On the way to the beach we met a belgian diving instructor (Eric) who explained us a bit more about diving and the courses. Since we didn't have enough days for the full course (about 3 days), he proposed to do a 1 immersion with a basic explanation for a very convenient price.
So the next day, before our appointment for diving, the belgian borrowed us some snorkel stuff and we went to the beach (just 100 mts from the hotel). The sight was amazing, just 5 to 10 mts away from the coast the coral began, full of fish and the most spectacular colours (never seen before). This was a good introduction to what came next: our first diving experience.
We got our equipment and went to the beach, where Perry the kiwi (our instructor) in a very didactic tone explained us the basic instructions like breathing, cleaning the mask under the water and some other advices. Soon after we went into the water, did some practice and started the dive. It's worth telling that in TULAMBEN, just few meters off the coast there's a US military boat, "Liberty", 120 mts long, which was hit by a japanese torpedo back in 1942. The dive included going to see this ship, which was full of coral and amazing fish, we swam through cardumens, were pushed by a current, and the guide was constantly swimming behind Martin that kept on going away and deeper.
When we came out we realized we had been up to 15 mts, which apparently is a lot for a first dive, thanks to Perry !!! (he was so excited about diving in this ship that he didn't want to miss a thing).
Such exciting day had to have a good ending, and it was the case: Eric invited to join him and his friends for a fish BBQ at their hostel. We met some very interesting people, all shared a sort of passion for "fish" with comments like "today I saw 4 barracudas!!!": there was a couple from the US who, before traveling around australia, used to work as sky diving instructors; some belgians and french; a girl from Ecuador; and some more...
The next day we left TULAMBEN, heading inland to UBUD, a very mistic town in the middle of Bali, where many people go for shopping and many other for yoga and relaxing. We found some really nice bungalows on the hill with a view on the rice fields and swimming pool.
When we just arrived to UBUD we felt a bit like in KUTA: too many cars and motorbikes, lots of people in between. It took us some hours until we found the charm in this town, full of temples and friendly people.
The second day in UBUD started in the swimming pool (it was really hot and far away from the coast) and then we went to visit the famous "Monkey Forest", where the show were not only the monkeys but also the tourists interacting with them. Monkeys were rather friendly, they just jumped on people that had food on them and checked all the pockets till they found whatever there was to eat or drink. The best was a big male monkey that was following female monkeys to have sex and when he found one he liked the show began!
After lunch we left UBUD heading back to the coast, it was really nice but too hot and we missed the beach already. We tried to find something nice on the east side of Bali but in the end we returned to the starting point: BALANGAN Beach, where the sand is white and the hotels just on the beach.
