1st Day of Scuba in Bali

Long boat ride out to the island
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as told by: Christa

Yesterday was really our ‘down day’. We met Fartar, the pearl man, and many others trying to sell us everything from tattoos to watches. The pool is amazing but the beach isn’t much more than crushed coral near us, and lava rocks from the volcano eruption in the north. Our new friends that we met at the cocktail party, June and Janet, have given us all of their insider tips for Bali. They really are experts since they come here for 3weeks at a time 3 different times throughout the year. So far they arranged for our meeting with Fartar, Kenni, the massage therapist, and Kenni’s husband, the taxi driver.

“Yea, and I don’t like skydiving with a parachute”.

L and Mom hanging out at 70 feet
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This morning we had to wake up at 5:30am for a 2 and a half hour drive from the southern tip of the island to the northern tip. We all slept most of the way, dad has a lovely picture of me nearly comatose. We passed all the rice fields, they were beautiful. Too bad it rained most of the day…supposedly the weather should clear up soon. Our first dive was the USS Liberty wreck. It was our first time doing a beach dive (more like a rock dive, being there was no sand) but that wasn’t even the hardest part. The real struggle of the day turned out to be our wetsuits. I think Mom nearly passed out trying to get that thing on…one of the local helper guys had to help her get it on, everyone laughed, especially when it can time for us to exit the water and walk up stairs with our equipment on…we looked like a bunch of drunkards. The wreck was different for me…it was kind of surreal I guess…Despite the amount of coal on the ship, you could still distinguish specific parts of the boat. We had lunch after the dive, we established that dad’s dish was the roadkill platter…very yummy. Our last dive of the day was called the drop off. The sun came out shortly into the dive, making it much more enjoyable. We got to see many Nemo fish (clownfish). Since this was the first time we all dived as a family, Dad had never believed mom and I when we said diving with Lauren is like diving with a kid that has epilepsy. He now believes us…he said Lauren had to stay closer to us instead of shooting up, down, or off somewhere…on the next dive. Well he got his wish because Lauren said she was tired of swimming and just grabbed onto dad’s tankand made him do all the work. When we asked Lauren why she always swims away from us, she replied, “I don’t like scuba diving with people” and Dad said, “Yea, and I don’t like skydiving with a parachute”. Mom has concluded that she is going to invent a wetsuit that you mold to your body instead squeezing into one. I was just glad to have survived another dive, this one especially because I now know why diving when you are sick is not recommended.

Typical coral stuff we saw
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On the way back we saw many great shopping areas and can’t wait to try that tomorrow after our elephant ride. Well I’m off to my massage…Lauren said she would write her first blog tomorrow…so everyone look out!