Trawangan Island, Indonesia - 3rd Day...
Woke up at 7:30 am, showered and went out to the dock. Some of the locals were fishing trying to catch a squid. I took several photos of the squid, it was quite beautiful! They're translucent, speckled, iridescent and quite graceful in the way they propell themselves through the water. I read that they don't have a natural buoyancy mechanism and have to propell themselves slightly upward constantly or they will sink. I didn't see anyone catch a squid while I was there, but one of them told me the next day he had caught one and had it for breakfast. I also saw coronet and needle fish from the dock.
Dogs are banned on the island, but there are plenty of cats. Almost all the cats appeared scrawny by American cat standards and many have odd length and/or crooked tails. One woman from the UK who works on the island at a dive shop said that the kittens were born with the weird tails, probably a side effect of the inbreeding that occurs in the island environemnt. I shared my meals with many of them. Some of them could be petted while others just wanted the food and couldn't be touched. My previous cat, Yoda, at 13-pounds would appear like a monster cat on this island!
Much of the coral in the Gilis has been destroyed by two factors; fishing using dynamite and global warming. As recently as 5 years ago people were using dynamite to kill or stun fish and then netting them when they floated to the surface. Thankfully, the diving community raised a protest and was able to get it banned, but much of the damage had already been done.
I made my first dive in Indonesia, Halik Reef, with Ong as the divemaster and three other divers. It was a bad day for diving for me personaly. I had trouble with maintaining the correct buoyancy and my gear felt unbalanced as well. I ended up using a lot more air than I should have and had to share air with Ong from his octopus in order not to end the dive early for the others.
In looking back over my very brief diving experiences, I realized that almost none of my dives had been enjoyable. My certification dive was in zero visibility down an anchor line in rough seas. The next few dives in the same period were in rough seas with poor visibility. In Fiji my intro dive, after not diving for over 10-years, was OK - very basic, but the open water dive the next day was in the rain and again with poor visibility. I did fine diving, but didn't enjoy it because of the visibility. Why was I paying all this money for something I didn't enjoy?
I talked with the owner of the scuba shop, Rob (of course also a divemaster) he said it was a fairly common experience and offered to take me for a dive the next day with just he and I.
After talking to Rob and deciding to do the dive the next day, I grabbed my snorkeling gear and hired a pony cart for a ride to the top of the island for a snorkel back to town. I a wonderful time, as usual. It took about an hour, but most of the time I just floated with the current. I spent over five minutes following a sea turtle, then watched him ascend for air, grab a few breaths and dive to the bottom leaving me behind. The reef next to the channel is always full with fish and other creatures. I saw some more mantis shrimp and lots of puffers as well.
That evening the power went out in the Trawangan. I thought it was power system fault, like in the USA, but later found out that they often turn off the power if they are running low on fuel or trying to conserve fuel, since it is very expensive. Some of the restaurants and stores had generators and were still open.
John left for his night dive, and I had dinner at one of my favorite, generator powered restaurants. It was a good meal of tuna steak with garlic butter, salad, baked potato and a fried banana as dessert. It cost about $3.50 USD.
Woke up at 7:30 am, showered and went out to the dock. Some of the locals were fishing trying to catch a squid. I took several photos of the squid, it was quite beautiful! They're translucent, speckled, iridescent and quite graceful in the way they propell themselves through the water. I read that they don't have a natural buoyancy mechanism and have to propell themselves slightly upward constantly or they will sink. I didn't see anyone catch a squid while I was there, but one of them told me the next day he had caught one and had it for breakfast. I also saw coronet and needle fish from the dock.
Dogs are banned on the island, but there are plenty of cats. Almost all the cats appeared scrawny by American cat standards and many have odd length and/or crooked tails. One woman from the UK who works on the island at a dive shop said that the kittens were born with the weird tails, probably a side effect of the inbreeding that occurs in the island environemnt. I shared my meals with many of them. Some of them could be petted while others just wanted the food and couldn't be touched. My previous cat, Yoda, at 13-pounds would appear like a monster cat on this island!
Much of the coral in the Gilis has been destroyed by two factors; fishing using dynamite and global warming. As recently as 5 years ago people were using dynamite to kill or stun fish and then netting them when they floated to the surface. Thankfully, the diving community raised a protest and was able to get it banned, but much of the damage had already been done.
I made my first dive in Indonesia, Halik Reef, with Ong as the divemaster and three other divers. It was a bad day for diving for me personaly. I had trouble with maintaining the correct buoyancy and my gear felt unbalanced as well. I ended up using a lot more air than I should have and had to share air with Ong from his octopus in order not to end the dive early for the others.
In looking back over my very brief diving experiences, I realized that almost none of my dives had been enjoyable. My certification dive was in zero visibility down an anchor line in rough seas. The next few dives in the same period were in rough seas with poor visibility. In Fiji my intro dive, after not diving for over 10-years, was OK - very basic, but the open water dive the next day was in the rain and again with poor visibility. I did fine diving, but didn't enjoy it because of the visibility. Why was I paying all this money for something I didn't enjoy?
I talked with the owner of the scuba shop, Rob (of course also a divemaster) he said it was a fairly common experience and offered to take me for a dive the next day with just he and I.
After talking to Rob and deciding to do the dive the next day, I grabbed my snorkeling gear and hired a pony cart for a ride to the top of the island for a snorkel back to town. I a wonderful time, as usual. It took about an hour, but most of the time I just floated with the current. I spent over five minutes following a sea turtle, then watched him ascend for air, grab a few breaths and dive to the bottom leaving me behind. The reef next to the channel is always full with fish and other creatures. I saw some more mantis shrimp and lots of puffers as well.
That evening the power went out in the Trawangan. I thought it was power system fault, like in the USA, but later found out that they often turn off the power if they are running low on fuel or trying to conserve fuel, since it is very expensive. Some of the restaurants and stores had generators and were still open.
John left for his night dive, and I had dinner at one of my favorite, generator powered restaurants. It was a good meal of tuna steak with garlic butter, salad, baked potato and a fried banana as dessert. It cost about $3.50 USD.
posted by Chris at 10:00 PM
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