More Diving

But first, a little update…

Sorry our last post was so short, we were getting eaten by some nasty little mosquitos in the lobby of our hotel in Lovina, so I will give some more details in this one.

Our stay in Candidasa was excellent… 3 days of just relaxing by the pool and reading. It was just what we needed, and we headed to Amed ready to get back into the water and do some diving. We had three full days of diving planned, and decided that this would be a great chance for Cat to get her Advanced Diving Certificate, so we found a great dive shop to take care of this for us. The diving around Amed is great, excellent corals, lots of fish and two big shipwrecks to explore. Cat had no problem completing the course and I had a great time tagging along taking pictures of everything. Here’s some…

The place we stayed in Amed was again, very nice, ocean view from the front door of our villa, excellent food, a great pool and of course, silly looking ducks…

We said goodbye to the ducks and Amed and headed to Lovina, which was to be our base for exploring the inland a little and see the volcanos. We decided to stay just two nights in Lovina, giving us an extra day of diving at our next stop, Pemuteran. Our trip up the mountains and inland was a nice little break from the temperatures of the beaches, only 25 degrees instead of 35. Near the top of Danan Brahma, there is a botanical gardens and we spent most of the morning there looking at various types of orchids, cacti and various other plants in a huge park overlooking a volcanic lake. We also stopped by an old Hindi temple that was built on this lake centuries ago, and some of the temple now sits well into the lake… it was very beautiful.

We headed back to our hotel for a late afternoon poolside beverage and started getting ready for some more diving. A bit about our hotel here in Lovina… as some of you may know, it is low season for tourism right now. I don’t know why, maybe its because May is when students are writing exams, or summer vacation is just around the corner, or maybe because it’s the hockey playoffs (go Canucks), but anyways, most of the places we have stayed in are generally kind of quiet, which has been nice. This place in Lovina though is, well, eerie… it is an older, established resort, a bit rustic but well kept up, and almost completely empty. If you can remember the winter resort from the movie The Shining with Jack Nicholson where he goes crazy, this place feels like a summer version of that resort. Don’t worry, I didn’t chase after Catherine with an axe, but we both got the same feel from the place and looked forward to moving on.

Anyways, move on we did and we are now in the small seaside town of Pemuteran. This place is all about the diving and snorkeling. People at the other dive shops had been speaking highly of it and we couldn’t wait to get into the water… but we had to because for the first time on this trip, I ended up with a little tummy trouble, and had a miserable night our first night here, so we had to skip our first day of diving. I got some medicine in me and am now 100% better, so this morning we headed out diving and WOW, this place has some fantastic coral life here. Here are some highlights… Well only one actually posted :(

We are headed out again the next two days and will try to post more pics if we can. We have a good Wi-Fi connection here and for those of you who we have been trying to Skype with, I dont think this island can handle video Skype, so we may have to do just audio... it seems to work just fine! Well gotta rest up for tomorrow!

Chat soon,

Tim and Cat

Lovin Lovina

Hey all,

Just a short update today. We finished our diving in Amed, and Catherine completed her Advanced Open Water Diving certification! Yay! We had some truly amazing dives while she did the course, and saw the most amazing corals I have ever seen. There were lots and lots of fish as well, but to see big healthy coral reefs was fantastic. I have been to a few sites around the world and had assumed that the health of the reefs was rapidly deteriorating, but it was great to see that the conservation efforts here seem to be working.

We headed out of Amed this morning and drove about 2 hours to Lovina and found yet another paradise. They dont have Wireless internet, but they have a couple of decent computers in the lobby, so we will try to post some pics on this blog tomorrow. We have just finished dinner for tonight and are planning to retire to the room and get ready for tomorrow... we will either be hiking to a big waterfall or going on a boat ride to try to hang out with some dolphins... decisions decisions :)

Chat soon,

Tim and Cat

Wet in Amed

Well we managed to pull ourselves away from the wonderful pool in Candidasa and head north to Amed on the North Eastern shore of Bali. Our nice little green car got us here quickly and cooly (good AC) and we managed to find and check into our Amed accomodations. They also have a great pool, as well as a whole menagerie of resident animals, including two rather animated ducks. After much discussion it has been decided that I am not allowed to feed them from the table in the restaurant, but Tim figures it is ok for me to take food out onto the lawn for them and feed them there. They still follow me back into the restaurant though, and hover around expectantly. We have spent the last two days doing some incredible diving. The coral here is like nothing either of us have ever seen before, the fish are prolific and amazing, and there are two shipwrecks in the area that we have gotten to explore. All in all a really incredible place. The only thing we are missing is a good internet connection, hence the lack of posts and new pictures. We are pretty sure our next location - Lovina, we go there tomorrow - will be better equipped. So until then hope everyone is well and we will talk to you soon . . .

Driving in Bali

Well we got our car yesterday and I think it is safe to say that the vehicle delivered to us in no way resembled the picture of what we thought we were getting. We asked for a Dihatsu Feroza, thinking that we would get a newer model, but we were delivered a model from the early '90s, which was a little rough. Now, I am not usually one to complain, so I had a quick look, hopped in, and started it up, and it actually seemed ok... it had AC and seemed to run pretty smooth, and it had the feel of a bigger jeep type vehicle, which would likely serve us well when we got to the mountains, so we decided that we would take what we were given and head to Candidasa.





