Our departure from Ubud was relaxing. We leisurely ate breakfast in the courtyard and chatted about our next location. While eating, we noticed a little photo shoot going on with two young ladies. This was the second time that we saw "modeling" photos being taken at the guesthouse. It was more involved than your usual selfie and took ample time, so we all watched and were intrigued. These were not professionals, and the whole thing seems quite ridiculous to me.
We were rolling by 10:00 am, and started the 2.5 hour trip up the east side of the island to Pemuteran. Along our road we could see rice fields and beautiful landscapes. Mountains were everywhere and in a few places we even saw monkeys along the side of the road.
View from the taxi taking us from Ubud to Pemuteran.
Katherine enjoying the ride.
When we arrived at the Liberty Dive Resort we were ready to dive. We signed the necessary paperwork and headed right to the USAT Liberty. Not to be confused with the "Liberty" class of ships, this is a United States Army Transport ship named the Liberty. It is a WW2 wreck right off the shore of the resort and is covered with life.
We loaded our gear here into bins that were then put on the truck.
The dive was amazing! Pics are below.
Lunch with a view of the pool.
Tommy noticed two police trucks. Not really, but the name Mr. Popo just sounds funny.
Each morning the trees dropped beautiful flowers. By lunchtime, the workers had swept them up only to fall again the next day.
Kleine Maus enjoying the local beauty.
That's me on the USAT Liberty wreck.
Photo bomb! Michael was trying to take a picture of us and then this happened.
Right off the wreck, on the return to shore, we passed through the eel garden.
Never seen this nudibranch before.
More nudis!
Cleaner shrimp
All the diving we did in the Pemuteran area was shore diving. Diving here was not the same operation as we are normally used to. We were assigned two guides (Made and Agus) that took us wherever we wanted to go, whenever we wanted to go, and would point out anything we specifically wanted to see. Each dive cost $30, and included Nitrox. Our first full day of diving we loaded up and did a four dive day. That really makes you tired, but with great food and time to rest, it is pretty smooth.
After each dive, we would come back to the resort for an iced tea or water, watermelon slices, and a dip in the fresh water pool. There were a few other dive groups coming and going and we would occasionally cross paths trading stories about what we saw. It was easy to change out camera batteries and jot down the info in our log books. Our guides made sure we knew exactly what we saw and were able to name it.
One of the things that is interesting about the area is that each dive site is set up with a range of facilities. Now remember, this is Indonesia, so the facilities have a rustic look, but to have them there at all felt downright fancy to us. There are fresh water showers, squat toilets, refreshments being sold, benches and shade, and even women that carry your tanks and gear for you and help you don it. These women are very tiny, and sometimes no longer young, and they strap your BCD with all your weights onto their back and then hoist a tank, or two, onto their heads and then balance it all as they walk through rock gardens to the shore. Very impressive!
After the last dive and dinner on our first day, we opted to get massages at the resort. Whew! We are sure glad that we did. They had open air massage tables set up on a terrace above the pool which made for a wonderful atmosphere. This became a "must" at the end of each day we were there, all for the bargain price of $15 per hour. We might as well take advantage of this while we can since back home there is no way we can afford it.
This dive site was only a gentle sloping black sand bottom with scattered rocks. But under closer inspection, there were small gems to be found everywhere. It was so good that we came back a second time, and then third time.
A leaf scorpion fish
Can you spot the frog fish?
Mantis Shrimp with a clutch of eggs
Katherine descending over the bow of the Kubu wreck.
Anemone fish in his humongous anemone
Humphead parrotfish
Two of the days while diving Tommy could be seen doing this above. Yup, snorkeling like a madman checking out the sea-life in the shallows. It was exciting to hear his stories since he was seeing new critters everywhere. We traded information and much of what he saw was blowing his mind. He was able to get down to a lot of the Liberty wreck and see some of the same stuff as us. The only bad thing about floating up there is the sun can wreck you. He had to cover up and watch out.
The Liberty Dive Resort has a huge menu and great food. They even had three large TV's with World Cup soccer. Can it get any better?
Some folks were doing night dives. Normally, we would too, but sometimes we wimp out since we are so tired.
The resort at night was quite stunning. My favorite is checking out the Southern Cross constellation. It is only visible from the southern hemisphere which is a nice treat.
Now it was time to say goodbye to the Liberty Dive Resort and say goodbye to Michael. He had to head back to Denpasar and catch his flight to Singapore and then to the USA. For Katherine, Tommy, and myself, we were headed to Lombok, the large island to the east of Bali for some surfing and fun. Diving at the Liberty and surrounding dive sites is something to come back for! We were very impressed with the macro life. During Katherine's research for the trip, she read several times that the diving in Bali is not very good, and to skip it and head to one of the other islands. We were seeing leaf scorpion fish, giant scorpion fish, pygmy seahorses, harlequin shrimp, mantis shrimp, wonderpus octopus, and many more weird and wonderful creatures during a single dive. If this is bad diving, I cannot wait to see what the rest of Indonesia has in store. We highly recommend both the Liberty Dive Resort and the sites around Tulamben. If you decide to skip it though, that will be OK with us, since we like to have the sites to ourselves. Next time, we plan to drag our other dive pals and make a giant underwater party out of it.
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