In Good Company

Figure 1 : Tanah Lot
And here I'm back from the amazing island of Bali. Though my quest for Mola Mola, also known as the sunfish has failed....the trip was nonetheless unforgettable. I was pretty glad how our group cliqued so well even though some of us started out as strangers...

Figure 2 : Lake and Volcano Mt. Batur

6 of us; Yu,Cal, TE and his 2 other friends, Bri and Ju together with myself departed on a Friday evening. While Ai n J would only be joining us for the dive trip 2 days later, we took a day trip out on Saturday. It was really awesome to see how the heritage was preserved throughout the whole island, the Balinese architecture and culture wasn't much affected by any modernisation occuring outside. The moment we reached the airport, we were greeted by friendly smiles. Balinese people are definitely much hospitable than any other Asians. We spent our first 2 nights in Legian, South Bali.








Figure 3 : Bedugul Temple (top)
Figure 4 & 5 : Flowers from the fruit farm

Our tour guide brought us to the lakes, mountains, waterfalls, temples and a fruit farm owned by his brother. There was a wide range of flowers and fruits ( orange, banana, passion fruit, chilli, coffee, etc ) in his farm and he generously plucked fruits from each species for us to bring back.

Figure 6: Tegallalang Rice Terrace
He brought us to the best Padi fields in Bali as well. There are padi fieds everywhere in Bali, but the ones we were shown seemed to be the greenest and healthiest. We were too busy taking pictures on each stop that we almost forgot about catching the sunset at 6pm at this temple called Tanah Lot (Figure 1). It is said to have the best sunset view in Bali. The places were far away from each other and even though our driver had tried to speed up, we missed the sun by a few minutes. The guide even apologised for that but we were happy to be able to travel with him.

On our 3rd day, we met Ai and J at the dive site and began to gear up. It was a shore dive and none of us has experience that before. There was no sandy shore, but stony beach. It was a long walk to the site and all of us were already a little exhausted with walking on the rough shore with our heavy weight belts.



So putting on fins in the water wasn't as easy as it seemed. I arranged the buddy system to ensure that the novice goes with the advanced. The Tulemben wreck was pretty "wrecked" and I couldn't recognise the parts of the ship other than the bow. The reef life there wasn't fantastic and visibility was not too good. But the wreck do looked nice underwater.

The 2nd dive was the Tulemben drop-off. It was a much better site than the first and we saw some school of jacks. Not the usual ones, but with yellow stripes.

The whole dive package includes 2 dives/day, so we headed towards our resort after the 2nd dive. The resort was cosy and well-quipped. It was near the beach and pretty quiet. We took some pictures around the beach and enjoyed the seabreeze. Meanwhile, Bri plucked a leaf from the coconut tree and folded it into a grasshopper. All of us were amazed and he began his origami lesson by the beach. Each of us had a leaf in our hands and we all managed to transformed it into a grasshopper under Bri's guidance...To me, it was a memorable scene...

We were all looking forward to our 3rd and 4th dive. It was meant to be a "Special Mola Mola Trip". But we were told beforehand that if the currents were too strong, we might change the site. Heaven was on our side. We proceeded to seek thrill in the chill: Crystal bay. Crystal Bay is known to have Mola Mola sightings as these elusive creatures thrive in cold waters ( 20-22 degrees celcius ). I've arranged for extra wetsuits for the ladies while I'd want to feel how cold it could be.



The water was indeed cold, but bearable, about 23 degrees. I guess I was too focused in looking out for the sunfish that I overlooked the small marine life among the beautiful corals. I surfaced in disappointment. Sensing my despair, the divemaster suggest the same site again after lunch. As the water was choppy, a few of them got seasick. Though the lunch box provided looked really delicious ( Nasi goreng with egg, peanuts and veg ),the rough water prevented me from whetting my appetite. 2 of the gals were turned off by the icy waters and their seasickness thus decided to abort the 2nd dive. I donned on a 2nd wetsuit to keep myself warmer.

And again, there were no molas... Most of us were demoralised and wondered why we went all the way there, spending so much money, bearing the cold just to see the stupid "sun". I was a bit dejected as the ladies do not really enjoy the dives as well. We did see the reef cuttle fish (left), an octopus, spotted-rays and shrimps...but that wasn't spectacular enough...

However, our day got brighter as all 8 of us squeezed into a 6-seater van for a tour around Candidasa, East Bali. The driver brought us to the local village, the Water Palace and Floating Palace, a temple and a supermarket. We settled our dinner in a Balinese restaurant and headed back.

We checked out of our resort early in the morning before going for our next dive in Nusa Penida. This time, we had a larger boat which is more stable in rough waters. Everyone hailed when we were told that the water temperature was higher : 26 degrees celcius. But that means there's no chance of catching the molas.


As we went down to about 26m, the cold currents swept by... Everyone was shivering on the boat. As we were splitted into 2 groups; the photographers and the novice.. the novice group were lucky enough to see some sharks and lobsters.They eventually grew more confident in the water and was looking forward to jump back in. Although my team missed the sharks, we were happy to see them getting back their enthusiasm after the previous days' dive.

I started swearing to myself on my last dive...The water was freezing 20 degrees. We weren't prepared for the cold and it was actually the first time I urged to surface. Time seemed to crawl below and when we finally surfaced, my whole body was numbed. The gals in the other team were very happy to be able to spot sharks again.

We headed back to Legian and realised that we had time to catch the sunset this time at Ulu Watu (left) , a temple sitting on the edge of a cliff. It was beautiful..but it'd have been a better view in Tanah lot, where the sun sets beside the temple.
The monkeys there were notorious, snatching people's glasses and Cal's rubberband.. As we've all been warned of this scenario in advance, we held on to our valuables tightly.

To wrap up the whole trip..we had our grand finale at a Chinese Seafood restaurant. We had been trying Balinese cuisine for the past few days and felt that it wasn't our cup of tea. The chicken meat were pretty tough and most of the stuff are grilled, which makes it very dry. So on the last night. we had a great feasting of prawns, fish, vegetables and the best of all - Chilli crab. That was the best chilli crab we've ever tasted. It was tasty and spicy with lots of chilli padi in the sauce, something that you rarely find in Sg. We've never felt so satisfied... A chilling out session followed at a nearby cafe before we hit the sack.


On our last day, we enjoyed shopping and haggling in the morning, afterwhich took a quick look at the Legian beach, 10 min away from our hotel, before departing. The strong waves attracted many surfers and the sea breeze gave me a calling....

I'll be back with the rest to catch the sunset at Tanah Lot, the chilli crab in the Chinese restaurant and the Mola Mola that I've missed. Dive till I find a Mola. Will be back the next season....