New Dive Sites in Bali - Kerobokan Dive Sites

On Apr 4, 11:57*pm, Patrick NOEL <plouf.pn...@aquaphot.fr> wrote:

> > My recollections are of our van driver dodging around the multitudes
> > of scooters in the heavy traffic, dodging stray dogs in the towns, the
> > smell of plastic water bottles burning in piles wherever we went, and
> > at some stops, hordes of kids and sometimes older people all fighting
> > to sell you sarongs and pencils. *The sarongs I can understand - we
> > bought lots as gifts - but why would we want to buy pencils?
>
> > My favorite spots were the monkey forest and our hotel, where we could
> > escape the madness.
>
> Yep. Of course all this is true ; the "tourist" part of Bali : Sanur -
> Jimbaran - Legian - Kuta, the towns of Denpasar and Ubud are
> overcrowded, dirty, noisy, ... But you can still enjoy the real Bali in
> the north and the north-east, from Pemuteran to Amed (with the
> exception of the part around Singaraja), and that's where some of the
> best diving spots are.
> Well, never mind.

Admittedly we were already in a snit because our original flight plans
were waylaid when we arrived at the airport due to a big delay in one
leg upsetting all the others. We ended up having to switch carriers,
requiring us to sit an additional 14 hours at LAX waiting to fly out
plus 5 more hours in Hong Kong on top of the 18 hours of flight time,
and at an additional cost of $4,800. Plus we lost one of our island
touring days and even the airport transfer since the driver didn't
know when to pick us up, resulting in a mad scene involving 7 porters
and 2 taxis to get us to the hotel, the only hotel I've stayed in to
date that required passing through a metal detector before entering
the lobby.

I do have some fond memories of the island. We managed to get to some
uncrowded and peaceful spots as we toured around, but I sure wasn't
expecting the crowds of the south. There probably will be a next time
there as I plan to get out to Wakatobi sometime in the next couple of
years, finances permitting, and I'll make sure to stay a couple nights
in the north instead to see if my perception of the island can change.

Still, having just recently returned from Palau, it's easy to draw
distinctions. In Palau, there are no crowds anywhere. I didn't smell
any burning plastic, and the few stray dogs I saw looked a lot
healthier than the poor mutts of Bali. Not a single person asked me
for money, beyond goods and services I expected to pay for, and I
didn't have to worry about using my left hand and offending someone.
If I want crowds and pollution, I can find plenty of that right here
in L.A. any day of the week. On vacation, it's nice to get away from
all that. Hopefully the north of Bali is "all that".

> Anyway, I'm planning to do that "diving safari" again next october ...
> I just love it !

I'll wait to see your results. When the liveaboard trip that caused
me to fly to Bali the first time was almost canceled, I had looked
into the safari as an alternative. We ended up on the liveaboard, and
most of the diving on the trip was stellar, but due to a storm we
didn't make it all the way back to Bali for our last dives of the trip
and instead ended up on Lombok. I was disappointed that I never got
to dive Bali itself.

I've been meaning to compare notes with you on the Sky Dancer. I was
on the other 10-day trip in August 2007. From your notes, it sounds
like our trip had better diving at Wolf on the way up, and a bit more
sun, but rougher seas. I'm just curious if anyone on your trip
experienced similar cabin problems to ours: a leak (a/c condensate?)
that completely soaked my bed one night, and an exploding head that
sprayed raw sewage everywhere during one particularly nasty island
crossing. Those two incidents have me wondering about every taking
another Peter Hughes trip since I've never experienced anything so bad
before on any of the other eleven liveaboards I've done and here it
was two bad incidents in a row. Or maybe I'm just prone to some
really bad travel experiences, something I've been wondering about
ever since getting caught in the tsunami.

Greg Mossman a couché sur son écran :
(...)
> I've been meaning to compare notes with you on the Sky Dancer. I was
> on the other 10-day trip in August 2007. From your notes, it sounds
> like our trip had better diving at Wolf on the way up, and a bit more
> sun, but rougher seas. I'm just curious if anyone on your trip
> experienced similar cabin problems to ours: a leak (a/c condensate?)
> that completely soaked my bed one night, and an exploding head that
> sprayed raw sewage everywhere during one particularly nasty island
> crossing. Those two incidents have me wondering about every taking
> another Peter Hughes trip since I've never experienced anything so bad
> before on any of the other eleven liveaboards I've done and here it
> was two bad incidents in a row. Or maybe I'm just prone to some
> really bad travel experiences, something I've been wondering about
> ever since getting caught in the tsunami.

Well, once again we didn't have the same experience. Absolutely no
problem with the Sky Dancer. Except the quite difficult conditions for
UW photo, nothing wrong with this cruise and certainly not the vessel.
I didn't hear anybody complain about anything in our group ...

P.

--
(pas de plouf pour m'écrire - no plouf to write)
Site Photo ss. marine : http://www.aquaphot.fr/

On Apr 8, 12:16*am, Patrick NOEL <plouf.pn...@aquaphot.fr> wrote:
> Greg Mossman a couché sur son écran :
> (...)
>
> > I've been meaning to compare notes with you on the Sky Dancer. *I was
> > on the other 10-day trip in August 2007. *From your notes, it sounds
> > like our trip had better diving at Wolf on the way up, and a bit more
> > sun, but rougher seas. *I'm just curious if anyone on your trip
> > experienced similar cabin problems to ours: a leak (a/c condensate?)
> > that completely soaked my bed one night, and an exploding head that
> > sprayed raw sewage everywhere during one particularly nasty island
> > crossing. *Those two incidents have me wondering about every taking
> > another Peter Hughes trip since I've never experienced anything so bad
> > before on any of the other eleven liveaboards I've done and here it
> > was two bad incidents in a row. *Or maybe I'm just prone to some
> > really bad travel experiences, something I've been wondering about
> > ever since getting caught in the tsunami.
>
> Well, once again we didn't have the same experience. Absolutely no
> problem with the Sky Dancer. Except the quite difficult conditions for
> UW photo, nothing wrong with this cruise and certainly not the vessel.
> I didn't hear anybody complain about anything in our group ...

Except for the two "interesting" cabin incidents, everything else was
great for us on that trip too. I didn't even mind the difficulty
shooting photos since I was shooting video!

Actually, my only other source of (minor) irritation from the trip was
with one of the DMs who seemed to favor one of the ladies on our
dinghy, allowing her to get some great "alone time" with the sharks
yet harrassing me to stay with the group when I tried to do the same.
If you could position yourself away from the group by holding back
while the group moved downcurrent along the ridge, the sharks would
come in real close. The irritation was that she got some great
footage, yet when I tried to do the same thing, the DM got so upset
with me ignoring his hand signals to follow him that I thought he was
going to physically move me along with the rest of the group. That
annoyed me, since my diving skills are at least a bit more seasoned
than hers (and the DM's as well), so the only reason I could see for
why we were treated differently is that she looked a lot better in a
bathing suit than me, especially with some well-placed tattoos snaking
around her body. Maybe I should get some tattoos...