BALI / INDONESIA JANUARY 2009
Once again we have chosen one of our favorite destination the island of Bali in INDONESIA , the birth of the coral reef. This year we had the pleasure to have the company of our friends and Nautilus guests from different parts of Italy and Switzerland. After 10 days in the south of Bali where we enjoyed the white sandbeaches, bars and restaurants of Sanur, there our friend enjoyed the Kite Surfing and some diving off the island of Tepekong and Lembongang, we then stopped over at the airport of Denpasar to welcome our Italians friends from Milano and Torino to make our move up to the north of Bali. To reach the north of Bali (Pemuteran)it is a 3 hours drive through mountains, volcano ‘s and rice fields where you can discover the wild Bali still with the villagers doing their daily duties in the fields, going to the markets and bringing the offering to their village temples. The resort we choosed was a very simple and small complex, owned by a German man. From his heart and with the help of the local people he built small bungalows and a diving center just by the black volcanic beach. The type of diving was for most of the guests a new discovery as the sand was black it would attract rare and strange underwater creature like the “Ambon scorpion fish”, amazing variety of “Frog fish and juvenile frog fish”, plenty of “Seahorse and Pygmy seahorse” and other smaller critters that even our own eyes could not believe it was true and alive. Our dive guide was so good to show us all this amazing life that we did not even realize our dive time was already up to 80 minutes ! (thank you tonitrox …!)
Knowing that our guests and friends would also like to see some underwater colorful reefs we had the opportunity to dive the very well protected area of Menjangan island (the island of the deer), the beautiful small island is surrounded by pristine reefs including giants gorgonia sea fans,giants table coral incrusted together with a wide variety of soft and hard corals and of course the usual tropical fishes who search for protection in those famous and rare becoming barrier reef, also when current was picking up we could enjoy school s of hunting fish in the blue water. After the day diving, we usually had the usual tropical rain which lasted for a couple of hours and stopped on time for the aperitif time by the pool, Balinese meal cooked with lots of care by“Wayan” using daily fresh product from the island of Bali and local spices and with the support of our “local” fisherman Claudio we could enjoy fresh fish nearly everyday… At the end of the meal we toasted the day with the local palm spirit the “Arak” and special “Arak Madu” which is the cocktail mixed with local lime and honey. In order to make a deco break we have also enjoyed sightseeing in the north Bali area and visited different Balinese temple, traditional markets where bargaining was a must and was also well appreciated from the guests, beautiful water falls and villages. After 2 weeks of amazing diving and fun, some of our friends had to go back to their home while some had a little more time to spend with us. So we brought them to discover the cultural and artists village of Ubud in the center of Bali and on the last week to beach laze in the south of Bali in Sanur. Again, we had a great time diving in the very special place of Bali and were pleased to give to our guests the opportunity of seeing one of our favorite place of Indonesia.
Next diving trip is programmed for JANUARY 2011 for the island of SULAWESI, which is a further remote part of Indonesia, diving the marine park of Bunaken and the black sand of Lembeh. If you fancy some adventure and special holiday,
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Happy Diving to All !
BALI/ INDONESIA JANUARY 2007
Our journey started from the airport in Denpasar, on the island of Bali also known as the Island of the Gods. Our friends and guests from our diving center Nautilus arrived safely and they all felt the high humidity and warm weather of tropical Asia!
We had a two hours drive through some beautiful rice fields and landscape's. We then arrived in the remote Resort of Seraya on the eastern part of the island of Bali. We choose this dive resort so that we could show our guests about the macro life and visit the famous Liberty wreck of Tulemben.
The house reef in front of our beautiful bungalow was full of rich macro life, from the now world famous Pygmee seahorse to the tiny tiger shrimps and hairy porcelain crabs, our day and night dives werefantastic and probably unique.
We also had the opportunity to have some fantastic dives (despite the poor visibility due to amazing plantoon booth) along the coast on the Tulemben wall and the Liberty wreck’s. We also had the dive resort to ourselves.
The facilities were just amazing with great local food and Balinese wine, the beach was so close that you could watch whales and dolphin's pass by.
We took one day off from diving and went on a land trip through rice fields and Balinese Templeto get to understand more about the Balinese the culture and style of life.To make a change from the macro pixels we moved onto the south of Bali, to the island of Lembongan, famousfor Manta ‘s sighting.Bali Hai Tide Huts was our resort choice with tatched palm roofs cosy bungalow on white sand beach it was our home for the next 6 nights.
Again very professional local dive guides were taking care of us all and making sure we get some great current dives in the channel and as promised, we enjoy the school of the Manta Rays during an hour dive ! To finish off this unforgettable diving holidays we have spend the last 2 nights in the cultural village of Ubud right in the centre of the island surrounded by rice fields and rivers, there we discovered the artistic gifts of the Balinese people, amazing painting and art crafts of any kind. We of course took advantage of doing our souvenir shopping and degust some of the finest Balinese cuisine like the “Babi” and the “Smoked Duck” with the local beer “Bintang”. For our guests it was then time to fly back to Europe and take with them the smell of the Balinese flowers and souvenirs of this amazing island.
This year we had the pleasure to have the company of our friends and Nautilus guests from different parts of Italy and Switzerland. 
The type of diving was for most of the guests a new discovery as the sand was black it would attract rare and strange 
After the day diving, we usually had the usual tropical rain which lasted for a couple of hours and stopped on time for the aperitif time by the pool, Balinese meal cooked with lots of care by
The house reef in front of our beautiful bungalow was full of rich macro life, from the now world famous Pygmee seahorse to the tiny tiger shrimps and hairy porcelain crabs, our day and night dives were
We took one day off from diving and went on a land trip through rice fields and Balinese Temple