Bail 2023 –ramblings and photos

[londonsean69]

Warning: Most of the following ramblings were produced while off gassing with several Bintang. There are a reasonable number of words, so if you enjoy the Daily Hate Mail, just look at the pretty pictures

Preamble
It has been 5 years since we went abroad on a dive trip, coincidentally that included Bali, but only as a stopping-off point on the way to/from Nusa Lembongan.

Obviously, due to Covid, travel has been on the back burner, but we did manage to get to Kruger National Park in February, after having it cancelled three times during the pandemic.

Anyway, I was drunkenly perusing Google flights one evening, and noticed there were flights to Dominican Republic for a reasonable price. A bit more digging and I found flights to Bali at a decent enough price. So, Dom Rep - cheaper flight, more expensive everything else. Or Bali – more expensive and longer flights, cheaper everything else. Given my penchant for macro, and the title, you can guess which I picked.

It is a fair old distance to travel for just 2 weeks. Indeed, we try to go away for 3 weeks at a time, but the current contract I am working on is very busy, and I can’t leave the Etch-a-Sketch knob twiddlers unsupervised for too long!

Getting there
Nobody flies direct from the UK to Bali, and anything other than economy class from the UK is ££££. So, wifey and I started in Sweden, where we picked up business class flights to Bali with Thai Airways for around £2k each (much better than £4k each for starting in the UK).

First off, a quick hop with Norwegian to Stockholm, and an overnight stay in the Radisson airport hotel. Baggage allowance was 2x 23 kg each in the hold, plus 15 kg in the cabin. We only ended up with one hold bag each, of around 22 kg, plus we were under on the cabin baggage.

Thai Airways from Stockholm to Bangkok was 11 hours on an A350, which was a new aircraft for us. It was nice enough, although the overall service from the cabin crew left a lot to be desired. We then had 4 hours in the lounge in Bangkok before the 4-hour flight to Bali, which was meant to be on a 777. However, a last-minute equipment change meant we were on a Dreamliner, which was another new aircraft for us. Unfortunately, due to the last-minute change our pair seating was now one behind the other in the window seats. Given most people sharing the middle seats appeared to be strangers to one another, I am sure Thai could have figured it out for us to be able to sit next to each other. Baggage allowance was 40 kg each in the hold, plus a measly 7 kg in the cabin. I was well over on cabin baggage, as I had both sets of camera kit setup as a basic single strobe configuration. However, as it was a rucksack, the staff didn’t even bother looking at it. Wifey also had spare capacity, so if we had to rejig, we could have.


A nice enough way to fly

I appreciate it is extravagant to fly long haul business, but at 6ft 4, I do not want to spend 15 hours folded into an economy class seat. Been there, done that, and I value my comfort now more than when I was younger. Starting in Europe does add extra faff, but, even when considering the cost of the extra flights and accommodation, it saves a massive amount of money. Also, the journey is all part of the experience, so why not make it pleasant, rather than something to be endured?

The driver met us at the airport and whisked us off to our home for the next 12 nights, Matahari Tulamben Resort. Alas, due to a massive cremation ceremony/street party, the 2hr15 drive took around 3hr30.

Why Tulamben?
We have both dived here before, way back in 2008, and I always felt like I had unfinished business there, as it is where I managed to get bent on the second dive of a 3-month long trip ☹

We did look at doing a twin-centre trip, with half of the time spent on Nusa Penida for the Mantas and Mola-molas, but we decided to simplify and stick with Tulamben. We also considered some time in Padang Bai, about an hour south of Tulamben, but discounted it for no particular reason.

Tulamben is most well-known for the USAT Liberty wreck. Located about 40m from the shore, it ranges from 5m down to around 28m. However, Tulamben also has loads of macro life, and as you will know if you have read my previous ramblings, I love shooting macro underwater.

It is a quiet village, basically a road with some dive centres and hotels either side. I expected it to be much busier than it was in 2008, and while the number of divers seemed greater, there doesn’t seem to be more restaurants or dive centres. There are, however, a lot that have popped up but now appear to be shut down, probably due to covid.


The village

The resort
Matahari is right on the water, and they have built their own dive site in front of the resort, Suci’s place, named after the owner. They have placed various statues, shrines, and structures to encourage coral growth and give the fish and critters plenty of places to live.


Dive centre, right on the beach

As noted above, the room we had was clean, comfortable, and had AC, which is welcome when the average temperature was 31c in the day, and around 25c at night.


The resort


Pool, from the restaurant

Matahari is at the budget end of the scale in Tulamben, but the room was clean, comfortable, and keenly priced. The air con was cold, and the showers were hot. IMO it represents good value for money for those who are here to dive, although they do offer a variety of different massages/spas/pampering, if you or your partner are into that sort of thing.

