December/January, 1998
No. 032/VI/97

cover story

Christians in
Paradise
How Christianity came
to Bali

Once Upon a
New Years Eve
MC-ing a New Year's
Eve party during a
blackout

bali focus:
nusa dua and
jimbaran

The Origin of
Nusa Dua
A fable

People of a
Fertile Sea
The fishers of
Jimbaran beach

Center Stage
Steve Charles revamps
the Candraloka
Amphitheatre

Nusa Dua Nights
How to survive them

The Sacred
Wilderness
Colonial encounters with
Bali's southern peninsula

arts and
culture

Latter Day
Laksamana
A.A.M. Djelantik's
recently launched
autobiography

Kulkul
new Fiction by Gde
Aryantha Soethama

The Rat Pack
Who are Bali's literati?

beyond
bali

An Eddy in The
Counter of Time
Kayaking off the west
coast of Lombok

Slick and Cool in
Sengigi
Round midnight at the
famed Lombok resort

regular

Fashion

Adventure
Into the blue

Food
Jewel of the southren rim

Jungle Drums

Bali Update

On the Road

Home Grown
Made Adi Putra

advertising index for
Bali Echo web site

Regulators, tanks, wet suits, air pressure, bends! Although I do plan to learn to dive while in Indonesia, reputedly home to some of the most magnificent dive sites in the world, I have to say that I am a little daunted by the complexity of it all. All the avid divers I speak to assure me of the ease of the sport, but when I see them all geared out and wearing little computers on their wrists that tell them how deep they have gone and how many hours they have to wait before they board an airplane again, I do get all little overwhelmed for them. Until I do experience the pleasure of donning oxygen tank and lead belt accessories, I am more than happy to venture to the beach with just a mask, snorkel and fins.

The appeal of snorkeling is definitely found in its simplicity. No lessons or certificates are required. All that's needed is some basic equipment and a reef. Bobbing on the gentle buoyant waves off Bali's shores is certainly a rewarding past time and one of the most meditative activities I have pursued here. When I submerge my mask below the water's surface I feel like Alice who has just stepped through the looking glass and entered a completely alien world. A world that must have been created under the influence of strong hallucinogens or with a very powerful sense of the surreal. Accompanied only by the steady sound of my own rhythmic breathing, this world becomes all engrossing, without distraction. There is absolutely nothing above the surface that can be compared with what lies just below.

There are amazing places to explore the sea in Bali, but according to the Lonely Planet guide, Tulamben in East Bali is one of the most popular sites. Tulamben is about a 2.5 hour drive from Denpasar and Sanur and a feasible day trip, but there are a number of losmens and dive centers in the area to accommodate longer stays. It also recently became one of my favorite snorkeling sites when I accompanied a dive outing with the Sea Star Dive Center from Sanur. The attraction is the wreck of the Liberty II, an American cargo ship crippled by a Japanese submarine torpedo near Lombok during the Second World War. The ship was towed and docked in Bali and is said to have sunk from the force of the 1963 eruption of Gunung Agung.

continued

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