Indonesia: Ocean View Resort
For our second day of diving, we went to Tulamben Bay. Once again, we were picked up by AquaMarine from our bungalows at 8:00am and after about an hour and a half in the car, we arrived at Ocean View Resort, our dive base for the day.
The first thing we noticed about Ocean View is that it was much more upscale than Topi Inn:
Individual villas, large swimming pool facing the ocean, and tablecloths for heaven's sake.
Just as we did the day before, we ordered lunch off of a special AquaMarine menu before heading out for our dive. The menu had three sections: Indonesian, pasta, and pizza. We went with Indonesia. Duh.
After our two dives were done, we came back to the Ocean View restaurant to unwind. And to process. I don't know if diving will ever get old. Each time we got out of the water, we were bursting with things we wanted to recap and relive and omygawddidthatreallyhappen?!
Anyway, like the hotel, lunch at Ocean View was more upscale than what we had at Topi Inn the previous day. It also tasted better.
We got the fried noodle with vegetable and chicken:
The nasi campur or rice with a smorgasbord of small sides:
The fried rice came with sate:
And something called cap cay:
It's basically a soupy stir fry of veggies and your choice of meat with a side of rice.
Drinks were once again out of pocket. We got the watermelon and papaya juice:
And some kind of banana cinnamon smoothie:
I know this blog is supposed to be about food, but it's hard to remember details about what you ate when your memories of the day are taken over by the fact that you explored a shipwreck underwater and SWAM WITH A SEA TURTLE:
Yes. That happened.
Tulamben Bay is known for being the site of the USAT Liberty wreck. I didn't even realize I was swimming on top of a ship until our dive instructor pointed it out to us. Covered in sea life, it just looked like a giant rock.
Our first dive was to finish up some skill practice, but the second dive? It was all for fun. And what fun we had!
Before we left for our second dive, we met an older Australian man who told us about the sea turtle that hangs out around the wreck. That got CL and T in a tizzy. They'd been talking about the possibility of seeing a sea turtle since before we even started diving training.
Once we were in the water, however, the sea turtle faded to the back of our minds. There was simply too many other things to gawk at. (Plus we wanted to keep our expectations low.) Then, without warning, our diving instructor turned to us and made the universal hand signal for turtle.
We freaked the hell out.
When the sea turtle came into view, we tossed all our lessons about being a passive observer while diving out the window and started chasing the poor thing down. Even I, who wasn't nearly as excited about sea turtles as CL and T, turned into a crazy turtle stalker.
Thank goodness for CL's underwater camera case. And for our second diving instructor who acted as our personal underwater photographer. Now, when I start to wonder whether the sea turtle was a figment of my imagination, I can pull out the photos and remind myself that no, IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
Ocean View Resort
Jln. Raya Tulamben
Kubu, Karangasem, Bali, Indonesia 80853
+62 3632 3336
http://www.oceanviewtulamben.com/
The first thing we noticed about Ocean View is that it was much more upscale than Topi Inn:
Individual villas, large swimming pool facing the ocean, and tablecloths for heaven's sake.
Just as we did the day before, we ordered lunch off of a special AquaMarine menu before heading out for our dive. The menu had three sections: Indonesian, pasta, and pizza. We went with Indonesia. Duh.
After our two dives were done, we came back to the Ocean View restaurant to unwind. And to process. I don't know if diving will ever get old. Each time we got out of the water, we were bursting with things we wanted to recap and relive and omygawddidthatreallyhappen?!
Anyway, like the hotel, lunch at Ocean View was more upscale than what we had at Topi Inn the previous day. It also tasted better.
We got the fried noodle with vegetable and chicken:
The nasi campur or rice with a smorgasbord of small sides:
The fried rice came with sate:
And something called cap cay:
It's basically a soupy stir fry of veggies and your choice of meat with a side of rice.
Drinks were once again out of pocket. We got the watermelon and papaya juice:
And some kind of banana cinnamon smoothie:
I know this blog is supposed to be about food, but it's hard to remember details about what you ate when your memories of the day are taken over by the fact that you explored a shipwreck underwater and SWAM WITH A SEA TURTLE:
Yes. That happened.
Tulamben Bay is known for being the site of the USAT Liberty wreck. I didn't even realize I was swimming on top of a ship until our dive instructor pointed it out to us. Covered in sea life, it just looked like a giant rock.
Our first dive was to finish up some skill practice, but the second dive? It was all for fun. And what fun we had!
Before we left for our second dive, we met an older Australian man who told us about the sea turtle that hangs out around the wreck. That got CL and T in a tizzy. They'd been talking about the possibility of seeing a sea turtle since before we even started diving training.
Once we were in the water, however, the sea turtle faded to the back of our minds. There was simply too many other things to gawk at. (Plus we wanted to keep our expectations low.) Then, without warning, our diving instructor turned to us and made the universal hand signal for turtle.
We freaked the hell out.
When the sea turtle came into view, we tossed all our lessons about being a passive observer while diving out the window and started chasing the poor thing down. Even I, who wasn't nearly as excited about sea turtles as CL and T, turned into a crazy turtle stalker.
Thank goodness for CL's underwater camera case. And for our second diving instructor who acted as our personal underwater photographer. Now, when I start to wonder whether the sea turtle was a figment of my imagination, I can pull out the photos and remind myself that no, IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
Ocean View Resort
Jln. Raya Tulamben
Kubu, Karangasem, Bali, Indonesia 80853
+62 3632 3336
http://www.oceanviewtulamben.com/
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