Getting Stuck, Getting Unstuck, and Why Quickly Ripping the Band-Aid Off Isn't Always the Best Way To Do It. - Part I: Getting Stuck

This post is overdue. In fact, all of my upcoming posts are overdue. For the majority of the trip, I've been pretty good about getting posts out regularly, usually with a new one coming every 2-3 days. It's been three weeks since I've posted anything (I started writing about how we went to a water park, but I couldn't find a way to finish it. I'll probably get around to it, but for now, I'll leave it as is).

Usually, I get a bit antsy if I haven't published anything after a few days. It might seem strange but this blog has given me a sense of normality and familiarity during a period of constant change and movement in my life over the past six months. It's been the metronome keeping me in time with my life, giving me the downbeat when each new measure begins in our journey. For me to neglect it felt out of place, yet the events of the past three weeks have given good reason to pause. Now that I've moved on, I'm finally beginning to process it all. Here's my attempt at explaining it.

Nathalie and I had returned from our liveaboard trip in Komodo and, after spending a fun Saturday at the Waterbom water park outside of Kuta, we decided it was time to go exploring again. We worked our way over to the eastern side of the island to a town called Sanur.

Sanur isn't all too special other than it being a smaller version of Kuta and was a bit more laid back and less commercial than it's bigger neighbor to the west. We had come there in part to see another side of the island and in part to try and learn how to kitesurf. We gave surfing a try back in the Philippines but as you might remember (or can read about here), that didn't pan out the way we thought it would. We've done lots of diving but I wanted to learn an activity I could do on the surface.

We went and found a kitesurfing school, had a chat with the staff and decided to sleep on it to decide if we were willing to commit the time and money to learn. We explored Sanur as much as we could (it's really not all that big), and after giving kitesurfing a good night's thought, we decided that we'd rather wait on it and go diving instead. After all, we can kitesurf back in Belgium and northern Europe and as we won't be back there until the winter, we agreed to postpone it until then. Additionally, we won't be in this part of the world all that much longer and we would feel like it would be a waste if we didn't take advantage of exploring the coral triangle in Bali.

Luckily for us, Sanur is not only a big diving hub but is also the main port to Nusa Lembongan, a sleepy island a short boat ride from Bali home to 16 great dive sites and excellent surf. We talked to the hotel and they were able to arrange a transfer for us to Lembongan.

We got taken by shuttle from the hotel to the port, and after purchasing our tickets and checking in, we were scuttled over to the ferry. The boat we would be using was a speedboat, intended to jet across the water at high speeds (as you would expect from a speedboat). The journey took only 30 minutes and despite the sea being quite rough, we made it in one piece.

Fishing boats in Lembongan, with harvested seaweed drying on the beach

There is no dock in Lembongan and instead of rolling up to a port, the boat simply turned around and backed as close to the beach as it could get before grounding itself. We were left to wade the last 30 feet/10 meters to the sand. On the way in, we booked a hotel, which as it would turn out, was right in front of the shore . Going through the same check-in routine that we've gone through the past six months, we found our room and proceeded to head out along the beach to find a dive center to go diving with the next day.

As it would turn out, there are really only three activities you can do in Lembongan: dive/snorkel, surf, and sit on the beach. Given this short list of activities, it would only be fitting that there are a plethora of both surfing and diving shops scattered throughout out the island offering lessons, rentals and every service in between. Moving slowly up the coast, we started gathering our sample of dive centers, collecting information, observing how they worked and checking prices.

After nearly an hour of looking, we wound up at a small dive center called “Drift Divers Lembongan.” We got to talking to the manager, a fearless young Brazilian by the name of Taissa. We were drawn to this shop through two factors:

1) It was small. We don't really care to go to big dive centers if we can help it as we find the care a little impersonal (our experience in Ko Tao was an exception to this). Drift Divers is small, having only a single room office and a small equipment room. And

2) Taissa was easy to talk to and seemed enthusiastic about her work. This energy is probably what sold us as we're looking for people who are passionate about their work and excited to share with us the joys of diving the sites around Lembongan.

Now this isn't to say that the other dive centers didn't possess any of these same qualities, but we were more drawn to Drift Divers for this reason. It also helped that the prices for the dives were very reasonable. We signed up for two dives for the next morning and spent the rest of the day chilling around our hotel.

