Emerald Tulamben Beach Hotel

... very deep about 3m down to reach it. The different colour coral was beautiful, what was equally impressive was the number of fish swimming around the ship, there were hundreds of fish, large groups/clusters, which you could swim through. There were so many different colours/sizes and patterns, ranging from large plain coloured fish to small brightly coloured ones, I also saw a ...

... for a few minutes to continue our ride to Tulamben. Tualamben is known for snorkeling and shore diving. The USS Liberty ship wreck sunk close to the shore as it was torpedoed by the Japanese. We arrived again late in the evening after a long day of driving around the Island. Luckily we rented the last available room. Checked-in and relaxed at the pebble beach just in front of our bungalow.

... the pristine, wide, white sand, deserted beaches made us want to be there, so we went. Meno has by far the best atmosphere; a calm, friendly one. Having said that, the accommodation is appalling so it's a good job the locals make up for it. Our bungalow had fresh water (not only is this cold but it's also salt water, really clean!) and frankly, it smelt of poo, writing this is bringing back the memory of the smell so I'll stop here. The beach we chose was, as ...

... company on Gili Islands. At Padang Bai before actually boarding the boat, I encountered the most severe hastle yet from street hawkers - it was really in your face - almost threatening. They were pouncing on a recently arrived boat from Gili - mistaking me for one of them. Not pleasant in the slightest - total aura invasion. Splash The greatest thing of note before arriving at Gili itself was watching a largish japanese woman - well on in her years ...

... ocean-floor to a very dark red. Again, very, very cool. We surfaced, me with my 8th dive under my belt...Ty with his 50th...& the rookies taking the step to amateurs. We had a quiet night & relaxed at the movie hut. The following day, the 27th, was the last full day for all us. I would be on a boat back to Bali the next day, while the other three were moving over to Gili Air for New Years, & then onto Thailand for a couple weeks. So being a Friday ...

... spent most of time relaxing on the beach and snorkelling in the ocean. We met a really nice Australian family while on our snorkelling trip that offered to let us stay at their place is Manly Beach (Sydney) when we get to Oz. We hung out with the son, Zeke, for a few party nights (Wednesday being the best party night on the island? .......... go figure!) and got pretty good pals with him, so we're totally taking them up on their offer ...

... resort is only one property south of Scallywags. Walking into the Villa Ombak we noticed the full-sized three-section pool live with scuba lessons. We were served welcome drinks in special carved cups and then checked into our deluxe/family room. Immediately we changed and all went swimming in the pool before hopping a cidomo up the coast to the popular white sand beach where we were to meet Amy and Puput. They had stayed after our ...

... to be for advanced divers, but our guide stayed close to her and she was fine. Diving a wreck without even having a basic cert is something that could only happen in a third world country like Indonesia where they are more interested in dollars than protocol. Our second dive of the day we saw a massive sea turtle and a sunken german plane. We rented an underwater camera for both these dives and I took some incredible pictures which I am very excited to share with you guys!

... seems so peaceful. The marine life was amazing. It's crazy how much more you can see that little bit deeper than when you are snorkelling. We practised our buoyancy control and just followed Ketut's lead at 12m. We were down there for about 45 minutes and along with various small tropical fish we saw a pretty big grouper fish but apart from that nothing big and scary, this time! After our dive we filled in our log books and chatted about our next dive which was going to involve a bit ...

... by travelling between dive sites, but with the shore dives we were doing and the tiny distance to travel (Tulamben is not much of a town - pretty much just for divers), lunch is the perfect way to take up a surface interval. For those of you who are not divers, you must have a surface interval of at least a specific length after diving so you don't get oxygen toxicity or the Bends. After lunch we did our homework review and since there ...