Got up early today, checked out of the hotel in Ubud and drove back to Sanur.  I had booked diving on Nusa Lembogan, an island nearby.  Our instructions were to drive to the parking lot of a big resort and then someone would meet us there and we would take a fast boat to the island.  That’s almost as vague as the directions I’ve gotten in Thailand for getting a bus.  Ok, it works out in Thailand, it will work out here.  We had a bit of trouble at the gate to the resort.  They kept asking where I was going and I kept telling them the name of the resort and they asked again.  It was really annoying.  Finally, they got to the point that they wanted to charge me to park there.  Fine.  Why didn’t you just say so 5 minutes ago?  The parking lot was big and had lots of vans, busses, cars and motorbikes coming and going.  This was obviously the place people parked to get the boats.  We were early so instead of waiting for someone to come find us we followed the throng of people down a tiny alley barely big enough for two people to pass each other.  It put us on the beach board walk I liked so much when I was in Sanur last week.  There were a bunch of boat companies.  We found the one that was on my email and checked in.  They had our reservation and gave us wristbands to get on the boat.  When we got to the island there was a guy waiting with my name on a sheet of paper.  See, it all worked out, even though it seemed quite vague to begin with.

Diving was good.  We went to the same two dive spots I did before.  I wasn’t thrilled about that, but they were still good.  Carly had trouble on the first dive, Crystal Bay, so it took a while to start the dive.  She got it all the equipment bugs worked out and we were able to do the dive.  But because it took a while we didn’t do the wall and the point I had done before.  So, it was a new dive in a way.  I got to see crabs and cuttle fish amongst other things.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen cuttle fish before so that was great.  The next dive was Manta Point.  We saw so many manta.  I couldn’t even count.  On the boat, I had told the dive master I saw 3 octopus when I did this dive a couple weeks ago.  We joked that he needed to find 4 and he said he’d find more.  After watching the manta for half the dive we set out to see other things.  We were almost done with the dive when the dive master pointed off in the distance.  I knew it had to be an octopus, but I couldn’t see him. They are masterful at camouflage.  We swam closer and then I saw him.  We watched him change colors and move from one spot to the next.  They the dive master looked at me and held up one finger to count one octopus.  We didn’t see any others.

I sat down with the dive shop manager after diving and we talked about the dive master program.  I got a similar story as the last one.  It’s not impossible to make a living as a dive master, but it will be difficult, especially in Asia.  I’d have to be an instructor to make any money and even then, it won’t be much.  It’s a lifestyle decision, not a monetary decision.  And if I want to make a career of it, it will be difficult.  I don’t want to make a career of it so I more or less have to decide if I want to do it for a year or so just to do it.  The decision isn’t made yet, but it’s not a slam dunk decision either.

We stayed at bungalows next to the dive shop.  The island is pretty small so there wasn’t a ton to do that night, but they did have an outdoor movie theatre.  The movie is free, you just buy food and drink.  So we had dinner there and sat on big bean bag chairs and watched The Beach.  I hadn’t seen a movie since I left Colorado.  I loved the theatre idea.

I am not a videographer and I’m using my phone and I’m on a boat so the videos are not great, but you’ll get the idea.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore