any eye contact, and keep saying deducta terrima kasih!

The nice thing about doing the dive in Bali, is that we didn't even have to carry our stuff down the beach. The rocks were hard enough to walk on let alone with all your gear on and full tanks. Local guys are there to carry the tanks and BCDs to the dive start and we just had to walk down and meet them, suit up, and walk into the ocean!

The first dive we did was the Tulamben Wreck Dive. This wreck is actually a US cargo ship The Liberty. It's more 100 m long and the ship is broken into 3 sections. The shallowest sitting at about 7 meters and the deepest going to about 30m. We began our decent and Buffy snapped off the first, and only picture.


Jeremy and Kelly beginning the dive.

Buffy noticed that his underwater camera case was beginning to fill with water, so he aborted the dive and waited at the surface for us to realize that he wasn't with us. We went back to him after a few minutes and he had to take the camera back to the van and come back without it. We are still waiting to hear if the camera is working or if the salt water got to places it shouldn't and is toast...

BUT, not having a camera allowed Bill to actually enjoy the dive. The wreck was amazing and the coral and sea life that surrounded it was abundant! We saw a sting ray, tons of fish, and a few other divers. We were able to get inside the one section of the boat, and even went thru a tunnel that connected the sections and up and around the other side. Wolfgang pointed out all kinds of small critters that we would've otherwised missed. That dive was just less than 50 minutes and then we took a break and had some lunch.

Our second dive was a Wall Dive. Again, we walked along the beach, but in the opposite direction and entered the water directly. The wall dive took us to much deeper depths and at one point when I looked at my gauge, it read 31 meters. Jeremy kept telling me to come up higher, but you just get lost looking at the amazing sea life. We saw a purple fan that was 3 meters across. I swam under and around that one, and that's when I realized that I was at 31 m. We also saw barrel sponges that were big enough for a full grown adult to get inside. We saw 2 stone fish (very deadly!) and 2 lion fish (very deadly!) and got completely encircled by a school of fish (the ones I said to look at in the Padang Bai entry). That was really something. You didn't want to leave. The diving in Bali was amazing! The water was warm, pretty clear, and being that it was a leisure dive for me, I think I got to see more this time, than the other times on Tioman.

I think Sherry said our dives were $45/person for both dives, and transport to the dive site and the extra gear that we needed including the tanks and wetsuits.

We ended our dives at about 3pm, rinsed off our gear, changed, and began the trek back to Padang Bai. We go to see some more great stuff and when we wanted the driver to stop, he would so we could get some pictures.


Taking the cows out for walk.

What we learned was that since there really isn't anywhere to graze cattle, b/c the land is used mostly for rice production, that the people go out and cut the grasses etc...and bring it back to the cow. They really seem to take care of the cows and we also saw some folks washing their cows on a drive one day too.


The cows really do look beautiful and healthy.


Walking Banana Leaf.

Just an amusing shot. The banana leaves are used in cooking so I wonder if this guy is bringing some back to make dinner?


These guys zip around on small motorcycles and you see them carrying the craziest things. This one looked rather precarious, but it didn't seem to slow him down at all. Also, can you see his mudflap on the rear wheel? Resourceful!


Petrol.
We asked Wolfgang what folks were selling in the water bottles? Was it cooking oil of some sort? He said it was petrol! We were shocked and amazed, but he explained that for the folks who live way out of major towns, like most of what we were driving thru, and the fact that they live day by day, they cannot afford to 'fill up the tank' so they just buy enough petrol to get them to and from their daily tasks or work and these little stands make it convenient.


This little boy was too cute! The dog, very tolerant!


Then, he realized we were taking his picture. He's still really cute though! And the dog, still tolerant. : )

As we drove along we got caught in a traffic jam, in the middle of nowhere. We were wondering what the hold up was, and then we heard music and bells, and then saw a procession of people! This was a funeral procession on the way to the cremation! We learned that Balinese only perform cremations on 'good days'. That means, that they have enough money or other factors play in making it a good day. If it is not a good day when the dearly departs, then they bury them, and wait for a good day, dig them up, dress them up, and the coffins, and then do the processional.

Sarongs are a must for the processional. We also learned that these folks were all wearing the same shirt, signifying that they were all either related or from the same town.


The umbrella up ahead is the coffin! There is singing and chanting and supposadly, the more people that are there, the more important you are. As well, the clamor of noises, chants and singing is supposed to confuse the spirit of the deceased and not allow them to find there way back home. The body is transfered to a sarcophagus based on the caste level (of which there are 3) and then the entire thing, body, sarcophagus and coffin is burned. The eldest son is in charge of raking thru the coals and making sure it all turns to dust thereby ensuring that the sprit of the deceased goes to a heaven which is just like Bali!



Notice how the coffin is brightly decorated.


We actually caught the chants and music on the video camera sound recorder, but I don't know how to add sound to the blog. : (

So, unfortunatly we don't have cool pix to show of our day of diving, but we did get to see some really cool cultural stuff and more of the countryside, and how people live.

It was a harrowing drive, Bill was in the 'death seat', but he still got some great shots and the ride of his life!

Still more blog entries of Bali to come. I think we are just over a third of the way there.

© December 6, 2008