All Aboard the Queen Scuba - Our Liveaboard Dive Trip to Bali and Komodo, Indonesia

The conditions on this trip were perfect with lots of sun and blue skies, calm water and a magical underwater world below.

The first day was at Moyo Island and was a nice easy introduction into the diving in this area. The dive sites are a couple of sea mounts that barely break the surface at low tide. A small area of bright white coral that has almost turned to powder has accumulated creating the perfect postcard picture. It’s easy to imagine yourself sitting there under an umbrella sipping a cocktail as time just slowly passes by. With clear turquoise water on the surface and sky, and blue water down below, we were excited to get in for the first dives of the trip. We saw Denise pygmies along with a brilliant blue ribbon eel and of course schools of jacks, rainbow runners loads of different kinds of anemone fish, angel fish, butterflies and some colorful nudies. Off to Sotanda for the third dive where we had the chance to see a collection of giant frog fish along with a couple black ribbon eels and little yellow bargabanti pygmy seahorse.

The next morning at Sangeang Island was full of our favorite small things and gave us the chance to really get into macro diving. With minute filefish, sawblade shrimp, ghost pipefish, a baby lionfish, snake eels, imperial partner shrimp and more nudies then we have seen in a long time. The second dive at “Hotrocks” showed why the current in Indonesia is famous. We had a chance to drift buy the bargabanti seahorses and get a quick look but mostly just flowed with the current and enjoyed the ride. The afternoon dive at “Rollercoaster” was another drift dive which provided the opportunity to get familiar with some of the up, down and all around currents in Indonesia. There were schools of surgeon fish, jacks and a couple tunas out in the blue while the bright colors of the anthias, the angel fish and butterfly fish, lit up the reef as we passed by. The night dive had the sighting of the hard to believe stargazer and loads of unusual decorator crabs, a mimic octopus, and a striped catfish.

Our third day at “Castle Rock and Crystal Rock” was filled with Pelagics, white tip reef sharks, giant trevallies, tuna, maori wrasse, and the best of all three spotted eagle rays swimming in formation above us and next to us for more than 45 minutes. The afternoon was filled with a trek on Komodo Island looking at the famous Komodo Dragons. That night we hit the cold water at “Pink Beach” with an amazing sighting of the poisonous blue ring octopus.

The next day was more water and lots of small stuff like cowfish, zebra crabs, ornate ghost pipefish, orangutang crabs, squat lobsters and pygmy seahorses. On the beach during the day we were able to see more dragons in their natural habitat strolling the beach.
The dives at “Manta Alley” were filled with humphead parrot fish and of course the elegant mantas. In the afternoon we headed back to Gili Banta for a stunning reef dive with beautiful coral and every imaginable reef species you could think of.

Our last two dive were filled with some incredible macro dives with seahorses, snake eels, robust ghost pipefish, thorny seahorses and the mimic octopus. Then we headed into the sunset on our journey back to Bali.

Gili T Island, Lombok, Indonesia "Happy Oz-tray-ya Day-e"

Destination: Bali and Gili T, Indonesia

Days Spent: 4
Where we stayed: Harris Hotel in Bali and Manta Dive in Gili T

Best of: Relaxing on the beautiful beach of Gili T, cheap food, and even better, cheap beer!

Most memorable: Candlelight dinner on the top of the Beach House balcony watching the sunset

Kaes and I went had a long weekend for the Australia Day holiday, which is basically the same as our July 4th. For those of you who would like a correct pronunciation, the holiday is "Oz-tray-ya Day-e"

The celebration is quite big here in Perth, but we took the opportunity to get away to someplace new for the weekend, so we headed to Bali, Indonesia and to the Gili Islands off of Lombok. The 3 Gili islands are Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, and Gili Air. Gili T is the most popular with more hotels and restaurants and but still quiet enough away from the hustle and bustle of Bali. Here is a map below to show exactly where we were. Indonesia is made up of over 17,000 islands, so it is no doubt a huge country spread out over a very large region.

Kaes was in Singapore for work during the week, so I flew from Perth and we met up in Bali Friday night. We flew in late, so stayed close to the airport and boat port at the Harris hotel in Kuta. You can spot Kuta and Bali (Denpasar) on the above map at the southern tip of the island. Ironically enough, across the street was a Dutch bar that we decided to go check out and taste some authentic Dutch treats while listening to the band.

