Well, I've been living in Indonesia since August and I have not written much about the diving here, mainly because I haven't done too much yet. I've been very busy adapting to Jakarta and my new job, teaching swimming, English, and Tae Kwon Do in an international school.
I did some diving in the 1000 Islands north of Jakarta a few times, plus on the west coast. Quite nice I have to say.
I have been in Bali for a few weeks, staying in Kuta, learning to surf (sort of, more like learning how to fall down), meeting people, partying, and getting even more tanned than usual!
I just got back from 4 days on an island called Nusa Lembongan; a small island east of Bali that is very relaxed and "off the map" so to speak. The hotel room on the beach cost 50,000 Rp per night (around 6$ US), and I went out on the scuba trips as a snorkeller for the same amount of money.
I would hide my fin until the last possible moment from the scuba divers so that I could do my pack-stretches, statics, and meditation in peace. If you are a monofin diver or a long bi-fin diver, you know what happens as soon as they see them!! Lots of questions; "how long, how deep, why?", etc, which I am always happy to explain after diving.
The first day was on a 45 degree reef that dropped off very deep. There was a 2 knot current, and I covered a few miles in the hour and a half that I dove into the mass of life that exists here. Usually one sees lots of fish on a reef, which is the case here, but even when I would venture away from he sloped reef so as to get a few 40 metre dives in, I would find myself swimming through a huge volume of bio-mass: fish everywhere, everywhere! A first for me, and this was always the case near Lembongan for all my dives.
I wasn't too happy about the drift dive; these are fine for scubadiving, but not my cup of tea. I have scubadived in 12 knot current in West Coast Canada in a drysuit with twin steels on my back, which was fun, but now I am a freediver, and want peace and tranquility! Maybe I'm just getting old
The next few days of diving were all tranquil. I averaged 3 min up, 2:15 down pretty much all the time.
I found a cave at 18 metres that was just big enough that I could get in and turn around tightly....it went further, but I didn't want the mono to get stuck. I would go inside the cave, turn around, look out, then a huge school of red squirrel fish would make their way back in the cave, joining me in silence. Very nice!
I am back in Kuta now waiting for some friends from Canada to arrive, then we will go back to Nusa Lembongan.
This time I will hopefully get to do some hunting, as a local spearfisherman has offered to rent me a gun!
Cheers to all,
Erik Y.
I did some diving in the 1000 Islands north of Jakarta a few times, plus on the west coast. Quite nice I have to say.
I have been in Bali for a few weeks, staying in Kuta, learning to surf (sort of, more like learning how to fall down), meeting people, partying, and getting even more tanned than usual!
I just got back from 4 days on an island called Nusa Lembongan; a small island east of Bali that is very relaxed and "off the map" so to speak. The hotel room on the beach cost 50,000 Rp per night (around 6$ US), and I went out on the scuba trips as a snorkeller for the same amount of money.
I would hide my fin until the last possible moment from the scuba divers so that I could do my pack-stretches, statics, and meditation in peace. If you are a monofin diver or a long bi-fin diver, you know what happens as soon as they see them!! Lots of questions; "how long, how deep, why?", etc, which I am always happy to explain after diving.
The first day was on a 45 degree reef that dropped off very deep. There was a 2 knot current, and I covered a few miles in the hour and a half that I dove into the mass of life that exists here. Usually one sees lots of fish on a reef, which is the case here, but even when I would venture away from he sloped reef so as to get a few 40 metre dives in, I would find myself swimming through a huge volume of bio-mass: fish everywhere, everywhere! A first for me, and this was always the case near Lembongan for all my dives.
I wasn't too happy about the drift dive; these are fine for scubadiving, but not my cup of tea. I have scubadived in 12 knot current in West Coast Canada in a drysuit with twin steels on my back, which was fun, but now I am a freediver, and want peace and tranquility! Maybe I'm just getting old
The next few days of diving were all tranquil. I averaged 3 min up, 2:15 down pretty much all the time.
I found a cave at 18 metres that was just big enough that I could get in and turn around tightly....it went further, but I didn't want the mono to get stuck. I would go inside the cave, turn around, look out, then a huge school of red squirrel fish would make their way back in the cave, joining me in silence. Very nice!
I am back in Kuta now waiting for some friends from Canada to arrive, then we will go back to Nusa Lembongan.
This time I will hopefully get to do some hunting, as a local spearfisherman has offered to rent me a gun!
Cheers to all,
Erik Y.