For most of the drive, things went pretty smooth... well, the steering was pretty loose and the brake pedal would go to the floor without actually providing any stopping power to the vehicle, but it seemed to fit in pretty well with the other vehicles
on the road. We managed to get to the Watergarden resort in Candidasa within about one hour, and checked in. Again, this is an amazing place... we have our own villa with a little deck that overlooks a beautiful pond filled with many fish, there is a great pool, and the Wi-Fi connection is pretty good (knock on wood). Catherine's research pays off again!!





Now we could have just hung around and relaxed, but we decided that we would drive up into the mountains to see the crater of one of the 3 large volcanoes on the island. We also decided to take the less travelled route rather than the paved highway, thus getting a better feel for the culture of the area. The travel book we have states that all roads in Bali are paved... I think that the writers may not have travelled every road on the island, because the road we ended up on turned into an 8 foot wide path with bits of ashphalt scattered about, with incredibly steep climbs and drop-offs, and surprisingly, alot of traffic (mostly bikes, pedestrians and lots of chickens).





Many people might have turned back at this point, opting for the safety and reliability of the highway, but not this fearless couple... we decided to forge ahead. about 15 minutes later, our quest for adventure ended up smacking right in the nose. I was pretty sure I heard the tire explode, but I decided to will the tire to reinflate and pushed on until I was at least on a flat stretch of road (by stretch I mean about 25 feet long and about 10 feet wide). As it turns out, I do not have the ability to reinflate tires with will alone. I do, however, possess the ability to change a tire, so I got ready to do just that.





When you guys rent a vehicle, how often do you check for a jack and tire iron? Same here. Well my search for tire changing equipment left me with the following tools...





A small flathead screwdriver


A 6 inch long aluminum tube with one end shaped to fit over the lug nuts


Another 6 inch long aluminum tube that looked like it had been driven over once to often





Yeah that was it... the piece of aluminum that fit over the tires lug nuts was not the same size as the one to remove the spare from the back of the vehicle, and even if I somehow managed to get both the spare and the flat tire loose, I had no jack to raise the vehicle. As the motorbike and scooters squeezed by us, we began to wonder if we were "in a pickle" or "up the creek". We decided that we were still in "pickle" mode so we pulled out our Indonesian language book and flagged down a passing scooter and tried to inform him of our situation. After some strange looks we guided him to the side of the vehicle and showed him the tire, at which point he began to nod knowingly, chuckled to himself, and pulled out his cell phone, I presume to make a call to the local AMA.





(This type of thing has come up before in our travels... not the flat tire thing but the cell phone thing. Why is it that people can get crystal clear phone coverage in some third world country, on the side of a volcano nowhere near any civilization, yet we cant get a signal from our back yard?? It boggles the mind... anyways, back to the adventure)





Within about 10 minutes we had 5 fellas on scooters and one guy claiming he was a mechanic at our side to aid in our rescue... the mechanic had brought a tire iron (wrong size for the lug nuts on the flat, but the right size to get the spare off), a crescent wrench, and the handle off an old socket set (no sockets though). Numerous efforts to combine this equipment in one fashion or another did not get us any further in loosening the lug nuts off the flat... and the mechanic kept looking at me with this incredulous look every time I asked him if he had access to a jack (the look conveyed the message "what the hell are you two doing up here without a jack?). It was a little humbling. After all of us tried a combination of the tools at hand to loosen the lug nuts, we did the one thing common to all men when faced with a situation of this nature... sit back, scratch your head and look around at the other guys scratching their heads. I had turned to Catherine and we were getting plans ready to abandon ship and catch a ride back to Candidasa when it appeared to me that one of the fellas got an idea, grabbed the aluminum tube and the ratchet handle and scooted away. The other fellas seemed contented by this display and we only waited about 10 minutes before he returned, with a confident look about him. He had taken the aluminum tube with the socket end and had drilled a hole through the other end of the tube which allowed the ratchet handle to slide through, allowing us to get a good grip on the lug nuts, and we began cranking. The aluminum to me looked like it would not withstand the force required to turn the nuts, but amazingly, it managed to get all 5 nuts off before it was completely mangled where the hole was drilled. The guy also managed to find the smallest hydraulic jack ever made, so we were able to get the Feroza off the ground just enough to get the spare on. Success!! At this point, much of the nearby village had heard of our plight and had come to lend some support, so there was much cheering, and many outstretched hands when I began to compensate the fellas who helped the most with this rescue... ahh well I am sure they all had a good laugh and a cold beer at the expense of the silly, unprepared tourists, but we managed to make it back down the volcano without any more incidents.





We decided to take it easy today and relax, get a massage and wait for our new vehicle to be delivered. I gotta say that even though we were given a piece of crap, the guys who runs the rental company has been excellent and he just dropped off a new (well looks like about a 2005) Toyota small van type thing, so we are ready for our next adventure... well after a day of massages and beers by the pool that is :)





We are off to Amed tomorrow and will be doing a couple of days of diving there as there is supposed to be a great wreck just offshore... chat with y'all then.