For our last night on the island, we moved to a hotel next to the airport (The Patra Hotel) so we could have a lie-in and leisurely breakfast before the flights home. Given the fairly regular traffic issues, it also removes a lot of stress of trying to get the airport at a certain time, battling through hordes of other vehicles. TBH, I have never stayed in a worse organised hotel in my life and would look elsewhere if you want to stay near the airport.

The diving
There is a schedule, with dives at 0630, 1000, 1230, 1500, plus a night dive at 1800. We typically did 1000, 1230, and 1500. However, this always felt a bit rushed, particularly between the end of the 1230 dive and the start of the 1500, as you are changing batteries on a couple of camera setups, plus trying to jam some lunch in. When we went to the ‘macro’ sites a bit further away, we left the resort at 0900 and would do 2 dives with an hour’s surface interval, being back at the resort around 1230.

We repeated a lot of sites, which for me is a good thing. By going back to the same site repeatedly, you get to know the layout of the site, where certain critters can be found, and can go in and experiment with underwater photography, be that using a snoot or trying some supermacro.

The shore entries in Tulamben can be a little tricky. Scrub that, they are a pain in the backside! There are large round pebbles that are awkward when wading in with full kit. Thankfully, dive kit is ferried to the site by the local ladies, who just stride over the pebbles/boulders in a pair of flip flops with a kitted cylinder balanced on their head, laughing at our soft Western feet.

The water was 28c on every dive, with the odd thermocline, so a 3mm suit was enough. I did bring a hooded vest as well, simply because I would be doing three dives some days, and when doing macro photography, there are not massive amounts of finning involved. It is quite easy to spend an hour in an area about 50x50m. However, I didn’t feel cold enough to bother using it. Wifey used a 3mm full suit as well.

Unfortunately, just a few days into our stay a fairly fresh onshore wind picked up, which caused a reasonable amount of surge and waves to be present. This, coupled with the rocks, made entry and exit very tricky at times.

[londonsean69]

Dive sites
Suci’s Place (house reef)
7 dives here.

Sited right in front of the resort, you simply wade into the water where you are met with a typical (for Bali) rubble and sand slope with coral outcrops. Matahari’s team have placed a bunch of sculptures and various structures to provide habitats for fish, coral, and critters.

It is a site where you can pick your depth, from 3m to wherever you fancy on the slope. Given the proximity to the Drop Off, these sites are often combined.

We had hoped to dive this more often, but with the onshore wind making life difficult, we found other sites to be better for getting in and out.


Mantis shrimp


Leaf scorpionfish


Seastar on a typical rubble slope


Leaf scorpionfish in a fetching shade of hot pink


Soft coral growth on one of the structures


Inspect a cushion star and you usually find one of these


Raaaaar says the moray


A turtle makes a change from the macro shizz


Back to macro with a soft coral crab

USAT Liberty
2 dives here.

This is not a hardcore wreck dive; you can snorkel it if you want and still see loads. The wreck is covered in life. It is better diving it either early or late in the day, as that avoids the day trippers who get bussed in to dive it from other parts of Bali. With depths from 2m to 28m depending on tides, wide open swim throughs, and the previously mentioned life, it is a great dive for all levels of diver. It also makes for a nice night dive.

To be honest, for me, it’s an artificial reef covered in life, rather than a wreck dive. It’s OK as a wreck, there are some bits that resemble parts of a ship, but I just didn’t feel the urge to dive it as often as the other more local sites, as the critters are about the same.


Scorpionfish doing its best to blend in


Plenty of hard and soft corals adorn the wreck


More coral, on a mast


Soft coral


Large pufferfish on a night dive


Handle for something

Drop-off
7 dives here.

Shore entry local to the resort, this site is often combined with Suci’s Place. As the name suggests, it is a reef that drops off to 40m+. Plenty of fish, lots of anemones with their resident anemonefish, and lots of macro if you look a bit harder, particularly on the sandy slope to the side of the reef.

We were fortunate to see a small (~1 m) black-tipped shark, which the guide was made up about as he hadn’t seen a shark in Tulamben for a couple of years. Naturally, I was in full macro mode, so no photos.


Goniobranchus kuniei


Phyllidia ocellata


Ribbon eel


The beautifully ugly, and impressively venomous Inimicus


Whip coral shrimps


Tambja olivaria


Bubble coral shrimp


Hard coral


Goniobranchus hintuanensis

[londonsean69]

Melasti
4 dives here.

This is a shore entry site reached by a short car ride. It is a sand/rubble slope with a few scattered rocks and is covered with macro life. The entry here is a lot easier than in Tulamben as the pebbles are smaller. Although, we did first dive it when there were some waves, which made entry and exit a bit tricky.


