Bali island is a part of the island arc that separates the inland sea and the open Indian ocean, next to it the oceanic plate dives under the continental plate, so earthquakes and volcanic eruptions is a common thing here. But natural disasters do not scare tourists from all over the world, they practically occupied this island paradise. They are attracted by the unique nature, by the sea, by the abundance of different attractions and the friendliness of local residents, and local relative cheapness plays a significant role. This is probably the most visited of the resorts in Indonesia. And it is a convenient connecting hub, the local international airport receives flights from many countries and you can fly to other islands from here by local airlines. That's why we visited Bali a few times making few days stops and we have accumulated a large number of data - travel notes, photos and videos, so we should to publish some of them. There is an interactive guide just below this paragraph, which could be interesting for people who want to go to Bali and who have already been there (sometimes it is interesting to look at familiar places by eyes of another person). You can travel around the map - by clicking on the icon you will open our article about this particular place with photos and short movies.
Or you can use the table of contents below and choose what are you interesting about. Or you can just use the arrow button "next" at the end of each page and read the book sequentially..
So, let's start the journey, we hope it will be interesting.
West
• Pemuteran, Kubuku hotel• Menjangan - Deer island
• Menjangan, dive site Eel Garden
• Menjangan, dive site Pos II
• Menjangan, dive site Anchor Wreck
• Menjangan, dive site Dream Wall
• Menjangan, dive site Cave Point
• The West of the island, Gilimanuk, dive site Secret Bay
• Bali. Banjar Hot Springs
Central part
• The Batur volcano – Gunung Batur• Ubud – town of craftsmen
• Monkey forest
• Tegenungan waterfall
• The temple complex Batuan - Batuan Temple
• Bali Zoo
North-East
• Tulamben – USAT Liberty Wreck• Banyuning – Japanese Wreck
• Amed, Amed Beach Resort
• Amed, dive site Bobo (Pyramids)
• Amed, dive site Batu Belah
• Lampuan temple (Seraya volcano)
South-East
• The legend of Bali - beaches of Kuta• On the edge of the ocean: Uluwatu temple complex
• Dinner with a sunset view: Jimbaran beach
East
• Padang, dive site Blue lagoon• The muddy waters of Padang: the dive site Jepun Point
• To escape the bustle: Candidasa village
• Shark in the hole: divesite Gili Biaha
• Sea of corals: Gili Tepekong
• Against the tide: Gili Mimpang
• Who lives under the pier: the sea port Tanah Ampo
Nusa Penida
• Along the flow: dive site Ped• Couldn't catch the sun: dive site Toyapakeh
• Mola mola: the venue - Crystal Bay
• Meeting with sea devils: Manta Point Baru
episode 1 > |
From the book "Bali Island", part 5 "East", episode 30.
8°31'30.58"S 115°34'34.98"E
Три крохотных островка рядом с Типиконгом, октябрь 2016 года. Годом раньше наши гиды встречали здесь рыбу-луну – мола-мола, но в этом году вода осенью была необычно тёплой, что гигантской рыбе не по нраву, она предпочитает прохладу.
Мы ныряли тут лишь один раз, весь дайв боролись с сильным течением. Не фотографировали, есть лишь видео. Персонажи в нём все известные, представлять никого не надо. Давайте понаблюдаем за ними: There are three tiny islands near Tepekong, October 2016. The year before our guides met here moon fish – Mola-Mola, but in this year the water was unusually warm that the giant fishes does not like, they prefer the coolness.
We dived here only once, the whole dive we were struggling with strong current. No photos, we got only video.All the characters in the movie are well known, it is not necessary to discribe anyone. Let's watch them:
From the book "Bali Island", part 3 "North-East", episode 18.