Our first impression of Lembongan wasn't exactly the greatest. The island is small (only 8 square miles/21 square km), and within it are poorly maintained roads with no cars, little infrastructure and one, 'MasterCard-Only' ATM. The weather was gloomy and it really felt like a ghost town. We told ourselves we'd do one dive day, see how we felt, and, most likely, leave the day after. That didn't quite pan out the way we expected.

The next morning, we headed over to the dive center and got geared up. We were the only two people signed up for the morning dives and Taissa would be going with us. The beach front of Lembongan is protected by a reef, 500 meters/1,600 feet away from the shore. Loading up onto the boat in front of the shop, we slowly motored through the seaweed farms next to the beach, clearing the reef in between the large breaks filled with surfers riding 2 meter/6 feet high waves. Our twin engine outboard schooner took us on the short 25 minute journey adjacent to the coast out to the first dive site.

Mola-Mola! (photo credit: Taissa)

MBefore jumping in the water, Taissa briefed us on what to expect during the dive. This included both the path we would take along with what we would see underwater. Along with the multitude of tropical fish and creatures Indonesia's waters are known for, many divers came to Lembongan in hopes of sighting the ever-elusive mola-mola. Unaware of this, Nathalie and I shrugged it off, checked each others gear and, following Taissa began the dive.

As it would turn out, a mola-mola turned up 10 minutes into the dive. Puzzled by Taissa's excitement and trying to figure out what the hell I was looking at, she gave me the hand signal for the mola-mola (it's the same as “surf's up,” if that gives you any reference). I've put a picture here on the side, but the best way I could describe it is that a mola-mola looks like the offspring of a shark and a puffer fish that was run over by a steamroller. Yeah, it's weird.

We continued the dive, seeing scorpion fish, lion fish, and a giant trevally. When we got back to the surface, I asked Taissa what that ugly fish was that she got so excited about. She gave me a look of bewilderment and told me it was a mola-mola. As it would turn out, they are incredibly rare to see with some dive instructors on the island done 600 dives and never once seen one. I guess we were beyond lucky on that one. We did our surface interval (you need to give your body time to release nitrogen in between dives) and, after warming up with coffee on the boat, geared up for the second dive of the day.

Lion fish (photo credit Taissa)

This one was just as good as the last, with us seeing a mantis shrimp (fun fact: they can break reinforced glass), big puffer fish, and schools of oriental sweetlips (that's a name of a fish and not just a bar in Pattaya, Thailand). Before we finished the dive, we did our safety stop. For those of you not familiar with it, a safety stop is done almost whenever possible at the end of a dive. Divers stay at a depth of around 5m/15ft for three minutes to allow the body to decompress and avoid injury. Right as this finished, a giant eagle ray shows up and starts observing us. Delighted, we checked out air, and having enough, we dropped back down to watch the ray. Intrigued by three divers, he spent the better part of five minutes swooping around us and trying to figure us out. We laid low and calm and watched in awe as he flew around. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but watching a ray in water is a delightful experience as they just move gracefully through the sea. Once he disappeared, we did another safety stop and returned to the boat.

Heading back to shore, we were all smiles. At the shop, we were given lunch at the adjacent restaurant. Content with the way the day went, we went back to the office and signed up for two more dives. That afternoon, mellowed out by the awesome dives and sunny weather, we decided to chill on the beach, enjoy the sea air, and take in one of the many happy hours while watching the sunset over Bali. Maybe this island wasn't so bad after all.

We decided that we would give the island another day meaning that we would need to either extend our hotel or check out and find a new one. Not exactly thrilled with the room we had and wanting to move closer to the dive center (we were a good 20 minutes on foot from the hotel to the shop), we decided to check out and try and find a place the next day after diving.

Morning rolled around again and we headed over to Drift Divers, all of our belongs on our backs, and got ready for the next two dives. We were heading out to the infamous Manta Point to try and see a manta ray and then off to the nearby Crystal Bay to do more diving. Once again, we were lucky and with the help of Taissa, who was also guiding us that day, we were treated to a near-private viewing of four mantas. Again, rays are a delight to watch underwater and having a creature the size of a sedan fly over you is a pure thrill. We spent a fabulous 45 minutes watching the mantas and afterwards completed the second dive of the day.

Back on land, Nathalie and I went looking for a new hotel. We found a room right next door to the dive center. Feeling that there was something special about Lembongan, we booked two more nights. This wouldn't be the first time we'd extend our stay on the island.  To be continued...