Bali
Dolphins!!
In the past little while we've been travelling around Bali. It seems that if you don't have your own car there, it's not so much where you want to go, as where the bus wants to take you. They also seem to have 3 bus stations in the major towns, which makes transferring buses a major hassle. Upon arrival at the airport in Kuta, we wanted to avoid the crowds and travel to Amed that afternoon. The snorkling there is supposed to be superb. Amed, being maybe 60 km from the airport, we thought this was pretty reasonable. The people at the bus station thought no though, and even after sitting on a transfer bus for 20 minutes, herded us onto a bus and said "You go to Padangbai." So we went to Padangbai.
It turned out to be a cute little place with both black and white sand beaches about 1 km in each direction. Next, we were off to Tulumben to snorkel around the USS Liberty, an American cargo ship that sank in 1942 (we think). The boat was only 20 m offshore, and really close to the surface and was covered in coral and surrounded by fishies. The mast, front and deck were clearly visible, and those stumps that you tie the rope to on the dock (forgive my boat lingo).
Our last stop in Bali was Lovina, which is famed for its black beaches and trips to see incredible coral. The snorkling trip definitely took us to see the most extensive and colourful coral we've seen on our trip. The third thing that attracts visitors are trips out to see the dolphins, so we woke up at 5:45 am to catch the sunrise and some dolphins... but no dolphins. Our boat man kept telling us how there were hundreds out there and we thought sure.. hundreds... and we can't even see one. Nevertheless, we tried again the next day, trekking out before the sun got up, and we're driving, driving, driving, giving up hope on ever seeing these dolphins, when the boatman gets really excited "OH look! there's two!" For a few seconds we think, oh, two dolphins, huh, where are the other 198? But that was shortlived as we were soon surrounded by zillions of dolphins swimming in packs, some showing off and jumping like at Marineland.... it was really amazing. We followed the dolphins all the way back to our beach, and Sara's been dreaming of dolphins since then.
We're now in Java... we had big plans, but Mt Bromo and Mt Merapi seem to be a tad unstable, and Yogyakarta still has big piles of rubble from the earthquake. Dave's really excited to go to the ballet tomorrow. :P
In the past little while we've been travelling around Bali. It seems that if you don't have your own car there, it's not so much where you want to go, as where the bus wants to take you. They also seem to have 3 bus stations in the major towns, which makes transferring buses a major hassle. Upon arrival at the airport in Kuta, we wanted to avoid the crowds and travel to Amed that afternoon. The snorkling there is supposed to be superb. Amed, being maybe 60 km from the airport, we thought this was pretty reasonable. The people at the bus station thought no though, and even after sitting on a transfer bus for 20 minutes, herded us onto a bus and said "You go to Padangbai." So we went to Padangbai.
It turned out to be a cute little place with both black and white sand beaches about 1 km in each direction. Next, we were off to Tulumben to snorkel around the USS Liberty, an American cargo ship that sank in 1942 (we think). The boat was only 20 m offshore, and really close to the surface and was covered in coral and surrounded by fishies. The mast, front and deck were clearly visible, and those stumps that you tie the rope to on the dock (forgive my boat lingo).
Our last stop in Bali was Lovina, which is famed for its black beaches and trips to see incredible coral. The snorkling trip definitely took us to see the most extensive and colourful coral we've seen on our trip. The third thing that attracts visitors are trips out to see the dolphins, so we woke up at 5:45 am to catch the sunrise and some dolphins... but no dolphins. Our boat man kept telling us how there were hundreds out there and we thought sure.. hundreds... and we can't even see one. Nevertheless, we tried again the next day, trekking out before the sun got up, and we're driving, driving, driving, giving up hope on ever seeing these dolphins, when the boatman gets really excited "OH look! there's two!" For a few seconds we think, oh, two dolphins, huh, where are the other 198? But that was shortlived as we were soon surrounded by zillions of dolphins swimming in packs, some showing off and jumping like at Marineland.... it was really amazing. We followed the dolphins all the way back to our beach, and Sara's been dreaming of dolphins since then.
We're now in Java... we had big plans, but Mt Bromo and Mt Merapi seem to be a tad unstable, and Yogyakarta still has big piles of rubble from the earthquake. Dave's really excited to go to the ballet tomorrow. :P
posted by Sara and Dave at 9/11/2006 08:39:00 a.m.
1 Comments:
Dolphins!
Did I ever tell you about how my family went on one of those boat tours to see whales, and we didn't see hardly anything? The Chan family now doesn't even BELIEVE in whales.
yah, your trip sounds like the exact opposite of that.
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