8°20'2.96"S 115°38'34.44"E
Northeast of Bali, Amed village. We stayed here in January 2016, a few days in a small dive hotel, cosy and welcoming. Unlike other places in Bali, it was possible to swim in the sea not only in pool, because there is no crazy waves as on the southern beaches of the island and there was pebble ground from beach to the sea, not rough corals as in the East. The water was warm and clean, it was quiet and peaceful place, no crowds of tourists and the surroundings were beautiful, especially early in the morning – splendor! :-)
From the book "Bali Island", part 3 "North-East", episode 20.
8°18'54.83"S 115°37'31.49"E
The North coast of Bali, the place is near of Amed village, a small bay with a dive hotel on the beach. The bay is private property: if you come from the sea by diving boat, you will be given a ticket, which must be paid later, otherwise it will be a violation of the local laws. You have to pay because the place is popular, there are rare scorpionfish (Rhinopias aphanes), frog-fish and all sorts of other unusual sea creatures. We were unlucky about such scorpionfish, but we've seen someone. The first place, of course, was for scorpionfish – there is their Kingdom here..
Lionfish Parapterois heterura
From the book "Bali Island", part 3 "North-East", episode 19.
8°20'2.24"S 115°39'21.54"E
THis place was ten minutes on a motor boat to the East from the Amed Beach Resort hotel. We fell into the water from a boat.
From the book "Bali Island", part 2 "Central part", episode 15.
8°35'26.07"S 115°15'55.64"E
Every morning they organize performances for visitors with birds, snakes, monkeys, elephants and tigers. The birds were beautiful, snakes were dangerous, orangutans were smart. And they showed us even the whole play about the elephants - how in the beginning people were afraid of them and chased them away from houses, but one local boy drowned in the river, his inconsolable mother wept on the shore, but an elephant came and saved a drowning boy, then people and elephants lived in friendship here :-)
It's a wonder for kids here, they can ride on an elephant or camel and eat delicious ice cream. But we, the adults, had fun too, watching animal show and eating ice cream, we had saw enough hefty white tigers and then travel through the site on a live-aboard vessel special bus.
The Park is divided into three large enclosures in which animals live separately from three regions Indonesia, India and Africa. Antelopes, goats, zebras, bears, Komodo dragons, snakes, monkeys, cheetahs and lions – them all mixed up in our heads - bus was moving fast, just opened gates of the enclosures going to close, stops did not exceed 15 seconds, next bus with animal lovers behind us came quickly, and so on.. I pushed the shutter button of the camera, spanked portraits of living creatures, both good and blured, bridges-nets over streams (dividing the sector of pets) rumbled under the wheels of the jeep.. So fast and a lot of things appear, business don't like downtimes:-) And then we has lunch – a good buffet at the local restaurant, it was included in our travel pack.. :-)
Now, let's see what we've filmed:
From the book "Bali Island", part 1 "West", episode 9.
8°12'43.52"S 114°57'51.84"E
Traveling from the West to the center of Bali island, you can stop to bathe in the hot sulfur springs. There is small detour – 3-4 km from the main road. The resort is located to the South and above the village Banjar (Kota Banjar), about a kilometer from the village market. Look at the name "Banjar" - it is looks like Russian word "banya" which means Turkish bath. The place is really Turkish bath, to be honest :-) But, of course, springs are considered sacred and they decorated accordingly. Hot water with a noticeable odor of sulfur emanates from the mouth of the eight Nagas (mythical creatures like dragons) down to the long upper pool.
From there, water flows from the mouths of five of the Nagas in the next pool below. This pool is the largest of the three and has a square shape. The third pool is the smallest, water jets falling from a height of 4-5 meters, and you can make yourself a nice water massage there.
Small temple, surrounded by statues of gods, is hid in jungle where hot water pours from the cracks.
Also there is a small restaurant where you can quite reasonably eat.
The name of this beer to the Russian ear sounds interesting :-) And actually the translation is "White horse", merely :-)
Souvenir market is located before the entrance to the baths. It is Holy cause – to purchase something near a Holy place! :-) And the people sometime purchase something there, not only tourists but local peole too..
