On the morning of the 9th, we left Ubud for the Southeast coastal town of Candidasa, where we found our next accommodations (beachside, but nothing as elaborate as we had seen before). We dropped off our bags and drove down to Padangbai, our launching point for boat dives around Nusa Penida, an island 45 minutes southeast of mainland Bali.
We were hoping to find Mola Mola, or ocean sunfish, which were migrating into the cold waters off Bali to be cleaned by the local fish. We would descend for only a short period to 30-40m (the deepest I've ever been and the deepest Advanced Open Water will certify you to descend), watch, and wait. We did this for 4 days and 12 dives.
Not my photo below, but you get the idea how big they get- up to 1 ton! They are quite strange looking, like a disc with one large ventral fin and an equally sized dorsal fin.
On our first dive, we saw one hazy Mola Mola 40m deep at a distance, but the currents were strong so we couldn't stay for long. The next two dives of the day were shallower, and we saw amazing corals as well as trumpetfish, a frogfish pair, large pufferfish, and a lionfish (along with tons of various reef fish). The following day, we saw two Mola Mola around 35m. That same day, we were "muck diving" around some old sunken cages when I turned to see a tourist submarine headed for us! Caught me by surprise but luckily we easily got beneath it in time.
Our fourth day diving was by far the best. Our first dive started out rocky with high currents, but we waited it out until we could descend to look for Mola Mola. Me hanging on...
We lucked out, and one came very close to us, probably within 15m, without noticing the gaggle of neoprene staring at it.
Our second dive was one of my favorite dives of the trip. We visited Manta Point, a sandy and rocky but area about 15m deep. For our full 54 minutes underwater, large manta rays swooped in and visited with us, coming within arms length, glided out of visible range, then circled back to stay near us. We saw 5 at the same time, but there could have been up to 10 in the water with us. I could have almost ridden one... but that'd be frowned on.
Done with diving, we headed to Seminyak on the west coast of Bali to rest before our flights. We stayed in a pretty cool two-story villa in the resort, Desa Muda Village.
We had dinner in Seminyak one night at Made's Warung where we were able to watch traditional Balinese dancing (which we had successfully avoided to this point).
They are quite strange looking, like a disc with one large ventral fin and an equally sized dorsal fin.
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