The next morning we woke up early to catch a high-speed boat on the Ocean Star express to the island of Gili Trawangan (Gili T for short) which is about 2 hours east of Bali (Denpasar) and on the northwest corner off the main island of Lombok, located in the West Nusa Tenggara region. Lombok map shown below.

We arrived to Gili T around 10:30 Saturday morning and checked into our bungalow at Manta Dive. It was conveniently located right by the boat dock and was a traditional Balinese style bungalow complete with an outdoor shower :)

As soon as we were unpacked and settled, we headed to grab a bite of lunch and then went out for our first dive that afternoon to the dive site "Halik." Here we were quite surprised at how many different species of fish and underwater life we saw and in such abundance!

Map of the dive sites around the Gili Islands

Sunday and Monday were both dive days to the sites Manta Point, Shark Point, Sting Ray and back to Halik. All of the dive sites had colorful fish and exotic sea life. Many cuttlefish, large octopus, stone fish, bat fish, dog-face pufferfish, and even rare frog fish that were enormous for their size!

Kaes and I with our awesome dive guide Dan. He did an incredible job and was quick to point out any creature great or small

Kaes toggling with his new underwater gear

Peek-a-boo! A very shy octopus hiding beneath a rock

A cuttlefish that has changed its color to clear so as to glide through the water unnoticed

Kaes supporting A&M all the way in Indonesia!

The last evening, we decided to go to the Beach House and have a romantic dinner on top of their balcony and watch the sun set. It was a perfect way to end our relaxing and wonderful getaway.

The next morning we heading out by boat from Gili T to Lombok. We had about a 30 minute drive to the airport and enjoyed the lushness of Lombok island complete with monkeys running around the street. Then it was back on a flight from Lombok to Bali to spend a few hours before our flight home to Perth.

Jakarta, Bogor, and Bandung, Indonesia - April 10 - 13, 2009

Hotel: Jakarta - Novotel Mangga Dua; Bandung - Hotel Mutiara
Price: $45 USD
Transportation: Lots of walking & Taxi or Tuk Tuk -->avg ride 15 mins. = $10 USD

We traveled to Indonesia this last weekend with my parents to visit Jakarta, Bogor, and Bandung. My grandfather (Kaes') was in the Dutch military so my dad's family travelled a lot. As a boy, he lived on several Indonesian islands but stayed the longest in Bandung.

Bandung, is the capital of West Java and is located 112 miles southeast of Jakarta. With over 2.9 million population in 2007 and over 7.2 million people on the greater Bandung area, it's one of the most densely populated city in Asia.

The first night after we got to Jakarta (Kaes and Kim) to meet Dirk and Norma, we didn't have the best of luck. After the ATM machine eating my credit card, and being dropped off on the side of the road by our hired driver, and botching the little Malay we knew, we finally got to the hotel. The next morning when we woke up in Jakarta, we drove south to Bogor, which was about 1 hour away and visited the beautiful botanical gardens. After that, we continued our drive through the Puncak Pass on to our main destination in Bandung. Puncak Pass is a longer route to Bandung, but a beautiful countryside drive.

The northern part of the city has a lot more hills than the rest and is home to the Tangkuban Perahu volcano. Long-term volcanic activity has created fertile andisol soil in the north, suitable for intensive rice, fruit, tea, tobacco, and coffee plantations which are everywhere. It is definitely a beautiful site to see acres and acres of tea plantations up and down the sides of the mountains.

My dad lived in two houses while in Bandung. We found the one on Jalan Bengawan and the other one was converted into a small school. Unfortunately, the house on Jalan Bengawan was not maintained but it was still nice to see where he lived. The best part was hearing his childhood stories including the home-made tank races down his street.

The last day we headed back to Jakarta, but unfortunately Kaes and I got an Indonesian version of "Montezuma's Revenge" and was stuck in the room the whole day until our flight home that night. Dirk and Norma flew back to Singapore two days later, and finally made it back home after a little mishap with taxi cab driver on the way home from the airport. Luckily, they were okay and finally made it back safe and sound.

Next weekend, we are off to Cambodia to see the largest religious monument in the world, Angkor Wat! Stay tuned...

Tangkuban Perahu volcano
A tea plantation

At the botanical gardens in Bogor

The house Kaes' dad lived in before World War II

Bintan, Indonesia

Since Kim and I were both working in Singapore last week we decided to spend the weekend in Bintan, Indonesia. It was a very nice, relaxing weekend.