More Diving

Went diving yesterday and today. Yesterday we did some basic underwater navigation. This mostly consisted of finding your way around with a compass, also did a bit of practice just following the terrain. The main animal I say was an eel. It was all wrapped around and into a coral, and looked a lot like a snake. Pretty cool, black and yellow coloring.

Today we did a deep dive to 28 meters. This was awesome, not so much due to the depth but due to the wildlife. The bigger things I saw were a glimpse of a reef shark, a cuttlefish maybe half a meter in length, and several sea turtles.
The cuttlefish looked like it constantly had waves pulsing from the front to the back of its body. I think it was actually moving like that in order to pump water for breathing and to keep its position.
I did not get up close and personal with the reef shark, really only caught a glimpse of it.
Must have seen half a dozen turtles. These fellows are large. Things are a bit distorted underwater, but I would say up to 1 meter is a safe guess. One of them was chewing on a piece of coral – I don't think they eat the coral itself, but they do damage it looking for food. And they certainly didn't care about us – I was right on top of the one which was eating and it just kept about its business. Seems that way with most everything down here. If you don't touch it, it doesn't care about you.
Also saw a couple of clownfish hiding in this sponge/coral or whatever it was. Heck, I have no idea what most of the things growing on the ocean floor are, I know there are corrals and sponges, but I think there are other things too. Anyway, this particular organism grew on the reef but was not rigid. It moved with the water and the two clownfish were swimming around in/by it. They hide in things that are poisonous to other fish.
Another cool thing was a coral formation that was about 1.5 meters high. It had a mushroom shape, with the coral around the "stem" cut down about half a meter lower than the surrounding corals. Very neat, I wonder how that sort of thing comes to be.

I was completely hypothermic after the dive. Headache and cramps and dizziness after I got out of the boat. The dizziness passed, but it took me an hour in bed under the blanket (at temperatures around 30 degrees C) to warm up. I will have to ask if they have a long wetsuit or something else I can use to stay warm, the short wetsuit doesn't cut it for me.

Good and Bad Decisions

Good decision: Going to Gili Islands to do my Advanced Open Water Course
Bad decision: Taking a room RIGHT NEXT to a mosque.
Good decision: Finding a room as far from said mosque as possible, and paying an extra $10 a night.

Yeah, so I left Bali yesterday and took a boat to Gili Islands (just outside of Lombok, all still part of Indonesia). And not only is there a mosque 30 meters from my bedroom, but they are broadcasting REALLY LOUDLY for hours on end. Then my next door neighbors keep my up until 1:00 am, and then at 5:00 am the loudspeakers on the mosque start up again with the announcements and prayer calls and whatnot. Ughhh. There's culture, and then there's culture broadcast into your skull at 5:00 am. Needless to say I decided to skip diving this morning, but going on the first dive this afternoon at 1:30.

The atmosphere is completely different. Drugs are highly frowned upon in most of Indonesia, but here they offer you weed and mushrooms on every street corner. This has a lot to do with the fact that the island has no police presence at all. I'm not sure why, but it doesn't. But I'm starting to kinda see the whole country as full of contrast like that. Hindu and Muslim, very modern and very traditional, very strict or very liberal, etc. All right beside one another.

Time to try and get some sleep! :)

Of to the races!

So I decided to rent a scooter for 2 days, to drive around town a bit. About 400 meters from where I rented it, what do I find but a "Start-Finish" line painted on the road. That explains just about everything about how people drive here...

Meanwhile I'm still alive, and the scooter goes back tomorrow morning. Still trying to decide if I'm better of wearing the helmet they gave me that's two sizes too big, or going without.

Went for a drive today and found a restaurant right on a river. About 3 stories straight down beside where I'm sitting. Very nice and picturesque, and the chicken was awesome.

Fresh Fish

So I'm having a late lunch today (as always at a restaurant, cooking for oneself here is not an option). As I'm finishing my coffee, this guy walks in with a fishing rod, followed by two guys carrying two large fish. Now that's what I call efficient - no freezer trucks, no warehousing, no packaging, nothing. Just fresh fish, on your plate for dinner!

Everybody Dance Now!

Went to see a traditional dance performance tonight. Very trippy - the dancers basically held the same facial expression the whole time. Combined with the somewhat unnatural head movements and freaky eye makeup/movements, it was a somewhat scary show. In one part of one of the dances the girl had a looooong red silk scarf, which she had stretched out with one hand in her mouth so she looked like some kind of a beast with a 5 meter tongue. Yikes!

Ubud - Day 1

Went to Ubud today – I was super lazy and simply caught a cab, which cost me about $15 (it's about 40 km). That and I've decided to treat myself to a night at a real hotel for USD 40, with a clean bed and hot shower. Tomorrow I'll find something cheaper, but I needed a break from slum living. The last place was really sketchy…

Checked out the Monkey Forest today. It's a patch of forest with a temple in the middle, full of statues and monkeys. You can buy a bag of little bananas at the entrance to feed the monkeys. One fellow thought he could hold on to the bag and share the bananas out as he pleased, but he learned better, with a big monkey climbing up his pants and a smaller one on his back. Guess he didn't read the sign at the entrance explaining not to hide/keep food from them… I had one fellow try to jump on me, but I was quicker and he missed…

Here a couple pictures, sorry captioning them individually is not working they changed something on this website...

Also I finally have internet on my phone again. I had to go into Denpasar to the big, air conditioned Telkomsel customer service building. But YAY, 500 MB for $10 at a normal speed, and unlimited thereafter at a slower speed (basically an unlimited policy with a "fair use" clause"). Why is it that the little kiosks selling the SIM cards and recharge packs don't know enough to set this sort of thing up? These guys are literally sitting there bored almost the entire day, you would think they would learn their product!

Also cashed my traveler's cheques today. That was a waste of effort, pain in the neck to get them and a pain in the neck to cash them. It seems they are basically outdated, what with ATM machines everywhere. Next time I'll just bring some US currency for the few times it's helpful.

Yes Transport?

I'm beginning to get a twitch. It is impossible to walk anywhere without constantly hearing "yes, transport" or "yes, massage". Some people even try to physically move you into their store. Twitch, twitch...

I'm heading to Ubud hopefully tomorrow. Less touristy I hope.