Costasiella (Shaun the Sheep)


False eye Toby


Emperor shrimp on Mexichromis multituberculata


Jorunna funebris


Tiger shrimp


Doto greenamyeri


A 4 way orgy of Mexichromis multituberculata


Frogfish


A different Costasiella, confused with Stiliger

Batu Niti
4 dives here.

Just a few minutes’ drive down the road from Melasti, this is another shore entry site. It is another sand/rubble slope with a few scattered rocks and is covered with macro life. The waves had actually increased from Melasti, which made the entry and exit a little challenging, particularly when carrying a twin strobe camera rig. The second day diving it, the conditions were much better, but the site was also a lot busier as a result. It is actually an epic macro site; we had an hour’s dive that consisted of going from rarity to rarity.


Ornate ghost pipefish


Goniobranchus hintuanensis


Clown frogfish


Moray eel


Hypselodoris infucata


A prized find – Cyerce kikutarobabai


Yellow-Capped Stiliger - Stiliger sp.


Harlequin shrimp


Staphylaea limacina (slug-like cowrie)

Sidem
2 dives here.

A few minutes further down the road from Batu Niti, this is another rubble slope. Raaaar, rubble slopes are boring!!! Yes, they are, if all you are interested in are the big vistas and soft corals you get in the Red Sea. If you like UW photography, and the smaller things in UW life, then you will understand that a rubble slope is teeming with life, you just have to know where to look! Which, in reality, means you need a good guide who knows where to look.


Goniobranchus hintuanensis


Another seastar shrimp


A little warty frogfish


Pom-pom crab / boxer crab, with eggs – yes, stinging anemones for boxing gloves!


Goniobranchus geometricus


Carminodoris estrelyado

[londonsean69]

Extras
As you can tell, I am more into the macro side of UW life. Tulamben was good for critters, maybe not quite the variety found in Lembeh, but certainly enough to keep me amused for a couple of weeks. The pure macro sites (Melasti, Batu Niti, and Sidem) were definitely better for macro than the local sites, but the local sites had a really good mix of macro and wide-angle, plus plenty of fish.

Nudibranchs
We saw loads of different species, ranging from the 2-3mm Costasiella (Shaun the Sheep) to nudis big enough to have an emperor shrimp hitchhiker.


Goniobranchus kuniei @ Drop-Off


Hypselodoris zephyra @ Drop-Off


Carminodoris estrelyado @ Drop-Off


Unidentia sandramillenae @ Melasti


Hypselodoris tryoni @ Suci’s Place


Goniobranchus leopardus @ Drop-Off


Phyllidia ocellata @ Suci’s Place


Hypselodoris whitei @ Suci’s Place


Juvenile Phyllodesmium of some sort @ Sidem

Shrimps
I love shrimps, BBQ’d, fried, in a soup, all good. However, one of my absolute favourites is to see the Harlequin shrimp in its natural environment. We found several different species of shrimp, if you look at whip corals, you often shrimp there, if you look at the cushion sea star, you often find shrimp there. Look where things live, and you can usually find them, including the odd sawblade shrimp (AKA Donald Duck shrimp).


Whip coral shrimp @ Drop-Off


Crinoid shrimp @ Drop Off


Banded cleaner shrimp @ Sidem


Sea star shrimp @ Sidem


Dancing Shrimp @ Sidem


Harlequin shrimp @ Batu Niti

Fish
In general, I dislike photographing fish, they have a habit of moving around too much for liking. Find me a nice sedentary scorpionfish or frogfish, and I am all over it. Obviously, with the local sites being a bit ‘reefy’, there are all sorts of different fish, from the ubiquitous anemonefish, through to massive great barracuda.


Fire goby @ Suci’s Place


Anemonefish @ Suci’s Place


Moray Eel @ Suci’s Place


Whip coral goby@ Suci’s Place


Frogfish @ Sidem


Clown frogfish @ Batu Niti

[londonsean69]

Camera kit
I upgraded from the 10-year-old used Sony RX100 II, in an El-Cheapo Chinese housing, to an almost new Canon G7X III, in a slightly less El-cheapo Chinese housing. Wifey is still using a Sony RX100 II. I only upgraded as the new camera has a bit more flexibility and control for certain things I wanted to try on this trip.

For lighting, I use a pair of Inon S2000 strobes, which are tiny and great for travel. Wifey is still using her Sea & Sea YS-02, which is simple, but effective.

Using a compact brings with it the benefits of being able to use different lenses on the same dive. So, I had a full complement of wet lenses; UWL-04 fisheye, Inon UCL-165 (x2) macro, Saga +10 macro, WeeFine +18 macro, and the oddball Inon UFL-150 ZM80 macro fisheye.

Alas, like a total moron, I had forgotten the adapter for the UWL-04 fisheye, so could not take any ‘proper’ wide-angle shots. Also, I found out the hard way that the macro fisheye doesn’t work with my camera and housing combo.

