Amed Scuba Diving
Trip Start
Mar 13, 2009
1
25
73
Trip End
Jul 01, 2009
Amed, Bali, Indonesia
Monday, April 6, 2009
I asked how far our boat ride to the dive site was and I found out that we actually weren't taking a boat ride and that we were entering the water from the shore! After all my years of scuba diving, I had actually never done a shore entry. It's an awesome experience to know that a world-class dive site was within swimming distance from the score, easily accessible by just jumping into the water!
Descending down and swimming along the bottom of the ocean, we slowly watched as our meter gauge showed the depth increasing slowly and slowly when we reached the coral wall. Examining all the coral, we got sucked into the underwater life. Weightless in this three dimensional world, I twisted and turned to get better views of the fish hidden in the crevices of the wall. An octopus hide deep inside one, and the dive master poke him out as we watched his legs flowing beneath him as he rested on the bottom, away from his shelter for a brief minute or so. We saw squid and barracuda and every other fish that I wished I knew its name. Every color of the rainbow: stripes and dots and swirls decorating their scales. Groups of them swam by us, hardly recognizing the aliens to their territory. Huge purple fans of coral housed the smaller life one would see once glancing at it from a few inches away. We went down nearly 35 meters, over 100 feet, without even realizing how far we had actually gone. Depth and time disappear once removed from the busy scurry of life on land.
We walked to our next dive site, just 300 meters away. After enjoying a little lunch and waiting for the other people doing the introductory dive (included was Miryam), we set out for our ship wreck dive, the U.S. Liberty. We left the people doing the introductory dive since they had to stay more shallow than us, while my buddy, a German guy named Johannes, the dive master and I, once again descended into the ocean from the shore. We arrived at the shipwreck within a minute, the enormous boat loaming in front of us, blocking nearly everything else in the ocean from site. I had rented an underwater camera to take pictures with, giving me another added excitement for the dive. While I swam through the different cabins of the ship, I looked closely at all the coral that had been forming on top of the ship's metal over the past hundred years, seeing how the metal became just another rock for life to grow on and around. We saw a huge barracuda, longer than even my body. Looking close at its mouth, you could see its sharp white teeth shining above the darkness of the water. I had the dive master take a picture of me behind it, giving the perspective and dimension of really how big it was.
I ran out of air by the end of the dive- I think swimming around trying to find the best pictures added with the strong current made me suck more air than normal. Not a big deal though, I just shared with the dive master. I always seem to find a calm peace under the water. Despite my greatest fear of being eaten by a shark, making me petrified of sometimes swimming on the surface of the water preventing me from seeing anything below me, once I get under the water and become a part of the natural habitat, all my fears disappear. I become another part of the ocean.
We slowly rose to the surface after our short visit to the underwater world, a world we could never be a part of for more than a brief moment in time. Merely aliens in another setting.
Our driver picked us up by 4 and we began our two-hour drive back to Ubud, once again watching the countryside pass before us. I had finished my book within the first ten minutes of the drive, so I spent the rest of the time just looking into the distance, watching simple and pure beauty of nature past beside me as I daydreamed about life.
Our driver stopped at the grocery store so we could pick things up to make dinner with. My plan was to make soup. Well, we got home and while I was starting to boil the water and cut the vegetables, the stove completely ran out of gas on us. Only in Bali. Option number two: cans of tuna and yogurt. There was no way I would go to town: I hadn't the energy to get dressed and make the drive for one, and for two, I knew I was already getting low on money. I would have to start watching what I was spending money on.
Best of the Day: Barracuda
Comments
Scuba
Yea! What a dive. Giant clams, and a shipwreck. Great pictures! I'm so glad you rented a camera. I was afraid you took your waterproof camera which is only good to 15'. I am more afraid of barracuda then sharks. You are so cool, calm and collected.