First taste of Bali!

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I crossed the 30 minute ferry to arrive in Bali! My first stop was at Pemuteran, a sleepy town in the NW corner of Bali. I chose to go here because its the easiest way to get to Menjangen Island for some world famous diving! Lord knows I had missed the water! I was very eager to don my equipment and mingle with the fishies once again.

The town of Pemuteran was very lovely, but a little expensive for me. Mostly resorts and nicer dining, which is great if you can afford it- but I am not one of the chosen few. :( I spent the first afternoon walking on the beach, which was a good beach, but not the stuff made of dreams. To find those, you have to head out to the tiny islands, so I booked my 2 dives for the following day.

Pulau Menjangen is part of Taman National Park, and has unbelievably beautiful waters. We went straight to the first dive at the Coral Garden. It was a great dive, with lovely corals and small fish life. I would compare it to the best dive site in El Nido. After the first dive we had lunch on the island. The island is uninhabited and has a nice walking path around it. There is also a temple, which is believed to be the oldest in Bali from the 14th century. I had to take my views from the water, since we were really just there for diving (not that I had a problem with that).

The second dive just blew my mind. It started mere meters from the beach and quickly turned into a 30m wall. It was so jam packed with corals that grew on top of each other in every color and kind imaginable. I could barely look away from the corals to see if anything big was swimming near me! I even got to see my first pygmy seahorse. The sea horses only live on one type of coral, so once they are discovered, its easy to go back and find them. Or so I thought! The divemaster showed us 3 different ones each about 1cm big! One even broke away from the coral and swam for a second and I was just transported to heaven. I moved back so the others could see, and then I went back for more, but I could only find one! Their camouflage is just ridiculous. I got this picture off Google images, since I don't have an underwater camera. The visibility was also 20-25m, which apparently is not even the best it can be. I was happy to settle :) We were also able to have 60 minute dives both times, making me one very happy diver.

That evening, I had dinner with my dive buddies, Anne Marie and Louie, a nice Canadian couple. They headed home after that and I ran into my divemaster, Kamong. He was headed to the beach with his brother for a beer and some guitar music, so I joined. The beach was so quiet, we were the only ones there. We chilled for a few hours until I began having flashbacks of El Nido and decided to call it a night.

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