The Sea is Calling

Amed, Bali

After spending a considerable amount of time in the mountainous inland region of Ubud, it was time to take the trip to the sea. Being coastal kids and growing up next to the ocean, both Jess and I agree that our hearts are most settled when we are near the water. I consider myself incredibly lucky that I had an ocean view from all my schools growing up and I could hear the waves from my bedroom at night. When I lived in El Granada the sound of the fog horn helped lull me to sleep, and often I got to whale watch from my office window at Sam's...incredible.

Coastal hibiscus

Massive snails around here!

Being obsessed with the ocean as a kid, my dad and I took our dive certification course together when I was 12 and I did my certification dive in Monterey Bay - FREEZING. I did a few more dives in Monterey, Mexico and Florida but it had been years since I went on a dive and I wanted to refresh my skills. I was young at the time and had a hard time adjusting to the effects of diving, so I wanted to see how I handled it as an adult. I had heard good things about a small coastal town in Bali called Amed, and it seemed like the perfect place to revisit scuba diving. Amed is known for being a highly sought out diving spot with black sand/rock beaches due to the proximity to volcanic Mt. Agung. This little town had just one main road with dive shops lining the street along with a few markets, restaurants and bungalows.

Amed with Mt Agung in the distance

I reached out to a company called Adventure Divers Bali before arriving to see if I could do a dive refresher course. They had great reviews online and were quite fast in their response time with perfect English which always helps. The owners were European and really sweet, Lisolette was full of helpful tips and information about the area. They operate the dive shop and also run a property of bungalows for students to stay in during their visit to Amed. For $25 a night you get a bungalow with a/c, hot shower, patio and breakfast included (way better then a meager continental breakfast you get in the states - usually they have eggs or fruit pancakes cooked to order, fresh fruit, toast/bread, tea/coffee/juice). Lisolette also told us any fresh juice, coffee/lattes, chocolate milks or other beverages were available all day and included in the price. It was a great little spot to spend a couple nights and we felt well taken care of by Lisolette and her husband David.

Our home in Amed

My bungalow patio

Lots of shells and coral around the property - it is clear divers are staying here!

Adventure Divers tropical grounds were lovely

The little details around the property were adorable

For $70 Adventure Divers Bali offers a one day refresher course where you spend some time in the classroom then do two dives that day with lunch included. One of the dives is at Jemeluk Bay and the other is at the USS Liberty shipwreck site in Tembulan, which was a boat sunk in WWII and is now home to an abundant array of sea life and coral. The first dive was just the instructor, myself and one other person and the second dive was just me and the instructor which was nice. During my dives I saw a ton of sea life including lion fish, three cuttlefish having a moment straight out of National Geographic where two males were fighting over a female, eels, peacock mantis shrimp, a white tipped reef shark, seahorses and even the entire cast of Finding Nemo. The shipwreck was really cool to see, and that dive was about an hour at 20 meters or 65 feet.

Courtyard at Geria Giri Shanti Bungalows

Refresher course classroom

Logging all the sea life we saw on our dive

I enjoyed the dives and was happy I decided to take the refresher, however after the second dive I had a pretty bad head ache which is what used to happen to me when I would dive many years ago. I feel that diving, for whatever reason, may not agree with me as much as I would like but it is a skill I am happy to have. I look forward to some great snorkeling (cheaper and more accessible) on the rest of the trip as we hop around some other islands!

The helpful mannequin marking the dive shop