A Glimpse of Bali: Luxurious resort, spectacular micro and macro sea life and intense security

Admittedly, Bali hasn’t been at the top of my list for tourist destinations.  My impression was that Bali, Indonesia is to young college-aged Australians what Tijuana, Mexico is to young college-aged Americans on Spring Break.  Where it’s not so much about Bali as a destination but more the fact that everything is super cheap and it’s full of night clubs that caters to young people with relaxed drinking laws.

I was also nervous about travelling to Bali on my own for safety reasons.  There’s been a number of books I’ve seen on the “top sellers” list in book stores on people imprisoned for trafficking drugs in Bali, some as a result of the drugs being planted on them as they headed to the airport (Note: Upon entry at the Bali airport there are signs that state that drug traffickers can be charged with the death penalty).  While I wasn’t living in Australia in 2002, I do remember the international media coverage from the Bali bombings that killed over 200 people in town of Kuta, mostly tourists and the majority Australians.

                                                                                                       

Yet when my friend Emily said she was going to be in Bali for a Digital Media Conference the same week as ANZAC Day, I decided to join her at the conclusion of her conference and we made a long weekend of the trip (April 24-28).

The first night we stayed at this amazing resort called the Conrad Bali Resort and Spa which has numerous pools and is right on a fantastic beach. Then on April 25, we headed to the town of Seminyak that is the high-end touristy areas well known for its luxurious hotels, shopping and spas where we checked into The Villas Seminyak.

We’d booked a 2 bedroom villa with a private pool, however, when we arrived to check-in we were informed that we’d been upgraded to a 3 bedroom villa. Frankly, my first thought was that there’s just the two of us, what benefit was 3 bedrooms? But upton visiting the villa we learned that the benefit is a larger garden and pool in the villa.  Take a look at this tour of the villa, it’s an AMAZING villa! And on top of the villa, each morning two chefs came into cook us breakfast of our choosing!  The day we arrived we headed to a boutique grocery store to buy wine, cheese, salami and other treats and we basically spent the afternoon luxuriating in our private villa.

In the evening we checked out Potato Head which is a top beach club with a bar and restaurant which was pretty mellow with a small-ish crowd as we were in the off-season.  There was a nice pool, lots of day beds that reminded me of Miami Beach, Florida and fantastically creative cocktails and meals.

As we experienced at Potato Head and every time we took a cab to a night club or hotel, there was pretty extensive security, they checked the cab driver, our purses, looked in the truck of the cab and used a mirror to check the under carriage of the cab before allowing us in.

Early on Fri. April 26, Bali Dive Adventure picked us up and drove 2.5 hours to Tulamben to dive the 120 meter US Liberty Ship Wreck which we approached from the beach.  

Dive # 175: Tulamben US Liberty Ship Wreck

44 minutes, 27.7 meters (about 90 feet) in 29 degrees C

Black garden eels at the start, before we saw the US Liberty which was sunk on Jan. 9, 1945 in WW2. It’s at a 90 degree angle so it’s depth ranges from 5 m to 30 meters.  On this dive we dove to the middle of the wreck and then headed towards the back.  At the very end of the dive, we saw a very small, red frog fish.

Dive # 176: Tulamben US Liberty Ship Wreck

47 minutes, 22.3 meters in 30 degrees C

We went back to the middle of the boat then headed to the front part of the ship.  When we first approached the wreck, we came across a giant Bali turtle chewing coral on the side of the boat.

Aside from the scuba diving, the most memorable land-based activity I saw was how the locals who carried all of our scuba gear and tanks from our vans in the parking lot down to the beach on this 100 meter dirt path. I struggle to carry just one tank with both hands, but I saw a tiny Balinese women balance a scuba tank on a towel on the top of her head and carried bags of gear in each hand. Another lady balanced one tank on her head and one on each shoulder.

It was a very long drive 2.5 hours each way, but it did give us a good look at the country-side.  Emily enjoyed the snorkeling and did the most swimming as she swam the full length of the boat twice and explored beyond the wreck to the coral at the head of the beach. 

After an early start and a great day of diving and snorkeling we headed to the W Hotel’s Woobar for drinks.  It was a gorgeous resort with a hip bar, but there was a very minimal crowd so the vibe was pretty slow and unlively.

On Sat. April 27, we took a Bali Hai Catamaran day trip to Lembongan Island where Emily relaxed and sun bathed and I took advantage of Dive Bali Hai’s taking divers to two dive sites.

Dive #177: Manta Ray Point

38 min, 10.7 meters in 27 degrees C

At the very start of the dive we saw a very large manta ray (there were supposedly two, but I only saw the one). The rest of the dive was very boring as the manta rays didn’t come back and there wasn’t much else to see in that area, no coral, very flat.

Dive #178: Crystal Garden

43 minutes,  average depth of 13.4 meters, max depth of 26 meters in 29 degrees C

Lots of beautiful small fish. Evidently Lembongan Island is well known for sunfish in April, but we didn’t see any unfortunately.

There was a live band on the Catamaran which took requests so we suggested Brown Eyed Girl and California Dreaming. As Emily’s flight left later that night, we had an early dinner and drinks at Ku De Ta, a very up scale restaurant which had very good dumplings and sushi rolls and yummy cocktail drinks.

On my final day in Bali, I shopped Seminyak. There were streets and streets of shops and restaurants and cafes. There was one place a friend told me about “2^nd Skin” that did custom made leather jackets but it was closed which was disappointing. Then just before I had to depart for the airport, I enjoyed a spa treatment at Prana.

Our villa in Seminyak with the private pool in the background.

Here's a view from the US Liberty in Tumberlan.

I love the beautiful colors on the reef in Tumberlan.

Here's a map of the USAT Liberty ship wreck that we dived and snorkled.

Can you see the giant Bali turtle chewing on the coral on the USAT Liberty Ship Wreck?

My dive master spotted this tiny, tiny nudibranch. I couldn't believe she was able to spot this, I had to look very hard to see what she was pointing out.

I little bit later, I spotted this nudibranch, it was about 4x the size of the above an easier to spot.

This is on the Manta Ray Point dive, can you see the manta ray near the surface?

This is the fish that's got a "salon-pas" which is a smelly white patch with medicine on it that relieves muscle aches. My Dad uses salon-pas quite a lot and you can tell immediately from that very distinctive medicinal smell. I don't know the name of this fish, but my Japanese master told me the nick name and it's stuck!

Emily and I are about to board the Bali Hai II Catamaran to Lembongan Island.

 This is a frog fish, also very small. The finding and identification of this frog fish goes to my dive master Rieko Minagawa.

As I shopped in Seminyak, I kept a very sharp eye on the sidewalk as there are MASSIVE holes in the sidewalk that could literally break your ankle or worse!