It's full of people there after 10 a.m. especially on weekends and holidays, so experts suggest to come here earlier.
For completeness, look at our short video:
< episode 8 |
episode 10 > |
From the book "Bali Island", part 3 "North-East", episode 17.
8°21'51.63"S 115°42'1.55"E
The North-Eastern end of Bali, the town of Banyuning, a small bay near the fisher's village of Lipah. There is Badung Strait near, it separates Bali island from the group of islands lying to the East, the largest of which is the island of Nusa Penida. Diving here, you have to be careful in order not to be captured by powerful currents which can carry you either to the North of Bali sea, or to the South to the Indian ocean right to Australia and even Antarctica – as lucky you are:-)
From the book "Bali Island", part 4 "South-East", episode 24.
8°45'36.87"S 115°10'8.68"E
The beach stretches 4 kilometers to the South of the airport. In day time you can have a lot of fun her – parasailing, jet skis, riding on "banana" or on strange jumping inflatable mattress towing by high-speed boat, snorkeling and even scuba diving in so-so coral reefs and so on.
At night the restaurants on the beach gather lovers of fresh seafood. They installs tables-chairs right on the sand just beyond the line of the surf, the spray of ocean waves – a condiment for food, sound of ocean waves - music accompaniment, and the huge setting sun instead of chandeliers. Something like that..
Evening on the beach of Jimbaran
From the book "Bali Island", part 3 "North-East", episode 21.
8°22'51.21"S 115°38'8.77"E
The mountain (Seraya volcano) is located in the Eastern part of the Bali island, the peak has height of 1058 meters above sea level. The place, of course, is sacred, there are 7 levels of shrimes on the Northern slope up to the top of the mountain and they all are joined by steep stairs. This temple complex is one of the oldest on the island (2000 years), its construction was started in pre-Hindu times. It stretched out as 2 km on the hillside, stairs have a total of 1700 steps. The ascent route offers to you wonderful views of the jungle on the mountain slopes and the blue sea and the cone of the volcano Agung - the highest point on Bali.
From the book "Bali Island", part 1 "West", episode 2.
8° 5'33.71"S 114°31'35.86"E
A small coral Menjangan island is located as far as 30 minutes by motor boat from the Northwest coast of Bali. Nobody lives here constantly, local people come here for a daytime to visit number of temples, one of them is even the Chinese pagoda. During the break between dives we visited one of them.
From the book "Bali Island", part 1 "West", episode 5.
8° 5'25.54"S 114°29'53.99"E
The North-Western end of the island. There is a sunken boat here at a depth of 30-40 metres. Its story is vague, no one really knows about it and there are only fragments at the bottom. One lonely shy whitetip shark lives here who did not allow us to swim closer, so we failed to make a portrait, but you can see it in the movie. We made some photos and movies at depth and moved slowly upward along the coral wall, moving to the west by current. We met something by the way, look at the movie..
From the book "Bali Island", part 1 "West", episode 7.
8° 6'4.34"S 114°31'18.98"E
The South of the island. Thre is a wall of coastal coral reef riddled with caves and small tunnels up to 6 meters long each. Underwater visibility was better than on the Northern open side of the island. We drifted by the tide, it was not strong and frequently changed its direction. Interesting soft corals are growing on the wall..
- Bali. Menjangan, dive site Dream Wall
- Bali. Menjangan, dive site Eel Garden
- Bali. Menjangan, dive site Pos II
- Bali. Monkey forest
- Bali. Nusa Penida. Along the flow: dive site Ped
- Bali. Nusa Penida. Couldn't catch the sun: dive site Toyapakeh
- Bali. Nusa Penida. Meeting with sea devils: Manta Point Baru
- Bali. Nusa Penida. Mola mola: the venue - Crystal Bay
- Bali. On the edge of the ocean: Uluwatu temple complex
- Bali. Padang, dive site Blue lagoon