T n C

Monkeys and more

First, let chat a little about monkeys...

For those of you who know Catherine, you may have heard her refer to monkeys as "those little bastards". This comes from her past experiences with monkeys, however, my limited experiences have been very positive, and I generally refer to them as "cute". So we saddled up and headed towards one of Ubuds most popular attractions, the monkey forest, where the monkeys roam free as nature intended around beautiful temples and statues. You could buybananas for these furry little angels at the entrance, and with some hesitation, Catherine decided to buy 6 to hand out according to which monkeys were behaving the best. We put these bananas into our backpack and headed into the forest, where the little beasts were politely minding thier own business and appeared generally bored by our presence. We got a number of great photos, and after about 30 minutes, we decided that the monkeys had behaved well enough and did indeed deserve a treat of bananas.

Now heres where things got a little... well, lets say the general demeanor of the monkeys, or one in particular, changed somewhat. With the backpack on my back, Catherine unzipped the pouch containing the bananas, and as she pulled out the plastic bag they were in, a large grouchy male decided that ALL the bananas were his... he jumped on my back and grabbed the plastic bag of bananas from Catherines hand as she squealed and uttered something that sounded like "Buckin Trunk Keys!!" or something similar. The big male had taken the whole plastic bag full of bananas and was pretty intent on keeping it. Being a bigger male than him, I decided that I should valiantly protect my bride and retrieve said bananas... this was the monkeys response...

So we left the monkey reserve with dignities damaged and previous assumptions about monkeys restored. They are still a little bit cute though :)

Anyways, tonight will be our last night in Ubud. Beautiful city and I can easily see why people who visit this place often end up staying here. But we must move on... we have rented a vehicle and will be trying our hand at driving tomorrow to Candidasa, where we will spend a few days adventuring around the east side of Bali and maybe head up to one of the volcanoes.

Chat soon,

Tim and Cat

Hello Bali!

Hello again,

Well we had a great time on the Gili Islands! The weather was awesome, sunshine and mid 30's everyday, we did 10 dives between us both and met a great couple from Sydney to share after-dive Bintangs with :) It is kind of a shame leaving this little paradise but the journey must move on, so we booked ourselves a "fast boat" and said "Cya" to Gili T.

Now, we did actually make it to Bali, but it wasn't without a little adventure. Our boat that we had booked to take us to the harbour in Bali arrived an hour late, and when we finally did climb on board, there was a mechanical problem with the engines, so we sat on a hot boat in the noon sun for another hour before getting underway. But we did finally get things moving and got to the harbor in Bali around 1500hrs, where our A/C'd van was waiting. The 45 minute drive to our hotel allowed us to get a glimpse of the southern part of Bali, which seemed to be primarily small manufacturing shops, and was amazingly clean for a port town.

We arrived at our home for the next 4 days around 1600hrs, and once again, Catherine did a great job of finding the perfect place. Right now I am sitting on the deck of our villa overlooking a vast expanse of palm trees while 3 huge volcanos provide the backdrop. This pic really doesn't do it justice but...

We just returned from a little shopping excursion and are now both lounging about until its time for dinner. We plan to do the same thing tomorrow, maybe visit a monkey sanctuary too... rough :)

By the way, we have been keeping a close eye on things in Bangkok, and even though we were really safe when we were there, we have altered our travel plans a little to avoid going into the city again. This will likely blow over soon enough, but better safe than sorry, so don't get too worried about the news stories coming out of Bangkok, we wont be headed back there.

Chat soon,

Tim

Underwater paradise. Land isn't too bad either . . .

We are well into our third day of diving here on Gili Trawangan. We started this morning with a sunrise dive at 6am out to Shark Point - infortunately no sharks, but lots of early rising fish zipping about having breakfast, alothough we learned that the appx 3 foot trigger fish are not morning fish and were quite grumpy that they had people around so early. Yesterday was a spectacular diving day with a 2 meter manta ray, many sea turtles, and beautiful coral. Monday was the refresh day with Tim doing two dives and me refreshing skills in the pool before heading out in the afternoon to dive with turtles and even a baby black tipped reef shark. The island is gorgeous, the food amazing, and everyone is super friendly. We have been diving with a great couple from Australia that have been sharing in the underwater photo adventures - and the post dive Bintangs as well.

Tomorrow we head off to Bali and to the cultural centre of Ubud for some mountain time following our stay on this beautiful little white sand rimmed island. Now we're off to pick up our laundry and then back on the boat for our final dive out on the east side of Gili Air.

Ok Tim here... just think I should explain what looks like a shark attack at the end of that video of the manta. I have been sucking through my oxygen on these dives much faster than Catherine, so we were doing our safety stop when we saw the manta, and I had only 10 Bar of oxygen left. When our divemaster, Rusty, saw the ray, it was the first one he had seen in months, so he was really excited and wanted us to share air while we swam after the ray, but that didnt work out the way he planned, and I had to head to the surface. Still, it was awesome to just be in the water with this amazingly graceful critter... We'll post more from Ubud.