I also invested in some carbon fibre float arms, as they were as little as £18 each on AliExpress. That is a lot easier to stomach than £100+ each for a name brand carbon float arm. Coupled with some existing buoyancy floats, my rig was beautifully balanced and just negative when underwater.


The wife and my camera setups

To give you an idea of just how macro some of these sites are, you can see in the image that my rig has a WeeFine +18 macro lens, and an INON UCL-165, stacked for even greater magnification. Even then, some of the subjects only fill a fraction of the frame! Wifey enjoyed using the INON UCL-165 with a Saga +10 stacked on top.

I got rid of all my DSLR kit a few years back and moved to Micro 4/3 for my land photography. I have chosen to stick with a compact camera UW, as even though the M4/3 system is small, by the time you add a housing, lenses, ports etc. then it starts to become a pain, which is the reason I stopped using a DSLR UW. Obviously, there are certain sacrifices you make when using a compact compared to a DSLR, such as slower autofocus, less capable in low light etc. These are compromises I am happy to make when it comes to a smaller, lighter kit, particularly when travelling. Plus, if I decide to enter any photo competitions, then I qualify for the compact camera category, so I’m not going up against the big guns with £10k setups.

Costs
As noted earlier, we were not flying economy, but the price of accommodation and diving at Matahari is very reasonable, which helps to offset the price of the extravagant flights.

Obviously exchange rates vary, but based on when we travelled, using a rate of IDR 17,800 to the £, we paid:

• IDR 7,745,000 (£ 435) Accommodation (including breakfast) and transfers
• IDR 16,860,000 (£ 947) Diving – 22 for Wifey, 26 for me, all on nitrox, a mix of local and macro dives
• IDR 10,143,000 (£ 570) Food and drink, and we didn’t hold back on either!

So, around £ 1950 plus flights, for the pair of us for 12 days.

Statistics
Yay for keeping my logbook in Excel.

• Dives: 26
• Deepest: 26.3 m
• Shallowest: 18.7 m
• Average depth: 22.0 m
• Longest: 1:01
• Shortest: 0:40
• Total time UW: 22:26
• Average duration: 0:51

Conclusion
It was a good trip. The diving was good, just the sort we both like; mostly macro with the odd bit of semi-wide angle thrown in, revisiting sites and subjects multiple times to refine previous photos and new techniques.

There is, however, one major thing that might put people off diving in Tulamben: the shore entries. You are not walking in from a sandy shoreline, or even the shingle found at somewhere like Chesil. You walk in over massivee pebbles and small boulders. It is bloody hard work - trying to keep a good footing is tricky. For someone with back or knee problems, then the best option is to get the SCUBA unit on in the water, rather than staggering over the natural obstacle course. The dive guides we had were very obliging with helping those who needed it.

The accommodation was excellent for the money. Food in the restaurant was great, large portions and very reasonably priced (£3 for a main dish).

Overall, this trip has rekindled my enthusiasm for diving, to the extent that I have got back into teaching status with PADI and, horror of horrors, I am even contemplating joining a BSAC club. We have even already booked the next dive trip, albeit not quite as far as Indonesia.

Well, if you made it this far without gouging out your own eyeballs, cheers.

[gobfish1]

Enjoyed your post . like you say it's been a few years but your format hasn't changed still v comprehensive and enjoyable.
Happy to hear you got your diving mojo back
Sean.

[Paul Evans]

Had to stop twiddling knobs to take it all in

Great report Sean.

BA are now refitting their aircraft with those Bizz seats BTW....

Great Photos

[Allan Carr]

BA are now refitting their aircraft with those Bizz seats BTW....

My wife and I flew to Grand Cayman last December in the new BA Club World suites. They are designed for solo travellers because if you are a couple in the middle seats, you are so far apart it is impossible to hold a conversation. Most other airlines we've travelled with have feet to the aisle rather than head to the aisle which is the case with the new BA seating. Travelling as a couple, you are better having an aisle and a window seat but even this is not ideal as they are slightly offset.

[Allan Carr]

Great photos Sean. Really enjoyed your report. Do the local village ladies still provide the porterage service across the beach to the USAT Liberty?

[londonsean69]

Great photos Sean. Really enjoyed your report. Do the local village ladies still provide the porterage service across the beach to the USAT Liberty?

Thank you. Yes, the ladies still make us Westerners look feeble by balancing a fully kitted cylinder on their head and tearing off at full speed in just a pair of flip-flops

Matahari always seemed to have the same porters, and they used them for bringing cylinders from the street to the dive centre, as well as to the dive sites.

Each of the 'macro sites' we went to also had local porters. As soon as the pick up stopped they were there to unload everything, and then they put your kit down by the water's edge. At the end of diving, they stuck everything back on the pick up.