Christmas at Tulamben

Kari, our personal chauffeur, was at our door at 8:47 for our 9am departure for Talumben. It took at least 45 minutes of slow driving to get to the "suburbs", making me realize why Kari wanted to leave at 8am. The roads are almost all two lane and windy. Some of the medians are planted with all kinds of colorful plants and flowers. Motorcycles dart in and out, some drivers with helmets, but many without. I've seen up to four people on one bike and all kinds of things being transported---a full shop's worth of tea shirts, coffee service, clothes drying racks, packing materials, and three goats.

Two hours out and the scenery is beautiful with fields of crops being attended to by the Indonesians--rice, corn, cassava and coconut. Houses and small kiosk shops still line the roads, but not as many Alfa, Circle K and Mini markets here. We stopped for a bathroom break and there was only a toilet at the gas station, no convenience shop. One looks up and all we see is green, with the occasional temple and Buddhist sculptures marking a temple or residence. Lots of furniture stores make me wonder what it would cost to have a custom made dining set made and shipped to the US. Given how thick the cut of wood is here, it would cost a fortune to ship. Despite the fact that we're going from the south of Bali to the northeast, we were never more than a block or so from someone's home. This makes me understand how Indonesia could have the 4th largest population in the world.  They might not live in high-rises, but there is a high concentration in what I'm seeing. The farther north we go the newer the construction, and somewhat larger homes and buildings. We don't see the black sand from all the volcanoes in the area until we get to the beach.

Three and a half hours later we arrived at Paradise Beach Bungalows, changing our room from one with a fan and cold water to one with air con and hot water. It added 50% more to the cost of the room, still less than $30 a night for a double room. The diving here is extra, no combo packages. Three dives for $75, 4 for $95 if all in one day, from shore. $7 extra for boat dives, boats that can only carry two,divers with equipment. They are hollowed-out canoes with side arms. The real question is, given the wave height, can we get out beyond the waves safely, and can we return safely without getting pummeled into the black rocks. We watched people returning to shore, some being pushed down to their knees and able to get up, even with a dive guide relieving them of the weight of their equipment. Boots and long wetsuits are a necessity in my opinion in these conditions. That was as the tide coming up. Sitting by the restaurant looking at the fish books, we monitored the waves crashing into the bulkhead, hoping that they would lessen, but as the tide rose, the pool chairs were getting a never-ending dose of sea water.

When we arrived the pool area was littered with dive gear from divers brought up here from the Denpasar area to dive for the day. By mid-afternoon the place was deserted. We sat at the restaurant into the evening, watched the rain pour from the sky and had an interesting conversation with Yon and Mary Lou. Yon is from the Netherlands, Mary Lou from CA. They met while leading dives in Bonaire, moved to Guam where Mary Lou earned her masters in marine conservation.

The waves calmed down more each day so we were able to dive as planned. We dove the SS Liberty three times to see the whole thing at different levels, with one early morning dive to see the family of bumphead parrotfish as they awaken. We took the boat one day to see the reef south of the resort, and dived from shore for our remaining dives. We couldn't get too lost as statues lined the paremeter of our resort. This was in part reef and muck diving. I got familiar enough with the house reef that I knew where to turn toward shore when we reached what I started referring to as anenome suburbs, vast numbers of anenomes housing a variety of anenome fish. We also saw a variety of starfish. I didn't see any cuttlefish here, but the last species I did see was a lone squid.

This is the first time I celebrated Christmas by diving, and it may not be the last time either. Three dives and a nice fish dinner was fine with me.