After our INCREDIBLE (see what I did there?) few days diving in Komodo National Park, we were super stoked to continue diving in Bali. And that is pretty much all we did! From April 14 – 27, we were scheduled for 27 dives with our friends at Lazy Turtle Dive. This helped me more than double my total dive count – even though I had to miss a couple of days for an ear infection, and just sheer exhaustion! At the bottom of this post you will find a slew of our favorite photos from these dives. But before that I am going to share a bit about our non-dive time in Bali.
In general, when we weren’t diving we were relaxing on the beach, exploring the small city we were in, napping, reading, or eating. But some of that “down time” definitely stood out.
Our first such adventure was visiting a water temple in Amed. It was so beautiful and peaceful, and I loved sitting a pagoda taking it all in.
And the drive there was just as beautiful as the temple! It was nothing but winding mountain roads with the ocean following us the whole way.
Next on the list was a hike to the Lempuyang Temple. It wasn’t a terribly tough hike, but it was beautiful. Plus there was a holiday or festival taking place (there seemed to be one almost every other day) so everyone was dressed in their finest!
The celebratory outfits are quite interesting – particularly for the women. Both wear long, colorful skirts and a nice, typically white shirt. For the women though – this shirt is often made of lace. Any many women did not wear anything but a bra beneath it. For some, this is their only opportunity to get dressed up and go somewhere, and there is apparently a level sexual attraction they want to emit. It was not uncommon to see older women with brightly colored bras underneath their lace shirts. Either way, the clothing was gorgeous.
In Candidasa (pronounced Chaan-dee-dah-sah) we visit two different chocolate factories. One was clearly known more for their view then their chocolate, but we did have some fun on their swings.
But one of our favorite things we got to do was to help release a sea turtle back into the wild. Proyek Penyu in Pemuteran, Bali. This turtle rescue and hatchery offers incentives to local fisherman to return turtles that accidentally get caught in their nets, instead of selling or eating them, to help preserve the population. It also works to safeguard, and even relocate turtle nests, to prevent nest destruction and help more turtles make it back out to see. When we went to visit, the babies were too young to be released, but they were pretty darn cute!
However, an adult had recently been brought to the rescue site. For a small donation – which is one way they manage to stay in business – we got to be the ones to release it on the beach. We ended up with quite a crowd, and were happy to help him go free!
And he was pretty excited about it too!
Now back to the diving. Some of our dive sites included Amed, Lipah, Seraya Secrets, Liberty Wreck, a Japanese Wreck, Tulamben, Kubu, Candidasa, Manta Point/Nusa Penida, Tanah Ampu Jetty, Purijati, Menjangan and Secret Bay. (Phew!) Some highlights were octopi, crown of thorns, batfish, squid, giant bump head parrot fish, more nudibranchs, a tiny bobtail squid the size of my pinky nail and so much more!
Sadly this concluded our diving, but not our trip. We had one more stop before heading back to the other side of the world. And that spot was Medewi!
Brandon & Devon (BaD) Journey 