Shipwrecks, Sunsets & Surfing in Bali

Monday, September 15, 2014
Even tough I'm not too much into heavy tourist spots, we decided that Bali was simply too close to be left out.
Bali is for sure a heavy tourist spot. Souvenir sellers pulling your arm, while taxi drivers are shouting random prizes at you. As a backpacker I tend to ignore most with a simply 'terima kasih', but not everyone takes no for an answer. Not even in their native language...
Once you get past the 'tourist traps' Bali has a lot of amazing experiences to offer. Being the heavy tourist spot it is, every prize is worth bargaining. It's possible to get up to 70% off of the prize, even on trips around the island with travel agencies.


Once again another dive experience took my breath away at Tulamben on the north east coast of Bali, where the shipwreck of USAT Liberty lies extremely close to shore. We bought a 1-day trip up there from Kuta with a travel agency. 3 hours in car to get there, 2 dives at the shipwreck, lunch and a 3 hour drive back. All for $65 each. The prize listed was $145 each and I bet we could have gotten even more off if we hadn't been so excited to go diving again.


The shipwreck at Tulamben was used as a american cargo ship in the second world war until she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in January 1942. A rescue mission to pull the ship to shore was initiated. The ship rested on the beach until a volcanic eruption in 1963 moved the ship off beach and below the surface where she remains providing Bali's most popular dive site.


The ship herself is pretty damaged, yet it's possible to see cannons, anchor and other details from this old lady. But what really matters is the aquatic life the old lady attracts. Enormous schools of jacks, along with colourful surgeon and butterfly fish and also one of my favourites; nudibranches lives inside and around the wreck. Even mola mola visit the shipwreck during night hours.


Besides wreck diving Bali also gave me my very first hand-to-board experience with surfing. We bought a quick lesson from a local and rented a couple of long boards as well. After a 2-minute introduction we were already heading for the water. As the 'paddle paddle paddle'-yells from our instructor faded behind me I stood up in my first ever attempt. I thought to myself; ''this isn't too hard after all'. From there on we surfed the waves at Kuta Beach all afternoon.
They day after we headed for Padang-Padang Beach down south, but the ocean was drop dead and all we got to do was paddle paddle paddle.
Dissappointed from the failed attempt at catching waves we headed for Uluwatu Temple, with a short stop at Blue Point Beach in between. And as one of the many curious monkeys living at Uluwatu ran off with Lasse's sunglasses the sun set into the ocean like a drowning red light bulb.


1 comment:

  1. Ah like ur post! im merry from jakarta :)

    ReplyDelete

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