Diving at Tulamben

May 20th, 2002 at 12:00am

Ubud, Bali. So now I’m in this nice little town called Ubud which is inland from the beach, and is every bit as good as everyone says. There are lots of cafes, good restaurants, nice shops, and museums here. I’m spending one full day here tomorrow and then I’ll be on my way back to Bangkok after that.

Yesterday was a GREAT day of diving in Bali. First of all, I can say that I would highly recommend Euro Dive, the dive center in Amed that we used for our dives. They are so nice and their dive master was really, really good.

We did 2 dives at Tulamben, first at the Drop-Off (or reef wall), and then at the famous U.S.S. Liberty Wreck. The Drop-Off dive was good…we went to a maximum depth of 26 meters. There was a lot of nice and interesting coral on the wall, but nothing really unusual or spectacular. Still it was a good dive with very little current and decent visibility (about 15 meters). Our group was small, just myself, Joni, a Frenchman, and the divemaster, and there were only a handful of other divers at the site. What a nice change after diving in Malaysia with over 100 other divers!!

The second dive was amazing. This particular wreck, the U.S.S. Liberty, is 120 meters long (395 feet) and is less than 40 meters from the shore! It was torpedoed by the Japanese in 1942 and towed to Bali, but it became beached at Tulamben. Then, in 1963 when the volcano Agung erupted, earthquakes from the eruption caused the ship to turn belly-up and sink. It’s a diver’s paradise, being such a big vessel and close enough to the shore that you can do a beach entry.

We were so lucky too that there were only about 20 other divers there. Our divemaster told us that in high season (June, July) there are over 120 divers in the water at any given time!

It was just Joni and I who went diving yesterday… Anton isn’t certified but he STILL wasn’t feeling well anyway and wound up staying in bed ALL day feeling weak and generally ill. Well, Joni and him went back to Kuta today since Joni flies out tomorrow and Anton really wanted to go to the clinic. It’s a really good thing he went, because I got an email from him already saying that the doctor told him he has Dengue Fever!! Dengue is similar to Malaria, also transmitted by mosquitos, although usually it is from daytime mosquitos. It can be fairly serious if not treated, and sometimes (although rarely) fatal. In any case he is really, really lucky that he went to the clinic. Anton, hope you are feeling better now!

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: I’ve just finished adding photos from 4.28.02 to the most recent journal entry of 5.20.02. That covers mainly Malaysia, Thailand (Ko Samui), and Indonesia. There are a few pics before that that I still have to add but I don’t have that disc on me at the moment (to be updated later). To view the pics, please click on’Journal’ at the top of this page and then scroll to the’Last’ entry and work your way back.

Hope you enjoy!!

Does this look like a guy with Dengue Fever (answer: yes)…poor Anton!

Entry Filed under: Bali,Diving,Indonesia